Posts tagged state workers
Dems have been bleeding working-class support. Now possible 2028 contenders are fighting with unions.
July 24, 2025 // High-profile Democratic governors fighting the Trump administration are also mired in bruising conflicts at home — with allies they’ll likely need to advance their presidential ambitions.
California SEIU president out of hospital, in custody after immigration protest
June 9, 2025 // Federal agents arrested Huerta on Friday for allegedly interfering with law enforcement activity as he and members of SEIU California, SEIU-United Service Workers West and immigrant advocacy and labor groups protested immigration raids that took place around downtown Los Angeles earlier that day.
Friction builds between Walz, public sector unions on multiple fronts
June 6, 2025 // Possible layoffs, a return-to-office directive and tense contract negotiations are straining Gov. Tim Walz’s relationship with public sector labor unions that represent thousands of state workers. There has been a notable shift in tone given that Walz has delivered many wins to unions since first being elected governor in 2018. The DFLer signed several worker protection measures into law, like paid sick leave. He signed laws enhancing collective bargaining rights and wage theft protections.
Editorial: Pampered state workers threaten to strike (California)
June 4, 2025 // On May 17, AFSCME Local 2620’s Executive Board unanimously voted to set up a strike fund. Their website promised: “This action sends a clear message: We are serious. We are organized. And we are ready.” But the unions should listen to another clear message: Californians are tired of being taxed to the max to support a bloated, inefficient state government that only delivers low-performing schools, potholed roads and massive budget deficits. If these state government workers don’t like their working conditions, they should quit and get real jobs in the private sector with the rest of us.
CA Public Employees and Unions Whining about Returning to the Office 5 Years Later
April 29, 2025 // Gavin Newsom created this mess. He sent state employees home when he locked the state down March 2020 ostensibly over a flu. And he let state employees work from home for 5 years. Many have done well, and are accountable employees, But many more are not, and need supervision and accountability. President Trump’s back-to-the-office order and hiring freeze has elicited a lot of kvetching in D.C., but is designed to suss out the deadwood in the federal government – something Governor Newsom should also be doing, figuratively and literally.
MARYLAND: Gov. Wes Moore, lawmakers stand with unionized state and federal employees
March 25, 2025 // The bill passed out of the House chamber with an amendment to provide an additional $1.5 million to Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, to sue the Trump administration on behalf of terminated federal employees. It has yet to move in the Senate chamber.
Boeing drama: Imagine if a recent proposal to pay striking workers UI benefits had become law
October 1, 2024 // Giving UI benefits to striking workers would create an imbalance between business and labor, make strikes more frequent and lengthy, increase costs and services for consumers and hurt other workers in the state who are told they can rely on unemployment benefits. Giving fund dollars to people choosing not to work should offend all Washington state workers. These union-favor bills failed to pass the finish line in the last moments of the 2024 session, but big labor promises the policy proposal will be back. I hope lawmakers aren’t into it, especially after being able to clearly see what a Boing strike could do to the fund.
Oregon state workers warn of possible strike in fight for raises
June 12, 2023 // The union that represents more than 22,000 state government employees on Thursday asked its members to commit to a potential strike as negotiations continue for a new contract. Service Employees International Union Local 503, which represents about half the state workforce, is behind that push and negotiating for a new contract for state workers. The union announced the move in a rally with more than 1,000 workers across from the state Capitol. Meanwhile, inside the Capitol, Republican senators on strike kept the Senate from working on Thursday, as they have since May 3. The union’s plan for workers to sign a “strike pledge” and commit to a possible walkout underscores unhappiness about unsatisfactory wages and raises as negotiations proceed for a new two-year contract to succeed the agreement that expires on June 30.
As Illinois budget comes together, total costs of migrant health care, union contracts not known
May 26, 2023 // For pensions, the state plans to spend $10.2 billion, short of the actuarial estimate of what should be paid. “I think that is somewhere in the neighborhood of $16 billion,” Sims said of the actuarial estimate. During a committee hearing on the budget, state Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, asked how a looming union contract with state workers will impact the budget. “This is going to hit us eventually, right, presumably in ‘24,” Rose said. “So is it the … departments, plural, are gonna have to live within the means of this budget or are we anticipating another supplemental down the road whenever the contract is released?” Sims said it’s not uncommon for legislators to pass supplemental appropriations if issues arise. Rose said unless the governor is able to curb union employee cost increases, that’s going to be likely.
Ohio Public Employee Unions Losing Their Stranglehold on State Workers
March 11, 2022 // Between late 2019 and early 2022, the Ohio Civil Service Association, which represents state employees, experienced a sharp membership decline — around 3,000 members and almost $2 million in lost union dues. That’s $600 remaining in the paychecks of Ohio public employees. Money that can be put to good use purchasing gas, food and other family necessities.