What the pending UAW-Big 3 deals mean for workers, Biden and the economy

The United Auto Workers have a deal. Deals, that is.

If the tentative agreements reached in recent days between the United Auto Workers and the Big Three automakers cross the finish line, it will mark a turning point in a year of labor unrest.

Union President Shawn Fain will have delivered his promised record economic contract — though falling short of his original ambitions — using the unconventional strategy of bargaining with all three companies at once, and perhaps accelerating growing support for unions.

Labor Leader Did Not Make Demands In Exchange For Early Biden Endorsement

The AFL-CIO, the country’s largest federation of labor unions, did not make any demands of President Joe Biden in return for the group’s earliest-ever endorsement of a presidential candidate, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler told HuffPost in an interview last week.

Shuler, instead, believes that Biden’s record helping labor unions was more than enough to secure its early endorsement, which it coordinated in June with numerous member unions and several unions that are not in the AFL-CIO, such as the Service Employees International Union and the National Education Association.

Why a Big Union Is Snubbing Biden, Doing Industry’s Dirty Work and Creating an Opening for Trump

As the United Auto Workers braces for a potentially historic strike in September, the union has taken a justifiably hard line in its negotiations with America’s Big Three automakers. The companies’ outsized profits and the more than ample reward structures for top executives at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis underscore the fruits of a period of industry prosperity from which 350,000 unionized auto workers have largely been excluded.

Why, for instance, the union asked, has GM CEO Mary Barra seen huge raises — earning $29 million in 2022 and over $200 million over the last nine years — while many auto workers still toil under a draconian two-tier wage system that pays new hires substantially less than old ones, inaugurated following GM’s 2009 bankruptcy and massive Washington bailout?

The Green New Deal is fracturing a critical base for Democrats: unions

As a statement of principles and goals, the Green New Deal seems to take economic justice and workers’ rights pretty seriously. It calls for a federal jobs guarantee. It says we need workforce retraining, strengthening collective bargaining rights, retirement security, and universal health care.

The resolution decries “antilabor policies” and says it must be fleshed out with input from “frontline and vulnerable communities, labor unions, [and] worker cooperatives,” with the goal of creating “high-quality union jobs.”

Manitoba's unions are ready to fight proposed labour legislation

Manitoba's labour leaders are pushing back against new legislation they say drastically reduces workers' rights and puts Manitobans' health care at risk.

Earlier this month, the provincial government passed Bill 28 and Bill 29. Bill 28, The Public Services Sustainability Act, creates a rolling four-year period of wage freezes or minimal wage increases. Bill 29, The Health Sector Bargaining Review Act, dramatically decreases the number of unions in the health-care sector, and could possibly pit unions against each other.

Driving Uber Toward Unionization

When workers rallied in cities nationwide for last month’s Fight for 15 National Day of Action, the street marches were joined for the first time by a protest on wheels, as Uber drivers ramped up their campaign for full-fledged labor rights.

The call for a $15 hourly minimum wage and a union seems a distant prospect for app-based contract drivers who are generally neither considered employees nor waged workers. But Uber drivers are taking to the courts and the streets to turn the taxi industry’s disruption into a new legal avenue for labor justice.

No progress made on public sector bargaining as Liberals ape Conservatives' stance

Canada's largest public service union is warning of another era of emaciated civil service systems following a second round of unsuccessful contract negotiations under the Liberal government.

Five bargaining units from the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), representing nearly 100,000 civil servants, met with teams from the Treasury Board in Ottawa last week to discuss new contracts.

How a BC Union Dumped Fossil Fuels and Cashed In

"Hey, you placed an order to move all of your money out of equities. What's going on?!"

No surprise that the investment manager was twitchy. BC Government and Service Employees' Union treasurer Paul Finch expected a reaction when he pulled $20 million from Canadian equities in one day in 2014.

Both the strike fund, and the union's general reserves -- Finch told the investment managers to sell the equity holdings. Now.

Unions and Cooperatives: How Workers Can Survive and Thrive

The year 2008 was when the big banks were bailed out, but it was also the year that catalyzed one group of window makers into democratically running their own factory.

On the former industrial hub of Goose Island in Chicago, the employees of Republic Windows and Doors made headlines after they were locked out of their jobs just before Christmas without the back pay or severance they were owed. Organized by the United Electrical Workers Union, these displaced workers did exactly what the ownership hoped they wouldn't do. They refused to quietly accept the layoffs. Instead, the workers engaged in a sitdown strike at their factory, garnering local and national media attention. Eventually, the employees won the occupation, forcing Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase (Republic's primary creditors) to create a fund to give the workers their back pay, benefits, and health insurance. This became viewed as a much-needed victory for workers and unions in a desperate economic time.

Devastating cuts threaten Toronto city workers' job security, union says

Thousands of City of Toronto workers are facing sweeping contract changes designed to eliminate job security, create less stability for part-time employees and significantly reduce benefits, union locals have revealed.

Locals 79 and 416 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) have been in negotiations with The City of Toronto since late October over new collective agreements for their members. Yesterday, Toronto city public library workers began negotiating with the City.

Dismayed by Resource Royalty Inaction, Alberta Unions Learn Tough Lesson

After years of advocating for a fair share on resource royalties for Albertans, the adoption of the royalty review recommendations came as a disappointment to many unions and progressive groups in Alberta. Labour experts say the results serve as a warning to be vocal and mobilized on progressive issues.

"The review is reflective of the pressures the government will face over the next three years," says Jason Foster, professor of labour relations at Athabasca University. "The realities government will face will create tensions among its natural allies."

BC Hydro Pledge Saves Mining Jobs? Not So Fast, Says Union

British Columbia's mining minister says allowing mines to delay paying for electricity will help workers through a time of low commodity prices, but the head of a union representing many of those workers dismissed the announcement as a photo op and said there are better ways to help.

"We're not doing this for the corporations, we're not doing this for the shareholders, we're doing this for the people who work in these mines," Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett said in a conference call with reporters. "There's 30,000 people in this province who depend on mining."

PS unions want more than 'review' of contentious labour bill

The Liberal government and federal unions are locking horns over a piece of Conservative-era labour legislation even before they reach their first round of collective bargaining.

Treasury Board President Scott Brison said Friday he is sticking to his plan to review rather than repeal Bill C-4, the contentious Tory legislation that completely changed the ground rules for collective bargaining in the public service.

Unions could save Goodwill Toronto from incompetent management

Earlier this week, Goodwill announced that they were closing their Toronto-area stores. Sixteen stores and 10 donation centres stocked full of donated clothing and household items were apparently no longer profitable.

The workers have expressed the most shock. Despite business as usual, as deliveries continued and people dropped off their impulse buys, maternity clothes and too-small pants, the board voted to cease operations. The workers have been consistent in media reports: they are shocked.

How Unions Fight Inequality and Strengthen Democracy

A new study from the International Monetary Fund concludes that unions reduce inequality and foster a healthier economy for everyone, mainly by preventing the wealthiest among us from keeping the fruits of a collaboratively created prosperity for themselves.

The IMF study shows that a reinvigorated labor movement is essential to both a just economy and a well-functioning democracy. It deserves widespread attention – and should inspire concerted action.

Kathleen Wynne defends paying $2.5M for union negotiating expenses

Premier Kathleen Wynne says giving teacher unions millions of taxpayer dollars for negotiating contracts with the province is just the cost of doing business.

Wynne told the Star Friday she doesn’t like the idea or the optics of turning over $2.5 million — no receipts required — to cover the unions’ expenses for things like hotel rooms and so on but says that’s the way it’s done, even in the private sector.

“I understand that in isolation that’s a big number . . . but there is a cost associated with getting those agreements,” said Wynne in a wide-ranging interview.

Is Campaign Cash From Police Unions Watering Down Democrats' Reform Efforts?

At every turn, police unions and law enforcement lobbying groups have staunchly opposed measures aimed at policing reform. They have been the first and loudest voices to defend the perpetrators of each new incident of police murder and brutality caught on camera - no matter how heinous.

Most recently, in California, unions called on Gov. Jerry Brown to veto a recently passed bill that aims to curb racial profiling by requiring police to report the race and other demographic features of any person stopped by an officer. Craig Lally, the president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, called the law "a joke," while Lt. Steve James, who is president of the Long Beach Officers Association and the national trustee for the California Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), asserted that racial profiling does not exist, saying that police simply engage in "criminal profiling."

Canadian auto union slams TPP trade deal; calls new content rules ‘outrageous’

TORONTO - The Canadian auto industry could shed as many as 20,000 jobs a result of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, according to autoworkers' union Unifor, as Canada's tariff on imported vehicles is rapidly phased out and domestic content rules are loosened.

The trade deal, announced Monday, will see Canada's 6.1 per cent tariff on imported vehicles phased out over a five-year period, giving Japanese automakers much quicker access to the Canadian auto market than the U.S. one.

PSAC prepares to battle Conservative government over sick leave reforms

The federal government and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the largest union representing federal workers, will exchange documents this month ahead of a court battle over proposed reforms to sick leave. For over a year, sick leave has been at the centre of contentious contract negotiations.

Officially, the government supports continuing the bargaining process, but in May gave itself the power, through budget implementation Bill C-59, to impose its plan regardless of the negotiations' outcomes. 

Public service union helped save library's documents from the dumpster

By exposing the trashing of reports, journals and other documents, Canada's public service union may have prevented even more from ending up in a landfill, Johanne Fillion, a spokesperson for the Professional Institute of Public Service (PIPSC), told National Observer this week.

After PIPSC issued a release in late August showing the holdings from a suddenly-closed federal government library tossed in a dumpster, Agriculture Canada has since boxed a large amount of material, Fillion said.