Golden Age of TV is Not So Golden for Writers: Why the Writers Guild of America is Moving Closer to a Strike
Los Angeles Times
Arkansas poultry workers, Brooklyn warehouse workers and house cleaners, Twin Cities roofers, and thousands of students in places like Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Charlotte, North Carolina. They were all among the tens of thousands who stayed home from work or school across the country during Thursday, February 16’s “Day without Immigrants.”
The major issues are health coverage, pensions and work rules.
Pensions rankle TWU members because theirs don't increase if a worker makes more than $50,000 a year, meaning a union member will receive no more than $30,000 a year in pension payments after retirement even if they earned more than $50,000 when they retired. By contrast, managers with Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority] have no pension caps.
The settlement may well resonate beyond the gates of Harvard Yard. It marks the fourth time in recent months that a union has bucked a long and steady decline in the clout of organized labor groups. The show of strength for organized labor comes at a time when just 11.1 percent of the US workforce is unionized. Some labor specialists say changing economic conditions are giving unions newfound leverage, despite their relatively modest ranks.
400 workers represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union have been on strike at the Just Born candy factory since September 7. Just Born's hard-line stance on hiring replacement workers could have both short- and long-term consequences for the company, including the need to rebuild shattered trust among employees and the possibility of fending off lawsuits from the workers hired to replace them, experts said.
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