Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed a commission to look at improving conditions for workers in the so-called gig economy, where people work job to job with few employment rights.
labor
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County still at odds with its largest union
Negotiators for Monroe County and for its largest union are headed back to the table for more contract talks. County and CSEA Unit 7400 officials agreed on a contract proposal in September, but the union’s members recently rejected the deal by a 463 to 377 vote. The union has 1,700 members working in every area […]
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Fight over schools project highlights divide
Questions over who got work on a hugely expensive project to overhaul Rochester’s aging school buildings have culminated in a lawsuit that some say threatens the whole deal. Politics, longstanding grudges, and racial tensions add fuel to the fire. The first phase of the $1.3 billion project surpassed hiring goals for women and people of […]
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County contract chaos grows
Jail deputies aren’t alone; only two of the county’s eight labor unions have active contracts.
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Project looks at perils of low-wage work
Work affects people’s health in many ways. Consider, for example, the increasingly clear connection between sedentary jobs and obesity, or the benefits people get from forming bonds with their coworkers. But the impacts can vary from job to job; a CEO works in a much different environment, with different hazards and stresses, than a factory […]
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State board will examine fast food wages
The state’s labor commissioner will convene a wage board to look into the pay in New York’s fast food industry. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the plan yesterday in a New York Times editorial. The State Labor Department has the power to convene wage boards to recommend minimum wages for specific industries, as long as an […]
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The super-commuters
Chris McGoldrick often leaves work on Friday afternoons, but it’s not until the early hours of Saturday morning that he pulls his white Subaru Outback into his driveway. Aside from the flickering glow of a neighbor’s television, there are few signs of life. It takes about six-and-a-half hours for McGoldrick to drive the nearly 400 […]
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Fast food fight for $15
As a manager in training at the Irondequoit Wendy’s, Kim Ramos makes $8 an hour, which is New York’s minimum wage. When she advances to manager, she’ll make around $9 or $10 an hour. But even then she says she’ll struggle to make ends meet. Ramos lives with her girlfriend, who has two children and […]
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Local fast food workers strike for better wages
This morning, workers at some Rochester-area fast food restaurants went on strike. They’ll join fast food workers in cities across the country as part of the Fight for $15 campaign. The workers say they want employers like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s to commit to a $15 an hour wage for store employees and the […]
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A novel approach to unionizing
An interesting experiment in unionizing is happening in Chattanooga, Tennessee. According to the Washington Post’s Wonkblog, this week 1,570 workers at a Volkswagen plant in the city will vote this week whether to join the United Auto Workers union. And UAW and Volkswagen both want them to vote yes. That the union and the automaker […]
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NY’s economic development Hunger Games
New York is three years into its economic development Hunger Games. The analogy between a fictional dystopian death match and Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signature economic development initiative isn’t entirely precise. While the Cuomo initiative pits regions of the state against each other in an annual competition for limited resources, nobody dies. And the distribution of […]
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Teamsters reject Wegmans’ contract proposal
Members of Teamsters Local 118 have again rejected a contract offer from Wegmans.
