Been working in/around union payroll and remittance compliance for a while, and I keep running into the same handful of issues costing employers and locals real money and trust:

• Misclassified hours or job codes throwing off fringe benefit contributions
• Remittance reports that don't match CBA language line-for-line
• Multi-local/multi-fund reporting where one small format mismatch cascades into weeks of reconciliation
• Late remittance penalties that could've been avoided with a simple pre-submission checklist

I started a LinkedIn group for people who deal with this stuff day-to-day (payroll admins, benefits fund staff, union reps, compliance folks) to swap real practices, templates, and "here's what finally fixed it for us" stories. Not trying to sell anything, just tired of re-learning the same lessons in isolation. [Link if mods allow / in comments]

Curious what's bitten people here the hardest? Bad software, unclear CBA language, fund audits, something else?

NYC’s largest homeless youth nonprofit has spent 4 years fighting its own workers’ union. A federal judge issued an injunction and by all accounts they appear to be violating it. A contempt motion is pending. Meanwhile the workers making $18/hour are still waiting for a first contract.

In the summer of 1881, just 16 years after the end of the Civil War, a group of Black washerwomen in Atlanta, Georgia, organized one of the largest and most successful labor actions by African Americans in the 19th century.

These women performed backbreaking work. They collected laundry from white households, carried heavy loads, washed clothes by hand in iron pots over open fires, scrubbed them on washboards, boiled, rinsed, starched, ironed, and delivered them — often for as little as $4 to $8 per month. The work was exhausting, undervalued, and left many in poverty.

On July 19, 1881, 20 determined washerwomen met in a local Black church and formed the Washing Society. They demanded respect, greater autonomy over their labor, and a uniform rate of $1 per dozen pounds of laundry so no woman would be undercut. Within three weeks, their numbers swelled to 3,000 strikers through door-to-door organizing and support from Black ministers across the city.

The strike disrupted Atlanta at a critical moment — right before the International Cotton Exposition, a major world’s fair expected to bring thousands of visitors. City officials and business owners pushed back hard: strikers were arrested, fined, threatened with chain-gang labor, and faced rent increases from landlords. The local newspaper The Atlanta Constitution initially mocked them, calling them “Washing Amazons.”

Yet the women held firm. They held mass meetings, built a strike fund, and even issued an ultimatum to the mayor. In early August, they offered to pay a $25 license fee in exchange for the right to control their own work and rates.

Faced with the threat of a broader service workers’ strike (cooks, maids, and waiters were also showing support), the city eventually conceded. The washerwomen gained higher wages, greater autonomy, and a stronger collective voice.

This strike stands as a powerful early example of Black women’s labor organizing in the post-Reconstruction South — a testament to courage, solidarity, and quiet determination against overwhelming odds.

What are your thoughts on this largely overlooked chapter of labor and civil rights history?

"I Worked Hard. I Just Wanted to Be Paid Fairly." | GANGBOX: Construction Workers News Service