Posts tagged pay raise
REI SoHo workers unionized in 2022, but still don’t have a contract. This play tells their story
February 21, 2024 // Neill first put on the play, called Foot Wears House, for her coworkers and fellow union members, through a reading at RWDSU’s office. Now, it will be open to the public with a reading at Hudson Park Library on February 24, once again starring members of the REI Soho union. The reading is supported by Working Theater, which is focused on stories for and about working people, and is free to the public, with the option for donations to the REI Union Hardship Fund.
Boeing union workers threaten to go on strike if they don’t get 40% pay raise, as embattled company faces fallout from faulty 737 MAX planes
February 7, 2024 // Both Boeing and the union have been named as parties of an ongoing National Transportation Safety Board investigation into midair cabin panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines MAX 9 on January 5.
Southwest Airlines pilots okay five-year contract, includes immediate 29% pay raise
January 24, 2024 // The Southwest Airlines Pilot's Association announced its members overwhelmingly approved a tentative deal with the airline, with 92.73 percent of voting members in favor. The agreement includes a 29.15 percent pay raise on the day of ratification. Pilots would get four percent raises in 2025, 2026 and 2027, with a 3.25 percent raise in 2028. The pilot's union says the deal also includes changes to scheduling, maternity and paternity leave, increases to retirement and more.
KENTUCKY: Journalists at Courier & Press unionizing
January 10, 2024 // Journalists at the Evansville Courier & Press have announced the formation of a union, citing slashed resources and jobs. According to an email from the Evansville News Guild, the Courier & Press newsroom has been reduced to a fraction of its former size, and journalists “work the hours of three people to cover beats that once had dedicated reporters.” The News Guild also says they have been told there are no new hires coming, and there will be no pay raises.
Commentary: Teachers strikes cost students weeks of school in 2023
January 3, 2024 // Betsy DeVos said that the strike-induced school closures "are continuing to exacerbate a problem [the unions] created by the extended lockdowns and shutdowns during COVID." "They're doing it at the expense of the kids they are supposed to be serving," she said. "The unions continue to try to amass more and more political power and extort taxpayers for more and more money and continue to promote a very leftist ideology across the board." DeVos said that lost learning due to missed school days is "devastating for kids [and] families" and noted that closing schools creates difficulties for families beyond the missed time in the classroom. "For those people who have jobs to go to on a daily basis, [they] now have to scramble to try to figure out what to do with the children that are left at home because their schools aren't opening to serve them," she said. "These unions continue to really whipsaw the people around who are supposed to be their customers; they're supposed to be the people they're serving. And yet there's no regard for the impacts on them.
ILLINOIS STILL HASN’T FINALIZED CONTRACT WITH STATE WORKERS
December 18, 2023 // The contract negotiated between the state and AFSCME Council 31 was ratified by members in July. But the final contract has yet to be released, meaning taxpayers don’t yet know how much it will cost them. Little-known government union fact: When government workers ratify a union contract, they don’t necessarily see the exact contract. That’s what happened earlier this year when Illinois state workers ratified a contract between the state and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, the union representing them. The language of the contract itself wasn’t final, but the state and union had agreed to the terms.
General Motors workers in Michigan reject United Auto Workers’ deal
November 9, 2023 // The union’s historic concessions from the automakers are a far cry from the UAW’s stated goals during the strike. UAW President Shawn Fain had repeatedly demanded 40% pay raises, the reintroduction of pension plans and a reduced four-day workweek. The union did not secure pension plans or a reduced work week, and the pay increases top out at just over 20%.
UAW and Ford reach tentative contract deal with Ford after 45 days on strike
October 26, 2023 // “We told Ford to pony up, and they did,” President Shawn Fain said in a video address to members. “We won things no one thought possible.” He added that Ford put 50% more money on the table than it did before the strike started on Sept. 15. UAW Vice President Chuck Browning, the chief negotiator with Ford, said workers will get a 25% general wage increase, plus cost of living raises that will put the pay increase over 30%, to above $40 per hour.
No-Show Workers Add Wrinkle to Stellantis Union Contract Talks
September 14, 2023 // The auto giant has a hard time getting some US factory workers to show up for their shifts. They just don’t align on how to solve it. Stellantis has made fixing absenteeism a priority in contract talks with the UAW for its 43,000 unionized workers. The absentee rate at its US plants was 23% last year, according to a copy of the company’s initial contract proposal reviewed by Bloomberg. Absent workers led to $217 million in lost sales in 2021 and 2022, the company estimated.
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.