Posts tagged raises
New UAW Leader Already Has Issues With Detroit Automakers
April 25, 2023 // Speaking to the Automotive Press Association in Detroit, Fain said members are demanding that the union win back cost-of-living pay raises and pensions they lost, and the elimination of tiers of workers who are paid differently but do the same jobs. They also want assurances that good-paying union jobs will be preserved as the companies transition from gasoline-powered vehicles to those that run on electricity. Auto companies, he said, have made billions over the last decade but workers haven’t gotten their fair share since the companies got into financial trouble in 2009. “I want to work with the companies. I want to have a good relationship,” Fain said. “But if they’re not going to treat our members with respect and not give them their due, then we’re going to have issues.”
Tennessee House Reinstates Critical Paycheck Protection Measure Previously Stripped from House Bill 329, Protecting Teachers’ Hard-Earned Money
April 19, 2023 // The Tennessee Education Association has bylaws that permit them to apply an “assessment” on teachers’ dues for salary increases granted by the state, effectively skimming teachers’ paychecks when they get raises above the cost of living. Because Tennessee has deducted union dues from teachers’ paychecks automatically, unions could in some cases access teachers’ pay increases before they do. Additionally, state resources are used to collect dues, not all of which stay in the Volunteer State or are fully reinvested in teachers and classrooms. Instead, portions of these dues are exported out of state to the National Education Association, which can use these dollars for purposes that can be at odds with Tennessee teachers’ values. We agree with the Tennessee legislature and Governor Lee in believing that this is fundamentally wrong. Not only should the state of Tennessee no longer act as the bills collector for a union to export dues for political purposes outside of the state, but Tennessee should also ensure that teachers have the opportunity to access their hard-earned salary increases first.
Nebraska: State employees union approves labor contract granting raises of up to 10%-27%
February 9, 2023 // State workers have ratified a new labor contract that contains the largest salary increases in at least 35 years, a contract aimed at filling critical job vacancies. Gov. Jim Pillen and the Nebraska Association of Public Employees (NAPE) announced the approval of the labor agreement, which would deliver wage hikes of 5% and 2% over the next two years for a majority of employees, and up to 10% and 27% for critical and hard-to-fill positions. NAPE’s executive director, Justin Hubly, said they represent the largest raises since the labor union was organized in 1987 and should go a long ways toward resolving worker shortages in several state agencies
City Workers Losing Patience With Slow Crawl to Union Contracts
January 31, 2023 // Most city employees are now working under expired labor contracts that lapsed as far back as 2020 — frustrating rank-and-file union members whose anticipated pay raises are tied up in an escalating battle over proposed changes to retired colleagues’ health coverage. Nearly all of the city’s roughly 300,000 unionized staff are working under expired collective bargaining agreements. They include members of the city’s largest public sector unions, District Council 37 (DC37) and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). Administrative workers, school crossing guards, teachers, police detectives, sanitation workers and health technicians are among those eager to bargain for raises as well as potential new benefits, such as flexibility to work remotely.
2/3rd of Post-Gazette Union Crossed Picket Line or Quit
January 30, 2023 // However, as the strike stretches into its fourth month with no end-in-sight, the union has struggled to prevent reporters from crossing the picket line. According to an analysis done by Payday Report of bylines and interviews with Post-Gazette reporters, nearly ⅔ of the union has crossed the picket line (with almost half of all reporters doing so). Many reporters, particularly younger reporters, have found jobs at other publications as the strike’s likelihood of success looks small and moved away from Pittsburgh./ Currently, the union can only maintain pickets for 2 hours a day as approximately two dozen reporters remain on strike from about 85 reporters who were members of the union at the beginning of the strike. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette union chair Andrew Goldstein has privately acknowledged to local labor supporters that the strike is a “disaster.”
Teachers in Woburn vote to go on strike Monday
January 30, 2023 // "This action by the WTA is illegal, disruptive and unnecessary," said a statement from the Woburn School Committee and Mayor Scott Galvin. "The School Committee and Mayor Scott Galvin have been negotiating in good faith for more than a year with the WTA to reach an agreement on a successor collective bargaining agreement." According to the city, the school committee and the union reached a tentative agreement on a contract back in October 2022 but then the union did not ratify it.
Unionizing is off the menu at Waltham Starbucks
January 26, 2023 // The majority of employees voted in the secret ballot election; eight voted to unionize, while 15 voted against it. After months of organizing by workers to secure a union election as part of a nationwide movement, baristas at the Market Place Drive Starbucks voted against unionizing.
Syracuse University grad students want to unionize to improve wages, working conditions
January 20, 2023 // SU plans to increase minimum stipends from $16,980 to $20,000 for master’s student workers and from $16,980 to $22,000 for doctoral students. The pay raises will begin in the 2023-2024 academic year. SU said it is also improving health insurance and child care subsidies for graduate student workers. SEIU already represents about 900 SU workers including custodians, housekeepers, maintenance and good service workers and library technicians.
More than 7,000 nurses from 2 New York City hospitals on strike over staffing concerns
January 12, 2023 // Tentative contract agreements were reached with a majority of the hospitals under strike warnings. However, Mount Sinai Hospital, representing approximately 3,625 nurses, and Montefiore Bronx, representing approximately 3,500, have been unable to come to a deal.
Chicago saw a wave of new unions form in 2022. Getting to the bargaining table is the next challenge.
January 2, 2023 // But it’s not just Starbucks: In Chicago, museum workers at the Art Institute, faculty and staff members at its affiliated school and employees at the Newberry Library have all unionized this year. So have workers at Howard Brown Health, budtenders at Zen Leaf cannabis dispensaries and booksellers at Half Price Books in Niles. Baristas at four La Colombe Coffee Roaster locations filed for union elections in December. Thousands of graduate students at Northwestern and the University of Chicago filed petitions within two weeks of each other in November. For the hundreds of newly unionized workers in Chicago, the hard work has only just begun; now they must negotiate a first contract with their employers. Labor leaders see a contract as the gold standard for protecting workers’ rights and securing gains in areas like pay and benefits. But the process can take years.