Posts tagged Senate

    Official Fired By Trump Returns To Work To Cheers After Judge Orders Reinstatement

    March 11, 2025 // Wilcox filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement, arguing her removal was unlawful. Judge Beryl A. Howell agreed with Wilcox, issuing an order last Thursday ensuring her temporary return to the agency as the underlying case moves forward. In a stinging opinion, Howell wrote that Trump failed to grasp the Constitution’s limits on executive power.

    Senate confirms Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Labor secretary

    March 11, 2025 // “The American people demand and deserve change after four years of economic heartache under the ‘most pro-union administration in American history.’ Unfortunately, Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s record pushing policies that force hardworking Americans into union membership suggests more of the same,” McConnell said. “Most Americans believe joining a union should be a personal choice – not a mandate – which is why more than half the states, including Kentucky, have adopted right-to-work laws.”

    Bus Driver Asks National Labor Relations Board to Overturn “Merger Doctrine” Used by Union Bosses to Block Worker-Requested Votes

    February 19, 2025 // Because employees are suddenly part of a much larger and frequently geographically-dispersed “bargaining unit” with workers they have never met and likely don’t even know the names of, once “merged” it becomes effectively impossible for employees to ever reach the 30% threshold of signatures needed to trigger decertificiation or deauthorization elections

    Teamsters Back Trump’s OSHA Nominee, But Dissent Emerges

    February 18, 2025 // “OSHA and the DOL, under the leadership of soon-to-be Secretary Chavez-DeRemer, will continue to benefit from leaders who started in the trades and understand the risks facing working Americans today and necessary reforms and opportunities to protect them,” the Teamsters said in a statement Friday. Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), a grassroots rank-and-file movement of thousands of Teamsters members, did not share as glowing of an opinion as the wider union. “Teamsters know bosses rarely care about our safety. OSHA is already too weak and toothless,” the movement said. “Now more than ever, we need to fight for ourselves.”

    The Latest: Judge temporarily blocks Trump plan offering incentives for federal workers to resign

    February 6, 2025 // Federal workers associations have filed suit asking a federal court to stop the Trump administration’s “effective dismantling” of the lead U.S. aid agency. The lawsuit by the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees comes as the new Trump administration and ally Elon Musk are targeting the U.S. Agency for International Development for eradication, freezing its funds and placing almost all of its workers on leave or furlough.

    OPINION: Restaurants get a preview of regulation under Trump

    December 18, 2024 // Under McFerran’s leadership, the board also greatly altered the organizing process. Previously, employees had to request permission from the NLRB for a vote on unionizing. Now a shop is assumed to be unionized if a majority of the workers so much as express a preference for union representation. A vote is held only if the employer seeks it as a way of keeping the union out. And if the NLRB decides the business is trying to nudge workers toward a "No" vote, it can scrap the election and recognize the union with a vote never being held.

    National Labor Relations Board Expected to Have Republican Majority Shortly After Trump Takes Office

    December 16, 2024 // It is likely that upon the Republicans becoming the majority, the NLRB will begin reversing various pro-union decisions the Biden NLRB handed down during the last four years, especially in those decisions in which the Republican members issued lengthy and robust dissents. It is not clear at this time whom President-elect Trump will appoint or what cases the new NLRB will focus on in the short term, but a flurry of action is expected, nonetheless.

    As Trump’s DOGE plans crackdown, Social Security union secures telework deal

    December 5, 2024 // The agreement comes as the incoming Trump administration and its newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, vow to require federal workers to return to the office full time in an effort to cull their numbers. The updated contract deal locks in the current levels of telework for American Federation of Government Employees members at the agency until late October 2029, according to a letter written by Rich Couture, AFGE general committee spokesperson and head of the union’s Council 215, and viewed by CNN. The agreement was signed by SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley just before he stepped down to run for Democratic National Committee chair.

    California Senate leader calls union ‘morally bankrupt’ for opposing a vulnerable Democrat

    November 18, 2024 // The union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, was furious at Newman for joining a group of Senate Democrats in killing a bill last year that the union sponsored, according to Newman and his Senate colleagues. The bill sought to enshrine the rights of workers at the University of California in the state constitution. A spokesperson for the union and its lobbyist, Richie Ross, could not be reached for comment. The union, representing 30,000 workers at 10 UC campuses as well as medical centers, clinics and research laboratories, is planning a two-day strike for next week, the latest in a longstanding labor battle that was reflected in the worker rights issues raised in the bill.