Tag Archives: Strike

75,000 Health Care workers go on strike

Kaiser-Strike

Important Takeaways:

  • Thousands of US health care workers go on strike in multiple states over wages and staff shortages
  • Picketing began Wednesday morning at Kaiser Permanente hospitals as some 75,000 health care workers go on strike in Virginia, California and three other states over wages and staffing shortages, marking the latest major labor unrest in the United States.
  • Kaiser Permanente is one of the country’s larger insurers and health care system operators, with 39 hospitals nationwide. The non-profit company, based in Oakland, California, provides health coverage for nearly 13 million people, sending customers to clinics and hospitals it runs or contracts with to provide care.
  • The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, representing about 85,000 of the health system’s employees nationally, approved a strike for three days in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, and for one day in Virginia and Washington, D.C.
  • The strikers include licensed vocational nurses, home health aides and ultrasound sonographers, as well as technicians in radiology, X-ray, surgical, pharmacy and emergency departments.

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United Auto Workers strike could be the next crisis for the economy

UAW-Strike-2023

Important Takeaways:

  • ‘We’re in the abyss’: How the UAW strike could hit the economy
  • While the current economic impact of a targeted strike by the United Auto Workers (UAW) is limited, the threat of a full walkout looms over contract negotiations with auto giants Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
  • Right now, that threat is hard to quantify — any estimate will depend on the length of the strike and how many more workers are called to the picket line.
  • Even so, the economic impact of a full-fledged 10-day strike against the Big Three could top $5 billion, the Anderson Economic Group estimated in an August report.
  • A months-long work stoppage could also eat into the Big Three’s cash holdings, Fitch Ratings warned Friday, particularly if the targeted strikes balloon to a widespread shutdown.
  • And autoworkers are already being laid off by some companies, as thousands more UAW members brace for making just $500 per week on the picket line.
  • “Nobody knows now. We’re in the abyss,” Pete DeVito Jr., and automotive director of the United Service Workers Union, told The Hill in a phone interview.
  • Automakers and suppliers are already planning to lay off nonstriking workers and are ringing alarm bells about the potential long-term impacts.
  • Ford temporarily laid off 600 workers Friday, citing “knock-on effects” from the strike, and General Motors said it would likely lay off around 2,000 employees, the Detroit Free Press reported.
  • DeVito also warned that consumers could bear the brunt of higher car prices, which had just begun to fall from historic highs during the pandemic.

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United Auto Workers Union goes on strike against Big Three Auto makers

Ford-automaker

Important Takeaways:

  • UAW to Strike All Big Three Automakers at the Same Time for First Time in History
  • “Tonight for the first time in our history we will strike all three of the big three at once,” UAW president Shawn Fain said on Thursday. They are prepared to strike at midnight, according to Fain.
  • They plan to strike at a General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri; a Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio; and a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan.
  • “If we need to go all out, we will,” Fain declared. “Everything is on the table.”
  • Roughly 150,000 American auto workers are represented by the UAW union. President Joe Biden’s green agenda is a major concern for autoworkers whose jobs are being eliminated by Biden’s rapid push for a transition to electric vehicles (EVs), which require less workers to produce than gas-powered vehicles. As Breitbart’s Senior Editor-at-Large Rebecca Mansour reported, “While autoworkers are seeing their wages slashed due to the EV adoption, the Big Three executives have enjoyed a windfall thanks to the EV tax credits in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).”

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Tyson chicken plant set to close in Arkansas

Revelations 13:16-18 “Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”

Important Takeaways:

  • U.S. Tyson Foods workers strike at Arkansas chicken plant set to close
  • About 150 employees of a Tyson Foods Inc chicken plant in Arkansas went on strike on Monday for better treatment before the company shuts the facility, an organizer said.
  • Tyson plans to close the plant in Van Buren, Arkansas, on May 12, eliminating jobs for 969 non-union employees, as it seeks to improve performance in its chicken business.
  • Employees refused to work in part because Tyson said they would not receive full payouts for vacation time they accrued.

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New York Nurses to go on Strike if demands aren’t met

Luke 21:11 “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Major US City Prepares for Nurses to Go on Strike, Impacting Hospitals
  • A spokesperson for New York Mayor Eric Adams’s administration said the fire department has plans to reroute ambulances, while NYC Health + Hospitals will implement an emergency plan to deal with patients amid the staffing shortfall.
  • “We recognize the effect that a nurse strike would have on health care in our city and we are actively planning for different scenarios to minimize any impact to New Yorkers and ensure that the people of our city continue to receive care,” a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement.
  • As of the morning of Jan. 8, the New York State Nurses Association, a union representing 42,000 members across the state, said no new agreement was reached with area hospitals. It said about 8,700 union nurses at three hospitals—Montefiore Bronx, Mount Sinai Hospital, and Mount Sinai Morningside and West—will go on strike if the union’s demands aren’t met.
  • Union officials say the nurses are demanding higher wages, better health care benefits, and a smaller nurse-to-patient ratio.

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France begins nationwide strike amid soaring inflation

French trade unions began a nationwide strike on Tuesday, asking for higher salaries amid decades-high inflation and posing President Emmanuel Macron one of his stiffest challenges since his reelection in May.

The strike, which will primarily affect public sectors such as schools and transportation, is an extension of the weeks-long industrial action that has disrupted France’s major refineries and put petrol stations’ supply in disarray.

Trade union leaders are hoping workers will be energized by the government’s decision to force some of them to go back to work at petrol depots to try and get the fuel flowing again, a move some say put in jeopardy the right to strike.

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National Rail labor strike could take place July 18 making supply chain woes even worse

Rev 6:6 NAS “And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”

Important Takeaways:

  • National rail labor strike possible July 18 unless President Joe Biden intervenes
  • Railroad freight traffic across the United States could come to a screeching halt July 18 if progress isn’t made on a labor contract between national rail carriers and their unions.
  • Union officials stressed they do not want to go on strike, but argued they are being forced to consider the option in a bid to get better benefits, wages and staffing.
  • The two sides were forced into a 30-day “cooling off period” after failing to reach an agreement working through the National Mediation Board. The cooling off period prevents unions from striking or railroads from locking out their workers while they continue to negotiate.
  • That cooling off period ends at midnight on July 18, and a coalition of unions could choose to go on strike at that point, said Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation union president Jeremy Ferguson.

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Kellogg to permanently replace striking employees as workers reject new contract

By Praveen Paramasivam

(Reuters) – Kellogg Co said on Tuesday a majority of its U.S. cereal plant workers have voted against a new five-year contract, forcing it to hire permanent replacements as employees extend a strike that started more than two months ago.

Temporary replacements have already been working at the company’s cereal plants in Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Tennessee where 1,400 union members went on strike on Oct. 5 as their contracts expired and talks over payment and benefits stalled.

“Interest in the (permanent replacement) roles has been strong at all four plants, as expected. We expect some of the new hires to start with the company very soon,” Kellogg spokesperson Kris Bahner said.

Kellogg also said there was no further bargaining scheduled and it had no plans to meet with the union.

The company said “unrealistic expectations” created by the union meant none of its six offers, including the latest one that was put to vote, which proposed wage increases and allowed all transitional employees with four or more years of service to move to legacy positions, came to fruition.

“They have made a ‘clear path’ – but while it is clear – it is too long and not fair to many,” union member Jeffrey Jens said.

Union members have said the proposed two-tier system, in which transitional employees get lesser pay and benefits compared to longer-tenured workers, would take power away from the union by removing the cap on the number of lower-tier employees.

Several politicians including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have backed the union, while many customers have said they are boycotting Kellogg’s products.

Kellogg is among several U.S. firms, including Deere & Co, that has faced worker strikes in recent months as the labor market tightens.

(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Shounak Dasgupta)

Kellogg reaches tentative deal with union after 2 months of strike

(Reuters) -Kellogg Co said on Thursday it has reached an agreement with the union on a new five-year contract for its employees at a few breakfast-cereal plants in the United States, potentially bringing a near two-month long strike to an end.

The tentative agreement, reached after multiple rounds of talks with the union, includes wage increases and benefits for all employees and better terms for temporary employees.

The latest agreement allows for all temporary employees with four or more years of service to move to permanent positions with better pay and benefits.

Union members had previously opposed Kellogg’s two-tier employment system that did not offer temporary workers, who make up 30% of its workforce, a pathway to become permanent staff.

Employees at Kellogg’s cereal plants including Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Tennessee went on strike on Oct. 5 after their contracts expired, as negotiations over payment and benefits stalled due to differences between the company and about 1,400 union members.

The new deal, which will be voted on by Kellogg employees on Dec. 5, will also offer permanent employees with better post-retirement benefits.

During lengthy negotiations with union members, Kellogg had hired permanent replacements for some of its plant workers on strike, and also warned of a dent to its annual profit due to the disruption.

Kellogg is one of the several major U.S. companies that has faced worker strikes in the recent past as the labor market tightens and inflation reaches record highs.

Last month, farm equipment maker Deere & Co reached an agreement with workers after a six week strike.

(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Shinjini Ganguli)

 

French police fire tear gas at strikers challenging Macron reform

By Sybille de La Hamaide and Marine Pennetier

PARIS (Reuters) – Police fired tear gas at protesters in the center of Paris on Thursday and public transport ground to a near halt in one of the biggest strikes in France for decades, aimed at forcing President Emmanuel Macron to ditch a planned reform of pensions.

The strike pits Macron, a 41-year-old former investment banker who came to power in 2017 on a promise to open up France’s highly regulated economy, against powerful trade unions who say he is set on dismantling worker protections.

The outcome depends on who blinks first – the unions who risk losing public support if the disruption goes on for too long, or the government which fears voters could side with the unions and blame officials for the standoff.

“People can work around it today and tomorrow, but next week people may get annoyed,” said 56-year-old cafe owner Isabelle Guibal.

Rail workers voted to extend their strike through Friday, while labor unions at the Paris bus and metro operator RATP said their walkout would continue until Monday.

Trade unions achieved their initial objective on Thursday, as workers at transport enterprises, schools and hospitals across France joined the strike. In Paris, commuters had to dust off old bicycles, rely on car pooling apps, or just stay at home. The Eiffel Tower had to close to visitors.

On Thursday afternoon, tens of thousands of union members marched through the center of the capital in a show of force.

Trouble erupted away from the main protest when people in masks and dressed in black ransacked a bus stop near the Place de la Republique, ripped up street furniture, smashed shop windows and threw fireworks at police.

Police in riot gear responded by firing tear gas, Reuters witnesses said. Nearby, police used truncheons to defend themselves from black-clad protesters who rushed at them. Prosecutors said, in all, 57 people were detained.

Macron wants to simplify France’s unwieldy pension system, which comprises more than 40 different plans, many with different retirement ages and benefits. Rail workers, mariners and Paris Opera House ballet dancers can retire up to a decade earlier than the average worker.

Macron says the system is unfair and too costly. He wants a single, points-based system under which for each euro contributed, every pensioner has equal rights.

PRESIDENT’S SWAGGER

Macron has already survived one major challenge to his rule, from the grassroots “Yellow Vest” protesters who earlier this year clashed with police and blocked roads around France for weeks on end.

Having emerged from that crisis, he carries himself with a swagger on the world stage, publicly upbraiding U.S. President Donald Trump this week over his approach to the NATO alliance and counter-terrorism.

But the pension reform – on which polls show French people evenly split between supporters and opponents – is fraught with risk for him as it chips away at social protections many in France believe are at the heart of their national identity.

“People are spoiling for a fight,” Christian Grolier, a senior official from the hard-left Force Ouvriere union which is helping organize the strike, told Reuters.

The SNCF state railway said only one in 10 high-speed TGV trains would run and police reported power cables on the line linking Paris and the Riviera had been vandalized. The civil aviation authority asked airlines to cancel 20% of flights because of knock-on effects from the strike.

Past attempts at pension reform have ended badly for the authorities. Former president Jacques Chirac’s conservative government in 1995 caved into union demands after weeks of crippling protests.

(Reporting by Caroline Pailliez, Geert de Clercq, Sybille de La Hamaide, Marine Pennetier, Laurence Frost in paris and Guillaume Frouin in Nantes; Writing by Richard Lough and Christian Lowe; Editing by Gareth Jones)