Posts tagged Retail Trade
Opinion This Labor Day, Respect the Right to Join (or Not) a Union
September 8, 2026 // In that scenario, regulators should consider holding a new vote on whether current workers want a union. While it would be legal for the earlier group’s vote to bind the new hires, it may not be fair because the new workers may have a different opinion. This needs to be resolved before the union is established. Federal law has long been stacked against workers who seek to decertify unions that don’t represent their interests because that decertification has to be done through the union itself. Unsurprisingly, many unions will oppose their own members in these situations. If the workers are truly united in favor of a union, they will get one eventually. And if they aren’t united in favor of one, that wish should be respected, too. It should be the workers’ choice, after all.
New Mercatus Liya Palagashvilli Report: Artificial Intelligence and the Rise of Independent Work
July 20, 2026 // A freelancer or solo business owner may earn income from multiple clients without any one client serving as the institutional provider of benefits. If AI expands this kind of independent knowledge work, then benefits should increasingly attach to the worker rather than to a single firm. Portable benefits would allow workers to maintain access to health benefits, retirement accounts, paid leave, and other forms of security across different work arrangements.17Contributions could come from multiple sources: the worker, firms, clients, platforms, customers, or government matches for lower-income workers. The goal is not to make independent work look exactly like traditional employment. It is to make sure that workers do not lose financial security simply because their income comes from contracts, clients, or a one-person business rather than from a firm. The second implication concerns unemployment insurance and income disruption. Traditional unemployment insurance is built around a clean layoff from an employer. But AI-related disruption may not always appear that way. A consultant may lose clients. A software contractor may face fewer projects. A designer may see rates fall. A worker may move from a salaried job into solo self-employment, not because work disappeared entirely, but because the organization of work changed. In these cases, the relevant question is not only whether an employer laid someone off. It is whether the worker experienced a meaningful earnings shock or transition.