Posts tagged layoffs
NEW YORK: The Union Gave Them the Wrong Data. The Pols Cited It Anyway.
April 12, 2024 // Meanwhile some school districts are considering layoffs because they used temporary COVID funds to staff up (again, contrary to union claims about Tier 6 hindering hiring). Finally, Senator Jackson and Mayor Evans borrowed a dubious line from labor, bemoaning how state law now “mandates a retirement age of 63 with 40 years of service.” Trouble is, it doesn’t. Nothing in state law requires anyone to work 40 years for anything. People need only work five years to vest in a public pension in New York (which Governor Hochul and lawmakers trimmed from 10 years in 2022). And they can begin collecting a reduced pension as young as age 55. Malik Evans
Commentary: Large Drop of UAW Membership in Michigan Is Bad for Biden and Democrats but Great for Trump
April 11, 2024 // Particularly Democrats who hailed it as a new era for union membership and a win for blue-collar workers everywhere and who traditionally have unions and those workers who support them blindly. Now it looks like their victory lap may have been premature, and the happiness may not last long-term. Since those deals were struck last October, I have started to hear grumblings that the rank and file are not as happy as they were possibly at first because of the devil in the details that they were sold on at the time. Particularly the members who do not have seniority, which guarantees them many things they thought they were going to receive.
Analysis: UAW membership drops significantly in Michigan
April 10, 2024 // The UAW is down to 370,239 active, dues-paying members, a drop of approximately13,000 from last year. The union had more than 700,000 active members in 2002 before bottoming out at around 355,191 in 2010. This hasn’t hurt the union’s revenue, however. It took in $485 million last year, the most ever. Membership numbers are even worse for the assorted UAW branches in Michigan. They lost about 6,500 members during the strike year and are now down to 127,458. That’s a 5% drop.
Gannett journalists in the solar eclipse’s path go on strike
April 9, 2024 // Both Austin and Rochester are in the path of totality, and journalists at the two newsrooms say their outlets have devoted considerable resources to covering the eclipse. Democrat and Chronicle education reporter Justin Murphy said his newsroom has already published dozens of stories about the eclipse and has a “major” print issue planned for the event. “We see the eclipse as the exact sort of news event that demands experienced local reporters who know where to be, who know who to speak with, who know what to ask,” Murphy said. “We’ve put a huge amount of thought into where … all the different reporters are going to be set up to capture not only the eclipse itself, but all the different geographies and demographics of our community — the different experiences that people are going to be having.” But after the Newspaper Guild of Rochester failed to reach an agreement on a contract with Gannett Friday night, workers decided to launch an open-ended strike.
COMMENTARY: Like AB5, CA’s Fast-Food Minimum Wage Hike Results in Layoffs, Closures, and Higher Prices
April 4, 2024 // It certainly wasn't a victory for the consumer. First, the prices of fast food started to tick up, then Pizza Hut drivers were laid off. The FAST Act is now fully in effect, and so are the unintended consequences. Tuesday, April 2 saw reports of fast-food restaurants cutting hours, laying off workers, and some completely shuttering their businesses. Welcome to California, where a Big Mac combo will cost you $25.00 and be served to you by a robot. Stevie Wonder could have seen this coming; but hey, power to the people, and all that.
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.
Could the U.S. adopt a four-day workweek?
March 16, 2024 // “They would ship those jobs overseas or they would automate to replace those workers for whom they have an increased expense, or they would dramatically increase prices to make them stay afloat,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said. Some witnesses in Thursday’s hearing agreed with Cassidy arguing it could put some industries and workers at a disadvantage. “We also potentially disadvantage older workers who cannot necessarily physically do the same amount of work in a shorter time,” Liberty Vittert, Professor of the Practice of Data Science at the Olin Business School said.
600 Activision QA workers unionize, Microsoft voluntarily recognizes
March 13, 2024 // “Now under Microsoft with the neutrality agreement they signed with CWA, it’s a lot easier,” Fannon said. “We don’t have to be concerned about any form of union-busting tactics. Microsoft made sure all managers were trained on neutrality. We knew that if we encountered union busting, we could bring it up so it’s addressed.” The other positive is that neither Activision’s QA workers nor Microsoft management have to go through the union election process with the National Labor Relations Board, which can sometimes take a while. Instead, Activision QA workers have been voting since Feb. 22 with either a union authorization card (a document, physical or digital, indicating approval of the union) or a confidential vote through an online portal.
How the Kroger-Albertsons merger could impact union workers, if it happens
March 5, 2024 // Antitrust experts have said that if the FTC lawsuit derails the merger, it could set a new precedent. It could also help cement the power of unions in the grocery industry and enable them to organize other workplaces. Perhaps more importantly, it goes beyond the more immediate concerns associated with a merger—such as layoffs—and raises broader questions about the long-term effects of undermining the right to strike for unionized workers. “I think it shows an innovative and creative approach,” Lieberwitz says. “The FTC’s concerns are, of course, broader, but this is a response that looks at the ways in which unionized workforces are essential to the welfare of labor and the labor market.”
St. Paul school district proposes arbitration to settle teacher contract, avert walkout
February 29, 2024 // ASt. Paul Public Schools official said Tuesday that the district would like to pursue binding arbitration with its teachers in an effort to settle a new two-year contract without the disruption of a strike.