Posts tagged pay
UR graduate student workers hold informational picket ahead of strike
April 17, 2025 // If the university doesn’t agree to hold an election, union organizers would need to ask the National Labor Relations Board to organize one. Organizers say a Trump-era NLRB would be unlikely to grant an election agreement because, during President Trump’s first term, he sought to exclude student workers from unionizing. If Trump fills the three vacant positions on the five-member NLRB, it would have a conservative majority. The university says entering a private election agreement would be unprecedented for the campus. According to UR administration, all current unions on campus became official after asking the NLRB for an election, rather than asking the university directly.
‘Trump and Musk are setting the example’: how companies are becoming emboldened to be more anti-union
April 10, 2025 // That tougher behavior under former president Ronald Reagan sped the decline of private sector unions. Today, just 6% of private sector workers are in unions, while 32% of public sector workers are. Anti-union ideologues are increasingly targeting public sector unions, which often support Democrats. “Because almost half of the labor movement is now in the public sector, the assault that we’re seeing now is really focused on the public sector,” McCartin said. “That really threatens to break the spine of the labor movement.”
Backgrounder: Executive Order: Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs
March 31, 2025 // The practice of “official time” is when unionized federal employees perform union-related activities, rather than their actual public service duties, while being paid by taxpayers. The Federal Unions EO requires that agencies, upon termination of an applicable collective bargaining agreement, reassign any workers who performed “official time” to positions where they perform solely agency business. It also contains language regarding existing grievance proceedings and allows for the head of each agency to submit a report to the President within 30 days highlighting any agency subdivisions that were not covered but should have been covered under the Federal Unions EO.
Los Angeles museum workers pushing to unionize
March 27, 2025 // Workers at Los Angeles County's Natural History Museum and La Brea Tar Pits Tuesday announced efforts to unionize, citing what they call a need for better wages, safer working conditions and increased diversity. The Natural History Museum & Tar Pits Workers Union would represent almost 300 workers and include performers, engineers, educators, guest relations associates and more, according to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 36.
Inside The Now-Shuttered Federal Agency Where Employees Lived ‘Like Reigning Kings’
March 20, 2025 // The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) occupied a nine-story office tower on D.C.’s K Street for only 60 employees, many of whom actually worked from home, prior to the pandemic. Its managers had luxury suites with full bathrooms; one manager would often be “in the shower” when she was needed, while another used her bathroom as a cigarette lounge. FMCS recorded its director as being on a years-long business trip to D.C. so he could have all of his meals and living expenses covered by taxpayers, simply for showing up to the office. FMCS is a 230-employee agency that exists to serve as a voluntary mediator between unions and businesses. As an “independent agency,” its director nominally reports to the president, but the agency is so small that in effect, there is no oversight at all
NY reaches tentative deal to end prison strike by suspending anti-solitary confinement law
March 2, 2025 // A law restricting the use of solitary confinement in New York’s prisons would remain partly suspended for 90 days if corrections officers accept a tentative agreement the state reached with their union to end an ongoing wildcat strike. There will be no departmental discipline for any of the thousands of corrections officers if they return to work by Saturday, according to a memo the governor released. The agreement also includes provisions to reduce mandated overtime, increase the overtime pay rate and temporarily hire retired corrections officers to assist in transporting incarcerated people.
Gov. Hochul to send National Guard into NY prisons if correction officers don’t end illegal strikes
February 19, 2025 // A prison workers’ union, NYS Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, said it did not sanction the illegal jobs actions. But upstate Republican lawmakers said they remain in support of the protesting officers and blasted the Democratic governor for her alleged inability to safeguard state prisons. “New York’s prisons are becoming war zones due to the Hochul Prison Crisis. Correctional facilities are on the brink of collapse,” state Sen. Peter Oberacker said in a statement, claiming assaults on officers have hit record highs and staffing levels have been gutted.
Federal correctional officers driven to ask Congress for a raise
February 9, 2025 // Union says pay scale is 'non-competitive' with other law enforcement agencies
REI Greensboro, NC, workers vote to unionize
February 3, 2025 // Greensboro workers began the process after REI reduced the workforce by 275 company wide in October 2023. Most of the cuts were "leads," who are the most experienced in the chain, with the Greensboro store losing two. According to the RWDSU, Greensboro joins 10 others fighting for fair pay, guaranteed hours, a path to full-time status, and transfer opportunities within REI. The vote to unionize was conducted Friday by the National Labor Relations Board.
Conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice steps aside in pivotal union rights case
January 31, 2025 // A conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice said Thursday he will not participate in a pending case that will determine whether tens of thousands of public sector workers regain collective bargaining rights that were taken away by a 2011 law. Justice Brian Hagedorn drafted the law, known as Act 10, when he was chief legal counsel for then-Gov. Scott Walker. His decision to recuse himself from the case leaves the court with four liberal justices and two conservatives.