Top federal union warns of government shutdown — in weeks. At press time, the United States has a Jan. 19 deadline to approve spending or the federal government will shut down.
In November, Congress passed a short-term spending package to keep government functioning at current levels. It split passage of full-year appropriations bills into two dates: Jan. 19 for some federal agencies and Feb. 2 for others.
The short-term exercise in kicking the can down the road doesn’t include the White House’s nearly $106 billion request for wartime aid for Israel and Ukraine, plus humanitarian funding for Palestinians and other supplemental requests.
Republicans’ right-wing Freedom Caucus is willing to hold up the funding unless assistance to Ukraine is linked to dramatic changes in border policy for asylum seekers and other migrants.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest union representing federal and D.C. government employees, says, “A government shutdown is completely avoidable, yet the last shutdown cost the U.S. economy $11 billion — $3 billion of which was never recovered. It put hard-working government employees’ livelihoods in limbo. Many struggled to pay bills and feed their families. It may happen all over again.”
Consequences include more than 800,000 federal workers could be required to work without pay or be locked out of their jobs; no new Social Security cards will be issued and veterans’ benefits claims stop being processed; hiring of law enforcement and other essential employees stops; processing visa and passport requests stop; and inspections of food, water, workplaces, chemical plants, and hazardous waste sites come to a halt.
AFGE President Everett Kelley said he was “hopeful that a bipartisan deal to avoid a government shutdown was possible, however unlikely it seemed at times. The costs to federal employees, to the economy, to our communities, and to the American people are simply too great.”
Americans are urged to phone Congress at (855) 222-9093 to share concerns.
Temp agencies suing to block state law protecting 650,000 Illinoisans. Some temporary staffing agencies and their trade groups have asked a federal court to block a state law governing how temp workers are paid and managed. About 650,000 Illinoisans are affected. Passed in 2006, the Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act requires temp agencies to register with the state and comply with mandated protections such as paying temps at least four hours of wages when assigned work.
Also, staffing agencies must disclose labor disputes at job sites and let workers decline such assignments, and after 90 days on assignment, workers must get pay and benefits at least the same as comparable employees directly hired by the client.
The temp agencies and their lobbyists say such protections are a burden and should be preempted by federal law.
Illinois college employees organizing. After five months following the expiration of their previous contract, workers represented by two units of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees settled a new pact with Northern Illinois University. The two-year deal provides a 5% pay increase.
Elsewhere in the state, part-time adjunct faculty, who work without job security, are unionizing or striking. At the University of Illinois in Springfield, full-time, nontenure-track faculty filed union authorization cards to unionize with the University Professionals of Illinois (UPI), an affiliate of the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
Before becoming part of the University of Illinois, the Springfield school was Sangamon State University (SSU), where faculty were represented by a chapter of UPI. When UofI at Urbana-Champaign took over SSU, one of its conditions was to eliminate the faculty union.
And in Chicago, the Columbia College Faculty Union (CFAC) at press time remained on strike, protesting the administration eliminating 300 already-enrolled classes weeks before the semester began while increasing the size of other classes. The cancellation caused students to go without the classes they need to graduate — and part-time faculty to go without their per-class income.
Started Oct. 30, it’s the longest adjunct faculty strike in higher education history.
Rivian is one of 13 non-union automakers targeted by the United Auto Workers. After a positive outcome with Detroit’s Big 3 automakers, the United Auto Workers union is responding to thousands of workers at non-union automakers to join the UAW.
The first-of-its-kind campaign involves workers at nonunion corporations BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.
“To all the auto workers out there working without the benefits of a union, now it’s your turn,” UAW President Shawn Fain said.
The union’s strategy is a step-by-step march: Once 30% of workers at a nonunion plant sign cards seeking to join, it would make that public. If 50% of workers seek to join, the UAW would hold a rally with Fain to tout the effort. At 70% and with an organizing committee in place, the UAW would seek voluntary recognition or demand a union representation vote administered by the National Labor Relations Board.
In less than a week, the union collected more than 1,000 cards at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tenn., plant, where the UAW lost a 2014 election at Volkswagen 626-712. Five years later, the UAW lost again, 776-833.
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