Posts tagged Biden administration
One Big Beautiful Law on American Radio Journal
July 7, 2025 // This week on American Radio Journal: Lowman Henry talks with Vincent Vernuccio from the Institute for the American Worker about the proposed Employee Rights Act of 2025;
Op-Ed: Federal union bosses: To ‘save democracy,’ let us finish destroying it
June 30, 2025 // How are federal union bosses reacting now that a president is finally taking action to put a halt to a system that, as former union attorney Kurt Hanslowe foresaw back in 1967, empowers “entrenched and mutually supportive government officials and collective bargaining representatives” over whom the public has “diminishing control” to make joint decisions about tax rates and other public policies? True to form, union officials are claiming Trump’s efforts to restore representative government are anti-democratic! For example, American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley, whose union filed the pending lawsuit to block E.O.14251, unsurprisingly claims the Trump Administration’s actions “represent a clear threat” to “every American who “values democracy.”
New York State Looks to Take Over Labor Law Enforcement Amidst Uncertainty at the NLRB
June 26, 2025 // With mounting uncertainty about the lack of a quorum and near term future of the National Labor Relations Board (the “NLRB” or the “Board”), New York State legislators are attempting to usurp the powers delegated to the Board by Congress.
Trump administration suspends enforcement of Biden-era farmworker rule
June 26, 2025 // "The decision provides much-needed clarity for American farmers navigating the H-2A program, while also aligning with President Trump's ongoing commitment to strictly enforcing U.S. immigration laws," the department said in a statement. "As multiple federal court injunctions have created significant legal uncertainty, inconsistency, and operational challenges for farmers lawfully employing H-2A workers, this field assistance bulletin clarifies that the department will not be enforcing the 2024 final rule effective immediately." The H-2A visa program allows farmers to bring in an unlimited number of foreign seasonal farmhands if they can show there are not enough U.S. workers willing, qualified and available to do the job.
OPM calls for quicker firings, more stringent performance standards
June 25, 2025 // Don Kettl, professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. “In the case of any downsizing in government, training is always the first to go. So is there going to be investment to try to make happen what they’re proposing?” The former HR official said the plan to reduce performance improvement plans to 30 days belies the overall memo as a “red herring.” “If you can’t articulate why someone’s failing and you only give them 30 days to show that they’re no longer failing, it becomes a procedural widget to sustain a termination,” they said. “[And] the Trump administration has done such a thorough job in the last five months cutting the balls off of unions—which is a mistake, because they help provide due process—and the Merit Systems Protection Board, the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] and [Office of Special Counsel], it’s going to be hard for current employees under these constraints to win anything.”
A Taft-Hartley Roundup of Recent Labor News
June 25, 2025 // For just shy of 80 years, conservative Americans and the Republican Party that provides their imperfect electoral vehicle have sought to advance a policy consensus on labor relations based on three principles: ensuring union membership and participation is voluntary, scrutinizing unions’ operations in exchange for their government-granted powers, and protecting the public from the fallout from labor disputes. As America sits by the pool at the beginning of what might prove to be a long, hot summer, what news is there about the Taft-Hartley consensus?
Op-ed: Reject The Rail Crew Mandate And Embrace Deregulation
June 24, 2025 // This destructive, union-backed rule undermines voluntary labor-management agreements that already govern crew sizes in a more flexible and effective manner. The Center for Transportation Advancement points out that rigid staffing mandates override productive negotiations and mimic the failed "full crew" laws of the early 1900s—laws long since repealed because they served union interests, not public safety.
Wisconsin gig workers could become independent contractors under bill headed to governor’s desk
June 19, 2025 // Drivers for transit apps like Uber or DoorDash would be given more flexibility, but they'd also be exempt from worker's compensation or minimum wage requirements
House Committee Debates NLRB’s Fairness and Transparency
June 18, 2025 // Also at issue was how workers vote for or against unionization. When workers select a union, said Vincent Vernuccio, president of the Institute for the American Worker, they should be allowed to make that choice “securely and privately” and “without intimidation or coercion.” He cited the “true language” of the NLRA that says a “union must be chosen by the majority of all the employees in a unit.” Vernuccio advocated for the use of secret-ballot elections in place of card check, an organizing method in which a union gathers worker signatures.
Sen. Joni Ernst pushes to ban taxpayer-funded union time in One Big Beautiful Bill Act
June 16, 2025 // Approximately $160 million of your money went toward fed workers’ union time as of 2019, the last time such data was available, and Ernst (R-Iowa) has been on a quest for more recent information. Her legislation, dubbed the “Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallet Act,” would compel government unions to reimburse taxpayers for all of their taxpayer-backed activities. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) has championed the measure in the House.