Posts tagged lay-offs
‘Fearful, divisive, scary’: Madison employer accused of union busting by employees for layoffs
June 3, 2024 // OPEIU Local 39 said the employer has retained the services of Littler Mendelson, a law firm known for helping companies like Starbucks avoid unions. The losses of OPEIU representation at ACU has alarmed the workers as declines in union membership are correlated with wage stagnation and rising income inequality. Nationally, union density has declined from 20 percent of all wage and salary workers in 1983, to 10 percent as of 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
CA Follows $20 Min Wage With Bill To Limit Self-Checkout
May 15, 2024 // Proposed CA Senate Bill 1446 would “prohibit a grocery or retail drug establishment from providing a self-service checkout option for customers unless specified conditions are met,” according to a proposed legislation summary. Some of those conditions: Checkouts are limited to 10 items or less At least one manual staffed checkout station is available Customers are prohibited from purchasing certain items An employee can only monitor up to two self-service stations Employee is relieved from all other duties while monitoring
California Carrier and Freight Brokerage Ceasing Operations, Blames AB5
April 18, 2024 // “I blame AB5 for the main reasons our company is closing,” Chaul told FreightWaves on Tuesday. He said all hope that his company would survive faded in March after a federal judge in California rejected trucking and trade associations’ legal challenges to stop enforcement of AB5, a controversial state law that severely restricts the use of independent contractors. “California is a hostile place to operate a business,” he said. “This law has created a hostile operating environment and an environment of unfair competition.”
Unionized Science Museum workers await contract as cultural nonprofits face changing labor market
April 1, 2024 // Inspired in part by pandemic-era lay-offs, as well as record inflation, Twin Cities labor movements have seen an uptick in mobilization. Janitors, school teachers, university graduate students, plow truck operators, firefighters, nurses, rideshare drivers and coffeeshop baristas have all recently taken their arguments for better pay and working conditions to the public picket line, or threatened to. Museums have had a lower-profile in those labor efforts, but workers at the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul, Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis and Science Museum all have unionized in the past four years with the goal of collective bargaining for employee-friendly contracts. Most of the Science Museum’s workers were laid off and sent home when the pandemic forced closures in March 2020, only to be gradually called back months later into a climate marked by social distancing and general uncertainty. Hazard pay for frontline staff in visitor services disappeared after a few months. Workers rallied and got it back.
Workers in the game industry turn to unions for protection from rampant layoffs
March 21, 2024 // Jessica Gonzalez, a longtime quality assurance (QA) worker in the games industry and a labor organizer with CODE-CWA, said unionizing can also help workers negotiate more “ethical layoffs” if their roles are being cut from the company. This entails negotiating protections such as extended health care coverage and severance pay, benefits she noted are not always honored by companies dealing with non-union employees.
University of Chicago Medical Center lays off 180 employees
February 4, 2024 // With roughly 13,000 employees, the University of Chicago Medical Center let go of less than 2% of their staff on Thursday.
Forbes to Lay Off 3% of Staff as Union Stages 3-Day Work Stoppage in Protest
January 26, 2024 // The Forbes editorial union began a three-day walkout Thursday to protest management negotiation tactics and layoffs hitting around 3% of staff. "To meet our 2024 business goals, like many companies, we needed to reprioritize resources, resulting in the difficult decision to reduce less than 3% of staff," a Forbes spokesperson said in a statement to TheWrap.
The Texas Tribune Is Unionizing
January 25, 2024 // That collaborative environment extends to the organizing effort – the Texas Tribune Guild is a wall-to-wall union, meaning that it will represent not only journalists, but around 50 eligible staff members including photographers, designers, and engineers. “We all feel like none of us can do our jobs without one another.” More than 95% of eligible staff members have signed onto the union’s mission statement; 90% have signed the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) authorization card. Many at the Tribune come from other news organizations that were already unionized, or that they themselves helped organize. María Méndez, the Tribune’s service and engagement reporter, was previously with the Austin American-Statesman, where she saw how Gannett couldn’t pull the rug out from under staff thanks to the Austin NewsGuild. After Gannett suspended 401(k) matching during the pandemic, the union filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the NLRB and was able to get that reinstated, along with back pay, due to status quo protections in place while a contract is negotiated.
Despite Biden’s Efforts to Empower Unions, Membership Rates and Wage Advantages Fall to All-Time Lows
January 24, 2024 // So, why have unionization rates and union wages been falling despite significant union-organizing efforts at places such as Starbucks, Amazon and Trader Joe’s, as well as President Joe Biden’s “whole of government” approach toward increasing unionization? Primarily, it’s because unions aren’t providing things that workers want or need. Many workers don’t like unions spending their dues on politics instead of representation, their not infrequent deception and coercion to gain support or their rigid structures that impede flexibility and prohibit performance-based pay. Meanwhile, by engaging directly with their employers, workers have been able to achieve stronger wage gains (albeit entirely erased by inflation), increased workplace flexibility, expanded benefits (such as paid family leave) and a multitude of educational opportunities.
McLayoffs Incoming: McDonalds Embracing Google’s AI For Online Ordering
December 14, 2023 // The American worker's plan to phase themselves out of the job market once and for all is almost complete. At least, that's what the case looks to be like at McDonald's. The fast food restaurant, which has already adopted self-serve kiosks in store, is now tapping Google's AI for its online ordering experience. In a press release out late last week, McDonald's said the partnership "is a significant step for McDonald's in advancing its restaurant technology platform to become the most sophisticated and productive in the industry."