Posts tagged Senate Democrats
Opinion: Democrats Attack Gig-Worker Benefits
July 23, 2025 // In a committee hearing on the bill last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders sidestepped the issue of worker benefits to address his party’s real concern—giving unions more power over individual workers. “These bills are about giving corporations the freedom to deny workers the right to form a union,” he said. Independent contractors can’t unionize under the National Labor Relations Act, so unions and the Democrats they support want to outlaw contract work, or at least deprive it of benefits that could attract workers. Democrats on the committee were united in opposition. This political opposition has deterred several gig companies from offering benefits. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has pledged more than $650 million a year to fund health insurance and paid time off if lawmakers would withdraw the threat of reclassifying the company’s drivers.
Senate Democrats fail to secure NLRB majority under Trump in razor-thin vote
December 11, 2024 // A Democrat-led push to secure a majority on the National Labor Relations Board until 2026 fell short on Wednesday, as Senate Republicans and two independents blocked the nomination of Lauren McFerran to continue serving on the labor board.
The NLRB’s Orwellian ‘Fair Choice – Employee Final Voice Rule’
July 31, 2024 // McFerran’s term expires at the end of the year. The Biden administration has renominated her, and Senate Democrats on the Health, Education Labor and Pensions committee are attempting to fast-track her approval. Extending her term would ensure Democrats retain a functioning majority on the quasi-independent board until at least 2026, and possibly until 2028, even if likely presidential nominee Kamala Harris should lose in the fall. As much as unions and their allies talk about giving workers a voice, they usually oppose workers having the right to hold their unions to account.
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.
Commentary: States should protect workers from Democrats’ latest assault on their rights
January 19, 2024 // Ending the secret ballot is just one of the ways these Senate Democrats are trying to deprive workers of their rights. They ultimately want automakers to sign a so-called neutrality agreement. As I’ve documented, such agreements typically do three things. The first is to gut the secret ballot in favor of card check. Second, they give unions the personal information of every worker at a company — another violation of privacy and another invitation to intimidation. Finally, neutrality agreements put a gag order on companies, prohibiting them from talking to their workers about unionization. Yet that violates workers’ right to the full information they need to make the best choice. And that’s exactly why unions want to shut companies up — because it makes workers easier to control.
Dem Demands On Automakers Could Backfire On Their Own Climate Agenda And Americans’ Wallets, Experts Say
January 17, 2024 // “EV cars require fewer workers to build,” Higgins told the DCNF, noting that greater union membership in the auto industry is probably not possible with a corresponding transition to EVs. “That’s just a fact. But that may not matter as much as you might think to the UAW. Believe it or not, only about 150,000 of the UAW’s 400,000 or so members actually work for Detroit automakers. The union has branched out into other areas, such as education, and those areas are growing… So fewer auto workers will hurt the union but not kill it.”
Opinion: Unions could succeed where Senate Democrats fail
July 27, 2022 // They can also make demands well beyond traditional worker benefits. For example, they can seek requirements to include a voter registration form with new employee paperwork and paid time off to vote. They can also bargain with companies to allow use of their facilities as polling places. In other words, they can help expand access to voting even when Republicans in Congress and state legislatures are trying to do the opposite. Unions also can make proposals for paid time off and reimbursement if an employee needs to go out of state for an abortion. The cost and inconvenience of such absences might make businesses somewhat more inclined to support candidates who support in-state abortion care. charitable giving, Republicans, MAGA crowd, low- and middle-income workers,
Top Five Labor Law Developments for May 2022
June 17, 2022 // Geodis Logistics, Video game testers, No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act,
Opinion: Starbucks baristas who join a union may not get what they bargained for
April 21, 2022 // Unions historically had little traction in the full- and limited-service restaurant industry. High turnover, combined with a younger workforce that desires flexibility over rigidity, made a poor match for organized labor’s 20th-century-value proposition. Ten years ago, the SEIU made an expensive play to change that, through a campaign called the Fight for $15.
Democrats’ Proposed Labor Funding Increases Fall Nearly Flat
March 11, 2022 // Federal Funding Legislation. fiscal year 2022, Backgrounder: The final package, after bipartisan and bicameral negotiations, includes just moderate funding increases for these programs or, as in the case of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), no increase at all.