Labor Relations INK - Labor Relations News, Analysis and Insight
Labor Relations Ink November 2018
In this issue: Union Membership Plummets in Northwest Post-Janus Tech Worker Dissent To Open A Pandora’s Box? Corruption Runs Rampant in IATSE SEIU Watch, Sticky Fingers, and more… The bottom of each story contains a link to the individual post on our site. **********...
read moreLabor Relations Insight
by Phil Wilson Life (And Labor Strategy) Is Like A Game Of Chess Have you ever heard a union campaign is like a chess match? My guess is you've probably said it at some point. Today is round 9 of the World Chess Championship. For the first time since the famous...
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Union Bailout Update
As the DOL considers new rules designed to force financial disclosure for union affiliated “intermediate bodies,” Big Labor is already positioning to fight the move, claiming that such rules would create a financial hardship for such entities, especially in light of...
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Union Membership Plummets in Northwest Post-Janus
According to a report from The Freedom Foundation, the decline in union membership in the northwest since the Janus decision totals around 25,000 members. The report also attributes the loss of 27 million in annual revenue to the drop in membership. The Freedom...
read moreTech Worker Dissent To Open A Pandora’s Box?
Those workers who sign on at obvious defense contractors, such as Lockheed Martin or Raytheon, have no compunction about working on products that are designed for military use. However, when employees go to work for Google, Amazon or other tech industry giants,...
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SEIU Watch
Ballot shenanigans seemed to prevail in a contest for SEIU Local 73 leadership, as it emerged from a 2-year trusteeship imposed by SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry. Members of the Local, running on a “members leading members” slate, appealed the election...
read moreCorruption Runs Rampant At IATSE
Every month, we list the newly indicted union officials who have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar (our Sticky Fingers section). We’ve also covered huge scandals like the recent Fiat Chrysler/UAW Training Center fiasco. For another perspective of the...
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It’s All Academic
Graduate students at Georgetown, Brown, and Illinois State University voted to unionize this month. At Columbia, things are heating up. The college’s graduate student union is planning a strike, beginning December 4th, the week before finals, to last indefinitely....
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Union Pension Turmoil
Millions of Americans’ pension plans are still hanging in the balance, with Teamsters members – from UPS to Giant Eagle workers – making up quite a large majority, and unfortunately for taxpayers, a bailout of some sort seems to be looming in the pipeline. Congress...
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Fight For $15
Voters in Arkansas and Missouri both approved big minimum wage increases during the midterms this month. Arkansas will increase to $11/hour by 2021. Missouri will make a gradual increase to $12 over the next 5 years. In other midterm news, after flipping at least 38...
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Auto Workers
It’s always a little hard to process when a union hires non-union workers. But on the other hand, a bottom line is one thing every business understands, and it appears that line is exactly where union solidarity stops – at least for the UAW. In particular, we’re...
read moreLabor Around The World
Nigeria has a new minimum wage in progress – 30,000 naira (or $82.64) a month. This is up from the country’s previous minimum wage of 18,000 naira. However, it is important to note that the value of the naira has decreased by half in recent years. Even though workers...
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Labor Relations Ink October 2018
In this issue: AFL-CIO Facing The Music AFSCME Blames Billionaires Hotel Strikers Running Business Away SEIU Watch, Teamster Beat, Insight, Scoreboard and more... The bottom of each story contains a link to the individual post on our site. ********** Labor Relations...
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by Phil Wilson Unions Required to Represent Members (and they don’t like it one bit) On October 24th NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb issued an important update for union officials: to meet their duty of fair representation, unions actually have to represent their...
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Union Bailout Update
The question of the recusal of John Ring and William Emanuel from the McDonald’s case continues to heat up. In a letter sent to encourage Ring and Emanuel to ignore calls for recusal, attorneys for McDonald’s lambasted the chief proponent of recusal, Richard Painter,...
read moreAFSCME Blames Billionaires
Post-Janus, the AFSCME is trying to find a scape goat for their predicament.
read moreAFL-CIO Facing The Music
After downsizing staff last year, the labor coalition’s latest move to impose a contract that its employees had rejected triggered a strike vote by the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), the union of the labor organization’s staff. If the...
read moreHotel Strikers Running Business Away
Marriott hotels are losing customers left and right, as many conference planners are moving events to alternative locations to avoid the inconvenience. About 7,700 Marriott workers in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Boston, Detroit, Honolulu and Maui are currently...
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SEIU Watch
After two years under trusteeship, SEIU Local 73 members voted this month via mail-in ballots to elect their new leadership. Stay tuned for the results. And for a refresher on why this local was under a trusteeship to begin with, click here. Dave Regan’s California...
read moreIt’s All Academic
Charter school jurisdiction can be tricky. Are they exempt from federal labor law? Or are they not? The answer, it seems, depends. In the most recent case of a charter school in Louisiana, the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that – no, they are not exempt and...
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