Posts tagged Vermont
Over 9.2 million workers will get a raise on January 1 from 21 states raising their minimum wages
December 18, 2024 // Twenty-one states will increase their minimum wages on January 1, raising pay for more than 9.2 million workers by a total of $5.7 billion. In addition, 48 cities and counties will raise their minimum wages above their state wage floors, mostly in California, Colorado, and Washington.
Employer Free Speech on the Ballot in Alaska
October 10, 2024 // The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) protects such meetings, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized their legality and importance in helping employees gather information on potential union representation. As a result, even if the referendum were to pass, a court would likely find it unlawful. Alaska’s referendum also increases the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2027 and provides at least 40 hours of paid sick leave to many workers.
UVM graduate students take initial steps to form union
September 19, 2024 // The GSU represents more than 600 graduate student workers at UVM. They are following in the footsteps of other groups unionizing on campus, including faculty and staff. The University of Vermont estimates that at least 1 in 5 graduate students are food insecure.
Government Unions are Down — But Not Out
September 10, 2024 // For nearly a decade, the Commonwealth Foundation has tracked state-by-state changes in labor laws. Every two years, the Commonwealth Foundation releases its research on the ever-changing legal landscape for public sector unions, assessing each state’s efforts to promote public employees’ rights or cave to unions’ entrenched influence. This fourth edition examines government unions’ attempts, following Janus, to hold onto and expand special legal privileges under state laws. The research also highlights the states reining in government unions’ power and influence by empowering workers.
Unions pursue law changes to boost membership
September 8, 2024 // “The overarching theme is that the unions have really responded to the membership losses since JANUS to drive up union membership,” Osborne said. In the JANUS decision, courts held that unions could no longer collect “fair share” dues from non-members who benefit from collective bargaining agreements. Follow-up litigation has challenged the cumbersome process many former members had to overcome to leave the union and recoup dues improperly withheld. In the report, states known as union “strongholds” scored lower than others that have enacted collective bargaining reforms.
Op-Ed: Florida vs. Michigan on Public Unions
August 30, 2024 // Each local union chapter must show that at least 60% of its eligible members are paying dues, or the state requires it to hold a new election. That sets teachers, clerks and custodians free from unions that haven’t won them over, and at least 20 units have been decertified in the past year. A few other states have also rolled back union coercion. Arkansas and Tennessee enacted paycheck protection for teachers. Kentucky legislators overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear to secure the same. On the other side of the trend is Michigan, where Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a repeal of paycheck protection for teachers last summer. She also ended a requirement that schools pay teachers based on merit instead of seniority alone
10 States with the Largest Declines in Union Membership
August 26, 2024 // Daniel Li, CEO and Co-Founder of Plus Docs, commented on the findings: "It's interesting to see where states are seeing union memberships surge, especially as although there is a general increase in the South and Midwest, it is also true that neighboring states can see vastly different results. While Mississippi has nearly doubled its union membership, their neighbor, Alabama, has gone the opposite way."
VERMONT: Phil Scott allows ‘ghost guns,’ union organizing bills to become law without his signature
June 5, 2024 // To allow a bill to go into law without a signature is a middle-ground approach available to the governor — in between striking it down with a veto and endorsing it with a signature. Scott holds the record for issuing the most gubernatorial vetoes in state history: 46. “One concern with the bill is the potential to adversely impact the employer-employee relationship by limiting an employer’s ability to communicate their point of view on a range of issues, including the advantages and disadvantages of unionization,” he wrote. Scott in his letter also said he is “concerned that S.102 is a slippery slope to future disruptions in the employee-employer relationship in agriculture, domestic services and independent contracting as well as any local businesses and non-profits working solely within state lines.”
Vermont Senate unanimously passes amendment ensuring workers’ right to unionize
April 4, 2024 // Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth, A Democrat/Progressive from Chittenden, told his colleagues that it's critical to "enshrine" the authority of labor unions in Vermont at a time when they are under siege in several other states. "When I look at this particular amendment, I look on it very much as I did the amendment we made to the constitution in terms of reproductive rights. We are strengthening what we have, and we're protecting it from going away, which can happen in the legislative blink of an eye."
Ben & Jerry’s workers at flagship Vermont plant vote to unionize
December 20, 2023 // UFCW said Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever, “agreed to neutrality, paving the way for workers” to unionize. “We are glad to see Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever live up to their stated values by recognizing their workers’ right to unionize instead of forcing a long and drawn out election process,” said UFCW Local 371 President Ronald M. Petronella. Ben & Jerry’s has regularly advocated for social causes such as ending modern slavery and the Black Lives Matter movement.