Posts tagged strike fund
‘Remarkable and unprecedented’: Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh thanks NYT tech workers for ‘substantial’ donation
August 11, 2025 // At the 2025 NewsGuild Sector Conference at the Wyndham Grand in Downtown, Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh President Zack Tanner awarded the New York Times Tech Guild with a plaque for its $114,000 donation in December to workers striking against the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The donation was the remainder of what the Times tech workers raised for their own strike in November and came at a time when the Pittsburgh strikers were in need of financial support for their strike, which was then and remains the longest ongoing work stoppage in the country. “Once they won their strike and took care of their own members, they had a very substantial amount of money left, about $114,000,” Tanner said. “Those Times Tech Guild workers voted together to forward that to our Pittsburgh strike fund, and I’m not exaggerating when I say we would not be standing here on strike if it wasn’t for that donation.”
SEIU Wants Unemployment for Strikers — While Blowing Cash on Billboards
July 23, 2025 // When 1,700 unionized healthcare workers went on strike in the spring of 2023, SEIU 1199 New England had millions in reserve — including a strike fund. But instead of using it to support the walkout, the union spent big on billboards and ads while members lobbied for unemployment benefits to shift the cost onto employers. According to SEIU’s federal LM-2 filings covering July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023, the union reported $876,570 in strike benefits along with sitting on almost $22 million in assets. The U.S. Department of Labor defines strike benefits as “all disbursements made to, or on behalf of the members… associated with strikes, work stoppages and lockouts during the reporting period.” In other words, that figure represents the total support SEIU provided its members during the 2023 strike.
Governments should protect workers, end cozy relationship with political allies
July 1, 2025 // Unions already collect hundreds of dollars — or more — each year from each member. They should be using that money to support members during strikes, not expecting employers to pay workers not to work. The misguided policy will likely raise costs for public and private employers, harm the majority of workers in the state and weaken the state’s unemployment insurance fund. The government should be neutral between employers and labor, not serve as muscle to force employers to finance a de facto strike fund on behalf of political allies. If lawmakers and public employers truly cared about fairness for workers and the disadvantaged who lose jobs, they’d stop helping unions build political war chests and start giving workers full transparency and choice.
Clark University undergrad workers on strike: Here are the latest developments
March 19, 2025 // A strike fund for the Clark student workers has been set up to pay students who are losing income while striking. There is a separate fund, organized by the Teamsters, which students can also access. According to The Scarlet, students must participate for a minimum of 15 hours of picketing and other strike-related activities in order to claim money from the Teamsters fund. Undergraduate students who work at Clark University are seeking unionization, with employees citing a desire for higher salaries and guaranteed working hours. The students have partnered with Teamsters Local 170, that has been negotiating on their behalf with the university.
Make employers pay striking workers? Too silly
January 21, 2025 // Sponsored by Sen. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, and cosponsored by 12 other Democrats so far, SB 5041 is similar to last year’s House Bill 1893 and Senate Bill 5777. Those pieces of legislation had the support of nearly all Democrats but failed to pass in the Legislature’s final hours. As long as the strike is legal, union workers could receive unemployment benefits while actively on strike. (Public employee strikes are not legal, so teachers, who strike frequently, should not be able to receive unemployment insurance benefits along with the taxpayer-provided pay they already receive, even in years that they strike. I hope to see legislative talks clarify that this is so.) Sen. Steven Conway, D-Tacoma, a strong proponent of employer-financed strike benefits, told NPR-station KNKX the bill would allow workers to access the benefits starting on the second Sunday after they begin withholding their labor and would be eligible for four weeks of benefits.
OPINION: For Workers, Strikes Offer High Risk, Low Reward
September 30, 2024 // The only way to avoid union retaliation is cancelling membership entirely. Beyond the rank-and-file, consequences of union strikes impact consumers, too. Last year, the healthcare industry, for example, saw the largest work stoppage in United States history as 75,000 hospital employees across five states plus Washington, D.C. walked off the job
Writer Earnings Fell $600 Million Due to Strike and Industry Contraction, WGA Says
July 30, 2024 // TV and film writer earnings fell $603 million last year, or about 32%, as the end of “Peak TV” coincided with a 148-day strike by the Writers of Guild of America. Writer earnings, reported for dues purposes, dropped to $1.29 billion in 2023. Adjusted for inflation, that is the lowest level since the writers strike in 2007-08.
Commentary: Connecticut General Assembly Goes Full Authoritarian
May 14, 2024 // It wasn’t until CT Mirror reported on Saturday (May 4) that the bill was actually being used to pay workers choosing to strike and that the language was changed as “an attempt to resolve a standoff by the Connecticut AFL-CIO and Gov. Ned Lamont.” During the late night Senate debate, Sen. Eric Berthel (R-Watertown) asked the bill’s proponent and chair of the Labor and Public Employees Committee, Sen. Julie Kushner (D-Danbury) about the account’s purpose. However, Sen. Kushner responded by simply reciting the language in the bill, providing no substantive answers.
Statesman employees return to work after strike
April 12, 2024 // Gannett CEO Michael Reed didn't mince words when asked in an onstage interview last month how he's dealing with an uptick of union activity and pressure. "I think the Guild, unfortunately, plays dirty and lies to our employees," Reed told Axios at the annual Mather Symposium on media in Atlanta. In response to his comments, NewsGuild-CWA president Jon Schleuss said in a statement to Axios: "Gannett's last SEC filing showed Mike Reed making 66 times that of a median employee, while paying journalists poverty wages, cutting an average of 2,800 jobs a year and hiring lawyers to stonewall workers at the bargaining table."
Teamsters will rally at Iowa Capitol against alleged ‘union-busting,’ raise strike funds
February 20, 2024 // The union also is leaving the door open for the possibility of “rolling strikes,” with Teamsters Local 238 Secretary-Treasurer Jesse Case saying it is raising money to offset any fines that might occur from striking. Striking is prohibited for public employees in Iowa, among whose unions the Teamsters are prominent. “You can’t legislate a movement out of existence," Case said in a prepared statement. "Union busting legislators need to know that strikes are legal in the private sector, and we are raising money to offset their punitive fines while we contemplate rolling strikes in the public sector. The only way to avoid disrupting business in Iowa is to not disrupt workers’ rights.”