Posts tagged Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
New Jersey attorney general sues Iron Workers’ chapter for discrimination
July 8, 2024 // The complaint, filed jointly with the state’s Division of Civil Rights, also alleges that the union maintained a hostile work environment where “male, non-Black co-workers” called a Black woman worker a racial slur, locked her in a bathroom for hours and smacked her buttocks. The suit provides graphic details around claims that another worker found homophobic, pornographic materials taped to his work computer and that a supervisor used a derogatory term to refer to women.
WIOA Reauthorization Draft Includes “Blacklisting” Provision, Violating Employers’ Due Process Rights
July 3, 2024 // The blacklisting provision, if implemented, would bar employers from WIOA funding based on findings that are still subject to appeal. As a result, an employer may be denied funding even though a court may rule on appeal that the employer did not violate the law. Efforts to blacklist employers from federal initiatives and funding began under the Obama administration when it issued Executive Order 13673, “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces,” in July 2014. The Executive Order called for the debarment or suspension of federal contractors from the federal procurement process for allegations of labor and employment law violations. A final rule and guidance implementing the Executive Order were issued in August 2016, but both were blocked from taking effect by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and by Congress via a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution.
Op-ed: Diversity, equity, and exclusion: How the NLRB’s double standard on job-related speech hurts workers
March 22, 2024 // The NLRB in 2020 required Amazon to reinstate a male worker who had used a bullhorn to call a female colleague a “gutter bitch” and “crack ho,” among other misogynistic insults. The bullhorn-wielding worker had been engaged in a one-man union protest when the female co-worker told him to quiet down. The union activist replied with a string of insults that would be clear proof of a hostile workplace under any other circumstances. The NLRB nevertheless sided with the union activist, as it usually has in such situations. The board has long believed that allowances must be made for heated rhetoric when workers are engaged union-related activities. So, you cannot question a workplace diversity policy publicly at work and you cannot criticize the policy outside of work in the private-yet-public world of social media. Either one can get you fired for creating a hostile work environment. But a male worker can be openly hostile and insulting to female co-workers if the man is affiliated with a union.
2024 strikes predicted to be less disruptive; but layoffs and unionization continue
January 5, 2024 // US workers will not be exerting the same sort of pay pressures on employers as they did in 2023, with opportunities to strike being much reduced. After a bumper 2023 of strike activity, it claims the bargaining schedule for 2024 does not appear to be facing as many battles ahead.
‘Battle royale’: Tesla and anti-union Musk make enticing targets for UAW’s next push
November 5, 2023 // Some current UAW members are already fired up to take on Tesla. “Go out west to California? Absolutely, I would go,” said John Jake Kincaid, a Stellantis employee in Michigan. “Show them our strength.” Still, fighting for a contract at companies with established relationships with union workers is a far different effort than starting from scratch. Several workers who were key to Tesla’s earlier union effort are no longer at the company. The Fremont plant’s history with the UAW predates the electric vehicle maker. For about 25 years, Toyota and GM operated the facility together in an unusual joint venture. It was a union shop. In 2009, GM pulled out of the partnership as part of its bankruptcy proceedings and in 2010 Toyota shut the operation down, throwing 4,700 people out of work. A month later, Tesla bought the sprawling 5.3 million square foot factory; the union didn’t come with the purchase.
What could the new EEOC rule mean for unions?
November 1, 2023 // Seabron was just one of multiple black employees who experienced harassment from this union. Moeleek Thomas, a tow truck operator with the New York City police department traffic enforcement division was called racist names when he tried to raise concerns to union leadership. “Union leaders avoided my questions about the lack of a contract for our unit,” explained Thomas. “I was frustrated, and that frustration led to a confrontation with the vice-president of District Council 37 Local 983, Marvin Robbins, during which, Robbins called me racist names.” “In a phone call, Robbins called me a ‘house n—er,’ an ‘Uncle Tom,’ and he told me I was nothing but a ‘kiss-a–,’” said Thomas. Thomas hopes the EEOC rule could help hold union leaders, like Marvin Robbins, accountable for their actions. The EEOC has invited the public to submit comments regarding the proposed rule at https://www.regulations.gov/document/EEOC-2023-0005-0001 until Nov. 1.
Joe Biden and fellow Democrats are bullying job creators to boost unions
August 4, 2023 // Cassidy called out President Biden’s Department of Labor for “weaponizing its enforcement power against business,” specifically by ratcheting up rhetoric against job creators while loosening regulations on unions. Yet such actions are par for the course in an administration whose leader promised to be “the most pro-union president” in history.
Oregon Education Association Just the Latest Teachers’ Union to Impose Racially Discriminatory Policies
June 15, 2023 // On April 30, OEA’s board of directors discussed a so-called “progressive dues structure for BIPOC (black, indigenous and people of color) members,” according to meeting minutes. This scheme would include a “significant discount for educators until the racial breakdown of our membership aligns with the racial breakdown of our student population.”
What Settlement of Vaccine Mandate Case Says About Corruption of Teachers Unions
June 2, 2023 // But a second lawsuit by the teachers is pending, one that has garnered little media attention but may have greater long-term implications. That lawsuit also was filed against the Barrington Education Association, which brazenly abandoned these three dues-paying union members. In the same case earlier this spring, the three teachers’ attorney, Gregory Piccirilli, filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claim against the Barrington teachers union, an affiliate of the National Education Association.