Posts tagged Massachusetts
Mass. election results: Question 3, authorizing Uber and Lyft driver union, passes
November 7, 2024 // The campaign was backed by the Service Employees International Union, one of the nation’s largest labor organizations. The union contributed most of the roughly $6 million raised in support of the measure through mid-October, state records showed.
Opinion: Help! We’re Trapped in a Trader Joe’s Union
October 28, 2024 // But the union hasn’t been what many of our co-workers expected. The officers basically selected themselves. They then delayed negotiations with Trader Joe’s while forfeiting our annual bonus retirement contribution. Amid growing discontent in the store, the two of us attended a bargaining session in February 2023, which the union president invited all crew members to join. We were shocked at what we saw. We thought the union would focus on things that matter, like wages and benefits. Instead, union representatives negotiated over things like “pronoun pins,” which the company already provides. They demanded that Trader Joe’s cover abortion and “gender-affirming care.” The company’s response: The health plan already covers that.
Massachusetts Ballot Measure Would Shove Rideshare Workers Into the Arms of Unions
October 12, 2024 // Even as independent contractors, however, unions still threaten drivers’ flexibility. Unions might negotiate standardized rates, mandatory breaks, or limits on working hours, which, while beneficial in some industries, could restrict a driver’s ability to capitalize on peak demand periods or adjust their work hours to fit personal schedule. The risk of such changes only magnifies when one considers that the Ballot Measure only requires a 25% vote from drivers to form a union that would represent them as a whole. This means that the 30% of drivers working full-time, who would benefit most from being treated like employees, might be able to dictate policy for all rideshare drivers.
Employer Free Speech on the Ballot in Alaska
October 10, 2024 // The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) protects such meetings, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized their legality and importance in helping employees gather information on potential union representation. As a result, even if the referendum were to pass, a court would likely find it unlawful. Alaska’s referendum also increases the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2027 and provides at least 40 hours of paid sick leave to many workers.
Pa. bill would give Uber, other app drivers benefits, but critics say they would lose more
October 6, 2024 // For years, labor advocates like the NELP have challenged app-based companies’ assertion that their drivers are independent contractors, arguing instead that they meet the threshold of being full-fledged employees covered by state unemployment and workers’ compensation and potentially be eligible for employer-sponsored healthcare and other benefits. Companies like Uber have argued that drivers are contractors because they aren’t required to accept any specific fare, and many prefer the flexibility of working gig-to-gig.
Commentary: Labor unions are mobilizing in new and old industries alike
October 6, 2024 // How job security issues are addressed following this wave of strikes could set the tone for what other hospitality, manufacturing and transportation unions seek when their contracts are up for negotiation again.The Conversation
Feeding the Kitty
September 30, 2024 // Unions have pursued shareholder resolutions asking for a “free and fair election process,” meaning card check and neutrality. They have also sought to pass resolutions demanding audits of a company’s labor practices. It’s not hard to see how a future resolution could explicitly try to prohibit companies from using independent contractors.
Commentary: There will be strikes this school year, and union-endorsed candidates won’t care
September 17, 2024 // Pringle has pledged to pour resources into campaigns “from the school board level all the way up to the presidency.” The NEA’s campaign war chest is formidable. Politico reported in 2020 that the NEA ran “a massive member campaign for [President Joe] Biden with digital organizing, phone banking, texting, virtual rallies and car caravans.” During its last reported fiscal year, the NEA spent $50.1 million on political campaigns and lobbying and directed a considerable portion of the $126.3 million allocated to “contributions, gifts, and grants” to political causes. Normally, Pringle keeps a low profile — her latest raucous rant aside. In contrast, AFT President Randi Weingarten revels in the spotlight and regularly reveals her political agenda.
New Biden Executive Order Gives Unions Leg Up on Federally Funded Projects, Imposes New Disclosure Requirements
September 14, 2024 // On September 6, 2024, President Biden announced his new Executive Order on Investing in America and Investing in Americans (“EO” or “Order”), which requires certain federal agencies to consider criteria related to labor standards when prioritizing which projects will receive federal financial assistance. The criteria includes not only traditional labor standards, such as wages, paid leave, and workplace safety, but controversial provisions as well that clearly favor unions, such as project labor agreements and neutrality and card check agreements. The EO will also effectively require agencies to collect information related to labor practices from companies that work on or bid on federally funded projects. The administration claims the Order “supports the creation of well-paying jobs, especially union jobs.” Business groups and Republicans, however, claim the EO is less about setting standards and more about using federal funds to favor unions at the expense of nonunion companies and employees.
JD Vance receives received a mix of boos, applause at firefighters’ convention in Boston
August 30, 2024 // There was applause. There were boos. But Vance asked critics to give him a chance. "Sounds like we got some fans and some haters. That's OK," he said. "Let's listen to what I have to say here." Vance's pitch to the largest firefighter union was fairly straightforward: Firefighters, he claimed, are worse off than they were before President Biden took office.