Free Republic

Over 50,000 linemen — the “largest staging of utility workers and linemen in advance of the storm any time in American history” — will respond to Hurricane Milton, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Wednesday as the massive Category 4 storm barrels down on the Sunshine State. In a Wednesday morning update, DeSantis walked through some of the preparations the state has taken ahead of the storm, which is expected to make landfall late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning on the west coast of Florida, potentially south of Tampa, although wiggles and wobbles are certain. “Hurricane Milton is heading our...

Roughly 25,000 striking dockworkers at ports along the East and Gulf Coasts of the U.S. are rallying for higher pay and stronger guardrails around their jobs being automated out of existence. Members of the International Longshoremen's Association, or ILA, a union representing the dockworkers, walked off the job Tuesday for the first time in nearly 50 years as they push for "the kind of wages we deserve," ILA President Harold Daggett said in a social media post on Tuesday. Those wages, union officials argue, should factor in the torrid inflation that eroded dockworkers' paychecks under their now lapsed labor contract...

Thousands of workers at more than a dozen ports throughout the United States are preparing to go on strike as the deadline for their union and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) to reach an agreement looms closer. Dockworkers with the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), who work at roughy 14 ports along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico are set to go on strike as of October 1 if their union and the USMX do not reach an agreement regarding their labor contract, according to the Hill. Roughly “25,000 port workers employed in contain and roll-on/roll-off operations at...

American tech workers, along with lawyers and accountants, have some of the lowest rates of union membership in the country.But in the last few years of ballooning layoffs, sentiments may be changing.This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Marcus Lu, shows the percentage of U.S. tech employees that would join a union if their company had access to one.Data is sourced from Blind, which conducted an online survey of 1,901 verified tech professionals.Which Tech Company Employees Are Likely to Join a Union?Amongst the companies, union support appears to be highest at Intuit (financial software), General Motors, and Oracle (enterprise software).Company NameLikelyUnlikely💼 Intuit94%6%🚗...

Kamala Harris is trying to pretend she never wanted to ban fracking, but Pennsylvania energy workers see through her BS. Harris said in 2020 .. she certainly supported a fracking ban, a fact she is now trying to deny. Her insincere reassurances following on years of the Biden-Harris administration’s war on gas and oil do not impress energy workers ... ... she's out there saying whatever she can to make people try to swing her way ... nobody believes that [she will not ban fracking].” ... don't believe anybody in that [Biden] administration.” Considering Kamala is still affirming her dedication...

Social Security is among the rare topics that can make Republicans and Democrats see eye to eye, according to a new survey. In Pennsylvania, people on both sides of the aisle agree that it’s time to raise payroll taxes on high-income earners, cut benefits for the wealthiest retirees, and even push the full retirement age from 67 to 68 if that’s what it takes to keep Social Security from running out of cash. A new poll conducted by the University of Maryland’s Program For Public Consultation found majorities from both political parties want to see lawmakers tackle Social Security’s looming...

WASHINGTON -- America's employers posted fewer job openings in July than they had the previous month, a sign that hiring could further cool in the coming months. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that there were 7.7 million open jobs in July, down from 7.9 million in June and the fewest since January 2021. Openings have fallen steadily this year, from nearly 8.8 million in January. Layoffs rose from 1.56 million to 1.76 million, the most since March 2023, though that level of job cuts is roughly consistent with pre-pandemic levels, when the unemployment rate was historically low. Layoffs have been...

A new law protects workers from punishment for refusing to respond to work calls and emails from their employers outside work hours. The new rule, which came into force on Monday, means employees, in most cases, cannot be punished for refusing to read or respond to contacts from their employers outside work hours. Supporters say the law gives workers the confidence to stand up against the steady invasion of their personal lives by work emails, texts and calls, a trend that has accelerated since the Covid-19 pandemic scrambled the division between home and work. To cater for emergencies and jobs...

The largest employer in Perry, Iowa, has shut down, and the decision to do so has significantly impacted the entire town. The Tyson Foods meat processing plant is not modern enough, and upgrades to the facility would bring a hefty bill. Therefore, it has closed up shop, CBS News reported Monday. “The Tyson plant employed about 25% of Perry’s working-age residents before it shuttered, according to city and county officials. Accounting for workers’ families and businesses directly related to the plant, about 60% of the town is affected by the closure,” the outlet said.

Jeep maker Stellantis — one of the Big Three automakers — is set to lay off around 2,450 workers later this year at a discontinued Ram 1500 Classic factory outside of Detroit. “With the introduction of the new Ram 1500, production of the Ram 1500 Classic at the Warren (Michigan) Truck Assembly Plant will come to an end later this year,” a Stellantis spokesperson wrote to The Hill. “As a result, Stellantis announced today that the plant will move from a two-shift to a one-shift operating pattern in General Assembly.” The company confirmed that layoffs could begin as early as...

It seems to be the controversial topic of the ages...only it has worsened since post-pandemic. It's the great remote work divide...also dubbed "The Great Return" and "The Great Office Return" by others. Although in theory, remote work has essentially been in existence for decades, it has only become a hot topic of late, and become aggravated even more, with the recent headline-grabbing strides of big-name employers who dared to mandate employees to return to office-based work (affectionately known as RTO)—or risk losing their jobs.

(NewsNation) — Americans’ morning commutes are getting longer as remote work and rising housing costs continue to change the way people live. The share of “super-commutes,” those 75 miles or longer, is up by nearly a third since the start of the pandemic, according to new research from Stanford University. Those trips to the office typically take two hours and 20 minutes each way, nearly five hours total, the study found. For workers who super-commute daily, that’s almost a full 24-hour day of travel per week. However, a daily journey may not be the norm. Researchers suspect hybrid work is...

The Big Apple has become so unaffordable, even six-figure salary earners are finding themselves priced out. That’s according to a new report from real estate listings website StreetEasy, which says that New York City apartments have become so expensive, it’s not just lower income households struggling to pay rent. Those in the tech sector, where annual wages are $135,089 — 52% higher than average — could afford only one in three NYC rentals on the market in 2023. For entry-level tech workers, who make an average salary of $75,262, only 2.1% of studio and one-bedroom rentals were within reach, which...

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on China on Friday to address manufacturing overcapacity that she said could cause global economic dislocation and to create a level-playing field for American companies and workers. Starting a five-day visit to China in one of the country’s major industrial and export hubs, she said she would raise industrial overcapacity and what the US considers to be unfair Chinese trade practices during what will likely be tough talks with senior China officials. “There are a broad swath of economic interactions” between the US and China “that should remain uncontroversial,” she said at an event...

President Joe Biden visits Baltimore on Friday following the deadly bridge disaster on March 26, as investors and left-wingers jointly use the tragic deaths of six migrant workers to demand legalization for low-wage migrants. The illegal migrants “that have been working, contributing, paying taxes here for decades deserve the dignity of a legal work permit,” Rebecca Shi, executive director of the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), told a press conference on April 3. “Given the tragedy on the Key Bridge, this is more urgent and necessary than ever,” she said, according to a report by WTOP.com.

Workers at a Volkswagen manufacturing plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, the UAW announced Tuesday. The move could make the Tennessee plant the first to join the UAW since the union earned pay raises and benefit increases for its members in a strike against the “Big Three” automakers last year. “I come from a UAW family, so I’ve seen how having our union enables us to make life better on the job and off,” plant employee Yolanda Peoples said in a statement. “We are a positive force in the...

By the end of June, more than 10,000 foreign workers from India will be employed in Israel, and at the same time, the process of absorbing about 10,000 foreign workers from other countries such as Georgia, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, and more will begin. The arrival of foreign workers will save the construction industry, which is currently in collapse, and most of the construction sites are closed. The trend is to bring about 40,000 more workers to Israel to complete a quota of 65,000 foreign workers because Palestinian workers who worked in the construction industry no longer come to work in...

Millions of Americans awaiting their refund checks could be disappointed, as early data shows that average workers are receiving 29 percent less in tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) this year. The average refund check through February 2 is worth $1,395, according to statistics published by the IRS on Thursday. This amount is significantly less compared to the $1,963 received on average last year. Despite the noticeable reduction in the average refund issued this year so far, the IRS does not appear alarmed, noting that the average refund amount is likely to change in the coming months. The...

Seventy current and former NYCHA workers were busted Tuesday in a 10-year, $2 million pay-to-play corruption scheme involving the largest number of federal bribery charges brought in a single day in Department of Justice history. The avalanche of bribery and extortion crimes occurred in about a third of the 335 developments in the New York Housing Authority — the country’s biggest public housing agency — when the suspects demanded cash in exchange for lucrative construction, maintenance and no-bid contracts, officials said. The defendants, all of whom were working for NYCHA at the time, sought between 10% and 20% of the...

President Biden on Monday met with union workers in Las Vegas, seeking to bolster his support with a key constituency on the eve of the state’s primary and ahead of the general election. Biden spoke to members of the Culinary Workers Union at the Vdara Hotel, shaking hands and taking photos. His visit came after the union, which represents hospitality workers in Las Vegas, reached an agreement with several hotel-casinos in the city to avert a potential walkout. “Wall Street did not build America. The middle class built America. Unions built the middle class. There would be no middle class...