Posts tagged wage
REI withheld pay from union workers, national labor board says
March 24, 2025 // 11 REI stores have unionized since 2022 in a contentious organizing battle that’s shaken the Washington-based outdoor co-op’s progressive reputation. None of the unions have yet secured a contract. Union organizers recently tried to nominate pro-labor candidates to the co-op’s board of directors for this year’s board election, but the board did not nominate either of them for a membership vote. The complaint filed Thursday alleges that REI violated several aspects of the National Labor Relations Act by refusing to bargain in good faith and withholding annual pay raises and bonuses at stores that voted to unionize. This was done at least since February 2024 to “discourage employees” from engaging in union activity, the complaint said. The complaint lists nine stores across the country where benefits were allegedly withheld, including the REI in Bellingham, the only Washington store that has voted to unionize.
‘Union Joe’ left labor movement weaker than it was
February 25, 2025 // As Dominic Pino pointed out last month in National Review, the overwhelming majority of workers in such fields as manufacturing, construction, mining, transportation and warehousing are not union members. Efforts to unionize employees attract disproportionate media cheerleading, especially when the unions target iconic American companies like Starbucks and Amazon. But there isn’t nearly as much coverage when workers in high-profile workplaces vote against joining a union — as they have recently at a Mercedes factory in Alabama, an Amazon warehouse in North Carolina and even Princeton University — or when scores of unions each year are decertified in workplace elections.
Commentary: Who Is Big Labor, Anyway?
February 5, 2025 // If the Current American Plurality wants to hold together, it will need to find ways to support workers as a whole, not cheaply chase the union members that BLS and other data reveal to be unripe for recruitment by throwing more traditional members of the coalition under the bus. The Taft-Hartley Consensus approach to labor relations, which Republicans have advanced for 80 years, offers the opportunity for those workers who freely choose to organize unions to continue to do so while protecting the rights of workers who choose not to form unions or choose to work independently. It should not be cheaply abandoned in service to myths about whom the conservative movement is seeking to court.
Commentary: In New Record Low, Unionization Rate Falls to Single Digits in 2024
February 3, 2025 // By focusing on individual workers’ desires and on helping workers achieve long-term wage gains through increased productivity (which require allowing technology and automation that enhance productivity), unions could begin to reverse their decline. And policymakers can help prioritize workers’ rights and voices by allowing voluntary labor organizations and reducing government-imposed barriers to work.
Clock ticks for NJTransit, engineer’s union to reach labor deal
January 22, 2025 // The agency and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen are in a two-month-long cooling period. The two sides have been locked in ongoing talks for more than four years without success, leading to former President Joe Biden calling in two presidential emergency boards to help break the ice. The first board sided with NJTransit but recommended that the agency raise its initial wage offer. A second board is set to release its own recommendations on Wednesday.
Make employers pay striking workers? Too silly
January 21, 2025 // Sponsored by Sen. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, and cosponsored by 12 other Democrats so far, SB 5041 is similar to last year’s House Bill 1893 and Senate Bill 5777. Those pieces of legislation had the support of nearly all Democrats but failed to pass in the Legislature’s final hours. As long as the strike is legal, union workers could receive unemployment benefits while actively on strike. (Public employee strikes are not legal, so teachers, who strike frequently, should not be able to receive unemployment insurance benefits along with the taxpayer-provided pay they already receive, even in years that they strike. I hope to see legislative talks clarify that this is so.) Sen. Steven Conway, D-Tacoma, a strong proponent of employer-financed strike benefits, told NPR-station KNKX the bill would allow workers to access the benefits starting on the second Sunday after they begin withholding their labor and would be eligible for four weeks of benefits.
SEIU’s longest strike with Essentia Health workers in Deer River
January 3, 2025 // 70 Essentia Health workers in Deer River have been on strike for the past three weeks. The Service Employees International Union is representing the healthcare workers at the bargaining table. Currently this is SEIU’s longest strike that they’ve been involved with as they negotiate for a market wage increase.
Shawn Fain was Kamala Harris’ most forceful union backer. It could cost him his job
December 30, 2024 // United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain was one of the most prominent union leaders backing Vice President Kamala Harris in this year’s US presidential election and one of the harshest critics of Donald Trump while on the campaign trail. And because of that, he’ll have a powerful enemy when Trump takes back the White House on January 20.
Striking San Francisco hotel workers urge J.P. Morgan health conference attendees to stay away
December 12, 2024 // Housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders and other members of the union, Unite Here Local 2, are reaching out to attendees of the invitation-only J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference to be held Jan. 13-16 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. The conference is billed as a global symposium that includes health and technology industry leaders and members of the investment community. Union spokesperson Ted Waechter said 10,000 people took part in the conference last year.
There’s a huge pay raise on the way for clean energy workers
December 9, 2024 // To qualify, projects have to hire registered apprentices, who are paid for their work and earn credentials while doing it, and pay the prevailing wage to their workers, a level of minimum pay generally set for workers on government contracts. While prevailing wage has "long applied" to federal projects, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, this is the first time it's been applied to clean energy tax incentives.