Posts tagged wage
UAW locals get marching orders for strike against Big Three
September 14, 2023 // At 10 p.m. on Thursday, UAW President Shawn Fain announced three locals were selected to start the strike at midnight. Those locals represent Ford Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio and General Motors Wentzville Assembly Center in Missouri. For the first time in union history all three companies came to the UAW’s Solidarity House downtown Detroit, Fain said. All three automakers have made multiple counteroffers but none of been accepted. Fain says the companies were slow to come to the table at the beginning of negotiations.
California fast food workers to get $20 minimum wage under new deal between labor and the industry
September 12, 2023 // Before the law could take effect, the fast food industry gathered enough signatures to qualify a referendum on the law in the November 2024 election. That meant the law would be on hold until voters could decide whether to overturn it. Furious, labor unions sponsored legislation this year that would have made fast food companies like McDonald’s liable for any misdeeds of their mostly independent franchise operators in the state. Democratic lawmakers also restored funding to the Industrial Welfare Commission, a long-dormant state agency that has the power to set wage and workplace standards for multiple industries.
Op-ed: Workers Rights Won by Unions, From the 8-Hour Workday to Overtime Pay
September 11, 2023 // The overall proportion of unionized workers in the United States remains relatively low, with only one in every 10 workers in the country belonging to a union. But whether you're a union worker or not, you may benefit from policies for which unions have fought long and hard — and they continue to fight. Labor organizing has helped secure everyday benefits that many of us now take for granted. And these efforts have shown people what kind of protections they can hope to secure in the workplace.
Locomotive Manufacturer, Union Agree to End Two-Month Strike
September 6, 2023 //
‘I’m ready to rumble.’ UAW workers march at Labor Day Parade with strike looming
September 5, 2023 // President Joe Biden also spoke about the strike, saying he isn't worried about a strike and said it won't happen. UAW President Shawn Fain was shocked by Biden's comments and said Biden must know something he doesn't. "We just voted to strike by 97% because our members are fed up," Fain said. "I'm ready to rumble for whatever cause, we deserve and are out here to fight for our cause," a worker told us.
Dunkin’ faces first union push in 12 years
September 5, 2023 // Recently, SEIU’s Union of Southern Service Workers has begun working toward a new model of unionism that relies on a combination of organizing across industries in specific cities, shop floor actions and regulatory pressure campaigns. The USSW’s strategy resulted in a strike at a South Carolina Waffle House earlier this summer, and a march on the boss at an Atlanta Dunkin’ earlier this month. Why BCTGM, which is not affiliated with SEIU, chose to pursue a union election at a 23-person Dunkin’ Donuts in Ohio is not clear. But it could signal that the upsurge in labor activity at the margins of the restaurant industry has not yet dissipated. BCTGM members struck Kellogg’s plants in 2021, and a Hormel plant in 2022.
Millions more workers would be entitled to overtime pay under a proposed Biden administration rule
August 30, 2023 // The proposed regulation, unveiled by the Department of Labor, would require employers to pay overtime to salaried workers who are in professional, administrative and professional roles but make less than $1,059 a week, or $55,068 a year for full-time employees. That salary threshold is up from $35,568 level that has been in place since 2019 when Trump administration raised it from $23,660, in a more modest increase than President Barack Obama’s earlier proposal.
The United Auto Workers Meet Electrification
August 22, 2023 // LeRoy and Whiton calculated in their report that battery factory subsidies will range from $2 million to $7 million per job over the ten-year duration of the 45X program. One of their case studies is the $3.5 billion BlueOval Battery Park in Marshall, Michigan. So far, the facility has been awarded $1.7 billion in state and local government subsidies, in addition to qualifying for an expected $6.7 billion in federal 45X credits. Yet wages at the battery plant will average around $45,000 a year. The gap between the sheer amount of money on the table for manufacturers and the quality of job it translates into is the IRA’s weakest link. “The states where these facilities are located should be publicly saying that in exchange for such subsidies the company should allow for voluntary [union] recognition votes,” LeRoy suggested.
From Detroit to Hollywood, New Union Leaders Take a Harder Line
August 18, 2023 // The full-throated demands can also backfire in economic terms. Yellow, a trucking company with 30,000 employees, declared bankruptcy several months after talks with the Teamsters broke down. The company’s chief executive said in a statement that the Teamsters’ intransigence drove Yellow out of business, though analysts note that the company showed signs of mismanagement for years. The risks may be even higher in industries under pressure to embrace a new business model. The major U.S. automakers have said that they need the ability to team up with nonunion battery manufacturers to secure additional capital and expertise. But Mr. Fain, the new U.A.W. president, has said that the failure to organize more battery workers was a major failure of his predecessors, and that battery workers must receive the same pay and working conditions that union workers enjoy at the Big Three. Many U.A.W. members say the tension between the automakers’ goals and the union’s indicates that a strike will be hard to avoid when their contract expires in mid-September. But they do not appear to be shrinking from that possibility.