Posts tagged labor unions
Florida unions scramble to avoid recertification
July 17, 2023 // “Florida’s recertification requirement doesn’t automatically remove unions—it makes them stand for re-election,” said AFFT Special Counsel David Osborne. “It’s only fair that public employees should get to vote on who represents them, and democracy would force union officials to reassess their model and prove their value to public employees,” he said. Overall, it is estimated that only 23 out of 65 total teachers unions in Florida passed the 60% threshold in 2022, while the rest varied from as low as 36% to 59%.
Federal Worker Unions Lose Only 1 Percent of Complaints Filed Against Them by Government Workers: Study
July 14, 2023 // An analysis by Americans for Fair Treatment (AFFT) of Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) data found less than one percent of the more than 1,200 government worker complaints filed between December 2015 and December 2022 resulted in any kind of adverse action against civil service employee unions. The vast majority of the annual average of 193 complaints filed during the seven-year period involved the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest of the multiple labor groups representing portions of the 2.1 million federal civil service workforce.
As Florida’s new union law goes into effect, it’s ‘do or die’ time for labor
July 10, 2023 // In the face of the double-whammy law — creating a new process for paying dues while simultaneously requiring more people to pay dues — public labor unions are launching all-out campaigns to get their numbers up. “Are we at 60%? No. I can't give you a definitive number,” said Se’Adoria “Cee Cee” Brown, the president of AFSCME Local 199. “However, I can say that there has been a push and we've signed up 700 new members since we started this whole campaign, and when folks realized, ‘Hey, this is real.’” The Local 199 chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union represents about 7,500 employees of Miami-Dade County: transit officials, animal services, staff at the Medical Examiner’s Office, administrative clerks in the court system.
Labor’s AI Concerns Get an Airing at White House Meeting
July 5, 2023 // Workers shared stories of employers who used AI to track and monitor pace of work, leading to an increase in stress and raising privacy concerns, it said. Labor representatives told officials they must be involved in conversations around how AI will be implemented, given its serious workplace consequences. The White House emphasized the need for collaboration between the government, employers, and unions to effectively implement AI.
Corrupt Cappuccinos? Unions Looking to Organize Coffee Shops Aren’t Giving Workers the Whole Story
June 19, 2023 // If union leaders are sometimes keeping money for themselves, they don’t seem to be spreading the wealth. In 2020, UFCW Local 400 issued a statement that workers should be prepared to strike against the supermarket chain Kroger. But hidden in the details of the statement was the fact that the national headquarters of the union would only pay workers $100 a week after the first eight days of striking. By the end of 2020, the union paid nearly double for hotels ($1,003,755) than on strike benefits for workers ($574,173). While UFCW Local 400 members would have struggled financially if a strike took place, the union had nearly $90 million in on hand cash by the end of 2020.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in Philadelphia at union leaders’ meeting
June 8, 2023 // Henry and Verrett introduced Harris by highlighting her lived experience as a woman of color and her track record of supporting unions and workers. “She's joined fast food workers on the picket lines, she's joined striking home care workers, and she's been to South Carolina with hospital workers, and the list goes on and on and on,” Verrett said. “Her street cred is real.” Harris, the chair of the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, highlighted the recent accomplishments of local unions and thanked workers for their efforts.
Opinion: Unions, Washington Lackeys Exploit Ohio Rail Tragedy to Fatten Coffers
June 7, 2023 // the unionistas are pushing for a permanent requirement that all carriers use a minimum of two-person crews. This, despite the fact that the ill-fated Norfolk-Southern train itself had not two but three crew members. Mandating two on a crew would have done nothing to avert the disaster. It’s not responsive to the challenge at hand. Moreover, the make-work provisions will not affect Norfolk-Southern-sized railroads. It will primarily hurt the smaller regional and short-line railroads, which are more likely to use a one-man crew.
Nevada: Labor unions push back on proposal to allow licensure reciprocity for nurses
April 10, 2023 // But the compact faces strong resistance from labor unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO that say joining the compact benefits hospitals over workers, undermines collective bargaining, and fails to address bigger problems like patient-to-nurse ratios. “We need to be discussing working conditions,” said Grace Vergara-Mactal, executive director of SEIU 1107, which represents more than 8,000 nurses and health care workers in Nevada. “Right now the grueling working conditions of nurses is the number one barrier to addressing the nursing shortage. Often our health care members are working 12 to 14 hours a day and seeing 10 patients an hour.” AB 108 is not the only compact bill being considered by the legislature this session. Assembly Bill 158 would have Nevada join an emergency medical services (EMS) compact, Senate Bill 97 would have Nevada join a physical therapist (PT) compact, and Senate Bill 442 would have Nevada join a teachers compact.
Opinion: Julie Su Keeps Failing Up, and Biden Doesn’t Care
April 10, 2023 // How in the world did Julie Su get nominated to run the federal Department of Labor? Su is a former civil rights attorney, former head of the California Department of Labor under Gov. Gavin Newsom, and head of California’s Department of Labor Standards Enforcement under former Gov. Jerry Brown. She was deputy director of the federal DOL and now is acting director as she awaits a tough Senate confirmation in the next few months. I had immediately thought that the Peter Principle might explain it. Coined by Canadian sociologist Laurence Peter in his 1968 book of the same name, it postulates that the tendency in all organizations is for “every employee to rise in the hierarchy through promotion until they reach a level of respective incompetence,” as Investopedia put it. But that surely can’t explain Su, who already reached that level in her previous employment. Investopedia also mentioned the Dilbert Principle, named after the comic strip: that big organizations promote people precisely because of their incompetence. In other words, they promote them to get them out of the way. Su was California’s top labor official and ultimately responsible for the Employment Development Department when a major scandal rocked that unemployment insurance–disbursing bureau. “California has given away at least $20 billion to criminals in the form of fraudulent unemployment benefits, state officials said Monday, confirming a number smaller than originally feared but one that still accounts for more than 11 percent of all benefits paid since the start of the pandemic,” according to a 2021 Los Angeles Times report.
California Court Rebukes War on Workers
March 16, 2023 // This obviously poses an existential threat to emerging app-based companies that rely on a contractor model, but it also posed an entirely predictable threat to many traditional professions where workers eschew the 9–5 cubicle or factory floor work model. When the Legislature codified Dynamex via Assembly Bill 5, which went into effect in January 2020, it exempted many industries — primarily those with the most influential lobbies. Nevertheless, economic destruction ensued. Companies eliminated jobs rather than hire people as salaried employees. Publications — including Vox, which ran a piece championing AB 5 — laid off its California stringers. Musical groups that relied on gig workers had to shutter their operations. All types of freelance workers — from photographers to sign-language interpreters to rabbis — suddenly found themselves in a pickle. The same Gov. Gavin Newsom who used his vast executive powers to suspend laws during the COVID pandemic refused to suspend AB 5, even as people who were forced to stay at home lost their stay-at-home freelance opportunities. Some Californians embraced the workaround of starting an LLC, but that imposed new costs on workers who already were struggling. Dynamex Operations West v. Superior Court of Los Angeles