Posts tagged working conditions
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.
Union members at one Philadelphia hotel authorized a strike, as more could vote in the future too
September 24, 2025 // In addition to wage raises, the union is seeking improvements to healthcare benefits for dependents, worker pensions, and more robust staffing across hotels. The unionized employees include room attendants, cooks, servers, bartenders, dishwashers, and banquet staff at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown, Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square, the Warwick Hotel Rittenhouse Square, Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District, Hilton Garden Inn Philadelphia Center City, Hampton Inn Philadelphia Center City — Convention Center, Sheraton Philadelphia University City Hotel, and Hilton Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing.
No LIRR strike for at least 4 months as Trump steps in on labor dispute
September 17, 2025 // The emergency board will probe the contract fight and prevent and mediate negotiations under the Railway Labor Act, which triggers a 120-day “cooling off period.” That means neither the MTA nor the unions can change wages, hours or working conditions — and workers cannot legally strike — for roughly four months unless both sides agree to a deal.
New York Foundation for the Arts Workers Move to Unionize
September 14, 2025 // Workers at the nonprofit New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) are moving to unionize through Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW). Never before in NYFA’s history have its workers led such an initiative. The nonprofit offers grants to artists and institutions, though it is even more well-known in the New York art world for the classifieds section of its website. Staff members there said they decided to push for unionization due to a lack of transparency, unfair wages, and unsustainable working conditions.
Op-ed: Trump Is Right to Take On the Federal-Worker Unions
September 4, 2025 // Today, only 6 percent of private sector workers are union members. Virtually the only unions that are growing are public sector unions — such as the teachers’ unions. Today, more than one in three government workers in the U.S. belongs to a union. But over 85 percent of those work at the state and local level — not in the federal government. That makes it vital for states to follow President Trump’s lead — along with that of states like Wisconsin — and end collective bargaining for their public employees.
Opinion: It’s time to put American workers ahead of big labor
September 3, 2025 // in 2024 alone, the Department of Labor documented 177 enforcement actions against unions for fraud, embezzlement, wire fraud, and falsified records. Congressional investigations have targeted a dozen unions for similar abuses, highlighting a pattern of self-dealing that diverts funds from pensions, training programs, and strike support. When union officials embezzle or racketeer, it’s the everyday worker who pays the price through diminished benefits and tarnished reputations. Perhaps most troubling is the growing chasm between union leaders’ policy stances and the actual views of their members. Union bosses, often ensconced in Washington or state capitals, pour millions into liberal causes and Democratic campaigns, even as their grassroots base leans increasingly conservative or independent. In the 2024 election, while top labor officials doubled down on Democratic endorsements and criticized Republican outreach, many union households shifted toward Donald Trump.
For first time in decades, Mountain Cement plant workers to vote for unionization
August 18, 2025 // This marks the first time since 1991 that a union election at the plant reached the threshold for a formal vote. Previous efforts failed to secure the 30% employee support required to trigger an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, which gives workers the chance to decide on union representation.
How Federal Workers ‘Without A Union Can Still Act Like A Union’
August 13, 2025 // In fact, this was the state of organizing in the Federal Sector before 1962. Whether its well-established local Unions or newly formed Organizing Committees, many Workers are asking: “What’s the point in a Union?” or “What can our Union do at this point?”
Educator urges Illinois teachers to reject union pressure, politics and coercion
August 7, 2025 // Sarah Fletcher, a former charter school educator and now the Head of School at White Horse Academy, a private school, said her own teaching career trajectory was shaped by a desire to avoid union involvement altogether. “When we moved here to Illinois from Arizona, I had very little interest in teaching at the public school,” Fletcher said. “Part of that was because I didn’t want to be pressured into or have to be mandated to pay dues. The IEA and IFT, which are part of larger organizations like the NEA, use the majority of their funds not to represent teachers, but for political advocacy.”