Posts tagged New York City
Labor unions back Republicans in crucial U.S. House races in New York
October 17, 2024 // These endorsements in New York are the latest in a series of union breakups with Democrats, including two major unions deciding not to back Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Lawler has 37 labor endorsements, including law enforcement, firefighters and construction and trades unions. Mr. Molinaro has garnered many of the same endorsements. He’s in a rematch against Democrat Josh Riley. Some unions that supported Mr. Riley in 2022 have switched sides this year, like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Port strike longshoremen union boss linked to murdered mobster in ‘farce’ racketeering case he beat at trial
October 8, 2024 // George Daggett, the attorney, said the case began after his cousin asked a Catholic priest for financial advice and had $18 million in union funds placed under the supervision of the same money manager who worked with Our Lady of the Lake Church in Sparta, New Jersey. "So at the trial, every time a mobster’s name was mentioned, the government had a big board, and they made a circle, [and] every time a mobster was mentioned, they put his picture up on this big board," he said. "The government’s case ended, and I took Father Cassidy’s picture and I put it in the middle of all those mobsters. So that's the kind of trial it was."
Trader Joe’s workers look to decertify union at first unionized store
August 16, 2024 // Workers at a unionized Trader Joe’s location in Hadley, Massachusetts, have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to hold a vote to determine whether to remove Trader Joe’s United from its role representing employees at the store, according to a Monday announcement from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which is assisting the workers. The petition includes signatures from “well over” 30% of workers at the store — above the threshold the NLRB requires to trigger a decertification election — the foundation said.
Minimum Wages Wreak Labor Havoc
August 9, 2024 // Let’s consider the recent experience of California. It raised the minimum wage of restaurant workers from $16 to $20 per hour. In just the first two months after the law took effect, 10,000 jobs were destroyed and prices at restaurants have risen. In 2019, lawmakers in New York City passed a nearly identical piece of legislation. They increased the minimum wage from $13 to $15 per hour (equivalent to $18.72 today). The result was eerily similar. 90 percent of restaurants surveyed had raised prices, nearly 77 percent reduced employee hours, and 36 percent eliminated jobs. As then-president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Grech, pointed out, “[small businesses are] cutting their staff. They’re cutting their hours. They’re shutting down.”
Editorial: App delivery minimum wage is shutting out workers and NYC lefties don’t care
July 16, 2024 // The cost to consumers is skyrocketing: They spent 10% more on deliveries in Q1 of 2024 than over Q1 2023. Which means customers are tipping less — the average tip amount is down by $2.64. And while the fewer couriers still working are earning more per hour on paper (that’s true by definition when a wage floor is legally established), they are likely working much, much harder for that extra wage.
Amazon Labor Union members vote overwhelmingly in favor of an affiliation with the Teamsters
June 19, 2024 // John Logan, a labor history professor at San Francisco State University, said teaming up with an established union was like a “lifeline” for the independent ALU because the group is “going nowhere at the moment.” “Doing it independently is just so difficult when you’re up against a company like (Amazon), which is big, wealthy and is determined to defeat the union,” Logan said. The Amazon Labor Union’s 2022 victory in Staten Island remains its only election win to date. Yet the group is the only labor organization to pull off the feat at an Amazon warehouse in the U.S., in part due to opposition from the company and the sheer size of many of its facilities.
PBGC Announces nearly $650 Million In Taxpayer Monies To Go To Four More Failing Union Pension Plans
June 12, 2024 // On Tuesday, the PBGC announced it approved approximately $545.6 million in special financial assistance (SFA) to the CWA/ITU Negotiated Pension Plan (CWA/ITU Plan), based in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. The plan, which covers 24,288 participants in the printing industry, was projected to become insolvent and run out of money in 2029.
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.