Posts tagged President Biden
Biden tells union members that Republicans are coming for their jobs
June 27, 2023 // He warned union members that House Republican efforts to roll back his investments in domestic manufacturing to support the clean energy transition would cost labor jobs. “They are coming for your jobs. They are coming for your future and the future belonging to your kids and grandkids,” Mr. Biden said. The president hopes that argument will counter the brand of economic populism that buoyed Mr. Trump with some rank-and-file union members during his first two presidential campaigns.
Union Gets Big Pay Raise at Inefficient West Coast Ports
June 21, 2023 // The disruption tactics the ILWU has been using over the past few months to gain leverage in negotiations appear to have hurt its own members this year, with paid work hours down 25 percent through April 14 compared to the same period last year. That’s partly due to shippers choosing other ports and partly due to dockworkers working less on union orders. Common work actions include assigning fewer workers and slowing down the pace of work. The JOC said that cranes at the port of Seattle–Tacoma went from 25 container moves per hour to fewer than ten. As Peter Tirschwell argued on June 6 in the Wall Street Journal, by delaying negotiations for as long as it did, the ILWU might have missed an opportunity for a bigger pay raise. Ocean carriers earned extraordinary profits due to soaring container rates in 2021 and 2022, but those rates came back down to Earth at the end of last year and are largely back to normal now. And the constant uncertainty every time a West Coast contract expires contrasts with the relative ease with which the International Longshoremen’s Association, which represents East Coast dockworkers, has come to contract agreements for decades. The delay-and-prolong approach of the ILWU helps encourage shippers to go elsewhere, leaving less demand for longshore labor on the West Coast.
For ILWU, West Coast port deal to be union-ratified, here’s what has to happen next
June 16, 2023 // West Coast port management and the labor union representing port workers reached a tentative deal late on Wednesday after the intervention of California labor market pro and Biden acting Labor Secretary Julie Su in the negotiations in San Francisco, but it could be months before the full union votes to approve the deal. The tentative agreement was a welcome development after weeks of escalating tensions between workers and port management, resulting in delays in vessel servicing, congestion at ports, in containers and out to trucking, as well as some port shutdowns. But the proposed labor deal is a far way from being fully approved, according to the International Longshore & Warehouse Union. While the union statement on the deal was positive, it laid out a process that still has several steps to go before the deal moves ahead.
New report finds inequity before labor boards
June 5, 2023 // Between December 2015 and December 2022, fewer than 1% of individuals’ charges by federal employees against their union resulted in an enforcement action. Of the 1,211 cases brought by individuals in the seven-year-period, just 9 resulted in an FLRA complaint against the union. Two unions—the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU)—accounted for the overwhelming majority of charges filed by individuals. Of the 1,211 charges, 935 were filed against AFGE, and 108 were filed against NTEU. Fewer than 1% of individuals’ charges resulted in a settlement of some kind. Of the 1,211 cases brought by individuals, just 12 resulted in a private or bilateral settlement. Over 52% of individuals’ charges were dismissed. Of the 1,211 cases brought by individuals, 636 were dismissed in full; another 2 were dismissed in part. Over 45% of individuals’ charges were withdrawn by the individual at some point prior to a determination. Of the 1,211 cases brought by individuals, 552 were marked as withdrawn.
OPINION: Sen. Sinema Shouldn’t Let Julie Su Turn Ariz. Into Calif.
June 5, 2023 // More than one million freelance workers lost work in the wake of AB5’s passage. In response to public outrage, the California legislature carved out scores of politically connected professions from the draconian legislation so that it no longer applied to musicians, translators, writers, photographers, and many others. But big labor’s main targets – independent truckers and the gig economy – are still suffering from AB5’s harsh policy. Even the notoriously left-leaning Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has suggested that AB5’s sponsors and enforcers may have had no legitimate policy objectives in mind when granting exemptions to AB5, and instead acted out of "animus" by targeting companies that facilitate vast swaths of independent contracting.
GOP Lawmaker Introduces Bill to Curb Labor-Relations Board’s Authority over Small Businesses
May 18, 2023 // “Labor law is woefully out of date. The Small Businesses Before Bureaucrats Act brings much needed updates to the jurisdictional standards that would benefit small employers. Congressman Good is simply bringing those standards in line with what Congress originally intended. Small businesses do not have and should not need an army of lawyers and HR professionals to comply with the NLRB’s increasingly aggressive regulatory agenda. Congressman Good should be applauded for his efforts to protect mom and pop shop businesses and other job creators.” – F. Vincent Vernuccio , President, Institute for the American Worker
Will pilot strikes disrupt my summer flights? Here’s what to know.
May 15, 2023 // Garth Thompson, chair of the United Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Association, said negotiators have spent years on work-life issues such as more schedule predictability and limiting the company’s ability to reassign pilots to work on days off and reserve provisions. “We kept the airline alive during the pandemic,” he said. “The company is poised to have wild profits going forward and they’re giving us the stiff arm at the table.” A strike authorization vote is not out of the question, Thompson said.
Julie Su: At Big Labor’s beck and call
May 1, 2023 // While at the LWDA, she supported anti-worker laws like AB 5, a law that reclassified contractors and freelancers as regular employees. The implementation of AB 5, which happened under Su’s watch, was perceived as heavy-handed and punitive towards contractors and freelancers. Su openly stated that she was willing to conduct “investigations and audits” to enforce reclassification, which negatively affected contractors and freelancers. But contractors and freelancers disagreed with Su’s interpretation of AB 5’s effects on workers. An independent truck driver, who was forced to reclassify after AB 5’s passage, said that AB 5 will “kill the liberty of being a trucker” because of all the “regulatory stuff in an over-regulated and complex industry.”