Posts tagged Bill Cassidy
Teamsters president notes ‘positive change’ with growing Republican union support in Senate testimony
October 9, 2025 // Rachel Greszler, senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, said the complexity of collective bargaining agreements means that both workers forming a union and the employer need ample time to consider their implications for the future of the company and its workforce. "When you have a first contract, especially if you have a company that has never been involved in negotiations or a union, that it's the first time that they're representing workers, they need to understand all the issues," she explained. She also said contracts like the United Auto Workers union's agreements with automakers such as Ford can run thousands of pages when accounting for memorandums of agreement, with several hundred items covered under the bargaining agreement.
Op-ed: When Workers Have Other Options: Rethinking Power in the Multi-Earner Economy
October 5, 2025 // Well, monopsony is the flip side: when one (or just a few) buyers dominate a market. In labor markets, that “buyer” is your employer. And when employers have monopsony power, they can pay you less than what your work is actually worth—because where else are you going to go? Here’s the thing: you don’t need to live in a company town with one employer to experience monopsony power. It happens if the cost of leaving your job is too high. Maybe you need the health insurance.
Republicans invite Teamsters president to testify on labor laws
October 5, 2025 // Cassidy’s invitation comes after the Teamsters’ decision in September 2024 not to endorse a presidential candidate – the first time the union did so since 1996 – and follows O’Brien’s remarks at last year's Republican National Convention, the first time in history that the organization’s leader addressed the RNC. The hearing, which is set to take place next Wednesday, as well as O'Brien’s invitation to it, is emblematic of the GOP’s slow crawl toward embracing parts of a working-class union message that would have turned heads even half a decade ago.
Commentary: From job lock to job choice: Congress rethinks worker power
September 12, 2025 // On the Hill, Senate HELP Committee Chair Sen. Bill Cassidy’s (R-La.) new Unlocking Benefits for Independent Workers Act is gaining bipartisan attention, and similar efforts are moving forward in the House. Many Democrats and Republicans agree that it’s time to remove what are essentially old legal loopholes that deny access to affordable benefits to millions of self-employed Americans. But there’s something more to the idea: Portable benefits could help all workers to better leverage their own economic power.
The Importance of Protecting Portable Benefits
August 19, 2025 // The modern gig economy employs about 75 million workers. The provision of benefits is, of course, a positive for these freelance workers – so if businesses wish to provide them, they should be able to do so without fear of misclassification lawsuits. In short, Congress should consider these bills as a positive for both the millions of gig workers and the businesses that wish to provide them competitive benefits packages.
GOP senator, labor secretary visit Louisiana alligator farm touting new pro-worker legislation
August 16, 2025 // Fresh off helping pass that bill, Cassidy is championing his pro-worker legislation, the Unlocking Benefits for Independent Workers Act, introduced last month with senators Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Rand Paul, R-Ky. The bill seeks to modernize federal labor laws, granting gig workers and independent contractors access to health benefits, paid sick leave and retirement plans, among other provisions.
Portable Benefits Are (Finally) Having a Moment
July 31, 2025 // I’ve been fortunate to contribute to this conversation from the beginning — by publishing research and policy guides that examine outdated assumptions about work and benefits. I’ve shared these findings with Sen. Cassidy’s and Rep. Kiley’s team, as well as with every congressional or state lawmaker who showed interest — and have testified more than a dozen times before Congress and in state legislative hearings.
Opinion: Democrats Attack Gig-Worker Benefits
July 23, 2025 // In a committee hearing on the bill last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders sidestepped the issue of worker benefits to address his party’s real concern—giving unions more power over individual workers. “These bills are about giving corporations the freedom to deny workers the right to form a union,” he said. Independent contractors can’t unionize under the National Labor Relations Act, so unions and the Democrats they support want to outlaw contract work, or at least deprive it of benefits that could attract workers. Democrats on the committee were united in opposition. This political opposition has deterred several gig companies from offering benefits. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has pledged more than $650 million a year to fund health insurance and paid time off if lawmakers would withdraw the threat of reclassifying the company’s drivers.
Federal and State Leaders Take Aim at Empowering America’s Flexible Workforce
July 16, 2025 // However, while federal leaders build support for national reforms to help workers all across America, states are not sitting idle. They know that not only do self-employed workers support greater access to portable benefits, but their residents in general think this warrants policy reforms as well. Instead, many are forging ahead with legal pathways for flexible, portable benefits, maximizing what they can do at the state level in ways that will be further enhanced by federal reforms when they occur. Many states introduced legislation this year to legalize voluntary benefits, but several pioneering states now have laws enacted.
Legislation helping independent workers access portable benefits introduced
July 10, 2025 // Currently, while 80 percent of independent workers would like access to workplace benefits, decades old federal labor and employment law prevent them from doing so. The legislative package is supported by independent worker organizations like Flex Association, the Institute for the American Worker and the National Retail Federation, to name a few. “The Unlocking Benefits for Independent Workers Act is an important step toward addressing some of the federal legal hurdles that complicate efforts to connect independent contractors with portable benefits while ensuring that the millions of Americans who choose to earn on their own terms can continue doing so without risking the independence and flexibility they value. Flex looks forward to working with Senator Cassidy and other forward-thinking policymakers as there is additional work to be done on this issue at the state and federal levels,” Kristin Sharp, CEO of Flex Association.