Posts tagged Retirement
Op-Ed: SEIU Brings Progressive Union Politics to Philly
June 4, 2024 // While serving as president of SEIU Local 2015, Verrett faced one of the largest union staff labor strikes in American history after accusations of union-busting, surveillance, assault, and intimidation. Verrett’s dedication to SEIU’s progressive politics, however, is unmatched. In the words of the union’s new leader, America’s “ugly, insidious, anti-black racist structures” inform her decision to make “eradicating structural and anti-black racism a core strategy” of union operations.
Latinas, the lowest-paid group in the U.S., turn to unions for better wages, report says
May 28, 2024 // Latinas are the lowest paid demographic in the United States, one of the reasons union membership among them is increasing, bucking the national downward trend of at least four decades, according to a report released this week by the National Women's Law Center (NWLC). The document, a fact sheet on union membership analyzing relevant trends among workers from all demographics in the United States, highlights that through 2023 women made up almost half of union members (45.6%).
UAW negotiates to increase number of GM workers eligible for buyout program
May 24, 2024 // Booth added the union still has not negotiated "immediate eligibility" for all 545 skilled trades workers wanting to take the offer. Only 142 were immediately eligible in this first phase, Booth said. "We’re still fighting to win an expansion on that number. At GM, we have a shortage of skilled trades workers, a problem which will require creative solutions on the company’s part, and an expansion of their apprenticeship programs," he said. "We’re going to continue to fight for our skilled trades members who want to retire. And to be clear, every single member who is eligible to retire will have the opportunity to receive the $50,000 SAP during the life of this contract, skilled trades and production."
My Congressional Testimony: Flexible Benefits for a Flexible Workforce
April 17, 2024 // My testimony today focuses on legalizing independent contractors’ access to fringe benefits. My three key points are: 1. Independent contractors lives would be enhanced if they had access to benefits. 2. States are experimenting with various portable benefits models so that workers care not forced to choose between structured employment with benefits or flexible work without benefits. 3. Federal policy can provide a safe harbor for state and local experimentation with these portable benefits systems.
A New Law Could Affect Your Retirement Side Hustle Income
April 10, 2024 // Kavin owns her own freelance writing and editing business in New Jersey and leads Fight For Freelancers USA, a nonpartisan coalition of freelancers from across the country that spans professions from translation to interior design. Around 20% of group members are ages 55 to 64 and nearly 10% are age 65 and older. Some members turned to freelancing after suffering age discrimination that cost them a traditional job, says Kavin. "They still want to work and earn, and the way they're able to do it is as independent contractors," she says. Kavin says she does well as a freelancer and does not want a traditional job, even if she could find one at her age. "It's a lot harder to find a traditional job in your 50s than in your 30s, especially one with the significantly higher level of income that I've been able to achieve as a freelancer," she says. "If I lose this self-employed business that I just spent 20 years building up, there may be no other place for me to go."
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.
OPINION These new government contracting rules will put parents, caregivers, seniors out of work
March 12, 2024 // Many independent contractors we have engaged quit full-time positions to become caregivers. They sought opportunities like what we offer to stay engaged in their fields, have an intellectual outlet, and enjoy camaraderie with colleagues, while contributing to the family finances. They don’t want the pressure of short-term deadlines and in-person meetings; they don’t want to have to track time and explain about sick kids or field trips. Can we continue to offer these work relationships? Maybe, although the guidance that contractors cannot "perform similar work of employees" makes it fraught.
Minnesota unions plan to wage simultaneous strikes
March 8, 2024 // Nearly 10,000 workers from a coalition of separate unions, working for a diverse group of employers, are planning a series of coordinated strikes in Minnesota this week and next. Their aim: Exert leverage at the bargaining table.
New Law Redefines Employees and Contractors
March 7, 2024 // Data suggest worker misclassification may be the exception rather than the rule in many industries. Surveys consistently show that most independent contractors prefer their independence. Around 79% of them prefer their arrangement over a traditional job, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, while fewer than one in 10 contractors want a traditional work arrangement. "Since a lot of older Americans do seek out these flexible forms of work as they near retirement — or after — this rule will likely lead to reduced work opportunities for them." Implemented in 2020 when acting U.S. Labor Secretary Su was California's labor commissioner, California's Assembly Bill 5, or AB5, similarly set out to protect workers by getting more people on the payrolls. But many Californians working as legitimate contractors suddenly lost income after businesses and nonprofits stopped working with them as freelancers and didn't hire them as employees.