Posts tagged Democratic
How the Colorado Labor Peace Act came to be and why unions want so desperately to get rid of it
February 3, 2025 // The Colorado Labor Peace Act requires a 75% vote of approval before a union can even negotiate with an employer over imposing union security. Senate Bill 5 would remove the union security vote requirement altogether. Senate Bill 5 likely has enough Democratic support to pass the state legislature, but Gov. Jared Polis has indicated he won’t sign it into law as is. And the Colorado business community is pushing back on the proposal, too.
Scoop: GOP fight coming over labor unions
January 31, 2025 // The senator pitched his bill at a dinner Tuesday night with Teamsters president Sean O'Brien and a small group of Republican senators — Roger Marshall of Kansas, Jim Banks of Indiana, and Ohio's Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted, sources familiar said. "We look forward to advancing meaningful legislation for working people this Congress," Hawley's office told Axios.
Trump fires EEOC and labor board officials, setting up legal fight
January 29, 2025 // Due to existing vacancies, Wilcox's ouster leaves the board with just two members, short of the quorum it needs to adjudicate even routine cases. (The board, when fully staffed, has five members.) With this move, Trump has effectively shut down the NLRB's operations, leaving the workers it defends on their own, AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said in a statement.
Trump’s new Schedule F executive order is smarter, but could still backfire
January 23, 2025 // The American Federation of Government Employees said that re-issuing the executive order was “a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government by eliminating employees’ due process rights so they can be fired for political reasons.” The ink on the order was barely dry when the National Treasury Employees Union sued to overturn it.
SEIU Rejoins AFL-CIO After Splitting Off 20 Years Ago
January 8, 2025 // The reaffiliation means the AFL-CIO can more directly pitch in on SEIU campaigns, including a high-profile one at Starbucks. That effort is led by Workers United, an SEIU affiliate, and has led to more than 500 unionized stores nationwide at the coffee chain, making it one of the most closely watched organizing pushes in decades.
Why Manchin took down a nominee for the National Labor Relations Board
December 12, 2024 // Manchin told Semafor that supporters were “playing hardball” to get his vote but he had already told them he would not vote for McFerran due to her support for the joint-employer regulation broadening the reach of labor laws. “Hell yes, they know,” Manchin said. The vote was tied 49-49, with all Republicans opposed as well as Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Manchin returned before Vice President Kamala Harris could break the tie. “The only thing they could do is catch me when I’m not there,” Manchin said.
How Will the U.S. Election Outcome Affect Labor Law? A Deep Dive into the NLRB’s Future
November 19, 2024 // The NLRB’s policy agenda is almost certain to shift. The new General Counsel will likely take a different approach to several key labor issues that the current NLRB has made a priority. For example, current General Counsel Abruzzo pursued aggressive enforcement actions against restrictive covenants, like non-compete and nonsolicitation agreements, following her May 2023 memo where she articulated her view that restrictive covenants like non-competes “generally violate federal labor law.” The new General Counsel will almost certainly halt enforcement of this position and several others when the new administration takes control.
UAW’s Fain shares post-election message with auto workers: What he said
November 18, 2024 // The letter, posted on social media late Wednesday, started by acknowledging that "the people have spoken" in electing Trump to a second term as U.S. president. Fain said it was not the outcome the UAW advocated for — because the UAW endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — but the union members must remain true to the UAW mission of fighting for their jobs and better benefits.
NLRB Seeks to Cancel Debate on Unionization
November 15, 2024 // Dissenting Board Member Marvin Kaplan, however, points out that the NLRA “favor[s] uninhibited, robust, and wide-open debate in labor disputes,” and the Supreme Court, Congress, and the Board have all recognized the legality of employer speech rights during organizing campaigns, including the use of captive audience meetings. Kaplan highlights that past efforts by the Board to restrict non-coercive speech by employers have routinely failed.
US labor board bans mandatory anti-union meetings in ruling against Amazon
November 13, 2024 // The decision could also be overturned by the board when it gains a Republican majority, as the agency often reverses itself after changes in leadership. President-elect Donald Trump could have a Republican-led board in place as soon as next year. At least 10 U.S. states including New York, California, and most recently Alaska have banned captive audience meetings or prohibited employers from disciplining workers who do not attend them. The NLRB said its decision would only be applied moving forward and not to pending cases.