Posts tagged Pennsylvania
Philly campaign consultant Tracy Hardy pleads guilty to $2M pandemic loan fraud, union hall scheme
September 16, 2025 // He also pleaded guilty on Thursday to his role in a scheme in which he created fake bids for a union hall bar renovation job in Manayunk for District 1199C, a local chapter of the National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Employees. This made it seem like his construction company, Manayunk Construction & Development Corp., offered the best price for the job even though he inflated the price by $45,000. As part of the federal court agreement, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office will drop state charges against Hardy related to the union hall matter, so his codefendant, Christen Woods, the former head of District 1199C, is expected to be charged alone.
PENNSYLVANIA: Nurses last week voted 402-305 to join the union.
August 28, 2025 // Nurses, elected officials and more will rally at 1pm today at Zulema Parklet, across from Magee, urging the health care giant to begin contract talks without further delays. Roughly 60 advanced practitioners at the hospital, from nurse practitioners to midwives, will hold their own union vote on Sept. 6 and 9.
Philly teachers union and school district reach tentative contract agreement
August 26, 2025 // The agreement, if approved by the union's 14,000 members, would end the possibility of a teachers strike, which members had voted to authorize earlier this summer. As negotiations continued between the two sides in recent weeks, teachers were beginning to make picket signs in preparation for a potential work stoppage.
Layoffs, frustrated public among concerns for union president ahead of SEPTA cuts
August 19, 2025 // "What I'm going to do is send a letter to Chief Bethel and the Chief of Transit Police and ask them, on the 24th, that they man our lines. It's going to be a frustrating time, and I'm worried that the backlash is going to come on my operators - and I'm not going to accept that," he said. Pollitt added that some union members are also concerned about potential layoffs. While workers with more than a year on the job are contractually protected, those with less than a year are not - a group he estimates includes more than 700 employees. However, SEPTA says there are no immediate plans for layoffs. "As we get started, there's no immediate plans for layoffs," said SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch.
Philly teachers to hold ‘strike-ready prep events’ if deal with union not reached
August 18, 2025 // The School District of Philadelphia superintendent is optimistic bargaining with the teachers’ union will reach a successful conclusion. The 14,000-member teachers’ union voted to authorize a strike if a deal isn’t reached. The teachers’ union contract expires August 31, about a week after the first day of school.
UPS Avoids Teamsters Strike at Largest Air Hub as Union Further Slams Buyouts
August 14, 2025 // The Teamsters alleged that the package delivery company had ignored or delayed answering complaints that they were regularly diverting airport distribution services to workers paid a lower rate. UPS agreed to a new settlement that solved a jurisdictional dispute between two Teamsters local branches at the maintenance center. In Chicago, the union secured a first contract for its administrative and specialist workers at Teamsters Local 705, with the new deal earning the employees the top wage rate for their respective job duties.
THE BLUE DIVIDE
August 13, 2025 // The documents are an incomplete and opaque window into the finances for the Survivors’ Fund and Lodge 5, which are both 501(c) nonprofits. Another FOP nonprofit, the Home Association, operates the 7C Lounge, an expansive bar decorated in gleaming dark wood in the union’s 50,000-square-foot headquarters. A comprehensive financial picture of the nonprofits would be possible only by examining all credit card statements, receipts, and records. Those records are not publicly available, and even union members say FOP leaders have only allowed them to view a limited selection of documents.
We finally know who paid for Josh Shapiro’s inauguration celebrations (kinda)
August 12, 2025 // A fundraising pitch prepared by Shapiro’s inauguration committee and reviewed by Spotlight PA promised high-dollar contributors face time with the governor. “VIP tickets to the Inaugural Celebration include access to the VIP lounge through the evening,” fine print on the document states. “A clutch with Governor-Elect Shapiro and Lt. Governor-Elect [Austin] Davis will be held in the VIP lounge at the start of the event.” Unlike some states, cities, and the federal government, Pennsylvania does not require top elected officials to disclose who contributes to celebrations held to mark their entrance into office. Shapiro has declined to do so voluntarily.
‘Remarkable and unprecedented’: Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh thanks NYT tech workers for ‘substantial’ donation
August 11, 2025 // At the 2025 NewsGuild Sector Conference at the Wyndham Grand in Downtown, Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh President Zack Tanner awarded the New York Times Tech Guild with a plaque for its $114,000 donation in December to workers striking against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The donation was the remainder of what the Times tech workers raised for their own strike in November and came at a time when the Pittsburgh strikers were in need of financial support for their strike, which was then and remains the longest ongoing work stoppage in the country. “Once they won their strike and took care of their own members, they had a very substantial amount of money left, about $114,000,” Tanner said. “Those Times Tech Guild workers voted together to forward that to our Pittsburgh strike fund, and I’m not exaggerating when I say we would not be standing here on strike if it wasn’t for that donation.”
Portable Benefits Are (Finally) Having a Moment
July 31, 2025 // I’ve been fortunate to contribute to this conversation from the beginning — by publishing research and policy guides that examine outdated assumptions about work and benefits. I’ve shared these findings with Sen. Cassidy’s and Rep. Kiley’s team, as well as with every congressional or state lawmaker who showed interest — and have testified more than a dozen times before Congress and in state legislative hearings.