Union corruption allegations hit a local’s leadership team:
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) President Matthew Loeb reportedly “declared an emergency” earlier this summer over Local 479. Now this local’s leadership has been suspended following corruption allegations, and Loeb cited the need to avoid “irreparable injury” to the “property and membership rights” at the local serving Georgia and Alabama TV and film technicians and craftspeople.
IATSE Local 479 is under an emergency conservatorship following a July 20 hearing, and drama must have gone down, although details remain under wraps. Around 7,000 members are now represented by appointed temporary trustees, and this adds to the union’s woes after they’ve become embroiled in Big Labor’s fight against the Paramount merger.
A Teamsters nursing strike is nearing a milestone:
We’ve discussed the Teamsters’ plans to mass-organize Michigan nurses despite the union’s questionable expertise in the field. Part of their plan includes pushing employers into lengthy strikes. That’s precisely what’s been going on at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc, where about 750 nurses and case workers have been on strike since Sept. 1, 2025 with plenty of union-waged fact vs. fiction in the mix.
As that one-year anniversary approaches, the hospital responded to union allegations about workplace violence that is all-too-common in healthcare settings. A Henry Ford spokesperson declared that the hospital has “zero tolerance for violence of any kind” and has addressed the issue with armed guards and other security measures. The spokesperson added that the hospital views the union’s agenda as “simply an economic strike.”
Shawn Fain is lashing out at judges in Detroit:
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain appears to be the focus of a grand jury subpoena, but he’s not letting those looming legal problems distract him from popping off at judges on his home turf in Wayne County.
Fain joined a public defenders’ (PD) strike that’s part of a contract dispute for 60 UAW-represented lawyers. Although many of the striking lawyers handed off their cases to other attorneys, one striking PD is being held in contempt, and Fain issued a statement of disapproval while suggesting that the district judges would be voted out at election time: “Shame on you.”
Naturally, this walkout is having effects on the PD’s case load, and Chief District Court Judge William McConico emphasized that judges aren’t taking sides, but the court must “manage its docket in a way that maintains fairness and continuity for all parties.”
Meanwhile, Shawn Fain’s own reelection is not a sure thing.
SEIU-lobbied boosts to Minnesota nursing home wages will soon take effect:
No one can accuse the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) of not staying busy. They’ve got their hands all over the sectoral bargaining bandwagon in California, and in Minnesota, they lobbied for years for across-the-board raises in nursing homes.
Federal approval arrived for those raises, which will go into effect on Sept. 10 and provide for new hourly wage floors, ranging from $19 to $27 hourly, for all categories of workers in these facilities. A further $1.50 raise for every nursing home worker will arrive on Jan. 1, 2027. These boosts come at a time when Minnesota nursing homes are, like those across the U.S., struggling to stay afloat, and facility closings have been leaving families with fewer options to seek healthcare for loved ones.
The Ninth Circuit rewrote union turf war rules:
In Int’l Longshore and Warehouse Union v. NLRB, the full Ninth Circuit shut down a loophole that unions were using to keep pursuing work despite the NLRB having stepped in and assigned that work to a rival union. This court ruling restores the Board’s ability to settle skirmishes between unions battling over the same jobs, at least in Washington, California, and other Ninth Circuit states.
This dispute involved the International Longshore and Warehouse Union filing grievances over Port of Seattle jobs that the Board previously assigned to the International Association of Machinists. For employers in the Ninth Circuit, this at least shuts down some workplace meddling from turf-warring unions. That is, unions now have far less protection if they’re pushing for work that the Board has assigned to another union.
