Posts tagged Pennsylvania
Hackers Ransom 500,000 Union Members’ Personal Information
March 23, 2025 // The attack targeted the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) and impacted more than 500,000 individuals, including public school teachers and support staff. During the breach, hackers accessed individuals’: Date of birth. Social Security numbers. Driver’s license numbers. Passport numbers. Bank account information, including account and routing numbers and passwords. Credit and debit card information, including card numbers, PINs, and card expiration dates. Health insurance and medical information. Why does the PSEA have access to all this information, especially since most have nothing to do with work or union representation? Simply put, unions often obtain personal information to contact employees about political causes and union organizing outside the workplace. They also send unpaid dues to collections.
3 production unions, Post-Gazette reach strike settlement
March 18, 2025 // The newspaper’s mailers and typographical workers, represented by the Communications Workers of America, and the pressmen, represented by the Teamsters, will receive 26 weeks of severance pay, plus additional compensation for staff who were paid on a commission basis. In February, a federal judge in Pittsburgh denied an emergency injunction sought by the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of the three unions. The injunction had asked the court to force the newspaper back to the bargaining table and require that striking workers be reimbursed for future medical expenses.
Some Penn State faculty want to unionize as the university considers campus closures
March 11, 2025 // Unrest has been growing among some faculty as the university makes cuts to close a deficit by this summer. An attempt to hold a vote of no confidence in Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi was tabled at a faculty senate meeting last week. Also at that meeting. Bendapudi laid out plans to close some of the Commonwealth campuses. Just how many campuses is uncertain, but none will close before the end of the 2026-27 year. Twelve of the 20 campuses ― Beaver, DuBois, Fayette, Greater Allegheny, Hazleton, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Schuylkill, Shenango, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and York ― are under consideration for closure. They will be evaluated by a team led by several top administrators appointed by Bendapudi; she expects to make a decision before commencement in May.
Op-ed: Government Unions are Losing Money and Members—but Not Power and Influence
March 3, 2025 // Last year, the Harrisburg-based subsidiary of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)—better known as Council 13—was in dire straits. Citing “serious financial problems,” AFSCME International took over Council 13 to right the ship on March 1, 2024. The news of the takeover must have blindsided AFSCME 13’s members. Before the announcement, Council 13’s required fiscal year (FY) 2022–23 financial disclosure was already months overdue, leaving members guessing about the true state of their union’s finances.
Philly congressman, union leaders, workers protest Trump’s federal layoffs
February 27, 2025 // “As to how we’re doing, the only answer is poorly,” Alex Berman, the executive vice president of the National Treasury Union Chapter 71, which represents Philly-area IRS workers, told NBC10 on Monday. “I have been on my phone constantly talking to the more than 400 people at my chapter alone who were let go under false pretenses. Now we’re looking at, if you don’t do X, you’ll be fired.” Berman referred to an email that was sent to federal workers last week asking them to detail their work. Monday’s rally took place at Independence National Historical Park where two employees were recently laid off, according to a union official.
White Coats Take a Cue From Blue Collars
February 26, 2025 // Harking back to the emergence of physician unions, we're seeing a resurgence of interest among resident physicians in hospitals across the country. To varying degrees, U.S. hospitals still require resident physicians to work long, irregular hours (in some cases as many as 80 hours a week). In combination with other adverse workplace issues, this has led to house staff dissatisfaction with the status quo and, ultimately, to unionization.
Trump, Elon Musk, and Philly unions are the wild cards in this year’s DA race
February 24, 2025 // But with risk comes reward. If Dugan prevails, it would be seen as a major win for the building trades and would represent the second time in three years that the group helped install its preferred candidate in a major citywide election. One union that has been silent so far is the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, which represents current and retired Philadelphia police officers.
Amazon’s Fight With Unions Heads to Its Grocery Aisles
January 27, 2025 // Rob Jennings, an employee in the prepared foods section of the Philadelphia store, has worked there for nearly two decades. He said he noticed a series of changes after Amazon bought the chain in 2017: a program that offered employees a portion of the store’s budget surplus was scrapped, part-time workers lost health insurance, staffing levels started to decline. Even though Whole Foods had never been a worker paradise, Mr. Jennings said, “I have a fantasy about bringing back all the things they took away.”
When New Jersey Hiked Minimum Wages, Fast Food Prices Rose
January 14, 2025 // Today, New Jersey's minimum wage is a little more than $15 per hour, thanks to a provision that automatically raises the minimum wage along with inflation. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania's minimum wage is $7.25, which is the federally mandated level. Interestingly, the study found that menu price hikes did not occur immediately after the minimum wage increases. Rather, it took an average of about six weeks for menu prices to rise.
Opinion: Mitch McConnell: Nippon Steel Isn’t the Enemy
January 10, 2025 // In Georgetown, Ky., hundreds of skilled workers build automotive parts at a facility owned by Nippon Steel. About 5 miles away, another Japanese firm, Toyota, employs nearly 10,000 people full-time at the company’s largest vehicle-manufacturing plant in the world. Toyota recently announced more than $2 billion in new investments to expand and modernize its facilities there. Japan likely wonders why the Biden administration considers a major investment in American jobs and manufacturing a national-security risk but not its purchase of cutting-edge American military technologies.