Posts tagged New Jersey
Phoenix Logistics Workers Send Teamsters Bosses Packing With Successful Petition for Decertification
July 7, 2026 // Employees at Phoenix Logistics, LLC in Fort Dix have successfully regained their independence from International Brotherhood of Teamsters union bosses. This came as a result of employee Nicholas Rapa filing a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which called for a “decertification” election to remove Teamsters Local 35 as the exclusive bargaining “representative” of Rapa and his coworkers, medical equipment operators assigned to Fort Dix for training.
Pennsylvania minimum wage bill stalls in state senate amid push for $15 an hour
July 1, 2026 // Citing the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office, many GOP members say an increase in the minimum wage would result in layoffs, reduced hours, increased costs to customers, and the destruction of small businesses. At this point, House Bill 2189 remains in the Senate but off the table and unlikely to be debated or voted on—at least for now.
New Jersey’s Sean Spiller Wants to Lead the NEA. These Teachers Say Follow the Money
June 29, 2026 // Spiller is seeking the presidency of the National Education Association (NEA)—the NJEA’s national affiliate—roughly a year after unsuccessfully running for governor. Roselle teacher Dr. Marie Dupont and Hamilton Township teacher Ann Marie Pocklembo allege in a lawsuit that Spiller and other NJEA officials backed his primary campaign with $40 million of union members’ mandatory dues without their consent. The teachers argue that by funneling their dues through a union-controlled PAC and political organizations with union ties, the NJEA violated its contract with members.
Kavin: How To Be An Anti-Socialist
June 26, 2026 // If moderate Democrats want to distance themselves from the party's socialist surge, a good place to start is by protecting independent contractors.
Freelance Busting: The Lady Problem
June 15, 2026 // The Legislature should support this concurrent resolution, not just because of testimony in recent months that revealed employee misclassification isn’t a big problem in the first place, but also to make clear that the state supports all of us women who own and operate New Jersey’s smallest of small businesses. We are the translators, the financial advisers, the graphic designers, the traveling nurses, the dog walkers, the wedding planners, the writers, the photographers and so many, many more types of professionals who are worthy of real protection against this relentless, remorseless freelance busting.
Opinion: How a century-old railway law sows modern transit havoc
June 4, 2026 // As private commuter rail operations went bust over time and became absorbed by state agencies such as New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, they still mostly remained under RLA jurisdiction. This peculiarity has proven disastrous. Ordinary economic constraints no longer apply to union negotiations. The need to remain profitable is gone, and with it the danger that management would order a lockout in the middle of a contract dispute. But the right to strike has remained. It gives the unions license to make unreasonable demands, knowing that the people on the other side of the table could squeeze taxpayers and riders for more money.
New Jersey Codifies ABC Test for Independent Contractor Classification
June 1, 2026 // For employers, the practical lesson is familiar: states continue to move toward more aggressive worker-classification enforcement, and California remains the clearest example of that trend. California has led the nation in challenging independent contractor classifications through the ABC framework and related litigation and enforcement activity. New Jersey’s recent legislation reflects that same direction, and New York has also continued moving toward a more worker-protective approach. Other states have likewise adopted ABC-style tests in at least some contexts, making it increasingly risky for businesses to rely on a uniform, multistate independent contractor model without jurisdiction-specific review.
Report: The diminishing power of teacher unions
May 29, 2026 // The result is A Crowded Table: Teacher Union Strength in 2026. Building on our original study, the authors set out to gauge teacher union strength in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.). Collectively, the 59 measures—which include 29 new measures that were not in the original report—seek to quantify union strength in five key areas: Resources and Membership; Involvement in Politics; Labor and Bargaining Policies; Policy Wins and Losses; and Perceived Influence, which draws from an original survey examining how stakeholders in each of the 50 states and D.C. perceive teacher union strength today. The states with the strongest teacher unions are Vermont, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Hawaii. The states with the weakest teacher unions are Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Mississippi. (See our interactive table on the report website for the overall rankings alongside the rankings for each of the five areas.)
Faster Labor Contracts Act would silence workers’ voices and empower bureaucrats
May 28, 2026 // While forced arbitration for union contracts would be new in the private sector, there is a corollary in the public sector called “interest arbitration” that some states most frequently apply to police and firefighter labor disputes. It’s not entirely analogous because a government that imposes forced arbitration is also the employer and thus part of the contract negotiations. Moreover, governments aren’t subject to the same bottom line as private sector companies because, unlike businesses, states generally can’t go bankrupt. Nevertheless, interest arbitration contracts have burdened state and local governments, arguably contributing to rising property tax rates in New Jersey, unfunded pensions in Chicago, and even municipal bankruptcy in Detroit.
Whistleblower Bombshell Shakes Midtown Hotel Union As Owners Quietly Dig In
May 26, 2026 // New York hotel owners have quietly launched internal reviews after a whistleblower alleged corruption inside the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, the powerful union that represents thousands of hospitality workers across the city. The allegations surfaced this month and have hotel bosses rethinking negotiations and communications at a particularly sensitive time for the industry.