Posts tagged wages and benefits
Across the Midwest, unions are breaking through in a way they haven’t in decades
December 20, 2023 // Union members and labor experts agree that a collective sense of job insecurity and frustration over wages and working conditions are driving activity in the region.
Unionized nurses at 2 Pennsylvania community hospitals to strike this month amid ongoing contract negotiations
December 14, 2023 // “The increases they’re offering don’t even touch the inflation rate right now,” Rumer said. Moreover, Rumer accused Prime of failing to deliver on its promises since buying Suburban Community and Lower Bucks hospitals in 2016 and 2012, respectively.
Brainerd-area grocery store workers vote to authorize strike in days leading up to Christmas
December 14, 2023 // Roughly 650 grocery workers in the Brainerd area announced their intentions to go on strike in the days leading up to Christmas due to what they call unfair labor practices. Union members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 663 say they've been without a contract since Dec. 3, and have been subject to "interrogation, surveillance, and intimidation" from their employers.
Commentary: The UAW’s Strike Win on Plant Closures Is Too Rigid
December 2, 2023 // The transition to battery-electric vehicles is difficult enough without the addition of the UAW’s capacity alignment restrictions. Pricing and profit uncertainty within the sector is daunting, dealers seem reluctant to go all-in on the vision and the required infrastructure to ease consumer’s range anxiety will take multiple years to develop. Additionally, proposed CO2 and emission standards could add additional costs if manufacturers do not sell enough zero-emission vehicles. Manufacturers will need flexibility when transitioning from ICE-dedicated plants to dedicated BEV capacity. Rationalization is mandatory given the potential price pressure that will come from excess capacity in North America. The production volume for total light vehicles is a fixed amount. Supply does not create demand. Thus, the more manufacturers implement product and marketing strategies to fill BEV capacity, the more they will be forced to reduce ICE capacity.
U.S. labor board delays new unionization rule after business groups sue
November 20, 2023 // The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups — including the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the International Franchise Association and the National Retail Federation — sued the NLRB in federal court in Texas last week to block the rule. They say the rule upends years of precedent and could make companies liable for workers they don’t employ at workplaces they don’t own. But the NLRB says the current rule makes it too easy for companies to avoid their legal responsibility to bargain with workers.
New federal rule could allow millions of workers to more easily unionize at big companies
November 16, 2023 // The rule only applies to labor relations. The Department of Labor sets its own joint employment standards for issues like meeting minimum wage requirements. Still, the new rule could have a major impact. Local franchise owners employ more than 8 million people in the U.S., according to the International Franchise Association. Millions more work for subcontractors or temporary agencies.
SEPTA, workers union reach tentative agreement on new contract: ‘It’s a really good deal’
October 31, 2023 // In an email announcing the tentative agreement, SEPTA said the focus during negotiations was to "find a way to recognize employees' hard word and ensure that SEPTA is in the best possible position to build ridership and address the looming fiscal cliff when federal COVID relief funds run out next year." SEPTA argued during negotiations that it's facing a $240M drop in operating funds in April when its COVID relief money runs out. The so-called "fiscal cliff" is believed to be why the tentative agreement reached Friday is a short-term deal.
UAW members aren’t all assembling cars. More and more are unionized grad students
October 23, 2023 // These days, the "A" in UAW might as well include academia, as roughly 100,000 of the union's 383,000 members work in higher education. They include graduate students who work as teaching and research assistants, clerical and technical workers, adjunct professors and postdocs.
St. Peter’s nurses vote to unionize in wake of information leak
October 23, 2023 // St. Peter's Health ended its contract with Mr. Commer after the internal leak of nurses' personal information. The health system, in a statement shared with Becker's on Oct. 4, described the incident as one "where a document containing sensitive information became accessible beyond the intended recipients. It is our responsibility to safeguard the privacy and well-being of our employees, and as such, we take full responsibility for this incident occurring." St. Peter's Health also confirmed it is no longer working with any third-party consultants, but said, "The more important issue is that this incident was inconsistent with our values." The organization is conducting an internal investigation and said it will "respond as appropriate based on the findings."
Ford says it is ‘at the limit’ with UAW contract offer
October 13, 2023 // Ford officials said on Thursday that cutting a deal that does not allow the company to survive makes no sense and that striking the Kentucky truck plant would also hurt the UAW's profit-sharing checks. In a sign of the strike's expanding impact, Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) said on Thursday it is feeling a pinch from the automotive and entertainment labor strikes. Delta President Glen Hauenstein said the UAW strike has curtailed a "significant" amount of business in Detroit. Automakers have more than doubled initial wage hike offers, agreed to raise wages along with inflation and improved pay for temporary workers, but the union wants higher wages still, the abolishment of a two-tier wage system and the expansion of unions to battery plants. The UAW has room to expand its walkouts and increase the pressure on the Detroit Three to offer bigger wage gains, richer retirement packages and more assurances that new electric vehicle battery plants will be unionized.