Posts tagged labor action
UAW strike: What the media won’t tell you about the strike
September 21, 2023 // The Wall Street Journal reported that some in the UAW, including President Shawn Fain, pushed for a full strike, but “there was a simple financial calculation to consider: Such an option would rapidly drain the UAW’s $825 million fund that it uses to pay striking workers, likely depleting it within about two months.” In other words, the union itself doesn’t think it could hold out for long if it tried to shut all three companies. Hence the spin surrounding the current limited strike: UAW is trying to make a virtue out of necessity. In past negotiations, UAW has tried to secure a deal with one of the three automakers ahead of the others and then use that agreement as a template for bargaining with the other two. That UAW didn’t try that this time suggests the union feared it could not wrestle even one company to the ground.
Biden’s Union Problems Are a Gift to Trump
September 8, 2023 // Former President Donald Trump, who won Michigan by just under 11,000 votes in one of the biggest political upsets of the 2016 election, weighed in on the possibility of a strike over the Labor Day weekend, referring to Fain as a "respected" union head and vowing to stop the "madness" of electric vehicles. A labor action from UAW is likely to open up an opportunity for Trump to seize one of Michigan's most critical counties. Recent polls show that Biden is in a statistical dead heat against Trump. The Democrat is leading by just one percentage point, according to RealClearPolitics' polling averages. "Fain is in no hurry to endorse President Biden when a significant number of UAW members supported former President Trump in previous elections," Arthur Wheaton, the director of Labor Studies at Cornell University, told Newsweek. "Why risk fractures in union solidarity during a crucial bargaining period. No upside to endorsing now and plenty of potential downside in an extremely difficult bargaining time at the Detroit Three." Political consultant Jay Towsend said that while a UAW strike would be unlikely to damage Biden's image as a union supporter, the economic impact and turmoil that a labor action could cause would give his re-election campaign "a headache it does not need, especially in rust-belt states he must win."
Political scientists confront real world politics dealing with hotel workers strike
September 5, 2023 // Last week, Unite Here Local 11 broadened its call for solidarity by asking all conventions to stay away from Los Angeles until the hotels meet their demands. The union and the hotels are far from reaching an agreement. That means political scientists likely won't be the last group to navigate their Los Angeles events in the midst of major labor action.
OPINION: FRANK RICCI: Paying People To Strike Makes No Sense
August 14, 2023 // Furthermore, a company’s unemployment experience rating is included as a fiscal cost factored into bids for state, municipal and private construction costs. Unemployment for striking workers will harm company ratings and place upward pressure on the price of goods, as well as our taxes. Rather than using its own funds to assist workers during a strike — a prime justification for its existence — the AFL-CIO is instead encouraging its members to contact their legislators to demand that they pass these bills so that taxpayers and businesses pick up the tab. This legislation places no restriction on union strike funds, so striking workers may collect funds from the unions as well. The result? Workers could be paid more to go and stay on strike than they would have made working — this will incentivize labor unrest.
Summer of discontent: will US strikes spell trouble for ‘union guy’ Biden?
July 24, 2023 // On Thursday he was at the Philadelphia Shipyard in Pennsylvania to promote “Bidenomics”, a recently adopted slogan. The president said: “We have a plan that’s turning things around pretty quickly. ‘Bidenomics’ is just another way of saying ‘Restore the American Dream’.” But that message is still struggling to break through with voters. In a CNBC All-America Economic Survey released this week, 37% approve of Biden’s handling of the economy and 58% disapprove. In a Monmouth University poll, only three in 10 Americans feel the country is doing a better job recovering economically than the rest of the world since the pandemic. There is a baffling disconnect between these opinions and data that shows America defying predictions of recession and curbing price rises faster than other major economies. Inflation has fallen from 9% to 3% and is now at its lowest point in more than two years.
Teamsters allege GTI surveilled striking employees
June 13, 2023 // The ULP alleges that GTI was reading a private Discord server between striking employees during the action. The intrusion after an attorney admitted to reading the server during the hearing, Teamsters Communication Matt McQuaid shared with GreenState.
180-plus marijuana workers unionize in Illinois and California
May 5, 2023 // A 20% wage increase over the lifetime of the agreement. More full-time positions. Guaranteed gratuities. Employer-funded retirement contributions. Meanwhile, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 5, which represents 30,000 food and retail workers across the San Francisco Bay Area, has unionized another 80 cannabis delivery drivers at Eaze’s operations in San Jose, California.
Top U.S. shipping gateway mostly closes due to port worker shortage – employer group
April 10, 2023 // A substantial number of ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach workers, including operators needed to load and unload cargo, failed to show up on the job starting Thursday evening, according to the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents employers. The PMA said the missing workers were a result of a coordinated action by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) to withhold labor as contract talks drag on. "The action by the union has effectively shut down the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach," the PMA said in a statement. Instead, the ILWU said the slowdown was due to thousands of union workers attending a monthly membership meeting on Thursday evening and observing the Good Friday holiday the following day.
Year in Review: Worker strikes surged in 2022 amid new unionization wave
December 27, 2022 // There were 374 worker strikes in 2022, according to researchers at Cornell University, a hefty 39% increase from the year before. There were several factors at play in the growth, a major one being that workers had far more leverage this past year due to mass labor shortages. Healthcare workers made up a big contingent of the organized labor movement in 2022. In September, 15,000 nurses in Minnesota staged a three-day walkout in what was likely the largest private-sector nurse strike in the country’s history. There were several other strikes by healthcare workers over the past year as well.
Calif: Orange County bus strike averted
October 17, 2022 // "OC Bus is a critical public service for tens of thousands of Orange County residents and stopping service would unnecessarily harm those who rely upon us including students, seniors and workers who have no other means to travel," said OCTA Chairman Mark A. Murphy, also the Mayor of Orange. "For all of our riders, I'm very happy that service will continue." A best and final offer was presented to leaders of Teamsters Local 952 on Sept. 22, but it was rejected