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Tag: Strikes

  • Auto workers stop expanding strikes against Detroit Three after GM makes battery plant concession

    Auto workers stop expanding strikes against Detroit Three after GM makes battery plant concession

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    DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union said Friday it will not expand its strikes against Detroit’s three automakers after General Motors made a breakthrough concession on unionizing electric vehicle battery plants.

    The announcement of the pause in adding factories to the strikes came minutes after GM agreed to bring workers at battery factories into the UAW’s national contract, essentially assuring they will represented by the union.

    “We have had a major breakthrough that has not only dramatically changed negotiations, but is going to change the future of our union and the future of our industry,” union President Shawn Fain told workers Friday in a video appearance.

    Fain, wearing a T-shirt that said “Eat the Rich” in bold letters to back his contention that it’s time for the working class to make gains over billionaires, said the UAW is wining at GM and expects to do the same at Ford and Stellantis.

    Neither GM nor Stellantis commented directly on unionization of battery factories, but Ford stuck to statements that workers will have to choose once they are hired at plants that haven’t even been built.

    “We remain open to the possibility of working with the UAW on future battery plants in the U.S., reminding that these are multibillion-dollar investments and have to operate at sustainably competitive levels,” Ford said in a statement.

    Fain told workers that additional plants could be added to the strikes later. He said GM made the change after the union threatened to strike at a plant in Arlington, Texas, that makes highly profitable large SUVs such as the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon.

    “Today, under the threat of a major financial hit, they leapfrogged the pack in terms of a just transition” from combustion engines to electric vehicles, he said.

    The union, he said, has seen significant progress in talks with all three companies. Ford’s general wage offer, for instance, is up to 23% over four years, after starting at 9%. GM and Stellantis, he said, are at 20%. None of the raises is big enough but they’re further along, he said.

    Ford and Stellantis, Fain said, have agreed to return to a cost-of-living pay raise formula that the union gave up in 2007 as the automakers were in financial trouble. Both sides remain far apart on pension increases for workers hired before 2007 and a switch from defined-contribution to defined-benefit pensions for those hired later.

    “Our strike is working, but we’re not there yet,” Fain told workers.

    In addition to the economic issues, the union has long sought assurances that it would represent workers at 10 U.S. battery factories proposed by the companies.

    The automakers have said the plants, mostly joint ventures with South Korean battery makers, had to be bargained separately.

    Friday’s change means the four U.S. GM battery plants would now be covered under the union’s master agreement and GM would bargain with the union’ “which I think is a monumental development,” said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit.

    “GM went far beyond and gave them this,” Masters said. “And I think GM is thinking they may get something in return for this on the economic items.”

    Shares of all three automakers rose after Fain’s announcement in apparent anticipation that deals might be near. GM’s shares ended Friday up almost 2%, Stellantis added 3% and Ford rose just under 1%.

    The automakers have resisted bringing battery plants into the national UAW contracts, contending the union can’t represent workers who haven’t been hired yet. They also say joint venture partners must be involved in the talks.

    They also fear that big union contracts could drive up the prices of their electric vehicles, making them more expensive than Tesla and other nonunion competitors.

    For the past two weeks the union has expanded strikes that began on Sept. 15 when the UAW targeted one assembly plant from each of the three automakers.

    That spread to 38 parts-distribution centers run by GM and Stellantis, maker of Jeeps and Ram pickups. Ford was spared from that expansion because talks with the union were progressing then.

    Last week the union added a GM crossover SUV plant in Lansing, Michigan, and a Ford SUV factory in Chicago but spared Stellantis from additional strikes due to progress in talks.

    The union insists that labor expenses are only 4% to 5% of the cost of a vehicle, and that the companies are making billions in profits and can afford big raises.

    The union had structured its walkouts so the companies can keep making big pickup trucks and SUVs, their top-selling and most profitable vehicles. Previously it shut down assembly plants in Missouri, Ohio and Michigan that make midsize pickups, commercial vans and midsize SUVs, which aren’t as profitable as larger vehicles.

    In the past, the union picked one company as a potential strike target and reached a contract agreement with that company to be the pattern for the others.

    But this year, Fain introduced a novel strategy of targeting a limited number of facilities at all three automakers.

    About 25,000, or about 17%, of the union’s 146,000 workers at the three automakers are now on strike.

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  • The Auto Workers Union Just Announced A Major Breakthrough Toward A ‘Just Transition’

    The Auto Workers Union Just Announced A Major Breakthrough Toward A ‘Just Transition’

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    The United Auto Workers union said General Motors has agreed to put the company’s battery plant workers under the union’s national contract, calling it a major victory in the ongoing strike against the “Big Three” automakers.

    UAW President Shawn Fain said in a Facebook Live address to members Friday that GM had put the agreement “in writing.” The two sides have not yet reached a broader deal on a new four-year contract, but Fain called the battery plant provision a major step forward.

    “We’ve been told for months that this is impossible,” Fain said. “We’ve been told the [electric vehicle] future must be a race to the bottom. And now we’ve called their bluff.”

    Fain said the Detroit-based automaker agreed to put battery plant workers under the union’s contract after the union threatened to strike the company’s assembly plant in Arlington, Texas, where GM rolls out high-margin SUVs like the Chevy Tahoe and Cadillac Escalade.

    A GM spokesperson did not immediately respond when asked to confirm Fain’s announcement, and the union could not provide further details on the plan Friday.

    “We’ve been told the EV future must be a race to the bottom. And now we’ve called their bluff.”

    – Shawn Fain, UAW president

    Battery plant workers loom large in what the union calls a “just transition” away from combustion-engine cars and trucks toward EVs. The union has worried that Ford, GM and Stellantis, which owns the Dodge and Jeep brands, would use the manufacturing pivot as an opportunity to shift away from union labor toward lower-wage, nonunion workforces.

    Backed by federal subsidies, automakers are expected to move heavily toward EV production in the years to come. The UAW has insisted that any new jobs created by electric vehicle demand should have the same standards as traditional union auto jobs, with high wages and retirement security.

    The automakers have generally maintained that the battery plants are joint ventures with other outside companies and therefore the union could not involve those plants in bargaining.

    Fain cast the purported offer from GM as a major breakthrough.

    “The [automakers’] plan was to draw down engine and transmission plants and replace them with low-wage battery jobs,” Fain said. “We had a different plan.”

    He added, “We expect to win at Ford and Stellantis as well.”

    UAW President Shawn Fain, shown here on the picket line, said General Motors has offered to put battery plant workers under the union’s contract.

    JIM WATSON via Getty Images

    The UAW has been on strike against Ford, GM and Stellantis for three weeks. It is the first time in the union’s history that it was waged a concurrent work stoppage at all of the Big Three. But rather than shut down all facilities, the union has opted to strike only targeted plants to leave room for escalation.

    So far, roughly 25,000 workers have gone on strike at five assembly plants and dozens of parts distribution facilities, while thousands more have been temporarily laid off as a result of the walkouts. Roughly 150,000 workers are covered under the three national contracts.

    The union’s strategy of deploying unpredictable walkouts has left the companies on their toes.

    Last week, the union expanded the strike at Ford and GM while sparing Stellantis; the week prior, it expanded the strike at GM and Stellantis while sparing Ford.

    On Friday, Fain announced no additional plants to be struck, citing the progress that has been made in negotiations.

    “Not everything is about pulling out the bazooka,” Fain said. “We’ve been very careful about how we escalate this strike, and we’ve designed this strategy to increase pressure on the companies, not to hurt them for its own sake.”

    He added, “They know we’ve got more cards to play.”

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  • Economic spotlight turns to US jobs data as markets are roiled by high rates and uncertainties

    Economic spotlight turns to US jobs data as markets are roiled by high rates and uncertainties

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    WASHINGTON — Job growth in the United States has remained resilient for the past 2 1/2 years even after high inflation flared and the Federal Reserve jacked up interest rates at the fastest pace in four decades.

    The September jobs report that the Labor Department will issue Friday will show just how much of that durability remains. Additional threats to the economy have emerged in recent weeks, including much higher long-term interest rates, rising energy prices, the resumption of student loan payments, widening labor strikes and the ongoing threat of a government shutdown.

    Economists have forecast that employers added 163,000 jobs last month, a solid increase, though down sharply from the pace earlier this year, when the economy was adding an average of 310,000 jobs a month in the first quarter. The unemployment rate is expected to drop to 3.7%, near a 50-year low, from 3.8% in August.

    A growing body of evidence, though, suggests that the job market is cooling — something Fed officials would like to see. A slower pace of hiring eases pressure on employers to offer higher pay to find and keep employees, which, in turn, can help cool inflation. Businesses often raise their prices to cover their higher labor costs.

    Fewer Americans are quitting their jobs after a surge in resignations in the aftermath of the pandemic. Most people quit to take other jobs with higher pay, so the decline in quitting indicates that workers now see fewer available opportunities elsewhere.

    And while the government reported a jump in open jobs in August, other measures, like those compiled by the job listings website Indeed, showed little change in that month and a steady decline in job vacancies for more than a year.

    Yet the job market has been so strong for so long that a slowdown, as long as it remains gradual, would still keep it at healthy levels. The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits, which tends to track the pace of layoffs, has remained persistently low. Many companies are reluctant to shed workers after having found it difficult to staff up again after the 2020 pandemic recession ended with a quick and robust recovery.

    And surveys by the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, found that both manufacturing and services companies kept adding jobs last month. Among banks, restaurants, retailers and other service sector companies, hiring accelerated in September compared with August, according to the ISM.

    Friday’s jobs report comes at a time when the Fed is scrutinizing every piece of economic data to determine whether it needs to raise its key rate once more this year or instead just leave it elevated well into next year. After 11 hikes beginning in March 2022, the Fed’s benchmark rate stands at a 22-year high of roughly 5.4%. The central bank’s rate increases have led to much higher borrowing costs for consumer and businesses across the economy.

    On the one hand, Fed officials, including Chair Jerome Powell, have stressed that inflation remains too far above their 2% target and that another rate hike might be needed to reduce it to that level. At the same time, several Fed policymakers have underscored that they want to be careful not to raise borrowing rates so much as to trigger a deep recession.

    One of them, Mary Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said Thursday that a slower pace of hiring could help persuade the Fed not to hike again this year.

    “If we continue to see a cooling labor market and inflation heading back to our target, we can hold interest rates steady and let the effects of policy continue to work,” Daly said in remarks to the Economic Club of New York.

    After a period in the spring when traders seemed to expect the Fed to reverse course and cut interest rates soon, the financial markets have increasingly recognized that the central bank will keep its key rate elevated well into 2024. That’s one reason why the yield on the 10-year Treasury note has surged since July, reaching a 16-year high this week before slipping to 4.7% Thursday.

    The 10-year yield is a benchmark rate for other borrowing costs, including mortgages, auto loans and business borrowing. The average rate on a fixed 30-year mortgage jumped to nearly 7.5% this week, the highest level in 23 years. The higher yield has, in turn, punished stocks. The S&P 500 stock index has tumbled 7.2% since late July.

    The surge in longer-term rates coincides with other threats to the economy, from higher gas prices and this week’s resumption of student loan payments to the autoworkers’ strike and the risk of a government shutdown next month, all of which could leave consumers with less money to spend to power the economy.

    The economy’s growth in the current October-December quarter could slow to an annual rate as low as a 0.7%, Goldman Sachs has estimated, sharply below a roughly 3.5% pace in the July-September quarter.

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  • Thousands of US workers are on strike today. Here’s a rundown of major work stoppages happening now

    Thousands of US workers are on strike today. Here’s a rundown of major work stoppages happening now

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    NEW YORK — It’s been a big year for labor organizing in the U.S. And from auto production lines to Hollywood, all eyes are on strikes taking the world of work by storm.

    The boiling point we’re seeing today comes amid soaring costs of living and rising inequality, including growing pay gaps between workers and top executives. Now, thousands of workers who were asked to make sacrifices during the pandemic even as corporate profits soared are asking for better pay and protections — and walking off the job if progress isn’t made in heated contract negotiations.

    At least 453,000 workers have participated in 312 strikes in the U.S. this year, according to Johnnie Kallas, a Ph.D. candidate and the project director of Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker. This year’s work stoppages have spread across multiple industries — including transportation, entertainment and hospitality.

    Here’s a rundown of some of the largest strikes taking place in the U.S. today.

    In the health care sector, a major strike kicked off this week — with some 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers walking off the job Wednesday in multiple states. Strikers include licensed vocational nurses, home health aides and ultrasound sonographers, as well as technicians in the radiology, X-ray, surgical, pharmacy and emergency departments.

    The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents 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.

    Back in August, unions representing Kaiser workers asked for a $25 hourly minimum wage, as well as increases of 7% each year in the first two years and 6.25% each year in the two years afterward. Union members say understaffing is boosting the hospital system’s profits but hurting patients, and executives have been bargaining in bad faith during negotiations.

    Company executive Michelle Gaskill-Hames defended Kaiser — saying its practices, compensation and retention are better than its competitors. Kaiser has proposed minimum hourly wages of between $21 and $23 next year depending on the location.

    Kaiser is one of the country’s larger insurers and health care system operators, serving nearly 13 million people. The Oakland, California-based nonprofit said its 39 hospitals, including emergency rooms, will remain open during the picketing, though appointments and non-urgent procedures could be delayed. Doctors are also not participating in the strike, and Kaiser said it was bringing in thousands of temporary workers.

    In an unprecedented labor campaign against three major car companies, some 25,000 auto workers have joined picket lines in recent weeks

    The United Auto Workers ‘ targeted strikes against General Motors, Stellantis and Ford began at select factories after the union’s contract with the companies expired in mid-September — and have grown to a total of five vehicle assembly plants and 38 parts warehouses since.

    UAW President Shawn Fain has announced strike expansions on each of the past two Fridays, citing a lack of what the union says is meaningful progress, but it’s unclear how much that will continue as the strike nears its 3-week mark.

    A person with direct knowledge of the talks told The Associated Press Wednesday that progress was reported at all three companies, with some offers being exchanged. Another said there was more movement in talks with Jeep maker Stellantis and less at Ford and General Motors. Neither wanted to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly about the bargaining.

    Fain will update members on the negotiations again Friday. The union is seeking 36% general wage increases over four years, as well as a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay, the restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new hires and a return of cost-of-living pay raises, among other benefits.

    The companies, however, fear that raising their labor costs could make their vehicles more expensive than those manufactured by Tesla or foreign automakers with U.S. factories where workers are paid less. Tensions have also risen amid layoffs impacting thousands of workers, with the auto makers saying some factories are running short on parts because of the strike.

    Hollywood was taken by storm this summer with a historic dual strike from the unions representing writers and actors — bringing much of production to a halt.

    After five months on the picket lines, the writers strike was declared over after their union approved a contract agreement with studios last week. Meanwhile, actors are still on strike — but a shot at cutting their own deal is finally on the horizon.

    The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists began negotiations Monday with the same group of major studios and streaming services, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, for the first time since they joined writers on the picket lines on July 14. The two sides resumed talks Wednesday.

    With similar sticking points to the writers, actors and their employers have been divided on issues of pay, the use of artificial intelligence and self-taped auditions. SAG-AFTRA leaders said they would look closely at the gains and compromises of the writers’ deal, but emphasized that their demands would remain the same as they were when the strike began.

    The two sides said in a joint statement that “several executives” from studios would be in on the talks, without providing names.

    Thousands of hotel workers in Southern California have staged staggered walkouts over recent months. Union leaders are calling for better wages, improved health care, higher pension contributions, better safety protections and less strenuous workloads, among other benefits.

    Members of Unite Here Local 11 overwhelmingly voted in favor of authorizing a strike back in June. After contracts expired at more than 60 hotels — including properties owned by major chains such as Marriott and Hilton — cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front desk agents began picketing outside major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties at the start of July.

    During the staggered strikes, workers have also called for solidarity and a boycott of hotels in the Los Angeles area. According to United Here Local 11’s website, the rolling walkouts surpassed the 100th strike mark last month.

    While walkouts continue at dozens of hotels, two companies have made agreements with the union to date. On Friday, United Here Local 11 said that Biltmore Los Angeles had reached a tentative contract agreement — joining Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, which averted walkouts with a June deal promising higher pay and increased staffing levels.

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  • Auto worker strike highlights disparities between temporary and permanent employees

    Auto worker strike highlights disparities between temporary and permanent employees

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    TOLEDO, Ohio — When Rhonda Naus got a job inspecting Jeep Wranglers fresh off the assembly line, her paycheck added up to roughly half of what her co-workers were making. But with that came an expectation that her temporary status eventually would become permanent with a big jump in wages.

    Six years later, she’s still doing the same work as her colleagues at Stellantis and still making a lot less.

    “I knew I had to start at the bottom. I didn’t think I’d be at the bottom forever,” said Naus, who’s among thousands of striking United Auto Workers nationwide pushing for pay and benefit increases along with an end to multiple tiers of wages for workers across the companies.

    From office workers to delivery drivers, companies have become increasingly reliant on temporary workers. Automakers have used the lower-paid workers for years to fill in for absent and vacationing full-time employees and to staff up when production increases.

    Tiers for the Detroit automakers were created starting in 2007 as the UAW tried to help them out of serious financial troubles. Even so, GM and Chrysler ended up in government-funded bankruptcies.

    Today, union leaders say the Detroit automakers are abusing the system to save money by treating temps like full-time workers — one major point of contention in current contract talks that has led to more than 25,000 auto workers going on strike.

    “Temp work has to be temporary work,” said UAW President Shawn Fain weeks before the strike began. “We’re going to end the abuse of temps.”

    The union is also asking for pay raises as part of the contract talks, as well as a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay, the restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new hires and a return of cost-of-living pay raises, among other benefits.

    Under contracts negotiated in 2019, temporary workers reach full-time status at GM after 19 months of continuous employment and at Ford after two years. At Stellantis, maker of Jeeps, Rams and Chryslers, they get preferential hiring but no guarantees.

    In the current negotiations, GM and Stellantis have made offers to increase temporary worker starting pay from $16.67 to about $20 per hour. Ford raised its offer to $21 per hour with profit sharing and said it would make temporaries full-time workers after 90 days of continuous service.

    Once temporary workers become full time, they start on a higher pay scale that eventually would reach the top assembly plant wage of $32 per hour.

    Of the Detroit Three, Stellantis relies most heavily on temporary employees, who make up about 12% of its UAW workforce, or just over 5,100 employees. GM said its temporary workforce accounts for between 5-10% of its total union members while Ford is at about 3%.

    Temps — also known as supplemental employees — account for about one in every five of the 5,800 unionized workers at the Stellantis plant that makes Jeeps.

    “You can be here 10 years and still not be full time. That’s crazy,” said Logan Bohn, of Woodhaven, Michigan, who has worked at the plant in Toledo for two years.

    Starting pay for Stellantis temporary workers is $15.78 per hour — less than some fast food restaurants — and caps out at $19.28 after four years.

    Neither Ford nor GM would comment on Fain’s assertion that the companies are paying poverty wages to temps. A Stellantis spokeswoman noted that the company has said it wants an agreement “that fairly rewards our workforce for their contribution to our success, without significantly disadvantaging Stellantis against our nonunion competitors.”

    The UAW’s effort to eliminate tier wages was emboldened this summer when UPS agreed to end the system for its drivers in a new contract with the Teamsters.

    Along the picket lines outside the auto plants, even workers who wouldn’t directly benefit from ending the tier-wage system say it’s a top issue for them. Jennifer Navarre, a full-timer on the Jeep assembly line in Toledo, Ohio, said it’s an unfair arrangement.

    “We have to fight together,” she said.

    It’s not just the wages that are unequal for temporary workers. They have less health care benefits and don’t get profit sharing checks or other performance bonuses. They also must deal with unpredictable schedules and can be told to work overtime when others are allowed to go home.

    “Some weeks you’re working six or seven days, then a few weeks later, it’s boom, ‘We don’t need you here’ or ‘We only need you on Monday,’” Naus said.

    Workers in Toledo say there’s high turnover among temporary workers and that many left when Amazon opened a nearby distribution center and after a solar panel plant expanded its operations.

    Orlando Evans, hired in by Jeep five years ago, said many temps who’ve stayed work second jobs with flexible hours because they never know when they’ll be asked to work six days a week or none at all. He started a business driving people to the airport and around town.

    “The idea came on after all the times I’d been sent home,” he said. Evans hasn’t left the temporary job with the automaker because he needs health care coverage for his three children and two step kids.

    “Outside of that, there’s not too much more reason to stay,” he said.

    Courtney Torres, who has four children at home, said she lives paycheck to paycheck while working six days a week.

    “I just get health care and hope,” she said.

    The hope, she said, is that the new contract will give her and the others a direct route to full-time employment.

    “I want a career, I want to be some place, I want to be able to take a vacation, take my kids on vacation,” she said. “Honestly, if they don’t give us a clear path, I don’t plan on staying. I’m struggling to keep up.”

    ___

    Krisher reported from Detroit.

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  • Auto worker strike highlights disparities between temporary and permanent employees

    Auto worker strike highlights disparities between temporary and permanent employees

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    TOLEDO, Ohio — When Rhonda Naus got a job inspecting Jeep Wranglers fresh off the assembly line, her paycheck added up to roughly half of what her co-workers were making. But with that came an expectation that her temporary status eventually would become permanent with a big jump in wages.

    Six years later, she’s still doing the same work as her colleagues at Stellantis and still making a lot less.

    “I knew I had to start at the bottom. I didn’t think I’d be at the bottom forever,” said Naus, who’s among thousands of striking United Auto Workers nationwide pushing for pay and benefit increases along with an end to multiple tiers of wages for workers across the companies.

    From office workers to delivery drivers, companies have become increasingly reliant on temporary workers. Automakers have used the lower-paid workers for years to fill in for absent and vacationing full-time employees and to staff up when production increases.

    Tiers for the Detroit automakers were created starting in 2007 as the UAW tried to help them out of serious financial troubles. Even so, GM and Chrysler ended up in government-funded bankruptcies.

    Today, union leaders say the Detroit automakers are abusing the system to save money by treating temps like full-time workers — one major point of contention in current contract talks that has led to more than 25,000 auto workers going on strike.

    “Temp work has to be temporary work,” said UAW President Shawn Fain weeks before the strike began. “We’re going to end the abuse of temps.”

    The union is also asking for pay raises as part of the contract talks, as well as a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay, the restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new hires and a return of cost-of-living pay raises, among other benefits.

    Under contracts negotiated in 2019, temporary workers reach full-time status at GM after 19 months of continuous employment and at Ford after two years. At Stellantis, maker of Jeeps, Rams and Chryslers, they get preferential hiring but no guarantees.

    In the current negotiations, GM and Stellantis have made offers to increase temporary worker starting pay from $16.67 to about $20 per hour. Ford raised its offer to $21 per hour with profit sharing and said it would make temporaries full-time workers after 90 days of continuous service.

    Once temporary workers become full time, they start on a higher pay scale that eventually would reach the top assembly plant wage of $32 per hour.

    Of the Detroit Three, Stellantis relies most heavily on temporary employees, who make up about 12% of its UAW workforce, or just over 5,100 employees. GM said its temporary workforce accounts for between 5-10% of its total union members while Ford is at about 3%.

    Temps — also known as supplemental employees — account for about one in every five of the 5,800 unionized workers at the Stellantis plant that makes Jeeps.

    “You can be here 10 years and still not be full time. That’s crazy,” said Logan Bohn, of Woodhaven, Michigan, who has worked at the plant in Toledo for two years.

    Starting pay for Stellantis temporary workers is $15.78 per hour — less than some fast food restaurants — and caps out at $19.28 after four years.

    Neither Ford nor GM would comment on Fain’s assertion that the companies are paying poverty wages to temps. A Stellantis spokeswoman noted that the company has said it wants an agreement “that fairly rewards our workforce for their contribution to our success, without significantly disadvantaging Stellantis against our nonunion competitors.”

    The UAW’s effort to eliminate tier wages was emboldened this summer when UPS agreed to end the system for its drivers in a new contract with the Teamsters.

    Along the picket lines outside the auto plants, even workers who wouldn’t directly benefit from ending the tier-wage system say it’s a top issue for them. Jennifer Navarre, a full-timer on the Jeep assembly line in Toledo, Ohio, said it’s an unfair arrangement.

    “We have to fight together,” she said.

    It’s not just the wages that are unequal for temporary workers. They have less health care benefits and don’t get profit sharing checks or other performance bonuses. They also must deal with unpredictable schedules and can be told to work overtime when others are allowed to go home.

    “Some weeks you’re working six or seven days, then a few weeks later, it’s boom, ‘We don’t need you here’ or ‘We only need you on Monday,’” Naus said.

    Workers in Toledo say there’s high turnover among temporary workers and that many left when Amazon opened a nearby distribution center and after a solar panel plant expanded its operations.

    Orlando Evans, hired in by Jeep five years ago, said many temps who’ve stayed work second jobs with flexible hours because they never know when they’ll be asked to work six days a week or none at all. He started a business driving people to the airport and around town.

    “The idea came on after all the times I’d been sent home,” he said. Evans hasn’t left the temporary job with the automaker because he needs health care coverage for his three children and two step kids.

    “Outside of that, there’s not too much more reason to stay,” he said.

    Courtney Torres, who has four children at home, said she lives paycheck to paycheck while working six days a week.

    “I just get health care and hope,” she said.

    The hope, she said, is that the new contract will give her and the others a direct route to full-time employment.

    “I want a career, I want to be some place, I want to be able to take a vacation, take my kids on vacation,” she said. “Honestly, if they don’t give us a clear path, I don’t plan on staying. I’m struggling to keep up.”

    ___

    Krisher reported from Detroit.

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  • A government shutdown in Nigeria has been averted after unions suspended a labor strike

    A government shutdown in Nigeria has been averted after unions suspended a labor strike

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    Nigerian government workers are continuing their work after last-minute efforts by authorities averted a nationwide strike to protest growing hardship which could have shut down government services in Africa’s most populous country

    ByCHINEDU ASADU Associated Press

    Pedestrians cross a busy streets in Lagos, Nigeria, Tuesday Sept. 5, 2023. Made up of hundreds of thousands of members, the Nigeria Labor Congress workers association began Tuesday a two-day “warning strike,” in protest of the growing cost of living due to the removal of gas subsidies, threatening to “shut down” Africa’s largest economy if their demands for improved welfare are not met. their second in over a month. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

    The Associated Press

    ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigerian government workers on Tuesday continued working after last-minute efforts by authorities averted a nationwide strike to protest growing hardship that could have shut down government services in Africa’s most populous country.

    The indefinite strike by Nigerian labor unions scheduled to start Tuesday is being suspended for 30 days, while meetings and talks with the government will be held over the coming days, said Joe Ajaero, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, or NLC, which is the umbrella body of the unions.

    A joint statement issued late Monday by senior government officials and the leadership of the labor unions noted several resolutions including a monthly wage increase of 35,000 naira ($46) for all workers, payment of 25,000 naira ($33) for three months to 15 million vulnerable households as well as the provision of 100 billion naira (nearly $130 million) for gas-powered buses to be rolled out for mass transit in Nigeria starting from November.

    In office since May 29, President Bola Tinubu’s policies aimed at fixing Nigeria’s ailing economy and attracting investors have more than doubled the cost of living for more than 210 million people who already were grappling with surging inflation. It hit an 18-year high of 25.8% in August.

    The end to decadeslong expensive subsidies for gas and the government’s devaluation of the currency more than doubled the price of gasoline and other commodities. Talks with the labor unions have stalled and a slow start to several intervention efforts resulted in last week’s announcement of the strike.

    Though lauded by some analysts, the policies of the new government have been criticized by many because of their poor implementation.

    One major source of concern has been intervention efforts, which the labor unions said have been slow. Many of their workers now trek to work, because they are unable to afford high transport costs while many businesses have shut down under the weight of surging operational costs.

    “The policies are meant to correct the distortions and misgovernance of the past for a nation that was already on the brink,” said Muda Yusuf, a former director-general of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry who now leads the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise.

    “The response has not been as fast as it should be,” he said. “But the adverse outcomes of the measures, the hardship, were much higher than what many of us expected.”

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  • Late-night shows return after writers strike as actors resume talks that could end their standoff

    Late-night shows return after writers strike as actors resume talks that could end their standoff

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    LOS ANGELES — Late-night talk shows began their return to the air after a five-month absence brought on by the Hollywood writers strike, while actors completed the first day of talks that could end their own long work walk-off.

    CBS’s “ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” ABC’s “ Jimmy Kimmel Live! ” and NBC’s “ The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ” were the first shows to leave the air when the writers strike began on May 2, and were among the first to return with fresh airings Monday night.

    Colbert blew a leaping kiss to his audience, which chanted his name as he took the stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York for the early evening taping of his show that airs at 11:35 p.m. Eastern.

    “It feels good to be back,” the host said. “Now the writers strike is over with a new contract that includes protections against AI, cost of living increases, better pay for streaming, plus, thanks to the picket lines, my writers got fresh air and sunshine, and they do not care for that. Now they’re back safely in their joke holes.”

    In a cold open to his show, Kimmel was shown on a psychiatrist’s couch.

    “The strike has been going on so long, I just don’t know if I’ll be back,” Kimmel said. The shot then reveals that the therapist is his first guest Arnold Schwarzenegger, who declares, in a variation on his best-known catchphrase: “You’ll be back.”

    Fallon taped segments for his show with Matthew McConaughey and John Mayer. He then said a third guest would be Bono from U2, who played the opening of the new Sphere venue in Las Vegas over the weekend.

    A phony Bono came out encased in a small sphere. The bit fell flat, and Fallon suggested it may take some time to shake the rust off.

    “I should mention not all the writers are back,” he said.

    Seth Meyers, the former “Saturday Night Live” head writer whose show follows Fallon’s, praised the union’s negotiators for the deal they won, and the chance to return.

    “I am so happy to be back in a room with my writers, everybody. I missed my writers so much,” he said. Then joked, “I will admit by lunch I was a little over it.”

    Colbert lamented having been unable to weigh in with jokes about so much news for so many months.

    “I believe we have been off the air for 154 indictments,” he said. “It was a crazy summer to be off. It was just packed with events.”

    The hosts haven’t been entirely idle. They teamed up for a podcast, “ Strike Force Five,” during the strike.

    Meanwhile, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists began negotiations Monday with the same group, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, for the first time since they joined writers in a historic dual strike on July 14. The two sides will resume talks Wednesday.

    The writers were allowed to return to work last week after the Writers Guild of America reached an agreement on a three-year contract with an alliance of the industry’s biggest studios, streaming services and production companies.

    Union leaders touted the deal as a clear win on issues including pay, size of staffs and the use of artificial intelligence that made the months off worth it. The writers themselves will vote on the contract in a week of balloting that began Monday.

    Actors walked off the job over many of the same issues as writers, and SAG-AFTRA leaders said they would look closely at the gains and compromises of the WGA’s deal, but emphasized that their demands would remain the same as they were when the strike began.

    The two sides said in a joint statement that “several executives” from studios would be in on the talks, without providing names. But Disney CEO Bob Iger, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav, and NBCUniversal Studio Group Chief Content Officer Donna Langley all took part directly in the negotiations with writers.

    The late-night shows will have significant limits on their guest lists. Their bread and butter, actors appearing to promote projects, will not be allowed to appear if the movies and shows are for studios that are the subject of the strikes.

    But exceptions abound. McConaughey, for example, appeared with Fallon to promote his children’s book, “Just Because.”

    And SAG-AFTRA has granted interim agreements allowing actors to work on many productions, and with that comes the right of actors to publicly promote them.

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  • Late-night shows return after writers strike as actors resume talks that could end their standoff

    Late-night shows return after writers strike as actors resume talks that could end their standoff

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    LOS ANGELES — Late-night talk shows are returning after a five-month absence brought on by the Hollywood writers strike, while actors will begin talks that could end their own long work walk-off.

    CBS’s “ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” ABC’s “ Jimmy Kimmel Live! ” and NBC’s “ The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ” were the first shows to leave the air when the writers strike began on May 2, and now will be among the first to return on Monday night.

    Comedian John Oliver got his first take on the strike out, exuberantly returning Sunday night to his “Last Week Tonight” show on HBO and delivering full-throated support for the strike.

    Oliver cheerily delivered a recap of stories from the last five months before turnings serious, calling the strike “an immensely difficult time” for all those in the industry.

    “To be clear, this strike happened for good reasons. Our industry has seen its workers severely squeezed in recent years,” Oliver said. “So, the writers guild went to strike and thankfully won. But, it took a lot of sacrifices from a lot of people to achieve that.”

    “I am also furious that it took the studios 148 days to achieve a deal they could have offered on day (expletive) one,” Oliver said. He added that he hope the writers contract would give leverage to other entertainment industry guilds – as well as striking auto workers and employees in other industries – to negotiate better deals.

    Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns HBO, is among the studios on the other side of the table in the writers and actors strikes.

    Network late-night hosts will have their returns later Monday.

    Colbert will have Astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson on his first show back. Kimmel will host Arnold Schwarzenegger. Matthew McConaughey will be on Fallon’s couch.

    All the hosts will surely address the strike in their monologues.

    “I’ll see you Monday, and every day after that!” an ebullient Colbert said in an Instagram video last week from the Ed Sullivan Theater, which was full of his writers and other staffers for their first meeting since spring.

    The hosts haven’t been entirely idle. They teamed up for a podcast, “ Strike Force Five,” during the strike.

    The writers were allowed to return to work last week after the Writers Guild of America reached an agreement on a three-year contract with an alliance of the industry’s biggest studios, streaming services and production companies.

    Union leaders touted the deal as a clear win on issues including pay, size of staffs and the use of artificial intelligence that made the months off worth it. The writers themselves will vote on the contract in a week of balloting that begins Monday.

    Meanwhile, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists will begin negotiations with the same group, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, for the first time since they joined writers in a historic dual strike on July 14.

    Actors walked off the job over many of the same issues as writers, and SAG-AFTRA leaders said they would look closely at the gains and compromises of the WGA’s deal, but emphasized that their demands would remain the same as they were when the strike began.

    It was just five days after writers and studios resumed talks that a deal was reach and that strike ended, though an attempt to restart negotiations a month earlier broke off after a few meetings.

    The late-night shows will have significant limits on their guest lists. Their bread and butter, actors appearing to promote projects, will not be allowed to appear if the movies and shows are for studios that are the subject of the strikes.

    But exceptions abound. McConaughey, for example, is appearing with Fallon to promote his children’s book, “Just Because.”

    And SAG-AFTRA has granted interim agreements allowing actors to work on many productions, and with that comes the right of actors to publicly promote them.

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  • Nigeria’s leader increases wages to avert a strike that could shut down the government

    Nigeria’s leader increases wages to avert a strike that could shut down the government

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    Nigeria’s leader has increased the wages of some government workers in last-minute efforts to appease labor unions whose planned strike this week could shut down government offices in all sectors of Africa’s largest economy

    ByCHINEDU ASADU Associated Press

    Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President of Nigeria, addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

    The Associated Press

    ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria’s leader increased the wages of some government workers in last-minute efforts to appease labor unions whose planned strike this week could shut down government offices in all sectors of Africa’s largest economy.

    Low-grade workers will in the next six months be paid an additional 25,000 naira ($32) a month, President Bola Tinubu said Sunday in a nationwide broadcast to mark Nigeria’s 63rd independence anniversary.

    The increase expected to take effect this month takes the minimum wage to 55,000 naira ($71), still far below the 200,000 naira ($258) the unions had requested. The labor unions did not immediately comment on Tinubu’s announcement.

    The unions representing Nigeria’s government workers announced they will go on an indefinite strike starting Tuesday to protest the government’s austerity measures.

    In office since May 29, Tinubu’s policies aimed at fixing Nigeria’s ailing economy have more than doubled the cost of living for more than 210 million people who already were grappling with a surging inflation. It hit an 18-year high of 25.8% in August.

    After he ended the yearslong expensive subsidies for gas on his first day in office, the price of petrol more than doubled, resulting in a similar hike in the price of other commodities. The government’s devaluation of the currency further increased prices, including food.

    Talks with the labor unions have stalled and a slow start to several intervention efforts resulted in last week’s announcement of the indefinite strike. On Sunday, Tinubu said the new wage increase will enhance the workers’ pay “without causing undue inflation.”

    He again appealed to Nigerians to bear with his government during the economic hardship, saying that the burdens they face today “should have been shed years ago.”

    “I wish today’s difficulties did not exist. But we must endure if we are to reach the good side of our future,” he said.

    To boost employment and incomes, Tinubu said his administration is providing investment funding for enterprises and will start giving cash handouts to additional 15 million “vulnerable households” as part of a social welfare program.

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  • California governor rejects bill to give unemployment checks to striking workers

    California governor rejects bill to give unemployment checks to striking workers

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California won’t be giving unemployment checks to workers on strike, with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoing a bill Saturday that had been inspired by high-profile work stoppages in Hollywood and the hotel industry.

    Newsom, a Democrat, says he supports workers and often benefits from campaign contributions from labor unions. But he said he vetoed this bill because the fund the state uses to pay unemployment benefits will be nearly $20 billion in debt by the end of the year.

    “Now is not the time to increase costs or incur this sizable debt,” Newsom wrote in a veto message.

    The fund the state uses to pay unemployment benefits is already more than $18 billion in debt. That’s because the fund ran out of money and had to borrow from the federal government during the pandemic, when Newsom ordered most businesses to close and caused a massive spike in unemployment. The fund was also beset by massive amounts of fraud that cost the state billions of dollars.

    The bill would have let workers who were on strike for at least two weeks receive unemployment checks from the state, which can be as much as $450 per week. Normally, only workers who lost their job through no fault of their own are eligible for those benefits.

    Labor unions had argued that the amount of workers on strike for more than two weeks is so small it would not have had a significant impact on the state’s unemployment trust fund. Of the 56 strikes in California over the past decade, only two lasted longer than two weeks, according to Democratic state Sen. Anthony Portantino, the author of the bill.

    “This veto tips the scales further in favor of corporations and CEOs and punishes workers who exercise their fundamental right to strike,” said Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation. “At a time when public support of unions and strikes are at an all-time high, this veto is out-of-step with American values.”

    The legislation was an attempt by Democratic state lawmakers to support Southern California hotel workers and Hollywood actors and writers who have been on strike for much of this year. The writers strike ended Sept. 26, but the other two are ongoing — meaning many workers have gone months without pay.

    Beyond the debt, the Newsom administration has said the fund is not collecting enough money to pay all of the benefits owed. The money comes from a tax businesses must pay on each worker. But that tax only applies to the first $7,000 of workers’ wages, a figure that has not changed since 1984 and is the lowest amount allowed under federal law.

    Meanwhile, unemployment benefits have increased. The Newsom administration has predicted benefit payments will exceed tax collections by $1.1 billion this year. It’s the first time this has happened during a period of job growth, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.

    Lawmakers could attempt to pass the law anyway, but it’s been decades since a governor’s veto was overruled in California.

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  • California Gov. Gavin Newsom rejects bill that would have given unemployment checks to some striking workers

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom rejects bill that would have given unemployment checks to some striking workers

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    California Gov. Gavin Newsom rejects bill that would have given unemployment checks to some striking workers

    ByThe Associated Press

    September 30, 2023, 10:25 PM

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom rejects bill that would have given unemployment checks to some striking workers.

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  • Ford CEO says UAW is ‘holding the deal hostage’ over EV battery plants

    Ford CEO says UAW is ‘holding the deal hostage’ over EV battery plants

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    Members of the United Auto Workers union picket outside the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, on Sept. 26, 2023.

    Matthew Hatcher | AFP | Getty Images

    DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union is holding up negotiations with Ford Motor over future electric vehicle battery plants, Ford CEO Jim Farley said during a press briefing Friday.

    “I believe we could have reached a compromise on pay and benefits, but so far the UAW is holding the deal hostage over battery plants,” he said after the UAW announced it would expand strikes to two additional assembly plants — one each for Ford and General Motors.

    Farley criticized the union for its targeted strike strategy, saying he feels the actions were “premeditated” and insinuating the union was never interested in reaching a deal before a Sept. 14 deadline.

    “We have felt from the very beginning, between all the lines of our comments, that the original strike was premeditated and that everything is taking way too long,” he said. “That actual events are predetermined before they happen. It’s been very frustrating.”

    Farley’s public criticism of the union is uncharacteristic for Ford, which is historically viewed as the most union-friendly company of the Detroit automakers.

    Farley said the company isn’t “at an impasse” with the union but warned that day “could come if this continues.”

    GM CEO Mary Barra echoed much of Farley’s criticisms of Fain and the UAW’s strike strategy.

    “It’s clear that there is no real intent to get to an agreement,” she said in an emailed statement Friday night. “It is clear Shawn Fain wants to make history for himself, but it can’t be to the detriment of our represented team members and the industry.”

    UAW President Shawn Fain fired back at Farley, saying the CEO hasn’t been present at the bargaining table and that he’s “lying about the state of negotiations.”

    “It could be because he failed to show up for bargaining this week, as he has for most of the past ten weeks. If he were there, he’d know we gave Ford a comprehensive proposal on Monday and still haven’t heard back,” Fain said in a statement Friday afternoon. “He would also know that we are far apart on core economic proposals like retirement security and post-retirement healthcare, as well as job security in this EV transition, which Farley himself says is going to cut 40 percent of our members’ jobs.”

    Multibillion-dollar EV battery plants — and their thousands of expected workers — are crucial to the automotive industry’s future and uniquely positioned to have wide-ranging implications for the UAW, automakers and President Joe Biden’s push toward domestic manufacturing.

    Current and former union leaders previously told CNBC that the battery plants will have to be a priority for the labor organization, regardless of whether they’re directly discussed in the national agreement, for the long-term viability of the union.

    However, they’re considered a “wild card” issue in the contract negotiations. Many of the battery plants that have been announced cannot legally be included in the current talks, as they are joint venture facilities.

    United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain addresses picketing UAW members at a General Motors Service Parts Operations plant in Belleville, Michigan, on Sept. 26, 2023, as U.S. President Joe Biden joined the workers.

    Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Images

    Ford has announced four future battery plants, including three joint ventures and a wholly owned subsidiary using battery technology licensed from Chinese auto supplier CATL. Ford earlier this week paused construction on the latter plant in Marshall, Michigan, due to the union negotiations, Farley said.

    “We can make Marshall a lot bigger or a lot smaller,” Farley said Friday.

    GM is the only Detroit automaker with a joint venture battery plant in operation and unionized — making it the first in the country to face this particular negotiating dynamic and a landmark plant to set standards for the industry.

    Farley noted that some of the battery production won’t even be covered under the timeline of the deals that are currently being negotiated. He also defended the company’s prior offers, which include more than 20% hourly wage growth, reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments, job protections and other benefits.

    “If the UAW’s goal is a record contract, they have already achieved this,” Farley said. “It is grossly irresponsible to escalate these strikes and hurt thousands of families.”

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  • CVS responds quickly after pharmacists frustrated with their workload miss work

    CVS responds quickly after pharmacists frustrated with their workload miss work

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    CVS pharmacists are experiencing a lot of pain on the job these days.

    The company found the right prescription on Wednesday to keep its stores open in the Kansas City area and avoid a repeat of last week’s work stoppage. It promised to boost hiring to ease overwhelming workloads that sometimes make it hard to take a bathroom break and may have brought in additional help from other cities.

    But it won’t be easy to resolve the bigger problems that have been growing as pharmacists at CVS and other drug stories in the U.S. took on more duties in recent years and are gearing up to deliver this year’s latest flu and COVID-19 vaccines.

    “It all relates to not enough dollars going in to hire the appropriate staff to be able to deliver the services,” said Ron Fitzwater, CEO of the Missouri Pharmacy Association.

    Pharmacists in at least a dozen Kansas City-area CVS pharmacies did not show up for work last Thursday and Friday and planned to be out again this Wednesday until the company sent its chief pharmacy officer with promises to fill open positions and increasing staffing levels.

    It was one of the latest examples nationwide of workers fed up enough to take action. But unlike in the ongoing strikes at the automakers or in Hollywood, the pharmacists weren’t demanding raises or more vacation, but more workers to help them.

    CVS spokeswoman Amy Thibault said the company is “focused on addressing the concerns raised by our pharmacists so we can continue to deliver the high-quality care our patients depend on.”

    Chief Pharmacy Officer Prem Shah apologized for not addressing concerns sooner in a memo to Kansas City-area staff that was obtained by USA Today. He promised to remain in the city until the problems are addressed and come back regularly to check on the progress.

    “We want you, our valued pharmacy teams, to be in a position to succeed. We are working hard to support you and are here to help and create sustainable solutions,” Shah said as he encouraged the pharmacists to continue to share their concerns even anonymously.

    It’s unclear why workload concerns that are common industrywide led to a walkout in Kansas City. The pharmacists involved haven’t spoken publicly.

    At stores where there is only one pharmacist on duty, the pharmacy has to shut down every time that person leaves the area because a pharmacist must be there to supervise technicians in their work.

    The American Pharmacists Association said in a statement that it supports the stand the Kansas City pharmacists took.

    “Pharmacists who find themselves in situations where the welfare of others is in question should always pause, evaluate the situation, and take the steps necessary to ensure safe, optimal patient care,” the group said.

    CVS Health has about 300,000 employees and runs prescription drug plans through one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits managers. Its Aetna insurance arm covers more than 25 million people, and the company has nearly 10,000 drugstores.

    The company said last month that operating income at its drugstores fell 17% as reimbursement rates from patient’s insurance providers for drugs remained tight. CVS eliminated about 5,000 jobs, but company officials said none of those involved dealing with customers.

    Amanda Applegate with the Kansas Pharmacists Association said pharmacists have always had a lot on their plate.

    “When we are not valued as health care professionals, it doesn’t allow the job that needs to be done to be done,” she said. “And that’s keeping you know, patients safe — right drug, right patient, right time, right dose.”

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Heather Hollingsworth contributed to this report from Mission, Kan., and Summer Ballentine contributed from Columbia, Mo.

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  • Auto workers union to announce plans on Friday to expand strike in contract dispute with companies

    Auto workers union to announce plans on Friday to expand strike in contract dispute with companies

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    DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union says it will announce on Friday how it plans to expand its strike against Detroit’s three automakers.

    The union says President Shawn Fain will make the announcement at 10 a.m. Eastern time in a video appearance addressing union members. Additional walkouts will take place at noon Friday without serious progress in contract talks, the union said.

    The union went on strike Sept. 14 when it couldn’t reach agreements on new contracts with Ford, General Motors and Jeep maker Stellantis.

    At first it targeted one assembly plant from each company, and last week it added 38 parts distribution centers run by GM and Stellantis. Ford was spared the second escalation because talks with the union were progressing.

    The union wouldn’t say what action it would take on Friday, reiterating that all options are on the table.

    The union is scheduled to meet with GM negotiators Wednesday afternoon, according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

    Fain said Tuesday that negotiations were moving slowly and the union would add facilities to the strike to turn up the pressure on the automakers.

    “We’re moving with all three companies still. It’s slower,” Fain said after talking to workers on a picket line near Detroit with President Joe Biden. “It’s bargaining. Some days you feel like you make two steps forward, the next day you take a step back. Things are moving. We just have to see,” he said.

    So far the union has let the companies keep making pickup trucks and large SUVs, their top-selling and most profitable vehicles. It has shut down assembly plants in Missouri, Ohio and Michigan that make midsize pickup trucks, commercial vans and midsize SUVs, all of which are profitable but don’t make as much money as the larger vehicles.

    Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, said Wednesday that the union is likely to go after the pickup and SUV factories as it tries to squeeze the companies into making better offers. It also could shut down selected component factories such as transmissions that would eventually force the companies to halt assembly plants.

    Masters doesn’t think Fain will announce that the whole union will go on strike yet. “I think he probably wants to give himself one or two more moves beyond this,” Masters said.

    Fain also is likely to limit the strikes at companies where negotiations are progressing, but escalate them further at companies where talks are moving more slowly, Masters said.

    In past years the union has picked one company as a potential strike target and reached a contract agreement with that company that would serve as a pattern for the others.

    But this year Fain introduced a new strike method of targeting only part of the companies’ plants, with plans to add more in an effort to get the automakers to raise their offers.

    Currently only about 12% of the union’s 146,000 workers at the three automakers are on strike, allowing it to preserve a strike fund that was worth $825 million before Sept. 14.

    If all of the union’s auto workers went on strike, the fund would be depleted in less than three months, and that’s without factoring in health care costs.

    ____

    Koenig reported from Dallas.

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  • Late-night TV shows announce their return after Hollywood writers strike ends

    Late-night TV shows announce their return after Hollywood writers strike ends

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    NEW YORK — TV’s late-night hosts planned to return to their evening sketches and monologues by next week, reinstating the flow of topical humor silenced for five months by the newly ended Hollywood’s writers strike.

    Bill Maher led the charge back to work by announcing early Wednesday that his HBO show “Real Time with Bill Maher” would be back on the air Friday. By mid-morning, the hosts of NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on CBS had announced they’d also return, all by Monday. “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver was slated to return to the air Sunday.

    Fallon, Meyers, Kimmel, Colbert and Oliver had spent the latter part of the strike teaming up for a popular podcast called “Strike Force Five” — named after their personal text chain and with all proceeds benefiting their out-of-work writers. On Instagram on Wednesday, they announced “their mission complete.”

    The plans for some late-night shows were not immediately clear, like “Saturday Night Live” and Comedy Central’s “Daily Show,” which had been using guest hosts when the strike hit.

    Scripted shows will take longer to return, with actors still on strike and no negotiations yet on the horizon.

    On Tuesday night, board members from the writers union approved a contract agreement with studios, bringing the industry at least partly back from a historic halt in production that stretched nearly five months.

    Maher had delayed returning to his talk show during the ongoing strike by writers and actors, a decision that followed similar pauses by “The Drew Barrymore Show,” “The Talk” and “The Jennifer Hudson Show.”

    The three-year agreement with studios, producers and streaming services includes significant wins in the main areas writers had fought for — compensation, length of employment, size of staffs and control of artificial intelligence — matching or nearly equaling what they had sought at the outset of the strike.

    The union had sought minimum increases in pay and future residual earnings from shows and will get a raise of between 3.5% and 5% in those areas — more than the studios had initially offered.

    The guild also negotiated new residual payments based on the popularity of streaming shows, where writers will get bonuses for being a part of the most popular shows on Netflix, Max and other services, a proposal studios initially rejected. Many writers on picket lines had complained that they weren’t properly paid for helping create heavily watched properties.

    On artificial intelligence, the writers got the regulation and control of the emerging technology they had sought. Under the contract, raw, AI-generated storylines will not be regarded as “literary material” — a term in their contracts for scripts and other story forms a screenwriter produces. This means they won’t be competing with computers for screen credits. Nor will AI-generated stories be considered “source” material, their contractual language for the novels, video games or other works that writers may adapt into scripts.

    Writers have the right under the deal to use artificial intelligence in their process if the company they are working for agrees and other conditions are met. But companies cannot require a writer to use artificial intelligence.

    ___

    Dalton reported from Los Angeles.

    ___

    For more on the writers and actors strikes, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/hollywood-strikes/

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  • Las Vegas hospitality workers overwhelmingly permit union to call strike against hotels, casinos

    Las Vegas hospitality workers overwhelmingly permit union to call strike against hotels, casinos

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    LAS VEGAS — Tens of thousands of Las Vegas hospitality workers fighting for new union contracts voted Tuesday to authorize a strike that could impact more than three dozen casinos and hotels, the city’s economic backbone.

    The Culinary Workers Union hasn’t gone on strike in more than three decades.

    The union didn’t immediately set a deadline for a walkout as it continues bargaining for better pay, benefits and working conditions with the top casino employers on the Las Vegas Strip, including MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts.

    A walkout by Nevada’s largest labor union would be the latest in a series of high-profile job actions around the country, including walkouts in Hollywood. The same day the Culinary Workers Union vote took place, President Joe Biden joined United Auto Workers strikers on a picket line in Michigan.

    Earlier this year, UPS reached a new deal before a work stoppage that could have significantly disrupted the nation’s supply chain.

    Workers calling for higher wages, better conditions and job security, especially since the end of the pandemic, have been increasingly willing to walk out on the job as employers face a greater need for workers.

    In Nevada, the Culinary Union is the largest labor union, representing about 60,000 hospitality workers statewide. Contracts for 40,000 of those members recently expired.

    “We are the glue that keeps these hotels together, and we should be paid what we deserve,” Deanna Virgil, a longtime employee at Wynn Las Vegas, told The Associated Press after casting her vote.

    Virgil was among 53,000 housekeepers, cocktail and food servers, porters, cooks, bartenders and other hotel employees in Las Vegas eligible to participate in the vote. The union is scheduled to return to the bargaining table next week with MGM Resorts, Caesars and Wynn Resorts.

    In a statement Tuesday night, MGM Resorts said it has a decades-long history of successfully bargaining with the union and believes that “both parties are committed to negotiating a contract that is good for everyone.”

    Caesars did not respond to emailed requests for comment, and Wynn Resorts said they had no comment.

    Virgil, who has worked in the hospitality sector for 38 years, said she is able to make do with her current salary and benefits because she lives with her adult daughter.

    “There’s no telling where I would be if I didn’t have the support of my daughter,” Virgil said. “There are a lot of us who have two jobs, but one job should be enough.”

    Bethany Khan, the union’s spokesperson, said all members receive health insurance and currently earn about $26 hourly, including benefits. Khan declined to say how much the union is seeking in pay raises because “we do not negotiate in public,” although the union has said it is asking for “the largest wage increases ever negotiated” in its history.

    In 1991, more than 500 workers went on strike at the now-shuttered Frontier hotel and casino in downtown Las Vegas. It became one of the longest strikes in U.S. history, stretching more than six years. The union said all the strikers returned to their jobs afterward, with back pay and benefits.

    The union last voted to authorize a strike in 2018. Five-year contracts were reached soon after a majority of the participating 25,000 hospitality workers cast votes to walk off the job. Rory Kuykendall, 40, said he is hopeful that Tuesday’s vote will have the same effect.

    “It’s great to see all the huge numbers in turnout,” said Kuykendall, a bellperson at Flamingo Las Vegas. “It’s a chance for all the members to come out and show that we’re really ready to fight.”

    Last summer, the casino workers’ union in Atlantic City negotiated landmark contracts that gave workers the biggest raises they’ve ever had. It also removed any chance of a strike for several years, an important consideration for Atlantic City’s casino industry as it tries to return to pre-pandemic business levels.

    In past contracts, the Atlantic City union had concentrated on preserving health care and pension benefits, but this time sought “significant” pay raises for workers to help them keep pace with spiraling prices for gasoline, food, rent and other living expenses, the union said.

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  • 5 workers picketing in UAW strike hit by vehicle outside Flint-area plant

    5 workers picketing in UAW strike hit by vehicle outside Flint-area plant

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    Police say about five people were struck by a vehicle while picketing in the United Auto Workers strike outside a Flint-area General Motors plant and suffered minor injuries

    ByThe Associated Press

    September 26, 2023, 8:09 PM

    SWARTZ CREEK, Mich. — About five people picketing in the United Auto Workers strike outside a Flint-area General Motors plant suffered minor injuries Tuesday when a vehicle leaving the plant struck them, police said.

    The striking workers were blocking a driveway, and an employee was trying to leave the Flint Processing Center in Swartz Creek when the collision occurred just before 4 p.m., Chief Matthew Bade of the Metro Police Authority of Genesee County said.

    The employee drove through the picket line to leave the plant, Bade said. The employee has not been located.

    GM spokesperson Jack Crawley issued a statement saying the company “is committed to the health and safety of all employees.”

    “Plant leadership is working closely with local authorities to investigate and understand what happened,” the statement said.

    UAW Region 1-D President Steve Dawes told The Flint Journal that two of the five people struck were taken to a local hospital.

    “It was uncalled for,” Dawes said. “These people are out here, you know these are my membership, and they’re out here doing a peaceful, legal demonstration.”

    “This is very serious and we’re going to be pushing this issue,” he said.

    The Flint Processing Center is one of 38 locations where workers walked off the job last week in the widening strike by the UAW against GM, Ford and Stellantis.

    Despite concerns that a prolonged strike could undermine the economy, particularly in the crucial battleground state of Michigan, President Biden encouraged workers to keep fighting for better wages at a time when car companies have seen rising profits.

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  • The Hollywood writers strike is over after guild leaders approve contract with studios

    The Hollywood writers strike is over after guild leaders approve contract with studios

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    LOS ANGELES — Leaders of the screenwriters union declared their nearly five-month-old strike over Tuesday after board members approved a contract agreement with studios, bringing Hollywood at least partly back from a historic halt in production.

    The governing boards of the eastern and western branches of the Writers Guild of America and their joint negotiating committee all voted to accept the deal, and afterward declared that the strike would be over and writers would be free to work starting at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

    Late-night talk shows — the first to go dark when writers walked out on May 2 — are likely the first shows that will resume.

    The writers still have to vote to ratify the contract themselves, but lifting the strike will allow them to work during that process, the Writers Guild told members in an email.

    After Tuesday’s board votes, the contracts were released to the writers, who had not yet been given any details on the deal, which their leaders called “exceptional.”

    The members will vote between Oct. 2 and 9.

    Hollywood actors remain on strike with no talks yet on the horizon, but a new spirit of optimism animated those who were picketing Tuesday for the first time since writers reached their tentative deal Sunday night.

    “For a hot second, I really thought that this was going to go on until next year,” said Marissa Cuevas, an actor who has appeared on the TV series “Kung Fu” and “The Big Bang Theory.” “Knowing that at least one of us has gotten a good deal gives a lot of hope that we will also get a good deal.”

    Writers’ picket lines had been suspended, but they were encouraged to walk in solidarity with actors, and many were on the lines Tuesday, including “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner, who picketed alongside friend and “ER” actor Noah Wyle as he has throughout the strikes.

    “We would never have had the leverage we had if SAG had not gone out,” Weiner said. “They were very brave to do it.”

    Striking actors also voted to authorize their leadership to potentially expand their walkout to include the lucrative video game market, a step that could put new pressure on Hollywood studios to make a deal with the performers who provide voices and stunts for games.

    The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists announced the move late Monday, saying that 98% of its members voted to go on strike against video game companies if ongoing negotiations are not successful. The announcement came ahead of more talks planned for Tuesday.

    Acting in video games can include a variety of roles, from voice performances to motion capture work as well as stunts. Video game actors went on strike in 2016 in a work stoppage that lasted nearly a year.

    Some of the same issues are at play in the video game negotiations as in the broader actors strike that has shut down Hollywood for months, including wages, safety measures and protections on the use of artificial intelligence. The companies involved include gaming giants Activision, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Take 2 Productions as well as Disney and Warner Bros.′ video game divisions.

    “It’s time for the video game companies to stop playing games and get serious about reaching an agreement on this contract,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said in a statement.

    Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for video game producers, said they are “continuing to negotiate in good faith” and have reached tentative agreements on more than half of the proposals on the table.

    So far this year, U.S. consumers have spent $34.9 billion on video games, consoles and accessories, according to market research group Circana.

    The threat of a video game strike emerged as Hollywood writers were on the verge of getting back to work after months on the picket lines.

    The alliance of studios, streaming services and producers has chosen to negotiate only with the writers so far, and has made no overtures yet toward restarting talks with SAG-AFTRA. That will presumably change soon.

    SAG-AFTRA leaders have said they will look closely at the writers’ agreement, which includes many of the same issues, but it will not effect their demands.

    ___

    Associated Press video journalists Leslie Ambriz and Krysta Fauria in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

    ___

    For more on the writers and actors strikes, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/hollywood-strikes/

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  • Leaders of Hollywood writers union declare strike over after board members approve contract agreement with studios

    Leaders of Hollywood writers union declare strike over after board members approve contract agreement with studios

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    Leaders of Hollywood writers union declare strike over after board members approve contract agreement with studios

    ByThe Associated Press

    September 26, 2023, 8:22 PM

    LOS ANGELES — Leaders of Hollywood writers union declare strike over after board members approve contract agreement with studios.

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