Posts tagged working conditions
Temple Union of Resident Assistants becomes first undergraduate, public university union in state
October 27, 2025 // The organization, comprised of 126 resident assistants and peer mentors from University Housing and Residential Life, has been pushing for union membership since Fall 2024. RAs and peer mentors began distributing union cards in August 2024. TURA was created to improve working conditions for RAs and peer mentors through fair compensation and consistent worker treatment. In previous years, RAs would receive 1,000 diamond dollars, free housing, an unlimited meal plan and a $200 tuition stipend. Diamond dollars became a defunct campus currency several years ago, and Temple never replaced the compensation. Returning RAs and PMs can only work 15 or 20 hours outside of their UHRL duties, while first years can only work 10 to 15 hours.
Opinion: A Teachers Union Candidate Took My Money and Ran for Office
October 22, 2025 // in a lawsuit filed Sept. 30 in New Jersey Superior Court, that it was also an illegal breach of contract and a violation of the union’s fiduciary duty to its members. On paper, the union tells teachers that giving to its political organizations is voluntary. The membership forms we signed, which function as a contract between a member and the union, have a separate box to check for voluntary donations to the union’s political action committee. I didn’t check that box and therefore believed my money wouldn’t be used by a PAC. That wasn’t true. In 2013 union officials created an obscure political group called Garden State Forward and funded it with more than $100 million in teachers’ dues.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Ups The Ante As He Calls For A General Strike
October 21, 2025 // Summoning people of all backgrounds to unite and take a stand against President Donald Trump’s “tyranny,” the “ultra-wealthy” and corporate greed, Johnson said, “We are going to make them pay their fair share in taxes to fund our school, to fund jobs, to fund healthcare, to fund transportation.”
Breaking News Strike Update – Tentative Deal Reached Between Equity and the Broadway League
October 21, 2025 // No one has called for a strike quite yet. Actors' Equity Association, representing more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers, has argued for new a Broadway contract that ensures safe staffing, humane scheduling, sustainable working conditions, and paying fair share of benefits. Local 802, representing thousands of highly skilled musicians in New York City, is bringing similar issues to the table: fair wages that reflect Broadway’s success; stable health coverage; and employment and income security.
Dollar store workers fight to improve jobs, even without a union
October 17, 2025 // In 2022, Williams joined an organization that seemed, to him, like his best shot: Step Up Louisiana. Like several successful campaigns before it, Step Up organizes workers to improve their jobs, but stops short of calling for a union under the National Labor Relations Board. The approach, sometimes referred to as “premajority unionism,” is a natural fit for places like the South, with histories of public hostility to unions. Today, suggest experts, it may also be workers’ best bet for building power amid the hostility of the Trump administration.
Kaiser Permanente workers strike in Oregon and Washington, join nationwide picket lines
October 16, 2025 // According to Kaiser's officials, the alliance wants a 25% payroll increase, but Kaiser has instead put a 21.5% increase on the table. Officials say they've been planning for the strike for months and told KATU all of their facilities will remain open, and adjustments are being made accordingly. Kaiser says it's bringing on up to 7,600 nurses, clinicians, and other staff to work during the strike and says more than 1,000 of their employees have volunteered to be reassigned to work in locations impacted by the strike.
Pa. House approves bill opening unemployment benefits to striking workers
October 13, 2025 // New York and New Jersey have similar laws concerning unemployment compensation, and workers in nine other states are eligible for the benefits while on strike under certain circumstances, such as an employer breaking a contract, according to the state representatives. The legislation, which passed in the House 106-97, now moves to the state Senate for consideration. A similar bill sponsored by state Reps. Dan Miller, D-Mt. Lebanon, and Mandy Steele, D-Fox Chapel, passed through the House in 2023 but died in the Senate.
Sun Country and its fleet employees reach tentative agreement on first union contract
October 7, 2025 // Sun Country Airline’s 240 ground workers who handle luggage and guide airplanes at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are on track to ink their first-ever union contract. The Minneapolis-based leisure airline and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement Thursday. Workers soon will vote on whether to ratify it.
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.