Posts tagged Public Employment Relations Board
“They Actually Had a List”: ICE Arrests Workers Involved in Landmark Labor Rights Case
May 7, 2025 // The raid did not appear to be a broad sweep but rather a targeted enforcement aimed at specific people, according to sources who have been in contact with the families and spoke to The Intercept on condition of anonymity to candidly discuss a sensitive legal situation. “At first we thought they were enforcing a deportation order, that they had one person that they’re looking for and then everyone else got dragged in — that’s kind of standard,” said one of the people with knowledge of the raid. “But this was strange because they actually had a list of most of the workers on the bus.”
Sign language interpreters in Clovis schools file to become bargaining unit. Why now?
August 28, 2024 // The group currently serves 61 students from elementary to high schools. Houts said the district has a shortage of interpreters and some students are going to classes without the services, which has become a legal issue. “So (we need) a contract that would increase wages and improve working conditions so those staffing ratios are not deficient,” she said. The goal for the group is to provide a better package so that interpreters can stay and serve students in the long term. Kelly Avants, Clovis Unified spokesperson, said not all interpreters work eight hours a day, but there is “a range of up to $78,000 for a full-time person near the top of the salary schedule.” The district also pays $15,055 per person per year for the health benefit plan and contributes nearly 27% of an employee’s retirement plan.
UC student workers expand strike as they demand amnesty for protestors
May 31, 2024 // While the strike is technically distinct from the larger protest movement against the war, the two movements are related. Last Thursday, several hundred UCLA members of the UAW 4811 held a rally in support of their impending strike. Moments later, they joined a student-led protest demanding that the UC call for a ceasefire and divest from weapons manufacturers and the Israeli economy. That same day, protesters erected a short-lived encampment and temporarily took over a campus building before being pushed out by police. It was a clear sign that, despite hundreds of arrests in May, thousands of students, union members and some faculty remain passionate about their pro-Palestinian advocacy.
California: Public Employment Relations Board denies UC’s request to block UAW strike
May 28, 2024 // Even though PERB did not find the strike illegal, UC noted that PERB filed a complaint against the union. The complaint states that UAW engaged in a strike “that is contrary to the no-strike clauses in their collective bargaining agreements and without providing adequate notice to the University. We are eager to see a quick and just resolution to this matter.” The complaint requires an answer within 20 days of May 23, when the complaint was sent and serviced. A notice of informal conference has also been sent to the union.
Union truckers circle Capitol to protest labor legislation
February 23, 2024 // SF 2374 “is nothing more than a technical cleanup to legislation passed in 2017,” Dickey said in his statement. “Last year, 41% of Iowa public sector workers that had union representation did not have a voice due to a loophole in the legislation passed in 2017. If the public sector employer and the union are following the law, nothing will change for them.” The legislation has cleared the Iowa Senate’s Workforce Committee, which Dickey chairs. It is eligible for debate by the full Iowa Senate. It must also be approved by the Iowa House and signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds before it would become law. Rep. Dave Deyoe, a Republican from Nevada who chairs the House’s Labor and Workforce Committee, said lawmakers have been aware of the lack of recertification elections by bargaining units for years, and that it has been a concern for Republicans who passed the 2017 law. Deyoe said it will be up to Republican House leaders whether to take up the bill if it is passed out of the Senate.
NY legislative staffers aren’t the only ones fighting to unionize
March 22, 2023 // New York legislative staff have a similar problem. The Taylor Law, or the Public Employees’ Fair Employment Act, compels state and local public employers to recognize unions, wrote Ken Girardin of the watchdog think tank the Empire Center. But under the Taylor Law, public employee unions within New York state cannot legally strike. Girardin also argued in a report for the Empire Center that NYSLWU would not be covered under the Taylor Law either way, writing that it “would raise numerous practical and constitutional issues.”
HEMMED OUT: Why Legislative Employees Can’t Unionize Under the Taylor Law
December 12, 2022 // Union advocates have argued that employees of the New York State Legislature are covered by the Taylor Law, the 1967 state law that requires state and local public employers, including state agencies, municipalities, and school districts, to recognize and bargain with employee unions. However, applying the Taylor Law to the Senate, the Assembly, or individual members of either house would raise numerous practical and constitutional issues, and any attempt to enforce a contract negotiated under the Taylor Law would likely be voided by state courts.
What a Surge in Union Organizing Means for Food and Farm Workers
March 25, 2022 // By organizing with the Warehouse Workers for Justice, many were able to get their jobs back and have their demands met. “What’s really interesting is that there’s a huge movement right now for worker centers and unions to work together ... to essentially surround the industry,” Oliva said. “So if an employer busts the union, the worker center emerges. If the worker center is unable to organize the workers, the union organizes them.”
Mount Diablo Unified teachers threaten to strike
March 20, 2022 // District has offered 7% raise over three years; union wants almost twice that