Christine Tartaglione's Labor Report

General Motors, the nation’s largest automobile manufacturer announced this week its intention to stop production at five of its North American factories and reduce its salaried workforce by 15 percent, drawing criticism from organized labor and overt warnings from the U.S. president.

In its Nov. 26 statement, GM framed the downsizing as part of its effort to “accelerate” the company’s “transformation” in response to “changing market conditions and customer preferences” away from sedans like the Volt, Impala and Cruze, and toward hatchbacks, SUVs and trucks.

The closings will occur in 2019 and involve assembly plants in Detroit; Warren, Ohio (near Youngstown); and Oshawa, Ontario, Canada; along with propulsion plants in White Marsh, Maryland (near Baltimore); and Warren, Michigan. The four U.S. plants employ a combined 3,800 hourly and salaried staff, CNN reported, while the Canadian plant has another 2,500.

GM stated that the cutbacks would save the company $6 billion a year by 2020, while streamlining production and modernizing product development.
The United Auto Workers, in a published statement, accused GM of growing its foreign production of vehicles that it will re-import into the U.S.

UAW President Gary Jones said: “We must step away from the anti-worker thinking of seeking simply the lowest labor cost on the planet,” said UAW President Gary Jones. “The practice of circumventing American labor in favor of moving production to nations that tolerate wages less than half of what our American brothers and sisters make, must stop. More importantly, we must understand that these companies, including GM, are no longer in trouble. They are recording annual profits in the tens of billions.”

Responses from workers ranged from shock to hope that the UAW will be able to negotiate a “new commitment” from GM when bargaining over a new national contract begins next year.

President Trump, who famously and repeatedly assured Ohioans in 2016 and ’17 that factories and manufacturing jobs would be “coming back” to the state, responded to the GM announcement by threatening to take away the company’s government subsidies and calling for new tariffs on imported cars.

PA Labor Department Approves Student Funding for Jobless Workers

Southwest Pennsylvania workers who have lost their jobs due to foreign imports or the relocation of their work overseas may be eligible for new funding to help them obtain college degrees.

Penn State University recently announced that the Department of Labor and Industry has approved Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) funding for the two-year Electrical Engineering Technology, Physical Therapist Assistant, Business Administration, and Human Development and Family Studies degree programs at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.

“Pennsylvania CareerLink staff work with trade-impacted individuals to determine needs for services and training. PA CareerLink is a free resource provided by the Department of Labor to match job-seekers and employers through a user-friendly system. The TAS program is 100 percent federally funded,” the university stated.
A university enrollment specialist will be available to assist eligible workers at PA CareerLink offices in Fayette and Greene counties.

The TAA program was created under the federal Trade Act of 1974 to help American workers who have lost their jobs to foreign competition. The Act has been amended numerous times since then. Groups of workers or their unions may petition the U.S. Department of Labor to determine their eligibility to apply for TAA benefits. Available benefits vary depending on when the workers file their petition.

Uber Expands Ride Sharing Accessibility for Wheelchair Users

The nation’s largest ridesharing service took a major step this month to expand its accessibility for riders who use wheelchairs in eight of its largest metropolitan markets.

Uber Technologies Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced in a Nov. 20 blog post that the company had reached a deal with a Texas firm to provide wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVs) for hire in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto and Washington. The service will expand to Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2019. Those eight markets account for half of all Uber trips in North America, the chief executive said.

The service is called UberWAV and is featured alongside the company’s other services on Uber’s mobile app for riders. Instead of booking a private ride (UberX), a shared ride (Pool) or other types of vehicles, users can scroll to the “WAV” option when ordering a ride. Khosrowshahi said the average wait time for WAV service will be 15 minutes or less. UberWAV costs the same as UberX.

The WAV service is not new to places like Philadelphia, where the company rolled out a fleet of about 70 accessible vans in July 2017. At the time, Uber officials said they wanted to meet accessibility requirements mandated by the 2016 law that legalized ride sharing in Pennsylvania.

Yet, the service has been slow to take hold, Khosrowshahi wrote, because “historically” the Uber model is based on drivers who use their own vehicles, “but there simply aren’t enough people who personally own WAVs who also choose to drive with Uber.”

The new agreement with MV Transportation provides more ample fleets of accessible vans in those cities.

With Hundreds of Pension Plans Facing Insolvency, Congressional Committee Deadline Looms

Leaders of a joint, bipartisan special Congressional committee created to address the nation’s multiemployer pensions crisis said this week the panel will not meet a Nov. 30 deadline to vote on a plan to rescue the failing funds.

Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Co-Chairman Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) stated on Nov. 29 that the committee has made “meaningful progress toward a bipartisan proposal” but it has not reached a consensus. The chairs indicated that the ad hoc committee will continue its work beyond the stated deadline.

As of January 2018, 201 of the nation’s 1,296 multiemployer pension plans were in “critical” status, according to a study based on U.S. Department of Labor data, while another 110 were listed as “critical and declining.” Together, these plans encompassed about 3.3 million active participants and retired beneficiaries from 39,000 employers.

The committee, which is evenly divided between parties, has been reportedly considering multiple strategies incorporating Treasury Department subsidies, retiree benefits reductions, along with higher premiums and new fees levied against active workers and their companies, all in an attempt to make the pensions funds financially solvent. Yet, committee aides told the Washington Post earlier this month that “negotiations were extremely fluid and that there is a risk talks will unravel.”

Pennsylvania’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 4.1% in October 2018, the same as it was in the previous two months. Over the month, unemployment rolls increased by 3,142 individuals, with total unemployment rising to 265,302. State unemployment statistics for the month are as follows:

As indicated above, total unemployment’s rounded percentage of the labor force, or unemployment rate, remained unchanged over the prior month (rate = unemployment / labor force). The labor force is the number of employed individuals combined with the number of unemployed individuals actively searching for work. Labor force growth can be a sign of a strengthening economy from more people working and/or more individuals searching for jobs. Marking a fourth consecutive monthly increase, PA’s labor force grew by 23,523 individuals from September to October 2018, a combination of total employment* rising by 20,381 and unemployment up by 3,142 as noted above. As a result of the consecutive monthly increases, PA’s labor force over Governor Wolf’s term has rebounded from negative growth of 43,448 (employment +26,941 & unemployment -70,389) earlier this year to being up by 13,539 (employment +93,878 & unemployment -80,339) as of October 2018. State labor force statistics for the month are as follows:

Non-farm* job rolls rose by an impressive 18,500 from September to October 2018, marking a 19th consecutive monthly increase and pushing total non-farm employment to a new record high of 6.063 million. Year-over-year in October 2018, the commonwealth added 92,300 new non-farm jobs. Since Gov. Wolf took office in January 2015, 247,500 new non-farm jobs have been added, nearly 100,000 more than were added over Gov. Corbett’s four-year term. The addition of 247,500 non-farm jobs ranks the commonwealth 30th out of 50 states for new percentage job growth, an improvement from it’s ranking of 48th in the same survey over Gov. Corbett’s term. State non-farm employment statistics for the month are as follows:

*Total employment for labor force provided by U.S. Census Household survey. The separate BLS Establishment survey measures non-farm jobs only.

(Seasonally adjusted, non-farm growth as of October 2018. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Figures in thousands.)

Workers, Communities Still Looking for Answers After GM Announces Plant Closings, Layoffs

PA Labor Department Approves Student Funding for Jobless Workers

Uber Expands Ride Sharing Accessibility for Wheelchair Users

With Hundreds of Pension Plans Facing Insolvency, Congressional Committee Deadline Looms

October 2018 Unemployment Rankings By State