Posts tagged sick pay
VTA Slightly Boosts Raise Offer, Union Says It Falls Far Short
March 24, 2025 // The more than 1,500 transit workers were originally slated to vote on the VTA’s previous offer — 10.5% raises over three years — on Sunday, but Singh said the agency asked them to hold off after it decided to hold the special meeting. He criticized the fairness of wages at VTA, saying supervisors and upper management are “essentially making double what our employees are making.” But VTA officials said their latest offer could cause financial pain for the agency.
Via 313’s Austin location unionizes after 3-year fight, labor board ruling
March 24, 2025 // Unionization efforts began in January 2022, reported Eater Austin, when employees alleged that management was not transparent about safety concerns related to the Omicron variant of coronavirus. A group of 46 employees across Austin signed a petition asking for sick and hazard pay, alongside improved COVID-19 safety procedures. Employees later filed for union election through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Aug. 2022.
Worker rights? Racial bias? A law change for manicurists prompts debate, confusion
February 17, 2025 // Since the beginning of the year, licensed manicurists and nail salon owners in Orange County and across the state have been confused about whether a change in state law allows the business practice of renting a booth to continue or not. After an exemption expired under state law, nail salon workers are now subject to a rigorous test to determine if they are independent contractors while licensed aestheticians, electrologists, barbers and cosmetologists remain exempted from it.
Can Distributed Organizing Unionize Millions?
September 17, 2024 // Together with similarly bottom-up union campaigns like Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) and the reformed UAW’s organizing across Southern automakers, EWOC has demonstrated the viability of a new strategy of seeding unionization efforts, rather than passively waiting for workers to reach out (“hot-shopping”) or exclusively organizing pre-chosen workplaces (“strategic targeting”). Along these lines, Svoboda describes EWOC’s proactive efforts to provide organizing tools to as many workers as possible as “planting seeds of worker power.”
Student Activists Are Turning Their Attention to the Labor Movement
June 22, 2023 // Last year, the Young Democratic Socialists of America’s Red Hot Summer program trained hundreds of young people to organize their workplaces and helped launch union drives representing thousands. This year’s program hopes to be even bigger, writes YDSA’s cochair. Student workers across the country are engaged in an unprecedented wave of labor organization. Spurred on by the support of organizations like the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), of which I am cochair, undergraduate student workers have launched union drives on nearly thirty public and private campuses in the United States. These workers are fighting for increased pay, improvements to scheduling and hours, sick pay, and better health care. They are also fighting for issues that go beyond bread and butter, like removing Israeli products from dining halls.
Unionized Dartmouth College Students Win $21 Wage
February 21, 2023 // “I’m on financial aid. And most of what I earn goes towards paying for my college and making sure that I can graduate with as little debt as possible,” he said. Higher pay for him would be “monumental,” he added, a chance to have a social life and get some sleep. Solange Acosta, another student who spoke at the rally, said, “what I’m asking for, what we we’re all asking for here, is a chance to be a student first and a worker second.” In a statement released Saturday, the union said, “We now have a tentative agreement on the full package proposal with the College,” including a $21/hour base wage, annual wage increases tied to the cost of college, and mental health and sick pay. Students working as area managers in the dining facilities covered by the contract would be included in the bargaining unit, a demand the college had previously been reluctant to accept.