Posts tagged Los Angeles
Union Staffers End Strike Against Union They Work For
November 16, 2022 // The striking SEIU staff members belong to another union, Pacific Northwest Staff Union Chapter 2015, and they went on strike through this union. PNWSU's 130 members work for SEIU as call center operators, research analysts, IT workers and labor organizers. Shortly before the strike began, PNWSU leaders released an open letter to "elected officials and political allies," which explained the reason its members intended to stay off the job.
Labor Tries City-By-City Push In California For $25 Minimum Wage At Private Medical Facilities
October 25, 2022 // What began as a 10-city campaign by the union has been winnowed to November ballot measures in just two cities in Los Angeles County, reflecting expensive political jockeying between labor and industry. And the $25 minimum wage isn’t the only campaign being waged by SEIU-UHW this cycle — the union is also trying for the third time to get dialysis industry reforms passed. A ballot issue committee called the California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems — with funding from Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, Adventist Health, Cedars-Sinai, Dignity Health, and other hospitals and health systems — opposes a $25 minimum wage because it raises costs for private, but not public, hospitals and health care facilities. Opponents have latched on to this disparity by calling it the “unequal pay measure.” An analysis commissioned by the California Hospital Association estimated that the change would raise costs for private facilities by $392 million a year, a 6.9% increase, across the 10 cities.
Griffith Observatory’s planetarium storytellers petition to unionize with Actors’ Equity
September 23, 2022 // The dozen observatory lecturers at the Los Angeles institution have unanimously signed union authorization cards with the Actors’ Equity Assn. A petition was presented to the city’s Employee Relations Board during a meeting Monday morning, kicking off a formal feedback period before the board makes a decision in a few months. The observatory lecturers are also the only nonunionized employees in the building; other museum staff and technicians are represented by unions such as the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, the country’s largest union of public employees.
Why Teachers Are Going on Strike This Fall—and What Could Come Next
September 21, 2022 //
Strippers bid to unionize in Los Angeles
August 19, 2022 // "We like what we do," said Velveeta, a Star Garden dancer. "We would like our jobs even more if we had basic worker protections." Equity already represents over 51,000 performers and stage managers across the United States, many of them in and around Los Angeles. "Strippers are live entertainers, and while some aspects of their job are unique, they have much in common with other Equity members who dance for a living," said Actors’ Equity Association President Kate Shindle.
AFT Convention Seemed More Transparent Than NEA’s. But Looks Can Be Deceiving
July 22, 2022 // The American Federation of Teachers held its biennial convention in Boston last week. Unlike the NEA Representative Assembly, delegates met entirely in person and the union was more than happy to post its proposed resolutions and other documents online. More transparency doesn’t necessarily mean more honesty, though. A lot of what the AFT Convention produces requires elaboration, footnotes, context and filling in the gaps. battleground state poll AFT commissioned from Hart Research Associates. The main takeaway was that likely voters trusted Republicans slightly more on education issues than they did Democrats. Republicans
Op-ed: Hunter Tower: In Pennsylvania, Janus is more relevant than ever
June 21, 2022 // Government employee unions responded to Janus by adopting a variety of still-being-litigated defensive strategies, including: only processing opt-out requests during a two-week annual window; challenging each request in court, forcing individual workers to battle the union’s well-financed legal team; subjecting union defectors to workplace harassment; and, when all else fails, forging the worker’s signature on membership documents. HB-2042, Charles Lane
West Coast port union, employers say no plan for strike or lockout
June 16, 2022 // The news came just hours before the nation’s busiest ocean trade gateway in Los Angeles, which employs the lion’s share of West Coast port workers, reported near record imports for May. Import volumes at the Port of Los Angeles are easing from the levels seen during the throes of the pandemic, when home-bound shoppers binged on everything from exercise equipment to garden supplies. Still, they remain about 20% above normal Lisa Baertlein
Union effort fails at Mill Valley’s Strawberry Starbucks
June 14, 2022 // The workers sought increased starting wages for baristas, extra pay when the store is short staffed, credit and debit card tips and a voice in whether to allow mobile orders during a rush or short staffing. Ella Clark, Maine Valley News, Giuseppe Ricapito, business, mill valley news, Strawberry, Union workers, Fernando Hernandez, Capitola, Santa Cruz,
LA Superior Court court reporter accuses union of forging her signature on membership card
June 13, 2022 // “My first reaction was this must be some kind of clerical error,” said Kirsti Parde. “I sent two different demand letters explaining this isn’t correct and asking to see my original signature but they ignored both letters.” Scaling back included withdrawing her membership from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 721 so that Parde could save the $175 a month she had been paying for 24 years. Santa Clarita, court reporter, Los Angeles Superior Court, Kirsti Parde, SEIU 721, Central District of California federal court, Shella Alcabes,