Posts tagged wages
As threat of mass strike looms, some NYC legal service providers reach tentative agreements with unions
July 23, 2025 // Aaron Eisenberg, the political director at United Auto Workers Region 9A, told amNewYork that he hopes the agreements at Bronx Defenders and NYLAG will encourage other legal aid providers to meet demands and avoid a mass strike. Various union chapters within the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys-UAW are in active bargaining with management and have threatened to strike. A mass public interest attorney strike could take about 2,000 lawyers out of court, about 1,100 of whom work at the Legal Aid Society, where unionized employees have set a Friday deadline for a contract before walking out.
Workers striking by choice could lose unemployment benefits in blue states under GOP proposal
July 20, 2025 // Legislation targets policies in Oregon, Washington, New York and New Jersey that provide financial support during strikes The legislation is co-sponsored by Reps. Aaron Bean, R-Fla.; Mike Kelly, R-Pa.; Blake Moore, R-Utah; Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas; Greg Murphy, R-N.C.; David Rouzer, R-N.C.; Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y.; and Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas. The governors of both Oregon and Washington signed laws earlier this year allowing for striking workers to receive unemployment benefits.
Op-ed: She looked like a pro-worker Trump cabinet appointee. But now she’s gutting the Labor Department
July 17, 2025 // The standards on the chopping block include those issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a unit of the Labor Department, that were developed after years of effort. OSHA standards, Reindel told me, take an average of seven years — and as long as 20 years — to draft. “This is an onslaught on people’s basic protections at work.”
WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital workers announce strike over staffing, wages
July 15, 2025 // Union representing over 1,400 healthcare workers at WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital plan a five-day strike starting July 22, citing understaffing, low wages, and failed negotiations.
Unions don’t deliver for workers
July 11, 2025 // Take the recent UPS layoffs. In August 2023, the Teamsters Union touted its new UPS contract as a historic victory, claiming historic wage increases and increased benefits. Fast forward to January 2024, when UPS announced it was eliminating 12,000 jobs. Just a year later, it said it was cutting its delivery business with Amazon in half by the second half of 2026 and was aiming to shutter 10% of its buildings. Why the cuts? Because the union’s monopoly bargaining power allows it to demand wages that make it tough for companies to stay competitive. When costs climb, even giants like UPS have little choice but to cut jobs or invest less in the future. The UPS saga is a shining example of what the Mercatus report highlights: union power can backfire, leaving workers worse off in the long term.
Penn Museum workers demand raises, protest Univ. pay proposals in picket after authorizing strike
July 10, 2025 // “The average annual salary in the bargaining unit is less than $45,000,” Shaw said. “We’re looking for raises that will not only allow workers to keep up with increases in the cost of living, but to do better over time.” Union leaders also handed out flyers that emphasized Penn’s continued “lowball pay proposals” despite the University’s “annual operating budget of $4.7 billion.” “It’s not so much to ask from the University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer and one of the wealthiest in the city,” Shaw said.
Dash’s Market workers seek to unionize
July 6, 2025 // Workers United has been active in organizing employees at many Starbucks locations around the country, as well as workers at Spot Coffee. Dash’s Market, which reportedly employs about 500 workers, celebrated 100 years in the grocery industry in 2023. The company was founded by Joe Dash’s grandparents, and the family also operated as a franchisee of the Tops Friendly Markets chain for many years.
Ford workers told their CEO ‘none of the young people want to work here.’ So Jim Farley took a page out of the founder’s playbook
July 1, 2025 // “The older workers who’d been at the company said, ‘None of the young people want to work here. Jim, you pay $17 an hour, and they are so stressed,’” Farley said. Farley learned some workers also held jobs at Amazon, where they worked for eight hours before clocking in to a seven-hour shift at Ford, sleeping for only three or four hours. As a result, the company made temporary workers into full-time employees, making them eligible for higher wages, profit-sharing checks, and better health care coverage. The transition was outlined in 2019 contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW), with temporary workers able to become full-time after two years of continuous employment at Ford.
Cummins and union reach agreement: workers set to return to work July 7
July 1, 2025 // Sen. Dassler-Alfheim was among 34 legislators who signed a letter in support of the union on June 17. “Without those great employees around the state, then a company doesn’t have the great product that they want to be successful with," she says.
Oakland children’s hospital workers end strike after judge denies injunction
June 30, 2025 // Employees at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital in Oakland will be back at work on Monday after deciding to end their strike. According to the National Union of Healthcare Workers, a federal judge denied their request to stop UCSF Health from proceeding to cancel union contracts.