Posts tagged pensions
Shawn Fain Claims Victory in UAW Election Rout
October 13, 2026 // UAW Vice President Mike Booth, who ran on a ticket opposing Fain, told The Wall Street Journal that there is no doubt about the outcome. Fain faced five challengers, including a UAW vice president with whom he had feuded. Fain’s allies defeated top UAW officials whom Fain viewed as impediments to his agenda for vice-presidential slots and other key roles.
Thousands more Chicago hotel workers could strike at any moment
October 13, 2026 // Union members say they want better health care benefits, pensions, protection for immigrant workers, wages that keep up with inflation and safer workloads. A 2025 survey by the UNITE HERE Local 1 union found 32% of its members lacked money to cover their rent or mortgage and around 29% lacked money to cover utility bills in the last 12 months.
Editorial: Against the Hollywood bailout
October 1, 2026 // The greatest job decline after Covid was in 2023, before Hollywood’s chief competitor, the U.K., expanded its film subsidies. That was the year of the industry’s “double strike,” when actors and writers simultaneously walked off studio lots for months. Hundreds of projects were delayed or outright canceled as filming rolled to a halt, costing the entertainment industry billions of dollars. When studios finally signed contracts to end the strikes, they had to accept unions’ core demands, ballooning their compensation in perpetuity. Is it any wonder they have looked to film elsewhere? The proposed federal tax credit would bail out the union workers who bargained for more than they were worth. It would subsidize almost all labor costs — for employees and contractors, both pre-production and post-production — of film crews, animators, special-effects artists, writers, actors, and even producers and directors. There are no limits on eligible compensation, so taxpayers would pick up a good chunk of the salaries of Christopher Nolan and Tom Cruise.
Op-Ed: Taxpayer money for government employee compensation demands real transparency
September 29, 2026 // But in Washington, what the public rarely sees are the financial details under consideration. Agreements are struck behind closed doors with taxpayer dollars, between government officials and the very unions whose dues often fund those officials' campaigns. There's something uncomfortable about a governor negotiating wages and benefits with one of their largest campaign supporters, with almost no public visibility into the process. And it's worth asking how that squares with a state that otherwise prides itself on open government.
Opinion: Californians owe $500 billion they never agreed to pay
September 14, 2026 // Everything works fine if the pension fund earns at least the expected return. But if not, there won’t be enough money to redeem the pension promises when they come due. Those shortfalls — called “unfunded liabilities” — must be paid, and under California law, taxpayers alone bear that cost. Hence, pension fund boards that owe their highest duty to employees — and none to taxpayers — have an incentive to set high expected rates of return, since doing so minimizes normal cost, the only cost employees share. That incentive produces unfunded liabilities, which are interest-bearing debts.
United Academic Workers
August 8, 2026 // On campus, the same bloc has changed what a strike is about. In May 2024, UAW Local 4811 called a strike against the University of California over the university’s handling of pro-Palestinian encampments, demanding divestment from weapons manufacturers, amnesty for arrested protesters, and a right for researchers to opt out of military-tied funding. UC warned that the precedent would expose every public employer in California to work stoppages “advancing political and/or social viewpoints.” The UC contract ratified this March carried politics into the agreement itself, featuring a $400,000 legal fund for international workers and a commitment to “non-collaboration with ICE.” The bargaining committee described the deal as having “compelled management to side with workers and not with Trump.”
Special Feature: How Public Employee Unions Built California’s Most Powerful Political Machine
July 13, 2026 // In California, public employee unions are often among the most influential organizations helping determine who becomes governor, mayor, county supervisor or school board trustee. They endorse candidates. They contribute millions of dollars to campaigns and independent expenditures. They provide campaign volunteers, voter outreach, mail programs, and political infrastructure that many candidates could not easily replace. By the time contract negotiations begin, the relationship between labor and management has often existed for months or years. That does not mean elected officials simply surrender to union demands. Many negotiate in good faith and work hard to protect taxpayers while fairly compensating public employees. But in government, the officials responsible for approving compensation packages are frequently supported by the same organizations representing the employees who will benefit from those agreements.
PECO worker strike ends: IBEW Local 614 wins pensions, retirement medical, wage hikes
July 7, 2026 // The new contract guarantees cash balance pension plans, full retirement medical coverage, and significant wage increases for all IBEW Local 614 members, according to the press release. The agreement also allows members to see any doctor for medical certifications, requires 24-hour notice for mandatory overtime in the call center, and doubles upgrade pay for members doing work outside their usual job duties.
PECO workers strike as power outages hit Pennsylvania
July 7, 2026 // Severe storms have caused widespread power outages in Pennsylvania, while over a thousand PECO workers remain on strike for a third day, with negotiations ongoing.
Opinion: Big Labor, DEI and the GOP
July 6, 2026 // These Republicans are promoting much more than the FLCA’s mandated arbitration after 120 days of collective bargaining. The bill gives the whip hand to unions in negotiating labor contracts, and along with that comes the left-wing cultural agenda that unions like the Teamsters and the SEIU have adopted. Take DEI—diversity, equity and inclusion—which unions have made part of their social-justice mission and collective-bargaining agreements. The General Teamsters Local Union No. 174 made DEI a feature of its negotiation with the Port of Seattle. The Writers Guild of America, East, included DEI targets for the hiring process and a formal diversity committee in its bargaining with Vox Media.