Posts tagged Rick Allen
House Panel Advances GOP Bill to Ban College Athletes as Employees
June 17, 2024 // Good suggested that college athletes should be pleased with having recently "won new freedoms," including name, image and likeness and the ability to transfer schools without enhanced restriction. Classifying those developments as "new freedoms" is debatable. NIL removed NCAA restrictions barring athletes from using a legal right they already possessed, the right of publicity, and only came about after states passed NIL statutes. As to the NCAA lifting transfer restrictions, that only surfaced after the NCAA lost in court on those very restrictions.
Opinion: Congress should reject the Democrats’ workplace micromanagement bill
May 14, 2024 // On May 2, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) rolled out the Warehouse Worker Protection Act with Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, legislation that enacts a host of new government mandates on workplaces. Like the failed “Protecting the Right to Organize Act,” its end goal is to force more American workers into unions. The bill targets companies that use so-called “quotas,” framing attempts by employers to evaluate employee performance as inherently anti-worker. Despite the scary narratives progressives peddle, tracking employee performance is a common business practice, and employers use these metrics to ensure employees are operating safely and efficiently.
GOP Reps: Biden’s New Rule Rips Freedom Away from Workers, Small Businesses | Opinion
January 17, 2024 // Biden's rule on independent contractors circumvents Congress, the people's representation, to enact a disastrous policy similar to that in California's Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) and the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. AB5, enacted in January 2020, led to countless Californians who were working as freelance employees losing their income mere weeks before the COVID pandemic. The radical PRO Act would take away independent contractors' ability to work how they see fit. Taking these failed far-Left policies nationwide would devastate millions of American businesses by depriving individuals of entrepreneurial opportunities, the ability to set their own hours, and the flexibility to care for their families the way it suits them.
Big Labor Is an Economic and Political Dead End
October 26, 2023 // While misguided faux populists like Senator Hawley adopt the policy positions of union leaders who want to force as many workers as possible to fund their self-interested political agenda, other Republicans should stand with workers and co-sponsor the Employee Rights Act. It would protect workers’ right to secret-ballot union elections, the right of freelancers to remain independent (as the vast majority prefer), and allow workers to decide for themselves whether they wish to share personal information with union organizers or support union political spending. Too often, labor issues are inaccurately described as having two sides: “union” and “management.” But this populist moment is the perfect time for Congress to stand up for the oft-forgotten but most important third group: actual workers. The Employee Rights Act would be the perfect start. In the face of President Biden’s advancing radical agenda and some Republicans’ erroneously gravitating towards it, this pro-worker legislation can’t be enacted a moment too soon.
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.
Trojan Horse Alert: Teamsters Using Dirty Tricks to Unionize CT Businesses
July 12, 2023 // The Teamsters Local 671, of Bloomfield, is teaming up with the Connecticut Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to recruit individuals to infiltrate businesses with the explicit objective of unionizing the workplace. In a June 23 email, the organizations invited their “comrades” to a virtual meeting, posing questions such as “Are you looking for a job?” and “Do you want intensive organizing training?” They then emphasized “that it is the right time” to engage in “SALTING” — the act of intentionally taking a job at a workplace with the goal of unionizing. The meeting — called “Salting Information Session” — was held on Thursday (June 29) where organizers covered the basics of salting and union organizing; why socialists should salt; and how socialists are currently salting in Connecticut (but they did not specify where).
Congressman Rick Allen Introduces Legislation to End Union ‘Salting’
June 27, 2023 //
BACKGROUNDER: Employee Rights Act
June 26, 2023 // Sponsored by Rick Allen (R-GA) The Employee Rights Act of 2025 safeguards and strengthens the rights of American workers. It guarantees workers’ right to a secret ballot election, ensures they can work directly with their employer if they opt-out of union membership, protects worker privacy, allows workers to choose to fund union politics or not, provides legal clarity for small business owners and independent contractors, and guarantees fair representation for all American workers.
Labor secretary nominee defends ESG rule in tense House testimony
June 9, 2023 // Mr. Allen introduced a bill last year with Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., similar in scope to a rule finalized late in the Trump administration that said retirement plan fiduciaries could not invest in "non-pecuniary" vehicles that sacrifice investment returns or take on additional risk. Mr. Allen said he's working on reintroducing the bill during this Congress. Under the Biden administration, the Labor Department rescinded the Trump-era rule. On Tuesday, Ali Khawar, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Labor Department's Employee Benefits Security Administration, said the rule is neutral and doesn't require consideration of ESG factors when making an investment decision.
Why Congress Should Follow Tennessee’s Lead on Labor Reform
April 26, 2023 // And now, federal legislation aims to give them a similar guarantee. The Employee Rights Act, introduced by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.), envisions secret-ballot elections becoming the norm for almost all private-sector employees, in all states. It also secures workers’ privacy, giving them a choice about what information is shared with a union. For example, instead of workers having all their personal information—their cell phone number, their home address, and personal email—handed over to the union, workers can select a single piece of information to share. The legislation also modernizes outdated labor laws. With more than one-third of Americans now identifying as independent workers, this reform is sorely needed. The Employee Rights Act protects entrepreneurs by standardizing the federal definition of independent workers. This safeguards workers from being treated as employees for the purpose of unionization.