unions – Impact Lab

Employment, Hot Issues, Latest News, Science & Technology News

Kickstarter employees vote to unionize

February 26, 2020

It’s the latest bid by tech workers to gain more clout.

More tech company workers are unionizing in an attempt to improve their bargaining power. A group of 85 Kickstarter employees have voted to unionize, aligning themselves with a branch of the Office and Professional Employees International Union in New York. The staffers will use their collective bargaining power to push for equal pay, more inclusive hiring, greater transparency from management and more of a say in decisions.

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Analysis, Business, Employment

Almost 80% of US workers live from paycheck to paycheck. Here’s why

July 31, 2018

America doesn’t have a jobs crisis. It has a ‘good jobs’ crisis – where too much employment is insecure, and poorly paid.

The official rate of unemployment in America has plunged to a remarkably low 3.8%. The Federal Reserve forecasts that the unemployment rate will reach 3.5% by the end of the year.

But the official rate hides more troubling realities: legions of college grads overqualified for their jobs, a growing number of contract workers with no job security, and an army of part-time workers desperate for full-time jobs. Almost 80% of Americans say they live from paycheck to paycheck, many not knowing how big their next one will be.

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Analysis, Education, Latest Trend

In states with stronger teachers’ unions students learn less

August 28, 2013

There is a 4% fall in student proficiency rates in states where teachers’ unions are stronger.

According to a study by Johnathan Lott of the University of Chicago Law School and Lawrence W. Kenny of the University of Florida of 721 U.S. school districts in 42 states shows a 1-standard-deviation rise in teachers’ union dues per teacher is associated with a 4% fall in student proficiency rates.

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Analysis, Business, Economy, Latest Trend

Unions are being left behind as manufacturing bounces back from the recession

January 18, 2013

American factories are hiring again, but they’re not hiring union members.

Factory workers had a good month in July in Anderson, Ind., where a Honda parts supplier announced plans to build a new plant and create up to 325 jobs. But in the Cleveland suburbs it was a grim month, where an industrial plastics firm told the state of Ohio it was closing a plant and laying off 150 people.

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