Posts tagged taxes
OP-ED: LAUSD’s unions could support policies to help all Californians
March 14, 2023 // According to the SEIU, the average annual salary for the 30,000 LAUSD service workers they represent is $25,000. But that includes all service workers, from part-time to full-time. About 75% of the members work fewer than eight hours per day, and with school in session only 180 days, or 36 weeks per year, even many of the workers with “full-time hours” are off for up to 16 weeks per year. Union representatives themselves acknowledge LAUSD’s reliance on a part-time workforce. But it raises an uncomfortable question that applies to teachers as well: If K-12 schools in California operate for the equivalent of just 36 full weeks per year, is it reasonable for people working in these schools to expect to earn enough to cover a full year of expenses? Similarly, if some of the service jobs require a worker for only a few hours each day, how can the district’s taxpayers afford to pay them for a full day?
Unionized Public Education is Destroying California
March 13, 2023 // The teachers’ union in California supported a ballot initiative that guarantees at least 38 percent of the state general fund is spent on K-14 public education. This guarantees that any new government program – such as last year’s single payer healthcare proposal that would have added hundreds of billions to the state budget – will pour more money into public education. This creates an incentive for California’s teachers’ unions to push for huge increases to the size of the state government, because they’ll get 38 percent of the pie no matter how big it gets. Because California’s public schools receive state funds based on attendance, the teachers’ union is also incentivized to support anything that will increase the student age population. Hence they have an incentive to support anything that will facilitate mass immigration, whether or not that puts a strain on housing and other services. If those students are from low-income households or don’t speak English as their first language, the per student allocations are increased.
Opinion: Imagine there’s no public employee unions
February 21, 2023 // But try as President Joe Biden has, it just hasn’t been enough. Automation (including not only factory machinery but also the gig economy), trade, high-profile union corruption cases, failing pension funds, and a string of adverse court rulings are among the many factors rendering private sector unions irrelevant to workers in most modern fields. This has led the unions to desperate measures, such as organizing esoteric, low-income professions, including graduate student teachers and video game testers. Yet the story is quite different for unions in the public sector. The unionization rate of public employees remains robust, at more than 33% of all government workers nationwide. Local government workers are the most likely to be unionized, at a rate of nearly 39%, and public sector union members are concentrated in states that mandate collective bargaining. The states with higher rates of unionization seem to correlate with the nation's least functional state governments: California (54.5%), Illinois (48.7%), New York (66.7%), and New Jersey (59.3%) among them. As their private sector cousins starve, public employee unions are fat and happy — a strange development, given that there was no public sector collective bargaining at all 70 years ago, when unions were at their apex.
McDonalds President Says It Might Be ‘Impossible’ to Operate in These Key States
February 1, 2023 // While California has led the pack with fast-food worker protection movements, Virginia followed with a similar bill just six months later. This month, it introduced Virginia's House Bill 2478. While not committed to a specific minimum wage, the passed law would require a council of state legislators, elected officials, industry representatives and fast-food workers to get together and regularly oversee worker conditions and compensation.
Amazon warehouse workers plan walkouts, call for strikes on Black Friday
November 25, 2022 // Labor stoppages are being planned for several warehouse locations throughout the country, including Bessemer, Ala.; Columbia, Md.; Detroit, Mich.; Durham, NC; Garner, NC; Joliet, Ill.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Portland, Ore.; and Washington, DC. There is also a planned work stoppage at several Whole Foods store locations. Whole Foods is a subsidiary of Amazon. Amazon employees and labor activists also plan to hold a protest rally in front of a New York City residence owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, according to CBS News. The labor actions are being organized on social media under the hashtag #MakeAmazonPay.
Teachers Unions Spent $22 Million Backing Massachusetts ‘Millionaire’s Tax’
November 14, 2022 // "The MTA has coughed up $13.3 million for the so-called Fair Share Amendment, while its national counterpart, NEA, has doled out $7.2 million," the Globe reports. "Which begs the question: What do the teachers want?" The constitutional amendment is an attempt to undermine the state's flat income tax system. Chris LaBella,
Biden’s Labor Department moves to raise taxes on the American workforce
November 1, 2022 // The Labor Department’s proposed rule would force Americans who don’t want a boss to have a boss. Under current law, independent contractors perform a task or execute a project and present the result to an individual or business for payment. Unlike traditional employees, independent contractors have the freedom to set their own schedules, determine their workload, and can put food on the table without needing a boss. Labor’s new proposed rule would force independent contractors to reclassify as W-2 employees if the worker is “economically dependent” on the entity that is paying him or her.
COOK COUNTY COLLEGE TEACHERS UNION SETS STRIKE DATE BEFORE OCTOBER’S END
October 26, 2022 // Cook County College Teachers Union leaders said they will announce a strike date to members Oct. 24 ahead of planned informational pickets at city colleges and a strike rally set for Oct. 27. The work stoppage would keep 77,000 students out of classes. The strike authorized by 92% of CCCTU members Oct. 6 would shut down Chicago’s seven community colleges and satellite sites to secure contract concessions for greater housing security and child care options for students, in addition to reducing class sizes and increasing staff salaries.
Independent Contracting – Proposed Department of Labor Rule
October 19, 2022 // The Biden Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a new independent contractor rule on October 11, 2022 to address what Secretary Walsh deems “misclassification” of workers. This would replace a current DOL rule from the Trump administration that went into effect in March 2021 – a rule which the Biden administration improperly attempted to rescind that provided clarity to the “economic realities” test used to determine the employment status of workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).