Posts tagged North Dakota
EMS workers in Detroit Lakes vote to unionize
May 12, 2025 // Emergency medical staff at Essentia in Detroit Lakes have voted to form a union. St. Mary’s Essentia Health Medical Service Staff is joining AFSCME Council 65. EMT Logyn Saewart says the vote was an overwhelming majority to join. As a privately-owned service, he says they don’t get the state funding other departments do. He says this will help address the labor shortage in his field.
Federal judge says H-2A workers don’t have right to unionize
August 28, 2024 // In her ruling, Judge Lisa Wood acknowledged the Department of Labor has the authority to make rules governing H-2A workers. However, she says the Labor Department does not have the authority to “create law or protect newly created rights of agricultural workers.” That authority, she says, belongs to Congress. Citing previous legal precedents, Woods determined that issuing a nationwide injunction would give a single district court an outsized role in the federal systems. Therefore, her ruling only affects those listed as plaintiffs in the case initiated by the Southern Legal Foundation.
17 states allege Biden opens path to unionize foreign farmworkers
July 17, 2024 // The Department of Labor denies the allegation, saying the rule merely gives foreign farmworkers the right to protect wages and working conditions through "concerted activities" and "self-advocacy." The AGs accuse the department of hiding "behind linguistic smoke and mirrors." "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck," the motion for a preliminary injunction reads.
17 state AGs sue Biden admin for allowing foreign farmworkers to unionize
June 14, 2024 // A group of 17 state attorneys general, led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration this week over a rule that allows temporary farm workers in the country on H-2A visas the power to unionize. Federal law bans American farm workers from collective bargaining. “Once again, Joe Biden is putting America last,” Kobach said in a statement. “He’s giving political benefits to foreign workers while American workers struggle in Biden’s horrible economy. I stand with American workers.”
Union, Case reach contract agreement, averting strike at Fargo manufacturing plant
May 6, 2024 // The previous six-year contract expired on April 28, but the union and company agreed to extend the contract and continue negotiations. The union was asking for a pay raise, the retention of health care benefits, and job protections. The deal covers nearly 700 union members. Union Business Agent Jeremy Pearson says the contract contains significant improvements over the company’s original offer. Most notably, Pearson said the union will keep its healthcare insurance plan. He said the company had proposed replacing it with a self-insurance program.
Planned Parenthood affiliate fires two union leaders, disciplines entire bargaining team
April 3, 2023 // The discipline stems from an allegation that confidential information about the organization was shared in the union’s private group chat. Planned Parenthood managers apparently obtained a copy of the union’s private group chat. The workers’ alleged breach of confidentiality had nothing to do with patient data, but rather about a previous employee’s termination and an effort by management to limit workers wearing union T-shirts on the job. The violations happened months ago, and the union hoped to keep the inner turmoil under wraps to avoid embroiling a revered progressive institution in a public spectacle when it’s confronting new abortion restrictions across the country.
19 Republican governors oppose proposed Project Labor Agreement rule
October 31, 2022 // Nineteen Republican governors wrote a letter to President Joe Biden (D) on October 17, 2022, opposing a proposed federal rule to mandate the use of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) for federal construction projects. The letter was signed by governors from Arkansas, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming. The proposed rule follows an executive order that was signed by Biden in February 2022 that aimed to require PLAs for large-scale construction projects. A group of Republican governors wrote a letter in April 2022 opposing the executive order, arguing that it granted a monopoly to unions and discouraged competition. The proposed rule would amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement the executive order and mandate the use of PLAs for federal construction contracts exceeding $35 million.
AFT Convention Seemed More Transparent Than NEA’s. But Looks Can Be Deceiving
July 22, 2022 // The American Federation of Teachers held its biennial convention in Boston last week. Unlike the NEA Representative Assembly, delegates met entirely in person and the union was more than happy to post its proposed resolutions and other documents online. More transparency doesn’t necessarily mean more honesty, though. A lot of what the AFT Convention produces requires elaboration, footnotes, context and filling in the gaps. battleground state poll AFT commissioned from Hart Research Associates. The main takeaway was that likely voters trusted Republicans slightly more on education issues than they did Democrats. Republicans
Union election begins for over 400 Planned Parenthood workers
June 29, 2022 // Like other nonprofit workers who have formed unions in recent years, Planned Parenthood staffers hope to gain more control over decisions that affect their day-to-day work in support of the organization’s mission. “I am often training the same position in the same clinics over and over again, and this has been an ongoing trend for the last several years,” Clark said. “Caretakers often cannot voice issues on the job in a way that leads to meaningful change. We trudge on until we burn out, and then we leave.” Planned Parenthood workers said wages and working conditions also factored into the decision to unionize. Many of her co-workers, Brewer said, are “overworked, underpaid and undervalued.” April Clark, Mimi Arabalo, Sadie Brewer,