Another Dem Governor Pledges to Veto Union Bill
There's a long-term lesson for unions to be learned here
News and Views
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, a Democrat, is expected to veto a bill extending unemployment benefits to striking workers. A long-term lesson in accountability: many unions stuck with Joe Lieberman in 2006 in his unsuccessful primary against Lamont (who went on to lose the general election to Lieberman running as an Independent), despite Lieberman’s votes for CAFTA, NAFTA, and PNTR with China. The states’ teachers unions and the Machinists were notable exceptions. Lamont joins Colorado’s Governor Jared Polis among the ranks of Democratic governors vetoing key union legislation as rights are under attack federally.
On a more positive note: much of the pro-labor policy that Connecticut has passed in recent years (a minimum wage increase and family and medical leave expansion, for example), has been championed by State Sen. Julie Kushner, a former UAW leader, which underscores the desperate need for more trade unionists to run for office.
Meanwhile, Oregon is advancing a bill to give unemployment to both public and private sector workers on strike. Three states currently give unemployment to striking private sector workers.
The International Trade Union Confederation reports that workers’ rights globally are in “free fall,” highlighting that “the Donald Trump administration has taken a wrecking ball to the collective labour rights of workers and brought anti-union billionaires into the heart of policymaking.”
The federal Department of Labor is suspending operations at 99 workforce development centers around the country, which provide education and vocational training to thousands of low-income people. The Trump administration claims the centers, set up in the 1960s, are costly, have low graduation rates for students, and leave graduates with poorly-paying jobs. The move has faced pushback from bipartisan lawmakers.
Teachers in Baltimore County, Maryland vote to work to rule as county leadership attempts to renege on a promise of 5 percent wage increases, instead offering 1.5 percent.
A wave of doctors are organizing—but the makeup of the Trump NLRB could be an enormous challenge. At Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, doctors have been fighting union busting for months as they attempt to organize with the Doctors Council. Hospital management is now using the fact that the NLRB lacks a quorum to thwart the union: “MGB filed an appeal with the labor board last week challenging the makeup of the prospective bargaining unit, likely putting the matter in limbo indefinitely,” the Boston Globe reports.
Today’s Win
The United Auto Workers continue to organize battery plants, key to the auto union’s future in the electric vehicle era. Last week, about 420 workers at a Stellantis/ Samsung SDI joint venture plant in Kokomo, Indiana joined the UAW. The victory dates back to 2023: Stellantis agreed to card check as part of the contract that the UAW struck to win, and did not interfere with workers’ organizing efforts in Kokomo.