Posts tagged Washington
17 states allege Biden opens path to unionize foreign farmworkers
July 17, 2024 // The Department of Labor denies the allegation, saying the rule merely gives foreign farmworkers the right to protect wages and working conditions through "concerted activities" and "self-advocacy." The AGs accuse the department of hiding "behind linguistic smoke and mirrors." "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck," the motion for a preliminary injunction reads.
Union votes herald a new era for workers in Washington Legislature
July 11, 2024 // One petition covers 82 legislative assistants, policy analysts and communications staff of the House Democratic Caucus. The other is for 32 legislative assistants in the Senate Democratic Caucus. Both seek to be represented by the Washington Public Employees Association. Under Washington’s law, employees of the Democratic and Republican caucuses in each chamber must be in separate units unless a majority of each caucus votes to be in the same unit. However, units can negotiate collectively on economic issues, like wages and benefits, with the employers, which are the chief clerk of the House and secretary of the Senate. When bargaining begins, several subjects are off-limits, such as the length of the work day during a legislative session, as well as in the 60 calendar days before a session and the 20 days afterward.
The NEA Faces an Unexpected Labor Adversary—Its Own Staff Union
June 24, 2024 // Outside of the National Education Association’s building on the city’s busy 16th Street thoroughfare, staff members marched with signs reading “Uphold union values” and “NEA: practice what you preach.” Other staffers made runs supplying snacks and water in the sweltering heat; staffers had organized shifts to keep the strike on pace until 5 p.m. The one-day work stoppage comes ahead of the NEA’s upcoming Representative Assembly, which will draw thousands of union members to Philadelphia over the Fourth of July weekend to vote on the union’s budget and priorities for 2024-25.
SEIU celebrates $16 home care worker minimum wage, readies to lobby for $20
June 5, 2024 // The union in recent years has pushed to increase pay rates for the workforce whose average wage had hovered around $11 for nearly a decade. Last year, Nevada state lawmakers passed a bill establishing a $16 an hour minimum wage for home care workers. “Sixteen is great,” said Clark County Commissioner William McCurdy, a former SEIU organizer who spoke at the event Thursday. “It shows the power of collective mobilization. But I think that we are going to do a little bit better next legislative session.” An increase to $20 per hour for home care workers would be possible by adjusting the Medicaid reimbursement rate for the employers who provide home care services to $30 per hour.
Commentary: Public employers should not collect dues for unions
June 3, 2024 // A bill passed last year in Arkansas is one that Washington state lawmakers should add to and propose, pass and send to the governor of our state. The Arkansas law prohibits school districts from deducting dues from employees' paychecks. Educators can pay a union on their own, of course. The new law also requires union member applications to contain a notice letting public workers — again, paid by taxpayers — know of their “rights to join or refrain from joining a labor organization.”
Unionized staff members endorse candidate opposing their current boss at WA state agency
May 30, 2024 // Seamus Petrie, a lobbyist for WPEA, told McClatchy in a phone interview that endorsements from major labor unions in the state are important because they want to make it clear that they “absolutely trust” Emily Randall to be their pro-labor candidate. Randall was endorsed by the Washington Federation of State Employees, the largest state workers union in Washington, and which represents other unionized DNR staff members on April 27. On May 18, Randall also snagged the sole endorsement from the Washington State Labor Council’s Committee On Political Education, and according to reporting by the Washington Observer, union workers at DNR made some key arguments for the endorsement for Randall stemming from concerns over worker safety and low morale at the agency.
COMMENTARY: RHODE ISLAND: CAPTIVE-AUDIENCE MEETINGS FOR ME, BUT NOT FOR THEE
May 30, 2024 // Union leaders are rightfully concerned that hearing the truth will make employees much less likely to join. And they should know because captive audience meetings have long been a staple of the union playbook for decades. In leftist-dominated states throughout the country, lawmakers have passed legislation authorizing unions to meet with newly hired public employees to make an unchallenged sales pitch about union membership. In these sessions, unions have been caught lying, misleading, bullying, and intimidating people into signing away their Constitutional rights. Our government systems have been hijacked by unions for politicization and money laundering. This affects not just bureaucrats but educators, corrections officers, Department of Transportation workers, and public employees of every kind, who increasingly find their autonomy undercut by unscrupulous union practices.
Op-Ed: Ensure long-lasting protection for workers with a Right-To-Work constitutional amendment
May 24, 2024 // Right-to-work laws are not a tool used to break up unions, but to protect workers from unions that are taking membership dues from members who disagree with union political practices and efforts. The law also protects non-members from being fired simply because they do not join a union. Instead of fighting against right-to-work laws, unions should strengthen their efforts to recruit new members by listening and following the direction of dues-paying members. A recent Harvard Study found that people living in RTW areas have higher employment, higher labor force participation, lower disability receipts, and higher population growth because of the attractive economy. All these factors are associated with lower childhood poverty rates in RTW locations.
University of WA reaches agreement with union representing student employees
May 16, 2024 // The University of Washington said on Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with UAW Local 4121. In a quest for improved wages, 6,000 student workers at the University of Washington (UW) have launched a strike, suspending their duties and assembling on picket lines scattered across campus.
Revised minimum wage law for delivery drivers moves forward in Seattle, set for full council vote
May 14, 2024 // The current law is “clearly not working,” Nelson said on Thursday. She said the new legislation is an “effort to reverse the bad outcomes caused by a flawed law and catalyzed by network companies imposing a new so-called regulatory fee, which caused a drop in customer orders, a drastic reduction in worker wages, and lost revenues for restaurants and other retail establishments.” Seattle’s citywide minimum wage for employees — delivery drivers are treated as independent contractors — is $19.97. Working Washington, a nonprofit that helped pass the original legislation in Seattle, released a report this week showing how the new ordinance would result in net pay of $13.17 per hour, due in part to expenses such as payroll taxes and mileage costs that drivers pay for on their own.