Posts tagged organized labor
California Senate leader calls union ‘morally bankrupt’ for opposing a vulnerable Democrat
November 18, 2024 // The union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, was furious at Newman for joining a group of Senate Democrats in killing a bill last year that the union sponsored, according to Newman and his Senate colleagues. The bill sought to enshrine the rights of workers at the University of California in the state constitution. A spokesperson for the union and its lobbyist, Richie Ross, could not be reached for comment. The union, representing 30,000 workers at 10 UC campuses as well as medical centers, clinics and research laboratories, is planning a two-day strike for next week, the latest in a longstanding labor battle that was reflected in the worker rights issues raised in the bill.
What Trump’s win means for the federal workforce
November 6, 2024 // That’s because Trump has vowed to revive Schedule F, a controversial abortive effort at the end of his first term to strip the civil service protections of potentially tens of thousands of career federal workers in “policy-related” positions, effectively making them at-will employees. Trump and many of his former staffers have frequently bemoaned that “rogue bureaucrats” inhibited his policymaking power during his first stint in the White House. Though President Biden quickly rescinded Schedule F when he took office in 2021—before any positions could be converted out of the federal government’s competitive service—that hasn’t stopped Trump and his allies from working on the initiative in absentia. Both the Heritage Foundation and America First Policy Institute, which have organized dueling unofficial transition projects have endorsed reviving Schedule F, going so far as to creating lists of upwards of 50,000 current career civil servants to strip of their removal protections and threaten with termination.
By the numbers: Unions lead the way on funding state elections in Illinois
November 4, 2024 // Unions generally raise political money through contributions from their members to dedicated funds, but tracking where the Democratic Party gets its funding is trickier.
Unions face a moment of truth in Michigan in this year’s presidential race
October 18, 2024 // Union leaders have said his first term was far from worker-friendly, citing unfavorable rulings from the nation’s top labor board and the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as unfulfilled promises of automotive jobs. They emphasize Democratic achievements in states like Michigan, including the recent repeal of a union-restricting right-to-work law enacted over a decade ago by a Republican-controlled legislature. With membership dwindling in states like Michigan, Fain will need to attract more than just union workers to secure a victory for Harris, who has campaigned in the state alongside him. If the union president cannot deliver Michigan after all these efforts, it could raise questions about his union's political influence in future elections.
Harris faces challenge with union voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania
October 9, 2024 // One labor official who requested anonymity said many members of his union come from more culturally conservative households and aren’t very familiar with Harris’s record on labor issues. “We have a lot of Republicans in our membership,” the official said, adding that union members reflect society’s spectrum of different political views. That diversity within union membership, however, didn’t stop labor groups from embracing Biden in 2020, as well as Clinton in 2016 and former President Obama in 2012 and 2008.
Feeding the Kitty
September 30, 2024 // Unions have pursued shareholder resolutions asking for a “free and fair election process,” meaning card check and neutrality. They have also sought to pass resolutions demanding audits of a company’s labor practices. It’s not hard to see how a future resolution could explicitly try to prohibit companies from using independent contractors.
Employment Law Landscape Could Change After Election
September 16, 2024 // During the Trump administration the NLRB majority narrowed the scope of the National Labor Relations Act in several key respects and established a more neutral approach to union organizing. The Biden/Harris administration, which styled itself as the “most union-friendly in history,” reversed virtually all of the Trump-era policies, significantly expanded the scope of the law, and tilted the organizing landscape in favor of organized labor, Hayes said.
Trump and Harris, with starkly different records on labor issues, are both courting union voters
September 5, 2024 // By comparison, two days after taking office in 2021, Biden issued an executive order that established masking guidelines, and his administration made health and safety protocols on the job during the rest of the COVID-19 pandemic a high priority. Compared with the inaction by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration has been more active in proposing health and safety measures. For example, in July 2024 it proposed rules designed to protect some 36 million workers from health risks associated with extreme heat. After a period for written comments, public hearings will be held on the bill. When Trump tried cutting OSHA funding for 2018 by approximately US$10 million, Congress blocked his efforts. The Biden administration is seeking a 3.7% increase in OSHA’s budget for the 2025 fiscal year.
Opinion: Big Labor Bullies
September 3, 2024 // For many unions, the corruption isn’t even in the past. The United Auto Workers today operates under the watch of a court-appointed monitor, who is currently investigating president Shawn Fain for financial misconduct and workplace retaliation. This summer, the IBEW Philadelphia local had its longtime president and business manager each sentenced to federal prison for bribery and embezzlement. This isn’t a case of a few bad apples ruining the bunch. Corruption is systemic to American unionism, and it has been for over 100 years. For a long time, these bullies had disproportionate economic and political power, and that rubbed many Americans the wrong way.
Walz will address union members in first solo campaign stop
August 13, 2024 // As Minnesota governor, Walz signed a variety of pro-worker laws supported by labor — most significantly paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave. He also supported laws that banned noncompete agreements, prohibited employers from holding mandatory meetings intended to persuade workers against unionizing, raised safety standards in warehouses and meatpacking plants, and expanded unemployment benefits to hourly school employees who do not work during the summer.