Posts tagged Volkswagen
Union Election Requests Hit Their Highest Level In A Decade
July 18, 2024 // Workers file petitions with the labor board when they want to hold a vote on whether to unionize, typically after a strong majority of workers have signed union cards. Employers can also request an election be held after workers have demanded a union be recognized. The labor board said unions have won 79% of the elections so far this fiscal year when workers have filed the petitions. Unions have prevailed in 70% of the cases where employers filed the petitions.
UAW President Faces Allegations of Demanding Benefits for Domestic Partner
July 10, 2024 // The filing states that Barofsky is investigating whether Fain’s decision in May to remove UAW Vice President Rich Boyer from his role as the union’s top negotiator with Chrysler parent Stellantis was in retaliation for Boyer’s alleged “refusal to accede to demands” to take actions that “would have benefitted [the president’s] domestic partner and her sister.” Those actions would have amounted to “financial misconduct” Boyer later claimed, according to a separate document Barofsky’s office filed Monday. The 55-year-old Fain is currently engaged, according to the UAW website.
As UAW ‘is being watched with a microscope,’ new investigation puts Fain in crosshairs
July 1, 2024 // The Free Press has made numerous requests — none granted — over the years, including following the release of the latest status report, to interview the monitor, Neil Barofsky, a former assistant U.S. attorney and current partner in the Chicago law firm Jenner & Block. The consent decree stemming from the union's corruption scandal sets in place a six-year term of oversight by the monitor. Barofsky’s appointment was OK’d by U.S. District Court Judge David Lawson in May 2021. The monitor’s charge is broad, with the consent decree giving him “the authority and duty to remove fraud, corruption, illegal behavior, dishonesty and unethical practices from the UAW and its constituent entities.” The oversight by the independent monitor means that internal divisions and disagreements in addition to specific actions are much more likely to be brought to light. Masters described the situation as a fishbowl.
OPINION: UAW loses at Mercedes, but are they done with Alabama?
June 18, 2024 // The question for the UAW is where to turn next in their campaign to organize Southern auto plants. Speculation has focused on Georgia, Missouri, South Carolina, or even another crack at other factories in Alabama. But it’s not at all clear that the union has much support in any of these locations. It’s also unlikely that any of the potential target companies will sign a neutrality agreement, but rather will make sure workers have both sides of the story. So, while the UAW puts on a brave face and claims that Southern autoworkers will “Stand Up!” ꟷ it appears that what workers are standing up against is the UAW.
Op-Ed: Funny How the UAW Never Loses Fair and Square
June 6, 2024 // In Alabama, the UAW is filing an objection to the Mercedes-Benz unionization vote that was soundly defeated, 56% to 44%, with 90% turnout. What happened to respecting the vote and not questioning election results? You don’t see anyone challenging the results in Chattanooga, where the UAW won.
The Delivery Business Shows Why Unions Are Struggling to Expand
May 29, 2024 // But the union has also suffered losses. Yellow, a trucking company that employed 24,000 Teamsters, shut down and filed for bankruptcy protection last year. Amazon and FedEx said they were confident in their approach to managing and compensating workers. Amazon said it had made investments that bolstered pay and benefits at its delivery contractors. FedEx said its nonunion model allowed it to quickly increase pay whereas UPS’s union employees were bound by the terms of five-year contracts.
Mercedes workers in Alabama reject union, dealing setback to UAW
May 19, 2024 // VW workers twice voted against the UAW before last month's win, and Nissan workers at a plant in Mississippi rejected the UAW by a wide margin in 2017. In 2021, workers at an Amazon.com warehouse in Alabama voted against forming a union by a more than 2-to-1 margin. The loss complicates the story of how the UAW can market its influence, especially in the South, but it likely will not deal a significant blow to the rest of the UAW's organizing efforts, labor experts said.
No, Unions Aren’t Having a Resurgence—and That’s Good for Workers
May 9, 2024 // Introducing more competition to the private sector union business model could help. For that, my colleague Liya Palagashvili suggests ending the exclusive-representation clause that "provides government-granted monopoly status to a union supported by 51 percent of an employer's workers, giving it the sole authority to negotiate. This means that if some workers want a different union—for example a newer one that might raise the bar in terms of what it can offer—they are out of luck." Today, these workers aren't allowed to engage in any negotiations with their employers, and they still have to pay the original union's fees.
Op-Ed: To win the South, unions should embrace right to work
April 30, 2024 // Workers might even be more inclined to back a union if they knew that the union leadership had to be mindful of the members' concerns. And if a union has so few paying members that it collapses, then maybe it should fail. That lack of support indicates its members didn't see much value in it. It remains to be seen if unions like UAW can learn to live with right to work laws in the first place or if they try to fight them. Union leaders by and large hate the laws precisely because they give them less control over the members and potentially leave the unions in a weak financial state.