Posts tagged Michigan
Union contracts should not protect drunken teachers
March 6, 2025 // The Bay City union contract spelled out the process: A teacher’s first offense resulted in a written reprimand and the teacher was required to go through counseling. The second offense resulted in a three-day suspension without pay and mandatory counseling. Third offense: a five-day suspension without pay and mandatory counseling. Fourth offense: a 10-day suspension without pay and mandatory counseling. Only upon the fifth offense could the district fire the teacher. It gets worse. A teacher using illegal drugs at school got three strikes before she could be fired. Even teachers caught selling drugs could not be fired until their second offense.
Commentary: Is employment exploitation?
February 5, 2025 // The people who believe employment is exploitative see that employers want to pay workers as little as they can and will replace them at the slightest inconvenience. That business owners make more money when they lower their costs. Thus, they see that minimum wage laws and paid sick leave rules counter the business owners’ incentive to exploit workers. The laws ensure employers can’t pay too little and keep them from firing people who get ill. On the opposite side, some people believe that employees have options about where to work. Workers can earn an honest wage at another employer if one treats them poorly or doesn’t offer them what they’re worth. Many employers pay well because they recognize workers’ worth, but even miserly employers must compete for workers. Part of that competition is over how well employees are treated.
Civil Service Commission considers one-time authorization requirement for dues deductions
February 4, 2025 // A change would mean “using the power of government to reduce the rights of employees and give more funding to unions,” Bolger said in a phone interview with Michigan Capitol Confidential. “That’s backward. Employees should be empowered. Individual rights should be elevated. And we shouldn’t be using the power of government to favor big special interests, which is what this proposal would do.”
The value of union strikes under Trump
January 29, 2025 // Like the UAW strikes, media coverage celebrated the strikes, but the impact appears nonexistent. The Starbucks rolling strike lasted a handful of days and only affected 300 stores and 5,000 employees — a miniscule percentage of Starbucks’ 10,000-plus stores and almost 200,000 workers. The Amazon strike impacted less than 10 of Amazon’s more than 100 locations, and workers generally continued working.
Planned Parenthood workers become first to unionize in Michigan
January 27, 2025 // Under the new agreement, PPMI says that they will create a process for addressing workplace concerns, implement structured wage increases, and provide benefits that ensure, “competitive compensation, including additional pay for positions requiring multilingual skills.”
3rd in a week: Michigan Medicine strikes deal with another health union
January 22, 2025 // Monday’s contract ratification follows two tentative deals announced last week. The Professional Employee Council of Sparrow Hospital-Michigan Nurses Association announced a deal on Jan. 14, while United Michigan Medicine Allied Professionals announced one the next day. Both tentative deals terminated a pair of planned strikes for what would have been a combined 6,500 medical professionals. The unions will have members vote to ratify contracts in the coming weeks, officials previously said.
Troy districts’ teacher contract discourages parents’ visits to the classroom
January 17, 2025 // Under the ‘Classroom Visits’ provision, it actively discourages parental visits. There are 17 paragraphs, listed from A to Q, which define the conditions parents and school employees must satisfy. “Given the learning disruption caused by classroom visits, TSD administration shall actively discourage this practice,” the first graph reads. A parent can only visit the classroom once per academic year, for no more than 30 minutes unless school officials agree to it.
UAW Hands Over Records to Court Monitor Amid New Investigations
January 16, 2025 // Barofsky said in a report to Lawson that its investigative team was combing through the records and looking into “new claims of misconduct” by union officials, but did not specify what the claims were.
House Republicans serve up reforms for tipped wage and paid leave
January 16, 2025 // House bills 4001 and 4002, introduced by Reps. Jay Deboyer, R-Clay Township, and Rep. John Roth, R-Interlochen, would modify new laws that, as of Feb. 21, will require paid time off for all employees and minimum wage for tipped wage workers. The 2024 decision by the state’s high court followed years of lawmaking, and the resulting laws, which have become a hot potato for both parties. Taken together, the new laws could increase restaurant costs by a quarter or more, according to a restaurant industry survey.
Minimum wage increasing in nearly half of states, including Nebraska
January 14, 2025 // The minimum wage will increase in nearly half the states this year even as the federal wage floor remains stuck at $7.25 per hour. In many states, the minimum wage is automatically adjusted upward as inflation rises. But voters in several states, including deeply red ones such as Nebraska, Alaska and Missouri, chose in November to significantly increase their minimum wages this year.