Posts tagged private sector
Teamsters Memo Signals Rift Between Major Unions
June 4, 2024 // In 2013, several years after the Teamsters left the AFL-CIO, the union tried to raid bargaining units at American Airlines and then-U.S. Airways, which later merged with American. The mechanics at U.S. Airways were represented by the IAM. At the time, the IAM accused the Teamsters of “dividing already unionized employees with hollow promises.” The Teamsters and the IAM later reached a peace. They even announced in 2022 that they would work together to organize a broad swath of workers at Delta alongside the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. The Teamsters were to represent the airline’s mechanics, the IAM Delta’s ramp and cargo workers, and the AFA Delta’s flight attendants.
Commerce agency near ‘collapse’ over telework, layoffs, union says
June 3, 2024 // Lawmakers, especially Republicans, have been wary of widespread remote work, saying customer service backlogs at government agencies including the Social Security Administration and the IRS prove the case for more in-person staff. Just last week, the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s HR department, assured lawmakers that more than half of all federal employees work in-person full time.
CONNECTICUT: Senator’s Dual Roles Raise Ethical Questions Amid Legislative Decisions
April 29, 2024 // Citing the need to pay people “a fair wage and a fair pension,” Sen Hochadel argued that the state must provide higher wages — which already exceed the private sector — to address state job vacancies. This stance suggests a dual agenda: to attract job candidates to the state and swell the ranks of her union with more dues paying members. During her remarks, the Senator acknowledged her members, expressing appreciation for their contributions to the state of Connecticut and urged her colleagues “to vote yes.” While this advocacy may not be surprising, she also serves as the president of the Connecticut American Federation of Teachers (AFT) — one of the unions involved in the negotiations. AFT represents a broader group than just teachers. The union also includes dues paying members who are state employees in the executive and judicial branches, as well as staff at state colleges, universities and UConn Health.
Alphabet Soup: NLRB, NMB, FMCS
April 4, 2024 // This is the third in a series of introductory guides to help you navigate the alphabet soup of federal labor and employment agencies. Throughout the federal government, there is agency overlap and the pendulum often swings with each new President in the White House. Ultimately, the general framework for each agency’s mission and the statutes they enforce remains little changed. Below is an introductory guide to the National Labor Relations Board, National Mediation Board, and Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to help you better understand their missions and mandates.
Op-ed: A ‘Fairness Initiative’ to Tackle Too-High Government-Employee Pay
March 29, 2024 // You probably don’t recall those compensation discussions because you were not part of them. The “negotiations” to set pay and benefits for government employees, which are conducted between two groups of government employees, tend to be resolved quickly and with alarming amicability. On one side of the table are union officials representing government workers. On the other side are government employees representing you and your fellow taxpayers. You did not choose those representatives. In all likelihood, you are unaware that they are representing you. They were chosen for you by Joe Biden. And when the two parties get down to hard bargaining, there is no unseemly discord. Not a single fistfight has been reported.
Commentary Big Labor’s Decline and Left Turn: Membership Decline
March 23, 2024 //
Unions using ESG to control workers — and drain Americans’ retirement savings
March 21, 2024 // They’re pushing board nominees and shareholder proposals that aim to force more workers into union membership, even when workers don’t want it. The Biden administration has smoothed the path for this underhanded strategy, and not only does it threaten workers, it endangers millions of Americans’ retirement savings. A new Institute for the American Worker report shines a light on labor unions’ reliance on ESG.
Philly-Area Dometic Employees Slam UAW Union with Federal Charges for Illegal Threats Linked to Strike
March 12, 2024 // Seven employees of auto accessory manufacturer Dometic’s Philadelphia-area factory have filed federal charges against the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 644 union, maintaining that union officials ignored their requests to resign union membership during a strike, and are now unlawfully imposing internal union discipline on them. The workers, Nancy Powelson, Eric Angell, Joseph Buchak, Mario Coccie, Md Rasidul Islam, James Nold, and Robert Haldeman, filed their charges at National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 4 with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “The Union’s act of summoning Charging Party to attend an internal Union trial for post-resignation conduct interferes, restrains and coerces Charging Party in the exercise of…[NLRA] Section 7 rights, in violation of Teamsters Local 492 (United Parcel Service)…and Section 8(b)(1),” the employees’ charges explain.
Big Labor’s death knell in Michigan
February 26, 2024 // The percentage of workers who are in a public or private sector union has collapsed. Almost 60% of government employees (a total of 350,000 people) used to be union members. Today, about 180,000 (or 39%) choose to remain. Public sector workers, unlike their counterparts in the private sector, are still free to leave their union under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME.
‘All-of-government’ approach undermines workers’ free choice
February 15, 2024 // As punishment for the “offense” of simply not being organized by a union, these employers face particular hostility from the supposed arbiter of private-sector labor relations, the National Labor Relations Board. Now packed with pro-union Biden appointees, the Board continues to issue decisions that appear singularly focused on increasing union power without regard to their impact on workers or businesses.