Posts tagged wages

    Unionization effort fails at south Sacramento manufacturing plant

    March 17, 2025 // Workers voted 838 to 538 against unionizing in an election Thursday. A Siemens spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday morning. The workers attempted to organize under the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 549 and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245, in a group called Siemens Workers United.

    VTA asks for Gov. Newsom’s intervention to force striking union employees back to work

    March 17, 2025 // The VTA, whose buses and light rail trains have been idled since workers walked out Monday, also disclosed Saturday filed March 10 for a Superior Court injunction to "stop the irreparable harm to the community." The transit authority argues that Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, representing more than 1,500 VTA workers, violated a "no strike" clause in its contract, even though the agreement expired at 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

    Orange County legislator pushes to restore independent contractor status for manicurists

    March 13, 2025 // Ta, R-Westminster, has taken up an effort that he says would restore independence to California manicurists by challenging a state law he believes unfairly limits their ability to work on their own terms. AB 5, passed in 2019, aimed to tighten rules for independent contractors across various industries, including beauty. The law aimed to protect workers by ensuring they receive benefits like minimum wage, workers’ compensation and other labor rights — protections they could lose if classified as independent contractors. Its goal was to reduce exploitation and hold employers accountable for their responsibilities.

    MD bill may give faculty the right to unionize

    March 11, 2025 // The bill includes full-time or part-time faculty, and those who are either on tenure or non-tenure tracks. Foley added faculty at Maryland community colleges are already able to organize unions. Since 2012, the number of unionized faculty across the country has grown more than 7%, with more than a quarter of all faculty belonging to a union. More than 80% of unionized college faculty members are nontenured. Foley, a former vice president of the Communications Workers of America, said despite perceptions, unions are not just for blue collar workers.

    VTA workers injured in traffic incident on 1st day of strike that shut down bus, light rail service

    March 11, 2025 // VTA is offering the union a 9.3% increase over the next three years, while the ATU workers are demanding a 19.1% increase over three years. ATU is asking for more, including special protections for arbitration guarantees.

    The High-Stakes Battle to Organize Heats Up at Three of D.C.’s Hottest Restaurants

    February 28, 2025 // Employees who have stepped forward say that members of Unite Here Local 25, which represents restaurant, hotel, and casino workers in the D.C. area, obtained individual home addresses; have then showed up at their houses at night to demand a union card signature; and even used one’s religion as a ruse to meet. In addition, some employees say that union reps have made them uncomfortable in repeated confrontations outside of work. Eater spoke to five workers at St. Anselm, Le Diplomate, and Pastis, some of whom spoke to the publication under conditions of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation.

    US dockworkers approve 6-year contract, averting a strike

    February 27, 2025 // The contract calls for a 62% pay hike over six years that would lift hourly wages at the top of the union pay scale from $39 an hour to $63 an hour. ILA President Harold Daggett, who served as the union’s chief negotiator, was quoted in the statement as saying the agreement is “the ‘gold standard’ for dockworker unions globally.” He remarked that it was a difficult contract to negotiate and even required a three-day strike last fall, but “We now have labor peace for the next six years.”

    Providence, nurses union reach new tentative deal in 6-week-long strike

    February 26, 2025 // The strike, which started Jan. 10, is the longest in Oregon’s health care history. Nearly 5,000 nurses walked off the job at Providence’s eight hospitals in Oregon in Hood River, Medford, Milwaukie, Newberg, Seaside and Oregon City and two in Portland. The strike also included nurses, physicians and other staff at Providence’s six women’s clinics in the Portland area and hospital physicians at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in southwest Portland. The physicians and clinic union members approved their deals but the nurses rejected the early agreement by more than 80%.

    Chicago History Museum workers want to join an arts industry unionization wave

    February 17, 2025 // Hannah Johnson, who works in member relations at the museum, is on the organizing committee. She said she and others at the Chicago History Museum have been inspired by cultural workers who have recently unionized, both locally and nationally. “We felt that now was a really good time to really seek out that sense of stability and security regarding our jobs, our wages and our benefits, and also request higher degrees of transparency from management,”