Posts tagged raises

    Podcast: Rich Lowry with guest Vinnie Vernuccio; How Unions Are Failing American Workers

    July 31, 2024 // National Review's Rich Lowry is joined by Vinnie Vernuccio, President of the Institute for the American Worker, to discuss how unions have reduced worker freedom, the underhanded tactics unions use to gain power and stifle dissenting voices, how the government enables unions, and how Americans can use free market principles to restore workers' rights and bring about positive labor reform.

    Penn Libraries staff file petition to unionize with National Labor Relations Board

    June 25, 2024 // The letter was signed by Penn Libraries librarians, curators, developers, and other staff and sent to Brigitte Weinsteiger, the H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and director of the Penn Libraries, on Friday morning. The letter expressed the signatories’ intent to unionize as Penn Libraries United. According to a press release from PLU, a “supermajority of eligible library staff have signed union representation cards.” Penn Libraries support staff have been unionized since 1969 as the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees District Council 47 Local 590, and the new group aims to join the same local union.

    CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION CONTRACT COULD COST AT LEAST $10.2B TO $13.9B

    June 6, 2024 // CTU wants massive pay raises, stipends and additional personnel – all of which are within the traditional scope of bargaining. It also wants the city to create new housing, levy new taxes, construct new parking garages, undertake new environmental initiatives, divest pension funds from fossil fuels, fully fund infertility and abortion care for members, subsidize weight-loss surgery and drugs such as Ozempic, add new members to the bargaining unit, offer free CTA passes for all students and employees, among many other things. The new contract also mandates certain positions to be staffed at every school, regardless of enrollment. The new positions include: librarian, librarian assistant, social worker, newcomer liaison, case manager, restorative justice coordinator, reading specialist and interventionist (elementary schools), three elective teachers (middle schools), technology coordinator, “Climate Champion,” and gender support coordinator and/or LGBTW+ lead/specialist and option to expand LGBTQ+ faculty support teams at each school. Because of the minimum staffing requirements laid out in the contract, this would constitute a minimum of 4,650 new hires. Based on the current average compensation for each type of employee, hiring the additional personnel would cost an estimated $1.7 billion.

    Disneyland will work with union representing character performers

    June 4, 2024 // While most of Disneyland's 35,000 employees are represented by 26 unions, the park's 1,100 character performers and 600 parade performers and support staff had not been unionized until now. California's minimum wage increased to $16 an hour in 2024 with the hourly rate set to rise to $18 in 2025. After a lengthy court fight, Anaheim's Measure L boosted Disneyland's minimum wage to nearly $20 an hour.

    Mercedes workers in Alabama reject union, dealing setback to UAW

    May 19, 2024 // VW workers twice voted against the UAW before last month's win, and Nissan workers at a plant in Mississippi rejected the UAW by a wide margin in 2017. In 2021, workers at an Amazon.com warehouse in Alabama voted against forming a union by a more than 2-to-1 margin. The loss complicates the story of how the UAW can market its influence, especially in the South, but it likely will not deal a significant blow to the rest of the UAW's organizing efforts, labor experts said.

    Thousands of hotel workers to rally in 18 cities ahead of contract negotiations

    May 1, 2024 // Unionized hotel workers demanding significant pay raises will rally on May Day in 18 U.S. and Canadian cities, as talks are beginning with operators Marriott International (MAR.O), opens new tab, Hilton Worldwide Holdings (HLT.N), opens new tab and Hyatt Hotels Corp (H.N) , opens new tab. Talks will cover about 40,000 workers who look to secure new contracts for the first time since the pandemic. Workers want to reverse pandemic-era staffing and service cuts, as well as duplicate the big pay hikes that organized workers across the nation have been winning in the recent years.

    Hotel Maya and union workers reach agreement after months of strikes, walkouts

    April 25, 2024 // Employees at the Maya and dozens of other Southern California hotels have staged strikes and boycotts since July as part of a campaign by their union, Unite Here Local 11, which represents 32,000 hospitality workers in the region. The dispute at the Maya has involved dueling complaints that the union was bargaining in bad faith and that workers were subjected to violence on the picket line, including allegations that a striking worker was grabbed and yelled at by a hotel investor, something the investor denied. In August, an altercation also resulted in a striking Maya worker being punched in the head by an unknown man, according to video of the incident.

    Thousands of Santa Clara Co. nurses walk off the job in 3-day strike

    April 4, 2024 // Santa Clara County nurses from the Registered Nurses Professional Association are holding the first strike in the union's history.

    Here’s what might happen after California raises fast-food wages to $20, from higher burger and pizza prices to better wages for retail workers

    March 7, 2024 // Tower said he expected fast-food chains to focus on their value deals in California to attract customers amid higher menu prices. Zackfia said she thought digital order kiosks, which restaurants are rolling out to save on labor costs and improve order accuracy, would spread "even more quickly" in California.