Posts tagged New Jersey
Déjà Vu All Over Again
April 14, 2025 // Reclassification attempts began with a media narrative, then blue-state legislation. The same thing is happening now with sectoral organizing.
Employers shouldn’t pay workers not to work: Paying people to strike should be a union’s job
April 14, 2025 // The bill is even worse than a similar one last year that would have allowed people on strike to collect UI benefits for four weeks. This year’s bill would allow for 12 weeks. You can imagine how harmful it would have been to the UI fund if this law had been in place in 2024 when Boeing machinists went on strike for more than seven weeks. Actually, you don’t have to imagine. The Employment Security Department (ESD) crunched the numbers related to providing UI benefits to striking workers in a large Boeing-style work stoppage last year. Paying 30,000 workers the max benefit under this year's version of the bill — three months — would have cost the fund around $367 million dollars.
Sen. Fazio to Union Boss ‘Don’t California My Connecticut’
April 12, 2025 // The evidence isn’t anecdotal anymore — it’s a nationwide pattern. According to the Heritage Foundation, “About 2.8 million more Americans moved out of high-tax states than moved to high-tax states between April 2020 and July 2023.” The migration wasn’t limited to CEOs and tech moguls: “This pattern is true of all income groups, though this pattern is especially true of those making $200,000 or more annually.” In fact, between 2020 and 2023, “The 10 states that have the highest taxes as a share of state GDP… lost 2.3 million residents,” while the 10 lowest-taxed states gained over 2.1 million. High-income individuals, the very people targeted by Connecticut’s proposed capital gains surcharge and mansion tax, are by far the most mobile: “There are nearly 60 people making $200,000 or more who move out of high-tax states for every 40 who move in.” These aren’t people looking to dodge minor inconveniences. They’re voting with their feet — despite the high costs of relocation
Oregon and Washington workers may soon be able to claim unemployment benefits when they go on strike
April 7, 2025 // Oregon’s measure would make it the first state to provide pay for picketing public employees — who aren’t allowed to strike in most states, let alone receive benefits for it. Washington’s would pay striking private sector workers for up to 12 weeks, starting after at least two weeks on the line.
Pennsylvania Teachers Union Admits Cyberattack That Hit 500,000 People in July
March 26, 2025 // Personal records of more than a half-million people were compromised in a cyberattack that occurred last July on the Pennsylvania State Education Association. The union acknowledged the data breach this week. On March 17, the state’s largest teachers union sent letters about a security data breach that occurred July 6, 2024. An investigation into the incident, completed Feb. 18, found that sensitive personal information was acquired by an “unauthorized actor” who accessed files on the union’s network, according to the letter.
Some Penn State faculty want to unionize as the university considers campus closures
March 11, 2025 // Unrest has been growing among some faculty as the university makes cuts to close a deficit by this summer. An attempt to hold a vote of no confidence in Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi was tabled at a faculty senate meeting last week. Also at that meeting. Bendapudi laid out plans to close some of the Commonwealth campuses. Just how many campuses is uncertain, but none will close before the end of the 2026-27 year. Twelve of the 20 campuses ― Beaver, DuBois, Fayette, Greater Allegheny, Hazleton, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Schuylkill, Shenango, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and York ― are under consideration for closure. They will be evaluated by a team led by several top administrators appointed by Bendapudi; she expects to make a decision before commencement in May.
The Next Wave Commentary: Kim Kavin
March 4, 2025 // In the wave of freelance busting that started with California’s Assembly Bill 5, the method of attack was the reclassification of independent contractors as employees. That method created massive backlash everywhere it was tried, so now, a new method is being tried. That new method is called sectoral organizing. This strategy of freelance busting in multiple states is usually a setup for a nationwide attack against us all. Independent contractors nationwide just learned this the hard way, with California’s Assembly Bill 5 ultimately leading to the introduction of the federal Protecting the Right to Organize Act. The freelance-busting brigade is, once again, doing a test run of its idea in the states, with bigger ambitions on the horizon.
Cincinnati UPS Employee Slams Teamsters Local 100 With Federal Charges for Seizing Dues Illegally From Paycheck
February 19, 2025 // Union officials took money for union expenditures – including union politics – without informing worker of their rights
Costco, Teamsters, reach ‘tentative agreement’ likely averting strike as company’s DEI controversy rages on
February 3, 2025 // The Teamsters are accusing the grocery club of not sharing its record 2024 profits – which doubled since 2019 - with its workers and have claimed Costco has engaged in "illegal and reckless behavior," including kicking union reps out of stores, preventing employees from wearing Teamster buttons and changing the locks on union bulletin boards. Talks broke down in January when Costco refused to reach a card check agreement. Card checks would make it easier for workers to join unions by eliminating secret ballots. About 85% of Costco's unionized employees voted to authorize a strike.
‘We Are Hopeful’ Q&A with Patrice Onwuka and Kim Kavin
January 24, 2025 // Congress should consider enshrining the Trump-era definition for independent contractors, and/or consider ways to get ahead of the opposition to flexible work. The Employee Rights Act was a federal bill that, among many pro-worker provisions, sought to protect independent contractors as a counter to a national ABC Test in the now-defunct Protecting the Right to Organize Act. Portable benefits also provide a pathway for companies to provide independent contractors with workplace benefits without triggering a reclassification.