Posts tagged labor laws
Trump administration moves to fast-track firings of federal workers for misconduct
June 6, 2025 // The U.S. Office of Personnel Management published a proposed rule, opens new tab that would allow the office, which acts as the federal government's human resources department, to direct other agencies to fire employees for conduct such as tax evasion, leaking sensitive information and refusing to testify in other workers' disciplinary cases.
Do More Powerful Unions Generate Better Pro-Worker Outcomes?
May 15, 2025 // Unionization is generally associated with higher wages for lower-skilled unionized workers.[37] However, when unionized sectors set higher wages, excess workers shift to nonunionized sectors, increasing the labor supply and lowering wages for lower-skilled nonunion workers.
Op-Ed: Rep. Kevin Kiley and Isabel Soto: The future of work is flexible
May 5, 2025 // At its core, the issue of independent work centers on the freedom for individuals to work as they choose, to support their families on their own terms, and to participate in the economy without being held back by outdated, stifling regulations. The Modern Worker Empowerment Act and The Modern Worker Security Act offer a commonsense alternative that safeguards this freedom. Congress must embrace policies that remove barriers to the modern labor market, not stifle the individual who wants to work. As the economy evolves, labor laws should support worker choice, economic participation, and innovation. These bills are a critical step forward and deserve broad bipartisan support.
Complaints allege Idaho school districts’ collection of union dues violates state law
March 23, 2025 // According to Freedom Foundation research, Idaho school districts collected at least $4.4 million in union dues from the paychecks of about 5,000 teachers’ paychecks in 2023 alone. The funds are divided among the district affiliate, the statewide IEA, and the Washington, D.C.-based NEA, which received about $1.1 million of the dues collected that year. Using government records, the complaints document how the NEA spends tens of millions of dollars on political activity and lobbying each year, including $1.8 million spent on Idaho since 2018 including, most recently, a $20,000 contribution to Idaho Students First, a political committee focused on backing the union’s preferred state legislative candidates in the 6th District in the 2024 general election. Bonneville, Caldwell, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Falls, Kuna, Lake Pend Oreille, Marsing, Middleton, Mullan, New Plymouth, Post Falls, Shelley
Amazon and Elon Musk’s SpaceX challenge labor agency’s constitutionality in federal court
November 20, 2024 // Attorneys for Amazon and Elon Musk’s SpaceX argued in a federal appeals court Monday that the National Labor Relations Board’s structure is unconstitutional, advancing a legal fight that may last into the Trump administration where Musk is expected to oversee bureaucratic cost-cutting. A panel of three judges at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard separate oral arguments in the SpaceX and Amazon lawsuits, which the two companies initiated after the labor agency filed complaints against them in disputes about workers’ rights and union organizing.
Why the protests at American Dream? Workers try to unionize, clash with employers
September 19, 2024 // They’re cleaning staff trying to organize and join part of the union 32BJ Service Employees International Union, and they’ve been protesting the treatment of several of their fellow workers at American Dream. Among their grievances, 32BJ alleged that two people working at the mall as cleaning staff — Jose Terán and Luis Verela — were fired because of their union organizing efforts by HSA Cleaning, a company the mall contracted for cleaning services.
Starbucks Union: College Students Use Billboards, Leafleting in Solidarity Action
September 18, 2023 // Today, inspired in part by the recent developments at Cornell, 11 university campuses are unveiling solidarity billboards that criticize Starbucks’ union-busting tactics, which are so copious, the NLRB, according to the Guardian, has brought over 100 cases against the company — though it cannot hold the company accountable with fines or other punitive mechanisms. (Starbucks told Bloomberg it plans to appeal the NLRB ruling in Ithaca.) Students on those 11 campuses, including the University of Arizona, the University of Washington, and the University of Chicago, will spend today leafleting outside local Starbucks locations to support workers’ unionization efforts. “Students prefer our coffee union-brewed," reads one of the billboards. "We support Starbucks baristas & demand an end to Starbucks' union-busting.”
Here’s why the US labor movement is so popular but union membership is dwindling.
September 6, 2023 // Labor laws in the US make it more difficult for employees to form unions: Around 27 states have passed "Right to Work" laws, making it more difficult for workers to unionize. These laws provide union representation to nonunion members in union workplaces– without requiring the payment of union dues. It also gives workers the option to join a union or opt out. Workplace sectors that were traditionally union strongholds, now make up less of the workforce, such as manufacturing, transportation, and construction.