Posts tagged part-time
First Faculty Unions Form at Two Maryland Community Colleges
September 7, 2023 // Before passage of the 2021 collective bargaining law, some employee groups were already organized at the Community College of Baltimore County, Montgomery College, and Prince George’s Community College. There are additional faculty organizing efforts by AFT-Maryland underway now at the Community College of Baltimore County and Prince George’s Community College.
Virginia Tech graduate students and staff are launching labor unions
September 7, 2023 // It’s an effort that has been in the works for three years, as the groups have quietly recruited members while, across the country, campus labor unions have gained attention. On Tuesday, members of the United Campus Workers of Virginia Tech (UCW-VT) and the Virginia Tech Graduate Labor Union (VT GLU) will team up in a rally on the Blacksburg campus. They hope going public will attract new members and draw attention to their efforts to press university administrators for improvements for campus workers at all levels. Together, the unions have a potential membership of about 20,000 people affiliated with Tech.
‘It’s not as glamorous as you think’: Local actors weigh in on impact of SAG-AFTRA strike
September 1, 2023 // For the last month, the Jameses have been striking with SAG-AFTRA, the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, to which they’ve belonged since 1997. Without a resolution to the union’s ongoing labor dispute, Gilda and Chris’s usual lineup of acting work just doesn’t exist. Come this fall, Gilda and Chris plan to work a number of odd jobs, including at the polls during election season and at Spooky World, a Halloween-themed attraction park in Litchfield, N.H., where costumed actors try to scare patrons. Chris shuddered at the thought. The gig — which he calls “stage in your face” — pays $10 an hour and is “the toughest acting I’ve ever done.” It would be their third season there.
WA Supreme Court rules on disclosure of public employees’ work information
August 29, 2023 // The court’s opinion is in response to a litigious dispute between the Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Olympia, and approximately 50 labor unions representing thousands of public employees across the state. The foundation had made formal requests to numerous state agencies requesting the full names of their workers along with dates of birth, job titles, work email addresses, annual salary, work location stations and addresses, full or part-time work status and names and titles of their union bargaining representatives. The foundation said it wanted to contact the employees to inform them about a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which banned mandatory union membership and dues in the public workplace. The foundation, in its lawsuit, also asserted that unions had no standing in the case. Justice Barbara Madsen,
Opinion Scherer: Government scrutiny of ‘gig workers’ Is misplaced
August 23, 2023 // The Labor Department published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the subject last year, but a final rule isn’t expected until October. Legal experts rightly criticized the proposed rule as an “ABC test in sheep’s clothing.” By this, they mean the rule seeks to mimic a 2018 California Supreme Court test known as the ABC Test, which made it more difficult for companies to hire workers as independent contractors. While it is impossible to know what Labor’s final rule will look like, final rules don’t typically differ significantly from proposed rules, making the prospect of an impartial final rule unlikely. This is terrible news for millions of American independent contractors who overwhelmingly like and support their working arrangements. For instance, a 2020 Morning Consult survey of independent contractors found that 71 percent believed “the freedom of being an independent contractor outweighs the benefits of being an employee.” A more recent 2022 study by MBO Partners found that 76 percent of independent contractors were “very satisfied with independent workers.” In addition, 84 percent said they were “happier” working independently, with 80 percent reporting that independent contracting was better for their health. These views are consistent with Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing that “79 percent of independent contractors preferred their arrangement over a traditional job.”
Teamsters overwhelmingly ratify UPS contract
August 23, 2023 // According to the Teamsters, 86.3% of voters ratified the contract, the largest margin in the long history of collective bargaining agreements between the two sides. It is unclear how many of the 340,000 unionized UPS workers cast ballots. All 44 supplemental agreements were ratified, except for a supplement covering 174 members in Florida. The national, or “master,” agreement will go into effect once the supplement is renegotiated and ratified, the Teamsters said. Each supplement covers specific regions of the country and is tailored to the needs of Teamsters members in the respective regions.
Summer of labor: Why unions win pay hikes and new clout
August 10, 2023 // This year’s bargaining sessions tell the story. The mere threat of a strike won longshoremen, UPS drivers, and other blue-collar workers big pay raises. The 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America, by contrast, have been on strike since May. Last month, the actors union joined them on the picket line. It’s the first time the two have jointly struck the studios since 1960 and the most closely watched labor action of the year. Almost 3 in 4 Americans say they’re aware of the strike, according to a Los Angeles Times poll released Aug. 3. Among the issues are revenues from web streaming and the use of AI to generate actors’ likenesses.
‘It feels like it’s strike summer’: US unions flex muscles across industries
July 31, 2023 // “In the wake of the Patco strike, companies saw strikes as opportunities to weaken unions or even break them. That’s not the case today. Today there’s no fear that calling a strike will result in disaster,” said Lichtenstein. “Today there’s a sense that unions are on the offensive,” Lichtenstein continued. “Take the actors. They say they don’t want just a good contract. They want a transformative contract.”
Some part-time UPS workers say “historic” contract falls short
July 27, 2023 // Peter Lyngso, a part-time package sorter working in Chicago, called the agreement a "sellout," and said it doesn't address longstanding pay disparities between full-time and part-time workers. "There has been a very loud rank and file movement of part-timers across the country demanding a realignment of wages for what is a brutally difficult job," he said on social media. "I'm preparing to go to the mat over it for a no-vote," he told CBS MoneyWatch. Part-time workers make up the majority of unionized UPS Teamsters. Leading up to the negotiations, union head Sean O'Brien called them the "unsung heroes" of the company.
UPS shippers may face double-digit rate increases in wake of contract
July 27, 2023 // UPS Inc. shippers should brace themselves for double-digit general rate increases (GRI) in 2024 as the transport and logistics behemoth looks to recoup the “astronomical” cost increases from its tentative five-year contract with the Teamsters union, a transport executive said. Tom Nightingale, CEO of AFS Logistics Inc., a non-asset-based provider that negotiates, audits and pays about $4 billion in annual parcel spend, told FreightWaves that the “real” GRI, which is generally what shippers pay based on their shipment profiles and after add-on accessorial and fuel surcharges, will probably be in the 11% and 12% range. The headline GRI, which often doesn’t reflect what shippers actually pay, will likely be in the high single digits, which would be a second consecutive record. It should be announced by Thanksgiving. Last year’s record UPS GRI of 6.9% (NYSE: UPS) turned into an actual GRI of close to 9% after all factors were incorporated into the calculations. Nightingale, whose company keeps close tabs on this data, said his customers were “gobsmacked” when they were told late last year what they would actually be paying in 2023. FedEx Corp., (NYSE: FDX) UPS’ chief rival, had already hit the market with the same record increase. The GRIs, though technically increases on tariff rates, often dictate what shippers will pay in their contracts unless they can negotiate them down.