Posts tagged New York City
Citing ‘burnout,’ doctors with ChristianaCare file papers to form system’s first labor union
May 15, 2024 // The petition, which only required a 30% vote, was delivered to the NLRB office in Philadelphia late Tuesday. The union would be the first in the 136-year history of ChristianaCare, Delaware’s largest private employer with about 11,600 staff members. Should the doctors elect to form a union, the next step would be collective bargaining on a contract to address duties, wages and other issues.
Revised minimum wage law for delivery drivers moves forward in Seattle, set for full council vote
May 14, 2024 // The current law is “clearly not working,” Nelson said on Thursday. She said the new legislation is an “effort to reverse the bad outcomes caused by a flawed law and catalyzed by network companies imposing a new so-called regulatory fee, which caused a drop in customer orders, a drastic reduction in worker wages, and lost revenues for restaurants and other retail establishments.” Seattle’s citywide minimum wage for employees — delivery drivers are treated as independent contractors — is $19.97. Working Washington, a nonprofit that helped pass the original legislation in Seattle, released a report this week showing how the new ordinance would result in net pay of $13.17 per hour, due in part to expenses such as payroll taxes and mileage costs that drivers pay for on their own.
Minneapolis Is About To Kill Ride-Sharing
April 18, 2024 // Just last month, Seattle's disastrous attempt to enact a minimum wage for app-based food delivery drivers was in the news. The result was $26 coffees, city residents deleting their delivery apps, and drivers themselves seeing their earnings drop by half. Now, the Minneapolis City Council has decided to join the fray in the multifront progressive war against the gig economy—and this time, the outcome could be even worse.
The Liberty Justice Center Sues Union for Forcing Jewish Lawyers to Support Speech They Consider Antisemitic
April 12, 2024 // Congress recently launched an investigation into the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys due to whistleblower reports of antisemitism by union members. The Liberty Justice Center is suing the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, Legal Aid Society, and the City of New York on behalf of Mr. Levine and Mr. Popper, alleging that these defendants are violating the attorneys’ First Amendment rights by forcing them to subsidize political speech as a condition of employment. The Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment prohibits the government from compelling a person to subsidize a union’s speech. In Janus v. AFSCME, the Court held that a government could not force its employees to pay a union as a condition of their employment. And in Harris v. Quinn, the Court held that a government could not compel recipients of government funds, through a state program to provide services to other private individuals, to pay money to a union.
Trader Joe’s in Chicago files to unionize
April 11, 2024 // The Tribune reports that the Trader Joe’s filed for a union election on Monday, and needs 140 “yes” votes in order to establish the union. The workers there are not affiliated with an established union and instead are organizing independently under the name Trader Joe’s United. One worker at the store told the Tribune that she makes $22.50 an hour and receives 75-cent raises twice a year. Trader Joe’s spokesperson Nakia Rohde told the Tribune that its workers receive annual raises of approximately 7%.
Rigged: The fight over a union election in New York City
April 3, 2024 // According to Local 983’s filings, Puleo in 2022 received $349,083 in compensation from the union, more than 10 percent of the $3.2 million Local 983 received from membership dues, meaning at least ten cents of every dollar members paid the union for representation went to him. Puleo gets an extra bump of $22,522 from the District Council, bringing total pay in 2022 to $371,605, putting his pay just above that of DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, and well above the compensation for Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Puleo and his union administration had won election in 2013 over long-time incumbent Mark Rosenthal. Rosenthal had been elected to union leadership in 1998 following a corruption investigation that revealed a “vast pig-sty of corruption, self-dealing, lavish party going, and vote rigging,” according to City Journal. The scandal within DC 37 saw union local presidents in handcuffs and DC 37 placed under trusteeship by AFSCME International. Rosenthal came in and cleaned house. When he was elected, it was the first contested election in 20 years and it was not without controversy, including accusations of threats and intimidation. Puleo won an election in 2013 over the aging Rosenthal, who since passed away in 2017, and has been at the helm of Local 983 ever since.
With contracts settled, Culinary Union eyes aggressive growth in 2024
April 2, 2024 // The Culinary said the 32 percent salary increase over five years — 10 percent in the first year — was the largest in the union’s 89-year history. The average worker earned roughly $28 an hour under the previous contract — including health and pension benefits. By the end of the new five-year deal, the average worker will earn $37 an hour, including benefits. The contracts also included workload reductions for guest room attendants, the reinstatement of daily hotel room cleanings, increased safety protections for workers on the job and language covering the expanding use of technology and artificial intelligence and how workers can be retrained or receive financial benefits if their jobs are replaced. During recent fourth-quarter earnings conference calls with analysts, top executives from major Strip operators, including MGM Resorts and Caesars, acknowledged that the contracts will result in increased labor costs.
NYCHA corruption means it’s time to privatize
February 9, 2024 // In the one vote conducted to date, in December at Brooklyn’s Nostrand Houses, residents chose to stick with NYCHA management, 464 to 163. Here’s one possible explanation for the curious choice: A great many NYCHA residents are also employed by the authority. NYCHA’s largest union, Teamsters 237, reports that a full third of its 8,000 members are NYCHA residents.
The Onion Union Gets Strike Authorization, Accuses G/O Media Of Bad Faith Bargaining Through “Threatening And Intimidating Behavior”
February 5, 2024 // In addition to pay increases, the Onion Union is seeking contractual protections in the event that the company is sold. This comes after the union hit back at G/O Media management after the closure of Jezebel in November, writing in a statement at the time, “our hostile and incompetent management made no effort to work with the union to find a less cruel alternative arrangement…” The union is also seeking improved severance given the ongoing layoffs, as well as basic protections against AI — another area in which employees throughout the company are speaking from experience, given G/O Media previously published AI-generated articles on several of its sites, much to the ire of the staff.
UFT Lawsuit Against MTA over Congestion Pricing Opens Discussions over Membership-wide Voting
January 30, 2024 // This is not the first time that the union has made unilateral decisions outside of membership input. In March of 2023, Mulgrew faced significant membership backlash over a controversial switch to a privately run Medicare Advantage plan for retirees, now managed by Aetna. Mulgrew played a key role in negotiating the health plan change, which members challenged by circulating a petition, demanding a membership-wide vote prior to “significant changes to active and/or retired members’ healthcare.” “We call for a membership-wide vote for any significant changes to active and/or retired members’ healthcare. These include any significant changes of our healthcare carriers, limits to our choice of healthcare carriers, or institutions of or raises to premiums, deductibles or copayments, etc.,” read the petition by UFT activist group Educators of NYC.