Posts tagged wages
UAW President Shawn Fain: “We Need More Than A Party – We Need A Movement”
October 14, 2025 // Fain, Speaking At A Center For Working-Class Politics & Jacobin Event, ‘Emphasized The Need For A Political Program That Addresses Workers’ Most Basic’ Issues - And ‘How A Broad Strike In 2028 Could Put Them Front & Center’
Uniting Behind the American Franchise Act: A Bipartisan Effort to Clarify the Joint Employer Standard
October 10, 2025 // Seven Republican and seven Democratic Congressional members introduced the bipartisan act and limited its application to future proceedings only, preventing retroactive implications. If approved, the American Franchise Act only applies to joint employer matters regarding franchising; it is not a universal modification to all employer relationships.
NY sisters who own DQ franchise hit with $6M lawsuit for paying workers every 2 weeks — they helped change the loophole but it was too late for them
October 10, 2025 // New York's Frequency of Pay law (2) requires “manual workers” to receive their pay on a weekly basis. It’s a law that the sisters said they’d never heard of, which is why they paid their employees biweekly — a process that they said was never flagged by anyone, including during an audit conducted by the state’s Department of Labor. Robey told CBS that the lawsuit was “ridiculous,” adding, “we knew we paid every employee every dime that they were owed." But her sister noted that the former employee, who’d been laid off, “would say all the time, 'I'm gonna get you, I'm gonna get you,' and she did.”
Commentary: When fighting Trump, take union claims with a grain of salt
October 7, 2025 // Government unions faced another momentous reform seven years ago when the Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME. The court held that public sector workers have a First Amendment right to completely withdraw from union membership and dues. In essence, the court created a nationwide right-to-work law for all public sector workers, including teachers, police officers, firefighters, and all other federal, state, and local government workers. No longer would they have to join or pay a union to keep their job. Government unions hated this ruling, of course. In a desperate attempt to sway the Supreme Court, union-paid prognosticators predicted massive negative economic effects if the court ruled against unions.
Marriott, Hilton workers strike in Philadelphia
October 7, 2025 // Union employees at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown and the Hampton Inn Philadelphia Center City are calling for higher pay and improved benefits.
Newsom signs bill giving 800,000 Uber and Lyft drivers in California the right to unionize
October 7, 2025 // California is the second state where Uber and Lyft drivers can unionize as independent contractors. Massachusetts voters passed a ballot referendum in November allowing unionization, while drivers in Illinois and Minnesota are pushing for similar rights.
Striking Genesys nurses launch effort to unionize other Henry Ford hospitals
October 3, 2025 // The strike at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital, which began Sept. 1, centers on disputes over nurse-to-patient ratios, wages, and health insurance costs. Striking nurses claim there are unsafe staffing levels at the hospital, with some nurses caring for up to 11 patients at once. Henry Ford Health cites financial losses at Genesys and describes the unionization efforts as a recruitment tactic.
Zohran Mamdani joins Starbucks workers picketing for better pay in NYC
October 2, 2025 // Over a dozen Starbucks workers raised their voices and picketed outside a store in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday morning. It comes as New York City officials said they are aware of dozens of Starbucks that are closing as part of a $1 billion restructuring plan that will shutter more than 400 stores nationwide. The baristas were joined by mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as they highlighted their demands for fair contracts.
Anonymous graduate student worker group files unfair labor practice charge against SWC-UAW
October 1, 2025 // Graduate Researchers Against Discrimination and Suppression, a new group, alleges that the union is halting bargaining for issues unrelated to employment.The group filed the charge amid stalled negotiations between the University and the union for a new contract after its first contract expired on June 30. The negotiations have halted over the University’s refusal to let the union broadcast bargaining sessions over Zoom for its members or let its president Grant Miner, who the University expelled in March, attend negotiations. The parties have not met since March. The union’s bylaws state that bargaining sessions must be “made accessible to the entire membership via Zoom or an equivalent platform.” The union conducted negotiations for its first contract in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic over Zoom and argues that its members who have fled the country fearing deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, such as Ranjani Srinivasan, a Ph.D. candidate at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, deserve to witness bargaining.
Op-ed: Democrats and Republicans agree: The clocks are ticking on union contracts
September 29, 2025 // Despite these clear benefits, the process of reaching a first contract can often drag on for well over a year. Unions are met with delay and silence while trying to negotiate. According to Bloomberg Law, it takes an average of 458 days for workers and employers to reach a contract after a union is formed. And that’s after workers have already won a union election — a process that is too often met with stiff resistance or outright union-busting.