More than 200 Chicago Public School employees headed into a dreary weekend, after receiving layoff notices. The Chicago Tribune reports that the district laid off 227 current employees and eliminated 180 vacant positions, in attempt to address its budget shortfall. The $32 million savings from the cuts will barely affect the almost half-billion dollar budget deficit. Chicago Public Schools continues to seek concessions from the Chicago Teachers Union in an attempt to narrow the gap. Contract negotiations between the groups will resume on February 1.
In neighboring Michigan, forecasts also look ominous for teachers. The Detroit Free Press writes that Senate Republicans introduced legislation to toughen the state’s anti-strike laws. The bills come after sick-outs throughout Detroit public schools, in which DPS Teachers Fight Back and individual teachers attempted to draw attention to large class sizes and dilapidated buildings. The teacher absences forced 88 schools to close on Wednesday.
Does the Trans-Pacific Partnership raise standards for labor? According to the Atlantic, it depends where you look. The United States negotiated consistency plans with Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, in which governments must meet specified labor rights requirements. But Mexico lacks any equivalent plan, one of the reasons why the Labor Advisory Committee (a coalition of U.S. labor-union representatives) opposed the TPP. With or without a consistency plan, conditions won’t improve internationally without U.S. enforcement. One Congressional staffer told the Atlantic, “You’re putting a lot of faith in an administration to take a role in policing, implementation, and doing a thorough job of judging when implementation has been fulfilled.”
Teamsters members expressed a “some job is better than no job” attitude in their vote to approve contacts to keep two Maryland warehouses open. The members approved two six-year contracts that included concessions on wages decreases, fewer days off, pension reductions, and employee contributions to healthcare costs, in exchange for keeping the warehouses open and under the direct control of Safeway. Lydia DePillis at the Washington Post explains that keeping jobs was the Teamster’s top priority.
Daily News & Commentary
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July 11
Regional director orders election without Board quorum; 9th Circuit pauses injunction on Executive Order; Driverless car legislation in Massachusetts
July 10
Wisconsin Supreme Court holds UW Health nurses are not covered by Wisconsin’s Labor Peace Act; a district judge denies the request to stay an injunction pending appeal; the NFLPA appeals an arbitration decision.
July 9
the Supreme Court allows Trump to proceed with mass firings; Secretary of Agriculture suggests Medicaid recipients replace deported migrant farmworkers; DHS ends TPS for Nicaragua and Honduras
July 8
In today’s news and commentary, Apple wins at the Fifth Circuit against the NLRB, Florida enacts a noncompete-friendly law, and complications with the No Tax on Tips in the Big Beautiful Bill. Apple won an appeal overturning a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision that the company violated labor law by coercively questioning an employee […]
July 7
LA economy deals with fallout from ICE raids; a new appeal challenges the NCAA antitrust settlement; and the EPA places dissenting employees on leave.
July 6
Municipal workers in Philadelphia continue to strike; Zohran Mamdani collects union endorsements; UFCW grocery workers in California and Colorado reach tentative agreements.