United Auto Workers members have voted to ratify a tentative agreement with Ford Motor Company, marking the possible end of the first simultaneous UAW strike against the Big Three.
Read MoreUAW Ratifies Contract with Ford Motor Co.
Tag: union
UAW Expands Strike Against GM Hours After Reaching Deal with Rival Stellantis and Ford
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union on Saturday expanded its strike against General Motors (GM) after it reached an agreement with its competitors on Wednesday and Saturday, the union confirmed in an X post.
The UAW and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) reached a deal similar to the four-year agreement reached on Wednesday between Ford and the UAW, which provides a 25 percent pay increase and cost of living adjustments, as well as the ability to strike over plant closures. It was expected that GM would also make a deal with the union after Stellantis on Saturday, but instead employees at a Tennessee GM factory received orders to expand the company’s strike, the local union posted on X.
Read MoreWorker Freedom Group: There Are Protections for Auto Workers Who Don’t Want to Strike
As Big Labor-bought President Joe Biden made his trip to Detroit on Tuesday for a photo-op stop on the United Auto Workers (UAW) picket lines, a worker freedom organization reminded those swept up in the UAW action that there are protections for workers who don’t want to strike. Nearly two…
Read More$700 Million in Pandemic-Era Loans Was Not Enough to Save Yellow Corp. Trucking
Trucking company Yellow filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday after receiving more than $700 million in COVID-19 pandemic program loans from the federal government, according to a press release from Yellow.
The 99-year-old company ceased operations of its more than 12,000 trucks on July 30, ending its less-than-truckload business, a shipping service that does not require a whole truck to be filled and was utilized by companies like Walmart, Amazon and small businesses that did not have enough freight to ship in a full truck. The bankruptcy follows a history of financial trouble, with the company receiving $729.2 million in pandemic-era loans from the Trump administration in 2020, and had a total debt of $1.5 billion, according to The Associated Press.
Read MoreUPS Teamsters Threaten to Strike Unless Deal on Contract Reached by July 5
UPS Teamsters members are threatening to go on strike if the United Parcel Service cannot reach a deal with its 340,000 unionized employees by July 5.
Unionized UPS members marched on Sunday in five states, carrying signs with the phrase: “Just practicing for a just contract.”
Read MoreMichigan Construction Group Opposes Democrats in Union Fray
A statewide association serving Michigan’s commercial and industrial construction sectors on Monday announced their strong opposition to Democrat-sponsored legislation to repeal the state’s 2011 Fair and Open Competition in Government Construction Act.
Shane Hernandez, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan, told The Center Square that the effort announced by House Democrats last March would undo protections for 85% of the state’s construction workers who don’t belong to a union. The current law prohibits union mandates for workers on government building contracts.
Read MoreNational Right to Work Foundation Files Amicus Brief in Michigan Union Lawsuit
The National Right to Work Foundation filed an amicus brief at the Michigan Supreme Court opposing a strategy used by a Michigan union.
The brief, filed Friday, says the union officials of the Technical, Professional, and Officeworkers Association of Michigan “weaponizes” the grievance process to force nonmember public employees to pay fees to the union.
Read MoreCommentary: Trust Teachers to Make Their Own Decisions Regarding Union Membership
American’s respect for teachers is high coming out of the pandemic, according to a new EdChoice poll — placing them among doctors and members of the military as some of the most respected professionals in the country.
A whopping 70 percent of Americans respect the men and women who teach our children — yet across the nation, teachers are prevented from making their own decisions when it comes to key aspects of their job: their membership in a teachers’ union.
Read MoreSocialists Offer Six-Week Training for College Students to Unionize for Social Justice
This summer, Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) is conducting a six-week summer session that trains college students to unionize for social justice in their workplaces.
Titled “Red Hot Summer,” the training will give “give young workers the tools to organize their workplace and discuss how the labor movement can play a role in winning fights against racism, sexism, homophobia, climate change, and imperialism,” according to the YSDA website.
Read MoreCommentary: The Outcome if Government Unions Get Control of an Entire State
Chaos. Disruption. Uncertainty.
The Chicago Teachers Union provides a real-world example of what happens when a government union has too much power.
CTU has gone on strike three times in three school years. In the latest work stoppage, over 330,000 schoolchildren missed five days of school. Parents were notified of the walkout after 11 p.m. on a school night, leaving them just hours to develop a back-up plan after the union decided not to show up.
Read MoreLabor Board Orders New Union Election at Amazon Warehouse
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered a new unionization election at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama, ruling that the company violated federal labor law during the first election.
“Today’s decision confirms what we were saying all along – that Amazon’s intimidation and interference prevented workers from having a fair say in whether they wanted a union in their workplace – and as the Regional Director has indicated, that is both unacceptable and illegal,” Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) President Stuart Appelbaum said in a statement Monday.
“Amazon workers deserve to have a voice at work, which can only come from a union,” he continued.
Read MoreAmazon Warehouse Workers in New York Set to File for Union Vote
Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York City, announced plans Thursday to file for a union election before the National Labor Relations Board next week.
Amazon Labor Union, which represents 2,000 Amazon workers, signed union authorization cards and announced plans to petition for an election, according to Vice. If the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) approves this request and the unionization vote succeeds, the workers would be the first Amazon employees to successfully unionize.
Read MoreRieth-Riley Workers Win Settlements Against Union for Illegal Strike Retaliation
Michigan Rieth-Riley Construction Company employees Rob Nevins and Jesse London won settlements against the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 324 union.
The settlements order IUOE union bosses not to discriminate against London and Nevins for leaving the union and pay $364 to London for owed health insurance premium.
The settlements stem from charges of retaliation the workers filed during the strike IUOE union bosses ordered in mid-2019. London and Nevins ended their union memberships and chose to keep working.
Read MoreLargest Health Care Union to Fight Mandatory Vaccine Requirements for Workers
The president of the largest union of health care workers in the U.S. says it will fight companies requiring its members to have mandatory COVID-19 shots as a condition of employment.
The announcement came one day after Houston Methodist announced that 153 employees had been fired or resigned for refusing to get the shots as a condition of employment. Those suing argue requiring employees to receive a vaccine approved only through Emergency Use Authorization violates federal law. After a recent court dismissal, their attorney vowed to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
George Gresham, president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, is weighing the organization’s legal options.
Read MoreCommentary: Federalism is Key to Surviving a Divided Nation
We live in a divided nation. Our politics have become not just polarized, but toxic. For a country founded on the principles of individual liberty, democratic choice in representative government, and republican protection of natural rights, America has seemingly lost its way. American politics have devolved into a zero-sum game power struggle between two wings of the same establishment—with the prize being the privilege of exploiting the American working class. We are a long way, both figuratively and literally, from the raging fires of liberty that opposed the crown’s Stamp Act in 1765.
Like all empires, America’s decline, or “transformation” in the words of our 44th president, was the result of poor decisions by both elected leaders and the citizens who elected them. Corruption on the part of a rent-seeking elite and apathy on the part of the citizens have delivered us to our present situation. Although it is important to understand the mistakes that we made along the road to our failing empire, the real question we should be asking now is what are we to do about our current predicament.
In David Reaboi’s essay in the Claremont Institute’s The American Mind, he discusses the importance of ending traditional America’s favorite pastime of arguing the same ground with the political opposition over and over again—as if minds are not already made up and just one more pithy tweet or witty meme would finally produce a tidal wave of political defections. Instead, he states, we should consider the work we must do in order to salvage some form of republican society that appreciates and protects the founding principles of America’s charter and our way of life.
Read MoreCommentary: Biden’s Union Agenda Betrays American Workers
The consequences of Democratic control of Congress and the White House are just beginning to be felt, as one of the most disruptive pieces of legislation in American history quietly moves from the House of Representatives to the Senate, where only a successful filibuster may prevent its passage. H.R. 842, also known as the Protect the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act) goes a long way towards completing America’s transition into a corporate oligarchy. Because it will also make the elite captains of big labor more powerful than ever, they don’t care.
The PRO Act, like the more visible H.R. 1, is an example of disastrous legislation that is packaged and labeled as advancing the interests of the American worker, when in fact they are designed by special interests to destroy democracy and deny upward mobility. The new operative theme is simple and tragic: in America, big labor, big business, and big government no longer engage in healthy conflict. Rather than checking and balancing each other, on the biggest issues they display a corrupt unity.
Here are some of the provisions of the PRO Act:
Read MoreTeachers Union Gave Nearly $20 Million to Dems Before Influencing CDC School Reopening Guidance
The teachers union in the middle of a scandal for influencing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s official school reopening guidance gave nearly $20 million to Democrats in the 2020 election cycle, filings show.
Federal election filings reveal that the American Federation of Teachers and its local affiliates spent $19,903,532 on political donations during the 2020 cycle, with nearly all of the funds going to Democrats and liberal groups.
Last year’s AFT donations include $5,251,400 for the Democrats Senate Majority PAC and $4,600,000 for the Democratic House Majority PAC, according to data compiled by The Center for Responsive Politics’ Open Secrets database.
Read MoreMichigan Think Tank Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Union Agency Fee Case
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation submitted a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court Monday for Rizzo-Rupon v. International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
The Midland-based foundation seeks to extend First Amendment protections to employees who have been unionized under the Railway Labor Act, which covers railway and airline employees.
Read MoreCommentary: Removing President Trump Before January 20 Would Imperil the Union
House Democrats are proceeding apace with their plans to impeach President Donald Trump before his term ends on Jan. 20 when Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, accusing Trump of inciting insurrection after the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 following the Save America Rally he spoke at challenging the outcome of the 2020 election.
Read MoreCivil Service Commission Proposes Rule Changes for Union Dues Authorization and Service Fee Collection
The Michigan Civil Service Commission last Friday issued a notice of proposed changes in the how unions collect money from state employees.
The two proposed changes pertain to payroll deduction of union dues, discontinuing of union service fees, and authorization to collect union dues from employees.
Read MoreAuthorities Arrest and Charge Jacksonville-Area Man for Aggravated Assault and Criminal Mischief After Allegedly Targeting GOP Volunteers
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s department announced Gregory Timm was arrested after allegedly driving a van into a Republican voter registration tent in a Jacksonville area parking lot.
Read MoreWorkers Aren’t Entitled to Refunds for Mandatory Union Dues, 9th Circuit Says
Public employees who paid mandatory dues to government unions are not entitled to refunds, despite a Supreme Court decision striking down such agency fee arrangements as unconstitutional, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.
Read MoreCommentary: Senators Grassley and Alexander Tackle Projected Union Pension Collapse
Our nation’s pension systems are in trouble. Underfunded with outsized promises to beneficiaries who are living longer, the death rattles of the defined benefit pension system, which promises a fixed amount of money per month for retirees, are now audible.
Read MoreAnalysis: How A California School Showed That Parent Involvement Improves Education
An elementary school in California has seen improvements among students for the first time in more than 10 years — something that was unthinkable just last year.
Read MoreUAW Tells Members That Negotiations with GM ‘Have Taken a Turn for the Worse’
United Auto Workers alerted its members Sunday that negotiations with General Motors “have taken a turn for the worse.”
Read MoreFive Extra Right to Work Lawsuits Pressed in Michigan on Average When Compared to Other States
The National Right to Work Foundation has pressed 127 cases in Michigan since 2013, making up nearly 10 percent of all open cases at any given time and averaging to an extra five cases a year when compared to other states.
Read MoreMore Than a Dozen Michigan Public School Employees Freed from Union Dues under Right to Work Act
Thirteen public school employees from around Michigan have been freed from illegal union dues as a result of a settlement won earlier this year, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation announced on Thursday.
Read MoreTeacher Retaliated Against for Criticizing ‘Racial Equity’ Policy Can Seek Punitive Damages from St. Paul Schools
A U.S. magistrate judge has ruled that Aaron Benner, a former St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS) teacher, can seek punitive damages against his former employer, which allegedly retaliated against him after he criticized its “racial equity” policy.
Read MoreGeneral Motors Closes Warren Transmission Plant, Affecting 260 Hourly Workers
The General Motors transmission plant in Warren has officially closed.
Read MoreCommentary: Democrats’ Forced Labor Unionization Bill Threatens Jobs and Workers’ Rights
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2019 (PRO Act) is a great illustration of just how radical and out-of-touch today’s Democrat Party is. The bill, which has 179 House Democrat cosponsors and 40 Senate Democrat cosponsors, would force millions of workers into unions they oppose and destroy jobs while lining the pockets of liberal fat-cat donors. Just when some workers finally begin recovering from the Great Recession is no time to be killing jobs in the franchise industry and the gig economy. For these and other reasons, the bill must be rejected.
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