Posts tagged Riverside
Nurses union to pay HCA Healthcare $6.2M over 2020 strike
June 21, 2024 // A local unit of SEIU has been ordered to pay HCA Healthcare's Riverside Community Hospital $6.2 million for conducting a 10-day strike in 2020. An arbitrator last month ordered the payment after it was found last year that nurse labor union SEIU Local 121RN violated a collective bargaining agreement with the hospital by holding the strike in June 2020.
Pizza Hut franchisees lay off more than 1,200 delivery drivers in California as restaurants brace for $20 fast-food wages
December 26, 2023 // Mark Kalinowski, a restaurant-industry analyst, wrote in a note this week that he expected "more harm to come" in various ways as fast-food chains "take action in an attempt to blunt the impact of higher labor costs." Chains such as Chipotle and McDonald's said they planned to pass the costs of higher wages in California to customers by raising menu prices. In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed the FAST Act into law. It called for the minimum wage for fast-food workers to increase to $22 an hour in 2023. But corporate chains such as McDonald's, Chipotle, and Chick-fil-A, as well as franchise advocacy groups, fought the law. A coalition of restaurant-industry organizations said the law could raise costs for fast-food restaurants by $3 billion. They rallied to get a referendum on the ballot.
In Union Votes, 11% Can Make a Majority
June 24, 2023 // Sen. Bill Cassidy raised the issue on June 21 in a Senate committee debate. He proposed an amendment to a labor-backed bill that would require a union to win support from a majority of eligible workers before representing a workplace—not just a majority of those who turn out to vote. (Fittingly, the committee debate lacked a quorum, so a vote on the amendment had to be postponed, under Senate rules.) Sen. Bernie Sanders led the opposition to the proposal. When only a handful of workers vote, it is more likely that the union doesn’t speak for the majority of workers, much less everyone. By contrast, when many workers vote for a union, there is a clearer signal that representation is popular. Once a union wins an election, it often maintains its grip on a workplace for generations. Future workers, who didn’t get a chance to vote for the union, can take comfort knowing that a large share of their predecessors wanted unionization.