Posts tagged Department of Labor
Analysis: UAW membership drops significantly in Michigan
April 10, 2024 // The UAW is down to 370,239 active, dues-paying members, a drop of approximately13,000 from last year. The union had more than 700,000 active members in 2002 before bottoming out at around 355,191 in 2010. This hasn’t hurt the union’s revenue, however. It took in $485 million last year, the most ever. Membership numbers are even worse for the assorted UAW branches in Michigan. They lost about 6,500 members during the strike year and are now down to 127,458. That’s a 5% drop.
Foxx, Good Bring DOL Chief Lawyer into Dead Teamsters Pension Overpayment Investigation
April 4, 2024 // “The Committee recognizes that, as Solicitor of Labor, you are the principal counsel to Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, who also serves as the acting chair of PBGC’s Board of Directors… The Committee is interested in what advice and legal interpretations you and SOL have provided to PBGC regarding its legal authority to recapture these overpayments from both before and after DOL’s publication of its statement.” The letter continues: “In addition, the Committee understands that SOL could play a role in how PBGC responds to inquiries from Congress and the public. Unfortunately, despite multiple inquiries, PBGC’s responses have been unacceptably incomplete. PBGC’s failure to provide full and forthright information is obstructing the Committee’s ability to consider H.R. 7135, the Ghost Handouts and Overpayments Stop Today Act (GHOST Act), or similar legislation to ensure PBGC meets its obligation to reclaim any overpayment it made in the SFA program.”
Stalled Labor Pick Julie Su Lets Herself Off the Hook for California’s Missing Billions
April 2, 2024 // California’s auditor notes that the U.S. Department of Labor has issued helpful “guidance” for state finance officials in “Unemployment Insurance Program Letter 05-24.” Flip over to the U.S. Department of Labor’s DOL 05-24 letter and you learn what Julie Su is up to. The DOL memo says a Covid-era agreement between the feds and state unemployment departments “required states to use the CARES Act funds ‘for the purpose for which the money was paid to the state’ and to ‘take such action as reasonably may be necessary to recover for the account of the United States all benefit amounts erroneously paid and restore any lost or misapplied funds paid to the state for benefits or the administration of the Agreement.” But how will the federal DOL know whether states took “such action as reasonably necessary to recover” the billions stolen by fraudsters? Because the states will tell them so, or, as the DOL put it in inimitable Orwellian language: “Applying state finality laws to the CARES Act UC programs means that, in many instances, the state will not need to take retroactive action to resolve monitoring findings.”
Biden claims to stand for women, but his new regulation will kill jobs that women want
March 30, 2024 // Patrice Onwuka, director of the Center for Economic Opportunity at the Independent Women’s Forum, is extremely concerned about how Biden’s rule will affect women. Jennifer Oliver O’Connell, a visiting fellow at the Independent Women's Forum, is a small business owner and independent contractor who learned firsthand about how government intrusion into this realm is harmful.
Why the PRO Act is Not Pro-Worker
March 28, 2024 // As the Institute for the American Worker has explained, policies in the PRO Act ultimately restrict worker freedom and choice. Similar overreaching federal policies continue to experience significant pushback and delays, and this provides a reminder for states to check if they are promoting or inhibiting worker freedom. State leaders should examine the model policies listed above and those included in the Labor Reform Policy: 50 State Factsheets, to guarantee that they are protecting the rights and freedoms of their workers.
Commentary: Shades of AB5: Newsom Signs Imperfect AB610, the ‘FAST Act’ Wage Exemption
March 28, 2024 // What do airports, museums, event centers, and gambling establishments have in common? TONS of government regulations and tons of SEIU International employees. These workers are locked into their union wages and therefore safe anyway, as was intended. Just like AB5, these sweetheart exemptions were done under darkness and cover and engineered by SEIU International.
Biden’s DEI mandates on employers fail American workers
March 28, 2024 // Today, businesses have three options when evaluating apprentices’ successful completion of their programs: a time-based approach, which requires the apprentice to complete a certain number of hours of training; a competency-based approach, which requires the apprentice to achieve certain skills; or a combination of the two. This new rule removes the competency-based approach entirely and instead requires all apprentices to complete a minimum of 2,000 hours of on-the-job training and 144 hours of classroom instruction. This not only increases costs for businesses that can train apprentices in less time but also demoralizes talented workers who can achieve competency quickly.
Whitmer joined by Granholm, Slotkin and Fain to announce EV battery training program
March 27, 2024 // “To bring together this front row here of just, I’m sorry, bad asses,” said Slotkin to laughter from the crowd. “I have to say the beauty of being a legislator is when you get to see the stuff that you vote on, actually matter in your own district, in your own state.” The stuff to which Slotkin was referring was the $5 million investment by the Department of Energy for the Battery Workforce Initiative that will, according to a release, “support up to five pilot training programs in energy and automotive communities and advance workforce partnerships between industry and labor for the domestic lithium battery supply chain.” While the $5 million is just a small fraction of the $1.2 bipartisan infrastructure bill signed by Biden in 2021, Whitmer said it was a key piece of the strategy to keep the U.S., as well as Michigan, at the forefront of electric vehicle manufacturing.
Isabel Soto: Biden’s war on freelancing affects the American dream
March 26, 2024 // The left’s war against self-employment is not a reform. It is paternalism: disconnected elites telling 70 million of happy, hurried Americans who don’t know what’s good for them. (It’s also cronyism, since the war on freelancing is fundamentally a project of the big unions, who hate competition.) And as always, when the government targets the proverbial “needy,” the real needy in our economy—women, minorities, and low-income communities—feel the pain. Half of Latinos are self-employed, 40% of African Americans, half of young workers, and more than half of low-income workers. An analysis by The LIBRE Initiative found that until 26% of independent workers are Hispanic and 14% of independent workers are black
Opinion: New Labor rule will harm freelance work under the guise of helping workers
March 22, 2024 // In crafting solutions, it is crucial to maintain a focus on protecting vulnerable workers while also supporting innovation and maintaining the flexibility that has become a hallmark of the American economy. Collaborative efforts between businesses, labor organizations, and policymakers can pave the way for regulations that uphold fair labor standards without shutting down economic growth and individual autonomy.