Posts tagged Mississippi
UAW Gains Southern Foothold as VW Workers Ratify First-Ever Contract
February 23, 2026 // The new deal also offers healthcare cost reductions, job security guarantees and other benefits. Volkswagen officials, as has been the case throughout the process, acknowledged the result in a short statement.
Opinion: As strike looms, LA schools need reform — not more spending
February 8, 2026 // Rather, only three reforms have any hope of improving performance in LA Unified: breaking up the district; parental choice; and Mississippi-style rigor. Remember that this is the teachers union that delayed school reopenings after the Covid lockdown and attached extraneous political demands to the reopening process. What the union is now demanding will leave the district unable to pay its bills within three years.
Gold Strike Casino Workers Unionize With Teamsters Local 667 in Mississippi
January 7, 2026 // Workers at Tunica, Mississippi-based Gold Strike Casino Resort announced Monday they have voted to join Memphis, Tennessee-based Teamsters Local 667 labor union through a card-check majority.
Trump’s Cuts to U.S. Labor Board Leave Festering Disputes and a Power Struggle
December 17, 2025 // “There is no room for parallel or complementary state legislation,” said William B. Cowen, the labor board’s acting general counsel. Mr. Cowen said the agency remained effective despite the lack of a sitting board, because the vast majority of cases are resolved in earlier stages. In the 2024 fiscal year, according to the board’s data, regional offices settled 96 percent of cases that advanced past filing. “I’m not saying that what the board does is unimportant. It’s very important. They decide the most important, the most contentious issues,” Mr. Cowen said. “It is a very small percentage.”
Off the Rails? Union Asks Supreme Court to Rein in Fifth Circuit
November 13, 2025 // The Fifth Circuit’s approach breaks sharply from multiple other circuits (Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth, Tenth, and D.C.), which have either held or strongly implied—consistent with Supreme Court precedent, according to the OPEIU—that a petitioner must show actual harm before courts will halt agency actions. The Fifth Circuit’s stance invites immediate injunctions in response to routine NLRB cases, which destabilizes the Board’s ability to function across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi—even as the D.C. Circuit separately evaluates the constitutionality of those same protections.
Furloughed federal workers face delays getting unemployment pay during shutdown
November 4, 2025 // The specifics vary. Massachusetts has a high-end weekly benefit of $1,105 per week for up to 30 weeks. In Mississippi, it’s no more than $235 weekly for up to 26 weeks. Roughly half the states pay less than $600 a week maximum, according to U.S. Department of Labor numbers. Not everyone gets the maximum weekly rate. Some states offer fewer than 20 weeks. And the limits can grow in some states when unemployment rates are particularly high. Around the nation’s capital, the maximum weekly payment is $444 in Washington, D.C., $430 in Maryland and $378 in Virginia. In Texas, where Avila-Thomas lives, the weekly maximum is $605, for up to 26 weeks.
DOL Awards $86M for Skilled Trades Training
October 29, 2025 // Administered by the department’s Employment and Training Administration, these grants will provide outcome-based reimbursements to employers for providing training in high-demand and emerging industries that align with President Trump’s Executive Order 14278, Preparing Americans for High-Paying Skilled Trade Jobs of the Future, and Executive Order 14629, Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance. These priorities are also in line with the goals published in America’s Talent Strategy and America’s AI Action Plan. “President Trump has directed the Labor Department to Make America Skilled Again by providing states with the resources they need to expand on-the-job training opportunities,” said Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
Op-ed: Ohio needs to wrest control of public schools from the teachers’ un
August 25, 2025 // Bureaucratic schools where merit doesn’t matter. Unions have used their clout, including their ability to elect pro-union school boards, to secure lengthy, incredibly detailed employment contracts that advance their interests while tying up school leaders with red tape. These contracts include job protections (even for incompetent teachers), onerous procedural hoops that schools must follow to evaluate or discipline an employee, and benefits that exceed what many private sector employees enjoy (e.g., generous healthcare, even for retirees, and paid leave). Moreover, following a union-supported state law, these contracts require Ohio teachers to be paid according to rigid salary schedules that reward seniority and degrees instead of classroom effectiveness and individual talent—a merit-based approach to compensation that has proven to benefit students in the (few) places where it has been tried. Escalating spending.
Sen. Hawley Introduces Bill to Raise Minimum Wage to $15
June 10, 2025 // Some business advocacy groups still oppose minimum rate hikes, including Hawley's proposed bill. "This proposal would more than double the minimum wage and slash over 800,000 jobs," Rebekah Paxton, research director at the Employment Policies Institute, said in a statement to The Hill. "An overwhelming majority of economists agree that drastic minimum wage hikes cut employment, limit opportunities for workers and shutter businesses."
Commentary– Justin Hill: Protecting the Secret Ballot: A step forward for Mississippi’s workers and taxpayers
February 24, 2025 // this measure prohibits “neutrality agreements,” which can unfairly prevent employers from sharing information with their workers. Employees deserve the right to hear both sides of the issue rather than being presented with only the union’s perspective and talking points. Transparency is critical for workers to make informed decisions about their future. This legislation applies only to future economic incentives and union organizing efforts. It does not impact existing unions, current economic incentive agreements or subcontractors. Compliance with this law is straightforward and does not conflict with federal labor regulations. When a similar law was challenged in Arizona, the courts upheld the state’s right to protect the secret ballot process.