Posts tagged state workers
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.
Polis throws cold water on public unions bill
January 21, 2022 // Colorado: A bill to allow public employees to engage in collective bargaining has run into its biggest hurdle: lack of support from Gov. Jared Polis
It was a ‘watershed’ year for workers building power, Maine labor leaders say
December 27, 2021 // In a year that saw a wave of strikes erupt around the U.S. and hard-fought unionization campaigns within some of the biggest companies in the world, Maine workers also made headlines.