Posts tagged Utilities
TVA privatization could spell trouble for unions in Appalachia, workers say
August 27, 2025 // Around 5700 union members work on a range of energy projects across the seven-state footprint of the Tennessee Valley Authority. From Western North Carolina to Tennessee, unionized workers work on TVA energy infrastructure, operate gas, coal, and nuclear plants, and check safety on waste ponds and landfills. While 24 full-time TVA employees work in Western North Carolina, union contractors are regularly called upon to maintain the region’s four major dams. Though all the states in which TVA operates are right-to-work states with resulting low union density, the TVA workforce is 57% unionized.
Editorial: We shouldn’t have to subsidize union jobs with higher utility bills. A terrible idea surfaces in Springfield.
April 11, 2024 // This bill, though, could open the door to unions or utilities (or both) mounting court challenges to ICC rulings not to their liking on the basis of the effect on the jobs of utility contractors. The requirement would be triggered if the commission or any participant in a rate-hike proceeding estimates 50 or more more union jobs hang in the balance of a rate-hike request. This would be terrible policy. Trade unions have no “right” to a set number of permanent jobs provided by regulated monopolies. The utility revenues on which those union jobs depend come not from government but from you, us and everyone else with homes or businesses that need power and heat. Utility bills aren’t taxes technically, but they might as well be. State government plays a crucial role in what heights those bills reach. And we hardly need to point out how difficult it is for so many Illinoisans to pay those monthly costs.
Union representing Kentucky Utilities workers authorizes strike
September 1, 2023 // "This strike authorization vote sends a clear message to Kentucky Utilities that it needs to treat its employees with dignity and respect and start bargaining in good faith," Local 2100 business manager Alex Vibbet said in a statement. The union claims the utility company owned by LG&E and KU Energy treats union workers differently than non-union employees and pays them less for doing the same work. The union filed for unfair labor practice charges against Kentucky Utilities for intimidation, threats of layoffs and termination of health benefits.
Right-to-work protections do work
May 24, 2022 // Even industries that are not union dense showed positive gains from adoption of right-to-work laws. Our estimates indicate counties in right-to-work states experienced increases in the employment share in the food services and accommodations industry. Nearby counties in non-right-to-work states, by contrast, saw employment share declines in this industry.
Biden Administration’s Davis-Bacon ‘Reforms’ Are More Pork for Labor Unions
May 17, 2022 // The construction industry currently faces supply chain disruptions, unprecedented materials-cost inflation, declining investment in structures, and a skilled-labor shortage of 650,000 people in 2022. To make matters worse, the Biden administration proposed controversial new regulations in March that will needlessly increase construction costs and discourage small businesses from bidding on taxpayer-funded projects.
Opinion: Michigan is better off because of right-to-work law
May 9, 2022 // Right-to-work laws drew raucous debates over their adoption, but evidence continues to demonstrate largely positive effects from such laws. They should be protected by policymakers for the sake of worker freedom and for sound economic development policy.
Companies unexpectedly cut 301,000 jobs in January as omicron slams labor market, ADP says
February 2, 2022 // Companies cut jobs in January for the first time in more than a year as the spread of the Covid omicron variant appeared to hit hiring, payroll processing firm ADP reported Wednesday.
Buffett rejects Sanders’ call to intervene
December 31, 2021 // Several hundred striking workers at a manufacturing facility owned by Berkshire Hathaway have picked up some high-profile support from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, but the company's CEO, Warren Buffett, has declined to get involved in the contract dispute.