For the first time in the United States, Amazon workers have voted to unionize. Workers at a Staten Island warehouse approved union membership in a vote that could set off efforts to unionize other Amazon warehouses across the country. The vote is being viewed as a major win for organized labor at a time when a tight job market has empowered workers to ask for higher wages and other benefits.
New evidence of the robust labor market came Friday — the federal government’s monthly jobs report showed 431,000 jobs were added in March, while the unemployment rate fell to 3.6%.
Some new voices in the state’s budgeting process: The Sweeney Center for Public Policy at Rowan University has put together a nonpartisan group of economists and finance experts to develop a five-year budget report for the state. Former state Senate President Steve Sweeney chairs the center’s advisory board. The group held its first meeting Thursday and aims to release its report by early June.
New Jersey has received its second credit upgrade in less than a month. S&P Global Ratings raised the rating on the state’s general obligation bonds to “A-” from “BBB+” and issued a stable outlook. It’s the first upgrade from S&P since 2005.
In Washington, the house has approved a bill to cap monthly insulin costs at $35 for millions of people with diabetics who rely on the medicine. That bill heads next to the Senate.
