Posts tagged Service Employees International Union

    Law to Increase Fast-Food Worker Wages Halted by Judge, Pitting Industry Groups Against Unions and State

    January 2, 2023 // If the signature drive doesn't qualify for a referendum and the law moves forward, fast food wages could be raised as high as $22 an hour by the end of 2023. California's minimum wage for all workers is set to rise to $15.50 an hour starting Sunday. Chang, the judge, scheduled a hearing on the matter for January 13. She also wrote that restaurant groups have failed to prove they properly served the state with the lawsuit, and she ordered them to do so.

    THREE LAWSUITS, ALL INVOLVING UNION FORGERY, APPEALED TO SUPREME COURT

    December 22, 2022 // In all three cases, dues continued to be deducted from the plaintiffs’ paychecks long after they requested to opt out because the union claimed they had signed a membership form stipulating they could only leave during a two-week annual window. In fact, none of the workers had signed any such authorization and, when the unions were forced to provide documentation, each turned out to be a crude forgery. Zielinski v. SEIU 503, Wright v. SEIU 503, Cindy Ochoa,

    Twitter’s Workplace Practices Draw Fire as Janitors Picket and Musk Defends Bedrooms

    December 7, 2022 // San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection said Dec. 6 it was launching an investigation into reports that Twitter converted several of its office spaces into bedrooms. Meanwhile, janitors are picketing this week after the company terminated their contract. Janitors told a local NBC affiliate on Nov. 5 they found themselves locked out of the building, with no prior warning the company was terminating their contract. The workers, who are represented by the Service Employees International Union, plan to picket outside of Twitter’s headquarters until their contract ends Dec. 9.

    New service union seeks to inspire labor movement in South

    November 22, 2022 // Organizers of USSW seek to supplement, rather than compete with, existing movements like Starbucks Workers United. The group will join the nearly 2 million members of the Service Employees International Union, and its demands include better pay, fair grievance processes, safe workplaces, health care benefits and consistent scheduling.

    Christian worker files discrimination charges over forced SEIU membership

    November 22, 2022 // A security officer has filed discrimination charges against his employer for taking union dues out of his paycheck even though he has repeatedly identified union membership as a violation of his religious beliefs. Thomas Ross, a San Francisco-based security officer who works for Allied Universal, has filed discrimination charges against his employer for forcing him to join the Service Employees International Union in violation of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and federal labor law. While Ross repeatedly informed his employers of his religious objection to joining the union, his employer took union dues out of his paycheck anyway.

    Stephen Burke – Fighting Forced Dues in the Workplace

    November 21, 2022 // “The screeners were really upset and the union forced us to pay dues or be fired. The employees didn’t understand they were signing cards in favor of the union, they just wanted the organizers out of their face.” –Stephen describing how union organizing tactics mislead employees “There’s absolutely no support for this union. They’ve forced themselves down our throats.” –Stephen speaking about how union officials slipped “card check” efforts past the screeners

    Labor Tries City-By-City Push In California For $25 Minimum Wage At Private Medical Facilities

    October 25, 2022 // What began as a 10-city campaign by the union has been winnowed to November ballot measures in just two cities in Los Angeles County, reflecting expensive political jockeying between labor and industry. And the $25 minimum wage isn’t the only campaign being waged by SEIU-UHW this cycle — the union is also trying for the third time to get dialysis industry reforms passed. A ballot issue committee called the California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems — with funding from Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, Adventist Health, Cedars-Sinai, Dignity Health, and other hospitals and health systems — opposes a $25 minimum wage because it raises costs for private, but not public, hospitals and health care facilities. Opponents have latched on to this disparity by calling it the “unequal pay measure.” An analysis commissioned by the California Hospital Association estimated that the change would raise costs for private facilities by $392 million a year, a 6.9% increase, across the 10 cities.

    If You Like Your Uber, Can You Keep Your Uber?

    October 14, 2022 // Democratic administrations favor having fewer independent contractors and a standardized set of benefits. This gives more power to unions to organize workers. If Uber were the employer of all drivers, a union could ask Uber to support unionizing the labor force. It is practically impossible to organize independent contractors. Public sector unions made 90 percent of their contributions to Democratic candidates in the 2020 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets.com. With the share of wage and salary workers who belong to unions declining from 20 percent in 1983 to 10 percent in 2021, unions are under pressure to recruit more members to fund union officials’ salaries and member pension plans.