Posts tagged nonunion
COMMENTARY: US Postal Workers Are Fighting Massive Service Cuts
November 11, 2024 // Thousands of US Postal Service jobs are at stake under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s modernization plan, which would close 200 mail processing plants and funnel all mail to 60 mega-plants. Postal workers are organizing to stop the plan.
Commentary: States should protect workers from Democrats’ latest assault on their rights
January 19, 2024 // Ending the secret ballot is just one of the ways these Senate Democrats are trying to deprive workers of their rights. They ultimately want automakers to sign a so-called neutrality agreement. As I’ve documented, such agreements typically do three things. The first is to gut the secret ballot in favor of card check. Second, they give unions the personal information of every worker at a company — another violation of privacy and another invitation to intimidation. Finally, neutrality agreements put a gag order on companies, prohibiting them from talking to their workers about unionization. Yet that violates workers’ right to the full information they need to make the best choice. And that’s exactly why unions want to shut companies up — because it makes workers easier to control.
Ford workers join those at GM in approving contract settlement that ended UAW strikes
November 20, 2023 // The United Auto Workers union overwhelmingly ratified a new contract with Ford, a pact that, along with similar deals with General Motors and Stellantis, will raise pay across the industry, force automakers to absorb higher costs and help reshape the auto business as it shifts away from gasoline-fueled vehicles. Workers at Ford voted 69.3% in favor of the pact, which passed with nearly a 15,000-vote margin in balloting that ended early Saturday. Earlier this week, GM workers narrowly approved a similar contract. At Stellantis, 68.7% of workers favored ratification, an insurmountable lead with votes at only two small facilities left to be counted.
Toyota Gives 9% Pay Bump to Most U.S. Auto-Factory Workers, Following UAW Gains in Detroit
November 2, 2023 // The UAW recently concluded a more-than-six-week strike at the Detroit automakers, after reaching proposed contracts at all three car companies for roughly 146,000 U.S. auto workers. Those agreements include a 25% general wage increase over four years, which the UAW says is more than members have received in the past 22 years combined. When cost-of-living adjustments are factored in, the increase would boost the top pay for Detroit Three production workers to about $42 an hour at the end of the contract’s term in 2028. UAW President Shawn Fain has promoted the wins in Detroit as providing momentum to a union that is looking to expand its membership more broadly in the auto industry, a goal that has been elusive in the past. He has signaled that the UAW’s next targets are U.S. factories at Toyota, Tesla and foreign-owned automakers that currently don’t have union-represented workers in the U.S.
National Right to Work Foundation Urges SCOTUS to Reverse NLRB Decision Letting ILA Union Wipe Out Nonunion Port Jobs
October 29, 2023 // The brief spells out the dire consequences of the ILA union’s maneuver for Leatherman’s 270 state employees, who are protected by state law from monopoly union control. It explains that South Carolina spent over $1 billion to develop the terminal, but the ILA union’s scheme, if allowed to continue, would require South Carolina to both fire all the nonunion state employees of the port, and turn control of crane jobs over to a private contractor with an ILA union contract. The devastating effects for current employees wouldn’t stop there if the ILA is victorious in the case. The brief points out that, even if fired state workers were to seek new employment at Leatherman with a private contractor under the union’s control, the ILA would likely prioritize its existing workers far above the former state workers because of union seniority provisions and hiring hall referral rules.
GM Asks Salaried Employees To Cross Picket Lines At Parts Distribution Centers
September 27, 2023 // The expanded strike targets 32 locations total across 20 states, including both GM and Stellantis facilities. The UAW will continue to strike at the initial targets, including the GM Wentzville plant in Missouri, the Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio, and the Ford Wayne Assembly plant in Michigan. GM has also idled production at its Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas as a result of the strike.
Opinion: With Inflation High, Unions, Suppress Wages
August 7, 2022 // Good luck getting a big raise if you’re in a union right now. That’s the unspoken message of a July 29 report from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. It showed that nonunion workers’ nominal pay in June was up 5.8% year over year, compared with only 3.8% for union workers’. The gap has been widening for a year. Why? Inflation. This divergence makes sense when you think of how union contracts operate. Unions negotiate long-term collective-bargaining agreements between workers and employers, with a typical contract lasting three to five years. That locks in the union’s gains but leaves it with little bargaining power or flexibility when something sudden or severe, like the current inflation, hits. So unless the contract is about to expire, union members are trapped when they need the freedom to negotiate better raises much faster.