Posts tagged Executive Order
Labor Department Publishes AI Best Practices
October 18, 2024 // “These Best Practices provide a roadmap for responsible AI in the workplace, helping businesses harness these technologies while proactively supporting and valuing their workers,” commented Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su. “As we embrace the opportunities that AI can offer, we must ensure workers are lifted up, not left behind.” The document follows the AI and Inclusive Hiring Framework developed by the Office of Disability Employment Policy and the Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology to prevent employment discrimination in the hiring process.
Employment Law Landscape Could Change After Election
September 16, 2024 // During the Trump administration the NLRB majority narrowed the scope of the National Labor Relations Act in several key respects and established a more neutral approach to union organizing. The Biden/Harris administration, which styled itself as the “most union-friendly in history,” reversed virtually all of the Trump-era policies, significantly expanded the scope of the law, and tilted the organizing landscape in favor of organized labor, Hayes said.
New Biden Executive Order Gives Unions Leg Up on Federally Funded Projects, Imposes New Disclosure Requirements
September 14, 2024 // On September 6, 2024, President Biden announced his new Executive Order on Investing in America and Investing in Americans (“EO” or “Order”), which requires certain federal agencies to consider criteria related to labor standards when prioritizing which projects will receive federal financial assistance. The criteria includes not only traditional labor standards, such as wages, paid leave, and workplace safety, but controversial provisions as well that clearly favor unions, such as project labor agreements and neutrality and card check agreements. The EO will also effectively require agencies to collect information related to labor practices from companies that work on or bid on federally funded projects. The administration claims the Order “supports the creation of well-paying jobs, especially union jobs.” Business groups and Republicans, however, claim the EO is less about setting standards and more about using federal funds to favor unions at the expense of nonunion companies and employees.
Trump and Harris, with starkly different records on labor issues, are both courting union voters
September 5, 2024 // By comparison, two days after taking office in 2021, Biden issued an executive order that established masking guidelines, and his administration made health and safety protocols on the job during the rest of the COVID-19 pandemic a high priority. Compared with the inaction by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration has been more active in proposing health and safety measures. For example, in July 2024 it proposed rules designed to protect some 36 million workers from health risks associated with extreme heat. After a period for written comments, public hearings will be held on the bill. When Trump tried cutting OSHA funding for 2018 by approximately US$10 million, Congress blocked his efforts. The Biden administration is seeking a 3.7% increase in OSHA’s budget for the 2025 fiscal year.
DOJ Civil Rights Lawyers Try to Unionize Amid Uncertain Future
August 5, 2024 // The employee organizing committee is aiming to hold a representation election by October 2024—a secret ballot process requiring majority approval for certification. Although that’s a compressed schedule compared to typical union drives, the committee said that in their first week after launching, they’ve already collected signatures of support from more than 30% of the 365 lawyers they estimate are eligible for the bargaining unit. That would meet the minimum legal threshold to apply for a representation election, but organizers are waiting to do so until they reach 50% support.
Unpacking Kamala Harris’ record on federal workforce issues
July 26, 2024 // As vice president, Harris led a White House task force that made recommendations for how agencies could reduce barriers for public and private sector workers to organize or join a union. In the year after agencies began implementing these recommendations, the number of federal employees who are dues paying members of a union increased by 20%. “We are fighting to protect the sacred right to organize. We are protecting the sacred right to organize because we know when unions are strong, America is strong,” Harris said at a Service Employees International Union convention in May.
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.
Opinion | A Reckoning for Biden’s Lawless Labor Chief
June 11, 2024 // Mr. Biden has timed his appointments to the labor board to minimize resistance. He broke with tradition by not choosing a Republican to fill an open seat when the previous chairman, picked by President Trump, retired in 2022. Instead Mr. Biden waited until now to select a Republican at the same time he has renominated Ms. McFerran. He hopes presenting the two as a package will make it easier for vulnerable Democrats to approve Ms. McFerran. It’s an offer the Senate should refuse. Reapproving the sitting chairman would be business as usual in a Senate that has whooped through too many of Mr. Biden’s progressive nominees. The economy and the rights of workers will suffer if Ms. McFerran is confirmed again after her demonstrably lawless record.
A Lawsuit Seeks to Stop the National Destruction of Trucking Through the DOL Indep. Contractor Rule
February 14, 2024 // The U.S. DOL is using bureaucratic means to make an end-run around already failed legislation (see The PRO Act) in order to destroy independent professionals and small businesses across the nation. The Rule embeds the same tenets found in the ABC Test, which supports AB5, and we all know how well that went in California. The state's trucking industry, in particular, continues to fight hard against AB5, and their battle is being watched by the rest of the industry in other states. Now, a Louisiana business has filed a lawsuit to stop the rule, which is scheduled to take effect on March 11.
Commentary: Biden Administration’s New Investments in Electric Vehicle and Battery Production Could Benefit Black Americans
February 2, 2024 // While some have suggested that transitioning to EVs would necessitate lower pay and standards for auto workers, the UAW’s gains to the contrary show how the Biden administration’s clean energy plan is actually increasing the leverage of U.S. autoworkers and helping them retain or regain a foothold in America’s middle class. These new investments and labor protections demonstrate significant progress for American workers and the auto industry relative to 2017 through 2020, which saw multiple U.S.-based auto plants close. What’s more, in U.S. history, 2023 marked the lowest annual unemployment rate for Black Americans. The strong labor market in Black communities makes it all the more crucial for automakers to invest in skills training, outreach, and their workforces in order to find and retain the requisite talent to fill the tens of thousands of new jobs created by these investments. If they do so, and efforts by the far-right to water down or repeal the Inflation Reduction Act are defeated, there is ample reason for optimism that ballooning investments in EV and battery production in Black communities will help sustain the strong labor market for Black Americans in the months and years ahead.