Posts tagged part-time

    MD bill may give faculty the right to unionize

    March 11, 2025 // The bill includes full-time or part-time faculty, and those who are either on tenure or non-tenure tracks. Foley added faculty at Maryland community colleges are already able to organize unions. Since 2012, the number of unionized faculty across the country has grown more than 7%, with more than a quarter of all faculty belonging to a union. More than 80% of unionized college faculty members are nontenured. Foley, a former vice president of the Communications Workers of America, said despite perceptions, unions are not just for blue collar workers.

    ‘We deserve more’: USPS union members vote to reject contract agreement

    February 4, 2025 // The NALC reached a tentative agreement regarding the proposed 2023-2026 National Agreement on Oct. 17. Ballots were mailed starting on Dec. 9 and they needed to be returned by Jan. 13, the NALC said in a news release.

    ‘Time is running out.’ University unions rush to organize before the Trump White House

    December 17, 2024 // Between 2012 and 2023, the number of unionized graduate student and postdoctoral workers more than doubled, from roughly 64,000 to 150,000. Faculty unions also increased by 7%, from 374,000 to 402,000, in the same period, the report said. Today, more than a third of graduate-student and postdoctoral workers are unionized while a quarter of faculty are. “Among faculty, the drive for unionization has been strongest among non-tenure track faculty,”

    Massachusetts Ballot Measure Would Shove Rideshare Workers Into the Arms of Unions

    October 12, 2024 // Even as independent contractors, however, unions still threaten drivers’ flexibility. Unions might negotiate standardized rates, mandatory breaks, or limits on working hours, which, while beneficial in some industries, could restrict a driver’s ability to capitalize on peak demand periods or adjust their work hours to fit personal schedule. The risk of such changes only magnifies when one considers that the Ballot Measure only requires a 25% vote from drivers to form a union that would represent them as a whole. This means that the 30% of drivers working full-time, who would benefit most from being treated like employees, might be able to dictate policy for all rideshare drivers.

    Controversy brewing over abrupt closure of 3 OCF Coffee House shops in Philly

    June 17, 2024 // In a letter to employees and patrons, the owner of OCF Coffee House, Ori Feibush, said rising costs and reduced sales led to the decision to close all three of his locations. He also pointed to administrative and legal costs associated with the staff's desire to organize. Feibush hosted a poorly attended non-mandatory staff meeting on Monday, and by 4 p.m., staffers received an email that all three coffee shops were shuttered, effective immediately.

    Workers seek to unionize non-Disney restaurants at Disney Springs

    May 2, 2024 // Workers at the restaurants operated by Patina Restaurant Group, part of the Delaware North corporation, have concerns about lower wages compared to Disney employees, part-time instead full-time work, and a lack of benefits. The union representing many Disney workers is seeking to unionize five restaurants owned by a different company at Disney Springs. Haiken said the effort involves more than 300 employees at Morimoto Asia, The Edison, Maria and Enzo’s, Enzo’s Hideaway, and Pizza Ponte.

    Opinion: Gambling With a Worker’s Job

    May 1, 2024 // But the job losses go beyond anecdotal evidence. In our recent analysis of California’s AB5, which is the first empirical investigation of the law, my co-authors and I find that it is associated with a significant decline in overall employment and self-employment for affected occupations. Self-employment fell by 10.5 percent for non-exempt occupations. Overall employment fell by 4.4 percent in the same professions. Not only that, but AB5 didn’t appear to make up for these job losses by putting more employees on traditional payrolls with better stability, benefits or protections. Our study found no consistent evidence of more workers becoming W-2 employees.

    Side Hustles in Focus as Gig Worker Laws Stir Uncertainty

    May 1, 2024 // In the debate over the classification of gig workers, Massachusetts finds itself at the center of a legislative whirlwind, echoing a lengthy battle around California’s AB5 Gig-worker law. Proposals to reclassify Uber and Lyft drivers as employees rather than independent contractors have sparked heated discussions about labor rights and the unintended consequences of regulatory measures.

    Isabel Soto: Biden’s war on freelancing affects the American dream

    March 26, 2024 // The left’s war against self-employment is not a reform. It is paternalism: disconnected elites telling 70 million of happy, hurried Americans who don’t know what’s good for them. (It’s also cronyism, since the war on freelancing is fundamentally a project of the big unions, who hate competition.) And as always, when the government targets the proverbial “needy,” the real needy in our economy—women, minorities, and low-income communities—feel the pain. Half of Latinos are self-employed, 40% of African Americans, half of young workers, and more than half of low-income workers. An analysis by The LIBRE Initiative found that until 26% of independent workers are Hispanic and 14% of independent workers are black