Posts tagged Joe Manchin
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.
US House Votes to Repeal Labor Board Rule on Contract, Franchise Workers
January 16, 2024 // The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Friday voted to repeal a federal labor board rule set to take effect in February that would treat companies as the employers of many contract and franchise workers and require them to bargain with those workers’ unions. The House voted 206-177 to nix the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rule, which has been heavily criticized by business groups. The vote sends the proposal to the Senate where Democrats hold a one-seat majority but Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, has said he opposes the rule.
Opinion: NLRB says ‘common law’ — and common sense — defines joint employers
December 5, 2023 // The mandate, to take effect Dec. 26, says when two employers — think a local McDonald’s franchise and McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago — control a worker’s toil, from wages and hours to duties and work rules to hiring and firing to uniforms and training, then both are responsible for obeying or breaking Labor law. And that means it should be easier for workers to organize and bargain without being bounced from pillar to post when it comes to whom to bargain with. Using that same “basic common sense” explanation, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler called the new rule “an important win” for workers.
U.S. labor board delays new unionization rule after business groups sue
November 20, 2023 // The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups — including the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the International Franchise Association and the National Retail Federation — sued the NLRB in federal court in Texas last week to block the rule. They say the rule upends years of precedent and could make companies liable for workers they don’t employ at workplaces they don’t own. But the NLRB says the current rule makes it too easy for companies to avoid their legal responsibility to bargain with workers.
New federal rule could allow millions of workers to more easily unionize at big companies
November 16, 2023 // The rule only applies to labor relations. The Department of Labor sets its own joint employment standards for issues like meeting minimum wage requirements. Still, the new rule could have a major impact. Local franchise owners employ more than 8 million people in the U.S., according to the International Franchise Association. Millions more work for subcontractors or temporary agencies.
Will Biden Labor Nominee Julie Su Suffocate the Gig Economy?
October 13, 2023 // Su, and other progressives like Federal Trade Commissioner Lina Khan, want to force a 20th century model of a heavily regulated and controlled labor market on the 21st century gig economy. They also want to impose 20th century style trade unionism, replete with mandatory union dues that (coincidentally I am sure) can in part be used to support progressive candidates and causes in the gig workforce. This is one reason why a bipartisan majority of the Senate is right to oppose Su’s nomination, and why President Biden was wrong to nominate her as Labor Secretary, and certainly wrong to defy the will of the Senate by keeping her as acting Secretary for an indefinite period of time. Biden should pick a new nominee. While no one nominated by Biden will support a free-market labor policy, the nominee should at least understand that massive federal regulations on the labor markets and compulsory unionism are relics that do not fit the economy of the future.
Kamala Harris refuses to call Julie Su ‘acting’ labor secretary
August 9, 2023 // Harris made the comment when introducing President Joe Biden's nominee for the position at a speech in Philadelphia Union Hall. Su's confirmation has been on hold for 147 days as the White House attempts to gather enough votes in the Senate. Harris introduced “acting Secretary Julie Su” to applause before pausing and adjusting the title. “And I just have to tell you — I’ll call her labor secretary. I’m not going to say the word ‘acting,’” she said.
White House braces for legal challenges over acting labor secretary’s authority
July 26, 2023 // “Congress has become relatively useless at reining in executive power,” Painter, now a University of Minnesota professor, said. “Democrats were furious about Trump raiding the defense budget without the permission of Congress. But then Biden did his $400 billion student loan deal, and Democrats didn’t say a word." "The parties just switch playbooks depending on whether their guy is in the White House or not," he added.
Was This The Plan All Along?
July 26, 2023 // Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, asked the Biden Administration Thursday to withdraw the nomination and warned that “(A)ny attempts to bypass the will of Congress, especially its constitutionally mandated advice and consent role, is unacceptable.” Su was the deputy labor secretary until her predecessor, Marty Walsh, left to take over the NHL players union, triggering her acting secretary status. Typically, under a law called the Vacancies Act, Su, who was nominated about four months ago, would have a 210-day time limit – for her, that’s mid-October – to her “acting” term. However, the Labor department has its own “succession statute” which states that the deputy becomes the acting secretary automatically and shall “perform the duties of the Secretary until a successor is appointed…” The labor statue has no time limit – confusion aspect one. The second issue is that Su’s nomination is still technically “pending” before the Senate.
Is She? Can She? Should She? Julie Su Labor Secretary Confirmation Battle Takes New Twists
July 10, 2023 // Finally, the latest news that Su literally ran the EDD into the ground – it has been determined by state Legislative Analyst’s Office to now be “structurally insolvent” while she was in charge has critics again calling for Biden to drop her nomination. “As a result of Julie Su’s historic unemployment insurance fraud and California’s budgetary mismanagement, state businesses are facing billions in tax hikes over the next several years,” said California’s-own Rep, Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin). “California’s EDD debacle and the incompetence tax small businesses are now forced to pay demonstrate that California’s policies are a warning to, rather than a model for, the nation. They also illustrate just how ill-advised Julie Su’s nomination for US Labor Secretary is.”