Tag: labor strikes

Rutgers faculty ends historic strike, classes to resume

Rutgers University has reached a tentative agreement with its faculty and staff unions, allowing classes to resume Monday after a nearly week-long historic strike.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced the breakthrough early Saturday, following five days of negotiations between the university and the unions’ leaders in his office that led to the 257-year-old school’s first strike.

“This fair and amicable conclusion respects the interests of many different stakeholders, upholds New Jersey’s values and puts an end to a standoff that was disruptive to our educators and students alike,” Murphy said in a tweet.

Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway praised the agreement, calling its provisions “fair and equitable.” 


The strike involved about 9,000 Rutgers faculty members and staff as well as students.
Noah K. Murray for NY Post

The tentative agreement includes salary boosts across the board for full-time faculty and counselors by at least 14% by July 1, 2025. It also includes higher pay for adjuncts, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, as well as greater job security for adjuncts. 

The contracts, which will need to be voted on by the unions’ members, would be retroactive to July 1, 2022. 

The strike began Monday after about 9,000 Rutgers faculty and staff walked off the job, disrupting classes for the university’s 67,000 students statewide, many of whom joined the picket line. 


Rutgers University strikers on the picket line
The five-day strike disrupted classes for 67,000 students statewide.
AP

The strikers were seeking increased pay, better job security for adjunct faculty and guaranteed funding for graduate students.
ZUMAPRESS.com

The drastic demonstration came after almost a year of stalled contract negotiations, according to strikers. Among their demands were higher salary, better job security for adjunct faculty and guaranteed funding for graduate students.

In a joint statement, the unions noted that there were still “open issues” that needed to be addressed, but said the strike helped them achieve “vital progress” for their contracts goals. 

“The agreements we secured in this framework are a testament to all the workers, students and community members who organized, talked to colleagues and friends, walked the picket lines and marched in New Brunswick, Newark and Camden,” they said.

Classes for students will begin again Monday. 



Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

More than 200 Gannett staffers stage one-day strike over wages

More than 200 Gannett staffers are staging a day-long strike on Friday as they demand better wages and benefits — a fresh burst of unrest following recent layoffs at the newspaper giant.

The NewsGuild, which represents staffers at Gannett — which owns USA Today and a slew of local papers such as the Detroit Free Press, the Bergen Record and the Indianapolis Star — said Friday that 14 of the company’s newsrooms, won’t work at all on Friday,

Those include employees from publications in New Jersey, New York, Arizona and California. Workers in Florida, Texas and Ohio, meanwhile, will stage a lunch-time walkout.

A rep for the NewsGuild said the strikes were in response to the company laying off 400 employees and cutting another 400 open positions in August, which represented 3% of staff.” Those cuts were followed by more belt-tightening in October, which included furloughs and cuts to the 401k plan.

Employees walked out Friday after Gannett cut 400 employees and 400 open jobs this year.
AP

“These devastating cuts to local newsrooms come on the heels of Gannett announcing a $100M stock buyback program for shareholders in February, directing critical funding away from local newsrooms and to rich shareholders,” the rep said.

Gannett did not immediately return requests for comment. The company told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, that the strikes won’t interfere with putting out the news to its readers.

“We continue to bargain in good faith to finalize contracts that provide equitable wages and benefits for our valued employees,” the company said.

USA Today-parent Gannett slashed hundreds of jobs and made cuts to employee 401-K plans recently.
Getty Images

The McLean, Va.-based Gannett said in a recent securities filing that as of last December, it employed roughly 4,846 journalists across local papers, USA Today and in its U.K. publications.

On Thursday, the publisher swung to a third-quarter net loss of $54 million, and said it expected to post a loss for the full year. Chief Executive Michael Reed cited inflationary pressures and macroeconomic volatility/

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Biden administration says ‘tentative’ deal reached to avoid national rail strike

The Biden Administration announced rail companies and unions reached a “tentative” agreement to void a national rail strike following an ongoing labor dispute.

On Thursday morning, the White House said in a statement that “better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs” will be given to rail workers.

President Joe Biden said in a statement the tentative deal “will keep our critical rail system working and avoid disruption of our economy.”

An Amtrak worker opens a door on a train at Union Station in Los Angeles, as stoppages are announced on Sept. 14, 2022.
AP

Twelve unions representing 115,000 workers agreed to the deal.

“The tentative agreement reached tonight is an important win for our economy and the American people,” Biden announced. “These rail workers will get better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs: all hard-earned.”

An Amtrak passenger train departs Chicago in the early evening on Sept. 14, 2022 in Chicago.
AP

“The agreement is also a victory for railway companies who will be able to retain and recruit more workers for an industry that will continue to be part of the backbone of the American economy for decades to come,” Biden added.

The details of the tentative agreement have not been shared.

According to The Association of American Railroads trade group, a strike would have cost the economy an estimated $2 billion a day. 

Just hours before an agreement was reached, Amtrak canceled all of its long-distance passenger trains.

While Amtrak workers are not involved in the ongoing labor dispute, over 21,000 of track miles outside of the northeast corridor — Boston to Washington D.C. — are owned and maintained by freight companies.

The deals of the “tentative” agreement were based on recommendations by the Presidential Emergency Board, appointed by Biden this summer, that called for 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses in a five-year deal, retroactive to 2020.

The unions that represent conductors and engineers who drive trains have held out hoping the railroads address additional issues, such as their strict attendance policy making it difficult to take time off. They have said that the railroad’s decision to slash its workforce by one-third over the last six years has made the job even harder.

A Chicago area Metra commuter train headed to the city’s Union Station passes an Amtrak passenger train on Sept. 14, 2022.
AP

They have demanded the railroads provide unpaid leave time so workers could tend to their personal business, such as doctor’s appointments, without being penalized.

The strike would have put additional strain on the already log-jammed supply chains and could escalate already high inflation costs.

Even a brief shutdown would have dramatically disrupted the shipping of fuel, chemicals, foods, cars, coal, and other imported goods and products.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Exit mobile version