Posts tagged Regulations
OP-ED: The Billion-Dollar Government Mandate You Probably Haven’t Heard About
July 29, 2024 // All this benefits politically entrenched labor unions by eliminating their competition. But, as decades of data show, prevailing wage laws hurt everyone else. They’re notoriously difficult to implement in the field, forcing contractors to painstakingly track and classify employees’ tasks (for example, paying a general laborer as a “carpenter” if he happens to hammer a nail that day). They hurt employees, particularly entry-level ones, by making it punitively expensive and complicated to hire workers. The brunt of it falls disproportionatelyon minorities, immigrants, younger workers, women, veterans, and small businesses. And they cost taxpayers more by excluding qualified businesses from competing for public-works contracts and driving up costs (not only payrolls, but compliance costs) for those that remain.
Biden Lets Labor Unions Invade U.S. Farmland
May 13, 2024 // The United Farm Workers, the flagship labor union that purports to represent migrant workers, has a reputation for intimidating and deceiving people who aren’t interested in joining. Farmhands have recently accused UFW activists of fooling them into signing union cards by insinuating that they were necessary for receiving Covid-19 relief payments. Many H-2A workers also report feeling tricked by the UFW into believing that their card-check meetings were part of the immigration process.
Why the PRO Act is Not Pro-Worker
March 28, 2024 // As the Institute for the American Worker has explained, policies in the PRO Act ultimately restrict worker freedom and choice. Similar overreaching federal policies continue to experience significant pushback and delays, and this provides a reminder for states to check if they are promoting or inhibiting worker freedom. State leaders should examine the model policies listed above and those included in the Labor Reform Policy: 50 State Factsheets, to guarantee that they are protecting the rights and freedoms of their workers.
OPINION These new government contracting rules will put parents, caregivers, seniors out of work
March 12, 2024 // Many independent contractors we have engaged quit full-time positions to become caregivers. They sought opportunities like what we offer to stay engaged in their fields, have an intellectual outlet, and enjoy camaraderie with colleagues, while contributing to the family finances. They don’t want the pressure of short-term deadlines and in-person meetings; they don’t want to have to track time and explain about sick kids or field trips. Can we continue to offer these work relationships? Maybe, although the guidance that contractors cannot "perform similar work of employees" makes it fraught.
AI: Jobs and Regulation
November 13, 2023 // Despite that, while there are some basic safety precautions that should be taken, for example, to limit the extent to which AI is integrated into nuclear weapon systems, it is hard to see how, short of adopting economic autarky, the U.S. could renounce or even slow down the broader advance of AI. A technology cannot be uninvented, and, if the U.S. applied the brakes, its geopolitical or economic competitors would do their best to take advantage, by pressing on with AI, probably recruiting American experts to help in their efforts to do so. Thus it’s interesting to see that a number of European countries have been pushing back against the EU’s efforts to regulate AI development (with the harshest regulation, naturally, being reserved, EurAktiv reports, for “leading providers that currently are non-European companies”). The regulation would be “risk-based,” which, as typically interpreted in Brussels, a place where the precautionary principle is taken to absurd levels, would be bleak news for innovators.
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.
Three New Regulations That Will Make It Harder to Serve the Needy
October 12, 2023 // In our Opportunity Playbook, we highlighted the Institute for the American Worker as an organization fighting for pro-labor policies that respect individual workers’ choices and freedom in the workforce. They join many others who are educating policymakers and regulators on how to ensure policies do not limit charitable organizations from serving communities.
Opinion: Biden says he’s most pro-union president ever. But his policies hurt striking UAW workers
October 2, 2023 // Unfortunately, UAW leadership continues to advocate for their own best interests. Those who have worked in the auto industry know that negotiations must walk a fine line. If the Big Three have to file for bankruptcy protection, as General Motors and Chrysler did in 2009, all autoworkers are in a much more precarious position. UAW leadership has a responsibility to preserve their members’ jobs − securing raises that will improve their members’ standards of living, but that are not so excessive they threaten workers’ long-term job security. Moving forward, UAW leadership should target the real problem: Bidenomics. The UAW supported Biden in 2020 and enthusiastically endorsed his Inflation Reduction Act, despite the fact that it included electric vehicle subsidies that are accelerating the elimination of union jobs.
Biden administration offers $12B to convert auto factories into EV plants
September 6, 2023 // The Energy Department said that both sets of funding announced Thursday will prioritize good working conditions, including facilities that pay high wages and commit to retaining or expanding collective bargaining agreements. However, there will be no specific requirements needed to get the funding, Betony Jones, the director of the office of energy jobs confirmed. That announcement comes as labor concerns bubble up in the transition to clean energy — with the United Auto Workers union accusing industry of using the transition to cut wages and pushing the Biden administration to do more about it. In a written statement, the union praised the administration’s announcement. “We are glad to see the Biden Administration doing its part to reject the false choice between a good job and a green job. This new policy makes clear to employers that the EV transition must include strong union partnerships with the high pay and safety standards that generations of UAW members have fought for and won,” union president Shawn Fain said in a written statement.
Labor Day 2023: Here’s a principled way for workers ‘to make their own choices’
September 1, 2023 // The best way to help workers and families is to remove barriers to their freedom and opportunity, instead of erecting new ones. That means empowering workers to make more of their own choices instead of letting bureaucrats and union officials control what they earn, where they work, and how our economy functions. Workers don’t need more leaders who advocate the failed ideas of the past. They deserve leaders who respect their role as the protagonists in their own and their families’ lives and will deliver better jobs, bigger paychecks, and a brighter future.