Posts tagged unemployment
Cargill meatpackers in Fort Morgan expected to take another vote on contract they rejected
August 14, 2026 // Workers have been locked out of the beef-processing plant for nearly 85 days but things got worse after union strike pay was reduced. After workers rejected a Cargill Meat Solutions contract last week, reality hit the more than 1,700 unemployed meatpackers who’ve been locked out of the Fort Morgan plant for nearly 85 days. Now, a worker-led effort to take another vote on a contract has received enough signatures for the union to consider it.
Report dispels AI jobs doomsday fears
July 10, 2026 // A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report examines what the AI revolution will mean for the future of labor by examining technology disruptions of the past. “Technology advances like artificial intelligence can breed fear that ‘progress’ will destroy jobs and livelihoods,” said Sean Higgins, CEI research fellow in labor studies and author of the report, Don’t Panic! A Skeptic’s Guide to the AI Jobs Doomsday. “History teaches us labor-related technology fears are usually misplaced.”
Why Connecticut unions are still endorsing Gov. Lamont despite public clashes
July 6, 2026 // Lamont is also campaigning on a record that includes signing worker-friendly laws establishing automatic increases to the state's minimum wage, expanding paid sick leave and providing workers up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, extending collective bargaining rights for public employees, banning captive audience meetings by employers, and strengthening labor protections for warehouse workers. Elliott voted for all those laws as a state legislator.
Labor Dept deploys ‘strike team’ to California over $21B unemployment debt, fraud concerns
February 20, 2026 // In a statement, the department cited an 83-page California State Auditor report that determined the state’s UI system is high-risk, in part due to "inadequate fraud prevention and claimant service [in its employment development department (EDD)], as well as a high rate of overturned eligibility decisions in its Unemployment Insurance Program."
Feds warn Oregon, other states, on paying unemployment benefits to striking workers
January 15, 2026 // “An individual who is on strike must engage in activities that demonstrate to the state (unemployment insurance) agency that he or she is able and available for work and actively seeking work under state law,” Michelle Beebe, head of the U.S. Employment and Training Administration, wrote in a note to Oregon and other state agencies last week.
Washington Democrats now let striking workers collect unemployment while businesses bleed
January 3, 2026 // What the law does not address is the imbalance it creates for employers, particularly those who have no comparable safety net when a strike halts operations, disrupts contracts, or threatens the survival of a business entirely. That’s intentional. While workers can now rely on unemployment benefits during a strike, businesses are still expected to absorb the losses, with no relief and little recourse. The law further tips the scales toward unions that already wield extraordinary power in Washington, allowing them to prolong strikes with fewer consequences while businesses shoulder all the risk.
Ocean County Leaders Raise Concerns over NJDOL’s Proposed Gig Worker Rule
November 25, 2025 // “The State’s one-size-fits-all rule may hurt the very people it claims to protect; the independent workers, small businesses, and local economies that depend on flexibility and Ocean County’s local contractors, tradespeople, and entrepreneurs that rely on flexible work arrangements,” Ocean County Commissioner Jennifier Bacchione said on Monday. “The State should not be penalizing them for working independently.”
Washington’s State Capital Just Voted Against Increasing the Minimum Wage, Unemployment
November 6, 2025 // Yes For Olympia Workers, whose top five donors are all unions, described the longer phase-in for medium employers as minimizing "the risk and costs to…small businesses." Olympians didn't buy it—and with good reason: Setting phase-in schedules based on headcount would have discouraged smaller businesses from hiring more workers. If the proposition had passed, a medium-sized firm with 500 employees could only justify hiring another employee if he were worth more than $2 million to the company—the combined yearly cost of his $20 per hour wage and the additional $2 per hour paid to the other 500 employees.
White Collar Workers Are Considering Unionizing as Their Jobs Are Threatened
October 23, 2025 // The scenario was recently explored in a Washington Post article titled “The future of white-collar work may be unionized,” which noted “(l)aw firms, banks and tech companies are seeing an uptick in employees choosing to organize.” Interestingly, the paper didn’t mention that its own tech workers overwhelmingly voted to form a union earlier this year, despite management efforts to prevent them. Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has for years battled to stop the online marketplace’s employees from doing the same. In any case, it was probably no coincidence that the Post’s IT workers led the push to organize. Employees at Alphabet, Microsoft, Kickstarter, and other tech companies began organizing as far back as 2020 to gain better leverage against what they considered heavy-handed management decisions.
COMMENTARY: If Mamdani Wins, the Gig (Work) Is Up
October 3, 2025 // California shows the answer. In 2019, California passed a law attacking independent work. The state’s many photographers, freelance writers, translators, and designers quickly discovered that their once-lucrative work had dried up. Company after company cut jobs. The Mercatus Center found that one out of 10 self-employed jobs disappeared in short order. Even worse job losses were surely on the horizon. Recognizing the danger, California voters almost immediately passed a ballot measure that gave app-based workers and app-based companies the freedom to once again enter into freelance arrangements. The legislature then passed another law to carve out a dozen more professions. But those carve-outs didn’t apply to many other freelancers, like independent truckers, whose ability to work in California remains much more difficult. To this day, because politicians strangled freelance work, Californians have fewer of the jobs they want and need.