Posts tagged Open Competition Center
Free-Market Groups Back Bill to Protect Taxpayers from Union Abuse
September 18, 2024 // H.R. 9594 was introduced by Congressman Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and swiftly referred to the House Oversight Committee. The bill would allow federal agencies to charge public-sector labor unions for the employee hours and agency resources which are used on activities that serve those unions. Currently, federal employees who are union members can spend their on-the-clock hours working for a union instead of doing their jobs, while still being paid their taxpayer-funded salaries. The unions also use government facilities and resources to conduct their work at taxpayer expense. H.R. 9594 would recover these wasted taxpayer funds
Commentary: Biden pursues organized labor’s agenda through regulation
March 14, 2024 // The OSHA “walkaround” rule flies in the face of a regulation that stipulates that people who accompany an OSHA inspector must be employed by the company under inspection. Under the proposed rule, OSHA representatives would have to simply state that a union official was “reasonably necessary” to the inspection to bring that individual to the site. The walk-around rule presents an opportunity for union organizers to collect information or otherwise infiltrate nonunion workplaces, a clear attempt by OSHA to give unions a leg up in organizing drives. Another example is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s universal proxy rule, which forces companies to include management and dissident shareholder nominees on a single proxy card in contested elections. The rule enabled a coalition of our nation’s largest and most militant unions to extract new concessions from Starbucks by threatening to mount a hostile takeover attempt of the coffee company’s board. Unions will continue to exploit the universal proxy rule to bring other publicly traded companies to the table with threats of a hostile takeover.
In Advance of Senate HELP Markup, AFP Leads Coalition Urging Senators to Reject PRO Act
June 21, 2023 // Instead of supporting these bills that prioritize top-down government mandates and the preferences of union leadership over the needs of America’s workers, we call on lawmakers to defend and expand choice and flexibility for workers so that they are best able to address the challenges of and maximize opportunities in the 21st century economy. We strongly urge you to reject the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, the Healthy Families Act, and the Paycheck Fairness Act, and we look forward to working with you to pursue a path forward that puts workers, not special interests, first.
Opinion: Biden must reverse course and protect independent contractors
June 17, 2022 // With this new rulemaking period, the administration has a chance to turn the page on its stridently anti-independent contractor stance. Any new rules should protect the right of Americans to make a living outside of a traditional employment relationship. Under current law, there are two ways an individual can have a relationship with someone that is paying you. The first is an employee, where a person that is paying the individual has total control over how, when, and where the work is being done.
Biden Administration Continues Waging War on Freelancing
June 10, 2022 // The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled the department violated the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 by only offering a 19-day comment period on the “delayed” IC rule. Governmental agencies must allow 30-60 notice-and-comment periods. The Coalition for Workforce Innovation et al. v. Walsh decision reads like this, “Having vacated the Delay Rule, the court turns to the Withdrawal Rule. Plaintiffs claim that the Withdrawal Rule is arbitrary and capricious, in violation of the APA. Again, the court agrees.”
Biden Department of Labor Must Protect Independent Contractors in New Rulemaking
June 7, 2022 // Independent contractors should be concerned with the Biden Administration’s hostile posture towards freelance work. The administration has worked on withdrawing the Trump Independent Contractor Rule since the day of President Biden’s inauguration. The Trump Independent Contractor Rule created an “economic reality” test to determine whether the individual in question works for themselves or their employer. The test looks at two “core factors” to determine the individual’s status: 1) “the nature and degree of control that the individual has over the work itself” and 2) “the opportunity for profit or loss based on the individual’s investment or initiative.” This test clarified the definition of an independent contractor Coalition for Workforce Innovation v. Walsh
Sanders’ pro-union budget committee hearing shows Democrats’ true agenda
May 6, 2022 // Ranking Member Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) observation during the hearing was exactly correct — under Sanders’s direction, the Senate Budget Committee has taken a dangerous and partisan turn. Instead of focusing on issues under jurisdiction, Sanders would prefer to use his chairmanship as a bully pulpit to push a pro-union agenda and target companies he dislikes for purely political reasons.
Bernie Sanders Announces Wasteful, Politicized Senate Budget Hearing
May 5, 2022 // In reality, this hearing is designed to paint a single company in a bad light and gin up momentum for the nascent Amazon Labor Union (ALU). By any fair measure, this hearing is outside the Budget Committee’s jurisdiction and is part of a government-wide effort to expand organized labor’s power at the expense of American workers.
Senators Introduce Employee Rights Act of 2022
March 25, 2022 // The Employee Rights Act of 2022 is also co-sponsored by Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Ranking Member Richard Burr (R-North Carolina), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), and Senators John Thune (R-South Dakota), John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), Mike Braun (R-Indiana), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Montana), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi), Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), John Boozman (R-Arkansas), Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) and Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin). Representative Rick Allen (R-Georgia) is introducing companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
SOTU address shows Biden favors unions and spurns workers
March 6, 2022 // Instead of focusing on policies that would help Americans deal with runaway inflation, Biden doubled down on Big Labor’s wishlist. No matter what organized labor is selling, implementing a $15 minimum wage alongside the PRO Act would be a doomsday scenario for American workers.