Posts tagged Mark Warner
Liya Palagashvili: The Portable Benefits Revolution: How Did We Get Here?
May 1, 2025 // Senator Bill Cassidy just put flexible benefits on the map. This is the story of how a niche policy idea climbed to the top of the Congressional agenda.
Commentary: VA is selectively enforcing Trump’s order stripping workers of union rights
April 22, 2025 // But the same notice, without explanation, exempts eight small labor groups within the VA from Trump’s edict, effectively allowing them to retain their collective bargaining rights. Those unions include the Laborers International Union of North America, the Western Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, the Veterans Affairs Staff Nurse Council Local 5032 in Wisconsin, the International Association of Firefighters in Arkansas, the Teamsters Union Local 115 in Pennsylvania and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Hawaii. While Trump’s order exempts law enforcement and firefighter unions from losing their collective bargaining rights, that exception would apply only to the IAFF local.
Opinion: Congress Must Oppose Big Labor’s “PRO Act” Power Grab
March 14, 2025 // In the 2024 election cycle, labor unions gave nearly 90 percent of their political donations to Democratic Party candidates. For large unions like the National Education Association (NEA), as much as 99 percent of political donations went to Democrats. The PRO Act is a return on investment for the hundreds of millions of dollars that union bosses continue to pour into Democrat coffers.
Unions take their protest of federal layoffs to the US Capitol
March 7, 2025 // They were there to demonstrate against reductions to the federal workforce. Signs included messages such as, “Save the Civil Service, Save the Country” and, “Support the Federal Workforce.” “The skies are crying because what’s happening to our workforce and what’s happening to the missions of our agencies,” said Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union. The protest was organized by a coalition of unions, including NTEU, and those who spoke criticized President Donald Trump’s administration’s downsizing of the federal workforce.
Trump’s labor secretary pick Lori Chavez-DeRemer advances to final Senate vote
March 7, 2025 // In a 66-30 vote, 15 Democratic senators signaled support for President Trump’s pick, as Chavez-DeRemer advanced to a final vote on her nomination – which is scheduled to take place on Monday. Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Jon Ossoff of Georgia, Gary Peters of Michigan, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Adam Schiff of California, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Mark Warner of Virginia, Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island voted in favor of Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the only Republican opposed to Trump’s labor pick.
Commentary: Why we just sued the US Department of Labor
February 6, 2024 // As one of us testified before Congress last year, the Biden administration remains relentless. It’s now attempting a regulatory workaround with the Department of Labor’s independent contractor rule, which, in a cruel twist, was released just days before Mercatus Center research showed that the protesting independent contractors have been right all along. Mercatus found that the California approach not only failed to create unionizable jobs, but actually decreased overall employment by 4.4 percent and self-employment by 10 percent. Mercatus also noted that this happened despite California ultimately exempting more than 100 professions. The new Labor rule exempts none. The department acknowledges there may be “conceptual overlap” with the California law’s most harmful language. We agree. What’s worse is that the Labor rule is so vague, it’s impossible for anyone to know how to operate legally with independent contractors. The Biden administration sees this as a feature, not a bug.
Column: The PRO Act will disempower Virginia workers
March 28, 2023 // Under the guise of transparency, the PRO Act would mandate employers to partake in “notice-posting” and codify the National Labor Relations Board’s 2014 Election Rule that gives them access to workers names, addresses, job locations, phone numbers and email addresses in a searchable electronic format. Unions having unfettered access to information like this would be a major privacy violation and lead to worker intimidation for refusal to comply. It’s unacceptable for labor unions to meddle in affairs like this.
Opinion: Let’s Continue to Fight for Freelancers
February 24, 2023 // New Senate HELP Committee Chairman and avowed socialist Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is eager to reintroduce the PRO Act in the chamber soon. The bill’s most recent version contained the following provisions: an ABC test that deems most workers employees and not independent contractors; a statute to abolish right-to-work; making union membership conditional for employment; and giving unions unfettered access to private worker information.