Posts tagged overtime
Boeing offers 10% raise to WA workers to head off union strike
September 14, 2026 // Boeing has issued its final contract proposal to SPEEA, covering over 16,000 engineers and technical workers. The deal offers an immediate 10% wage hike upon approval, a 4% raise in 2027, and guaranteed 4% minimum annual increases through 2030. SPEEA leadership is advising members to vote "Yes," though the official schedule for the ratification vote is yet to be announced.
Sanders introduces bill to make workweek 32 hours
September 14, 2026 // Congressman Mark Takano, D-Calif., and Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., reintroduced the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act this week to make the workweek 32 hours.
Tucson arts workers ratify first union contracts
September 10, 2026 // Workers at The Loft Cinema and Arizona Theatre Company ratified their first union contracts, while True Concord musicians await bargaining talks.
Sugar strike that prompted ports shutdown ends, longshore union returns to negotiations
August 4, 2026 // Tensions escalated on July 22, when a protest outside the refinery turned confrontational and nine protesters were arrested. By late July, federal mediators had entered the picture, and both sides met for marathon bargaining sessions. On July 27, C&H and ILWU Local 6 issued a joint statement announcing a return to work and a 6-day extension of negotiations. C&H agreed to withdraw its impasse declaration, which had cleared the way for more aggressive use of replacement labor.
Commentary: California’s War on Goats Could Worsen the Wildfire Crisis
July 30, 2026 // State lawmakers intervened by passing legislation to allow goat herders to be paid the same alternative minimum as sheep herders until July 1, 2026. Now that the exemption has expired, goat herders must be paid according to traditional overtime rules. Given the 24/7 availability required for herding, this means that Golden State goat herders are now set to be paid $20,000 per month, which works out to $240,000 annually. (For comparison, California Gov. Gavin Newsom's salary currently sits at $245,000). An effort to extend the goat herding exemption beyond 2026 stalled in the state legislature due to opposition from labor unions. Goat-herding businesses have been left scrambling. Western Grazers, a company that deploys roughly 5,000 goats across Northern California, says the new rules push the annual cost of employing each herder above $250,000 once room and board, food, and other expenses are included.
Union and Troubled Home Care Company Maintained Close Partnership, Records Show
July 21, 2026 // Home health aides the company employs have decried missed paychecks, glitchy software, and hours-long waits on the phone, among other issues. Last month, PPL agreed to a $162 million settlement to resolve claims of wage theft, and the US Department of Justice sued the company, alleging Medicaid fraud. The powerful health care union 1199SEIU is currently seeking to unionize PPL’s roughly 200,000 workers, who care for disabled and elderly New Yorkers. But 1199 has also been working closely with the PPL for years, according to internal records obtained by New York Focus.
California: First ILWU strike against sugar giant in decades
June 29, 2026 // A walkout by workers with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union over pay and benefits marked the first strike in decades against a major California sugar producer. The ILWU strike at C&H Sugar in Crockett led by Warehouse Local 6 reportedly is over healthcare, retiree benefits, sick leave, overtime rules, and union protections as part of a new three-year contract.
How Much Overtime Did MTA Workers Earn?
June 24, 2026 // A recent report from The Empire Center for Public Policy found that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) paid out $1.46 billion in overtime last year, which was 8% higher than the year before. The report also found that 34 MTA employees made more than $200,000 in overtime. Citing data from SeeThroughNY, the think tank found that “the MTA’s overtime champion” for the second year in a row was Bridges & Tunnels (B&T), with the top three making two to three times more in OT than their regular pay. Edwin Lee, a lieutenant with B&T, topped all OT earners with $359,794. In 2025, between his overtime and his regular pay, Lee earned $528,809 in that one year.
Jonathon Wolfson: Testimony before the House Committee on Education and Workforce
June 10, 2026 // In short, locum tenens is not a temporary patch on a permanent problem; it is a permanent and growing part of the healthcare access solution. In many areas, the choice is not between a permanent healthcare provider and a locum tenens healthcare provider. The choice is between a locum tenens healthcare provider and no provider at all. Any policy that undermines locum tenens would directly harm the patients who depend on it.
The Faster Labor Contracts Act disempowers workers
June 1, 2026 // The bill’s most obvious defect is its egregious misnaming. Whatever is produced by statutorily compelled arbitration cannot be correctly characterized as a contract at all. A contract results from parties negotiating, compromising, and voluntarily agreeing to terms each can accept. That process is precisely what gives contracts legitimacy and durability. The Faster Labor Contracts Act abandons that principle. Under its framework, if the parties fail to reach agreement within the prescribed period, federal arbitrators impose terms neither side may actually want. This is not a contract; it is coercive government regulation.