SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah has repealed a collective bargaining ban passed earlier this year that prevented labor unions serving teachers, firefighters, police and other public employees from negotiating on behalf of their workers.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox on Thursday approved the repeal of a policy that experts had called one of the most restrictive labor laws

Employees at Doom studio id Software have voted in favour of union representation with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which has been recognised by Microsoft.

The decision follows QA workers becoming the first group at Microsoft to form a union with CWA representation back in 2023. It means id Software is now a wall-to-wall union, including developers, artists, programmers, and more.

Paywall removed: https://archive.is/14Rau

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/58914591

While the UAW does not specify a specific minimum wage, its letter notes that addressing wage suppression in Mexico would disincentivize offshoring and create “billions of dollars in new working-class purchasing power,” which could help jump-start demand for vehicles in Mexico.

Massachusetts’s Millionaire Tax Didn’t Lead the Rich to Flee

Anti-fascistic software is made possible by pro-labor licensing.

Mastodon: https://writing.exchange/@erlend/115549403577231766

https://archive.is/HyLHl

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/29278337

A Teamster posted images of a fund raising letter they received from President Sean O'Brien on r/Union (warning: reddit link).

In the letter, Sean O'Brien claims that Trump is creating a new 'Worker First' republican party, and implores the reader to donate as much as they can to the Teamster 'TEAM Fund', which will be used to:

1. Support Trump's 'Pro-Worker' initiatives, like 'strategic' tariffs
2. Financially back incumbent 'pro-worker' republican candidates for the House and Senate
3. Identify pro-labor legislatures in key states and support their campaigns

Sean then introduces the next part of the letter; a message from Josh Hawley, a Christian Nationalist and Trump loyalist state senator who fist pumped the Jan 6th rioters in support.

In the letter Hawley claims Trump has eliminated the "country club elites and business tycoons" from the republican party, as well as ending the "Woke DEI agenda".

If there was ever any doubt about O'Brien, he's certainly showing his true colors now, bending the knee to the fascists in power and even going so far as to fund raise for them.

The letter itself:

Hey, #Alberta #Union members and stewards.

Now would be a good time to start passing around buttons saying something like "We're Ready". You know, for the thing that's on everyone's minds in the labour movement. Just an idea for you to keep the energy going. #Solidarity @workreform

‘Some may ask why we’re reducing roles when the company is performing well,’ an executive admitted, blaming AI for the layoffs.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/56418314

Not sure if this belongs here but felt it was appropriate.

cross-posted from: https://lemmings.world/post/35783610

https://archive.li/URhbv

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/37712745

The Employment Rights Bill is reaching a final stage.

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3737

This is the single most important bill introduced by Starmer Government so far.

The bill:

• Ends exploitative zero hours contracts by introducing rights to guaranteed hours and reasonable notice of shifts

• Introduces an obligation on employers to not permit harassment of their employees by third parties

• Requires employers to inform workers of their right to join a labor union

• Increases the time limit within which employees are able to make an Employment Tribunal claim from 3 months to 6 months

• Removes the two-year qualifying period of employment for the right to claim unfair dismissal, making it a day-one right

This is a very important bill.

You know what's pissing me off?

Currently, in the House of Lords, many Lords are trying to water it down. Currently, many business owners are urging Labour MPs to water it down.

And what are the UK leftists doing? Are they calling parliament members every day? Are they signing petitions? Are they lobbying Lords? Nope. They aren't doing anything. Except whining and saying Starmer is evil

PAY ATTENTION FOR GOD SAKE

Powerful people have been fighting hard for months to remove many parts of the bill. And too many Britons who stand to benefit from this bill aren't fighting.

A standard 9-to-5 may no longer be enough to compete in Silicon Valley’s high-stakes artificial intelligence boom.

Increasingly, young tech firms are embracing the so-called “996” work schedule — 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.

Once a hallmark of China’s intense tech industry, the 72-hour workweek was banned there in 2021, but in California, it’s gaining new attention. Workers are posting about it on LinkedIn and X, using it as a badge of ambition and dedication, according to the New York Times and Bloomberg.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/48217272

Archive link: https://archive.ph/jCEl2 Link to report: https://www.justice4workers.org/new_report_on_wage_theft

In the past decade, nearly $200 million in unpaid wages have been formally assessed as owed to workers, according to a new report from the Workers’ Action Centre, an organization advocating for workers’ rights, based on freedom-of-information data.

When employers fail to comply with a Ministry of Labour order to pay within 30 days, the case is referred to Ontario’s Ministry of Finance, which was only able to recover less than a quarter of the $102.4 million sent for collections between 2013 and 2023, leaving workers still owed $79.9 million in stolen wages, according to the government data. ... Ontario’s wage recovery flaws Ojeda’s case highlights the limits of Ontario’s wage recovery system, which advocates say has struggled to keep pace with modern employment practices as fines, workplace inspections and enforcement have declined over the past decade. “When there is a low likelihood of detection and the penalties for noncompliance are minimal, the incentive to commit wage theft is high,” the Wokers’ Action Centre report says. Employer prosecutions have plummeted in recent years, according to government data.

In 2024, the Ministry of Labour initiated only 12 Part III Prosecutions — a type of penalty with the most potential to deter employers from violating employment standards because it can result in a hefty fine or even jail time — down 85 per cent from 2017 despite widespread non-compliance with orders to pay.

Meanwhile, proactive enforcement has also declined.

When Premier Doug Ford took office in 2018, the Labour Ministry instructed staff not to initiate any new proactive inspections aimed at preventing wage theft and other employment standards violations.

Employment standards inspections deal with basic workplace issues such as unpaid wages and overtime. Proactive inspections, which are initiated at the behest of the ministry, are far more effective at recovering unpaid wages, including public holiday pay and overtime, than when individual workers file complaints, according to the ministry’s own data. Workplace inspections started to plummet before the pandemic and are 77 per cent lower than they were around seven years ago, government data shows.

At the same time, the number of permanent employment standards officers has decreased. In 2023, only 115 officers were working across the province, down from 209 in 2018, even as Ontario’s workforce grew by 16 per cent since 2014.

The Ministry of Labour declined to respond to inquiries on why enforcement has eroded in recent years and what is being done to hold employers accountable and prevent increasing incidents of wage theft. Questions instead were referred to the Ministry of Finance, which did not get back to the Star before publication.

There is also a deeper structural problem contributing to rampant wage theft in the province, according to Bedard: Ontario’s labour laws have not kept pace with changing business practices and the rise of multi-party employment relationships. Rather than the traditional direct employer-to-employee relationship, today’s companies are increasingly adopting business structures that limit their liability for the employees who make their products or provide their services, relying on strategies such as subcontracting, franchising, third-party management or misclassification of employees.

These structures can obscure who is legally liable for unpaid wages.

“Employers try to hide behind the corporate veil to avoid responsibility,” Bedard said.