Posts tagged layoffs
Writers Guild West Staffers to Lose Health Coverage Soon Amid Strike
April 1, 2026 // WGA West staffers can be covered by the Producer-Writers Guild of America (PWGA) Health Plan, the same plan that is offered to the Hollywood union’s members. Staffers accrue coverage on a month-to-month basis as long as they work 31 hours per week the previous month. Staffers unionized with the Writers Guild Staff Union (WGSU), who have been out on strike since Feb. 17, say they learned on Tuesday that they will lose eligibility starting Wednesday.
The Trump administration paid these employees not to work for more than a year. It just called them back
March 26, 2026 // “The department made the choice to bring these employees back to work to focus on other, non-DEI related tasks,” the spokesperson said. “To be good stewards of taxpayer money, it was common-sense to repurpose these employees to carry out the department's mission. We are proud to say the department will no longer push a woke agenda like DEI initiatives which were designed in the previous administration to divide America.” In the intervening year, employees who did not seek other employment frequently felt like they were on the verge of losing theirs. “The year has been marked with depression and anxiety,” the employee said. “We would hear rumblings that something would happen ‘soon’ but that would be said several times and nothing would happen.”
Opinion: California’s Kitchen Nightmare: Union Demands Rise as Enrollment Falls
March 20, 2026 // Even though public school enrollment has fallen sharply since the pandemic, most California districts have continued adding staff. Now teachers unions are pressing districts to commit to more expensive labor contracts, even as the funding they receive remains tied to the number of students they serve. Earlier this month, teachers in two Sacramento-area school districts walked off the job after contract negotiations stalled, bringing the number of teacher strikes in California to six this school year. And more may be on the way. Unions in Los Angeles and Berkeley have already authorized strikes if negotiations fail. These strikes are not isolated incidents. They are part of a coordinated statewide pressure campaign by the California Teachers Association (CTA) called “We Can’t Wait,”
LAUSD teachers union says it will go on strike April 14 if no contract is reached
March 19, 2026 // The district has offered about an 8% raise plus a bonus. The district says it's also proposed reducing class sizes but warns the cost of a larger deal could strain its budget long-term. Teachers have been working without a contract since last year. Even though they just reached a new deal less than three years ago, the 30,000-plus members of the teachers union say it's not enough.
Trump administration wants to streamline federal worker layoffs
March 10, 2026 // The Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s HR arm, published a proposed rule Thursday that it says will streamline the layoff process and put a new emphasis on job performance rankings rather than seniority. The new proposal will now undergo a 60-day comment period and has already faced pushback from the largest federal workers’ union, which has argued that the performance review system has been manipulated to cap how many employees receive high rankings.
Mayor Lurie tells S.F. departments to plan for 500 job cuts as labor battles intensify
March 7, 2026 // Mayor Daniel Lurie was already in a tough spot with San Francisco labor unions Monday when his administration delivered a sobering message: City Hall needs to eliminate hundreds of jobs. At least 500 positions are on the chopping block as the city seeks to reduce its spending on salary and benefits by $100 million, according to Lurie’s budget director Sophia Kittler. She told departments in an email that San Francisco “cannot afford to sustain current spending on personnel costs” as it works to eliminate the recurring deficits that have plagued the city since the pandemic.
Wave of California teacher strikes ‘is no coincidence’
March 4, 2026 // Thousands of California K-12 teachers have walked off their jobs or voted to strike in the past few months, as part of a strategic, statewide effort by the California Teachers Association to boost salaries and benefits — and get the public’s attention. “All these districts going out on strike — it’s not a coincidence at all,” said David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union. “Everywhere in the state there are people with unmet needs. The conditions have been ripe for a long time.”
Oakland Schools, Teachers Union Reach Deal, Avert Strike
March 1, 2026 // Last summer, it just regained local control after 20 years in state receivership. Without factoring in the price of the new deal, OUSD is eyeing $102 million in cuts by June. Interim Superintendent Denise Saddler told the school board this week that without those reductions, “we won’t be able to pay all the people on our payroll in the fall. We don’t have the money in the budget for next year.” On Wednesday, OUSD approved cutting nearly 400 staff positions, including 180 filled by OEA members, through early retirement buyouts, elimination of vacant positions, and layoffs. Altogether, that is estimated to save about $11 million annually
Fresh hell for parents as another major CA teachers’ union votes for strikes
February 24, 2026 // The education association said 91% of participating members backed the move, accusing the district of failing to make meaningful movement on salary demands and classroom conditions. It comes just days after San Francisco signed a deal worth $183 million with teachers following a week without classes, with sweeping layoffs expected to come. Union leaders say educators in Oakland rank among the lowest paid in the Bay Area and have pledged to fight for a contract that delivers “safe, stable, racially-just schools.”
SFUSD to issue layoff notices a week after $183 million deal to end teachers strike
February 23, 2026 // Prior to the teacher contract negotiations, the district faced an ongoing deficit even after cutting $114 million from the $1.4 billion budget last year.