Posts tagged Susan Collins
Commentary: VA is selectively enforcing Trump’s order stripping workers of union rights
April 22, 2025 // But the same notice, without explanation, exempts eight small labor groups within the VA from Trump’s edict, effectively allowing them to retain their collective bargaining rights. Those unions include the Laborers International Union of North America, the Western Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, the Veterans Affairs Staff Nurse Council Local 5032 in Wisconsin, the International Association of Firefighters in Arkansas, the Teamsters Union Local 115 in Pennsylvania and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Hawaii. While Trump’s order exempts law enforcement and firefighter unions from losing their collective bargaining rights, that exception would apply only to the IAFF local.
Pro-labor Republicans push Trump to rescind order busting most federal unions
April 3, 2025 // “This executive order, which ruthlessly strips collective bargaining agreements for over 1 million federal workers, is the most recent attack your administration has levied against our merit-based civil service in the effort to cut the workforce and replace them with political cronies,” they wrote. “While the CSRA does give the president the authority to limit collective bargaining agreements due to national security concerns, the executive order’s direction to terminate mass swaths of federal employee collective bargaining agreements is clearly intended to broadly dismantle the CSRA, which is specifically designed to grant federal employees the right to collective bargaining as a means to resolve workplace issues while maintaining the smooth functioning of government operations.”
Ranking Member Cassidy, Kiley Introduce CRA to Overturn New Biden Regulation Threatening 27 Million American Independent Contractors
March 6, 2024 // Independent contractors, or freelancers, make their own hours to fit their schedule and decide where and how they want to work. The Biden administration rule attempts to restrict the ability of American workers to be an independent contractor and take advantage of the flexibility it provides. The rule creates a non-exhaustive, six-factor litmus test for unelected bureaucrats to interpret and decide who is and who is not classified as an independent contractor. It also casts as large a net as possible and gives less legal certainty to independent contractors impacted by the regulation. “The Biden administration’s priority should not be to do whatever makes it easier to forcibly and coercively unionize workers. It should be to increase individual freedom and opportunity,” said Dr. Cassidy. “This new Biden rule does the opposite, jeopardizing 27 million workers’ ability to make their own hours and make a living without being pressured into joining a union.”
Opinion: Senate minimum wage bills make bipartisan compromise possible
January 7, 2024 // Setting a national minimum wage is difficult politically. State and local economies vary significantly . For example, both average salaries and cost of living in states with the highest, Massachusetts and Hawaii, respectively, are more than 70% greater than in Mississippi, one of the poorest, where the average salary is $45,000 and the cost of living is $32,000. As of Monday, 22 states increased their minimum wages, raising pay for an estimated 9.9 million workers and resulting in $6.95 billion in additional income, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute estimates. Minimum wages in Maryland, New Jersey, and upstate New York reached or exceeded $15 an hour for the first time, joining California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, and the rest of New York. Seven more states have passed legislation or ballot measures to reach or surpass $15 an hour in the coming years: Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Nebraska, Rhode Island, and Virginia. Washington has the highest state minimum wage, increased from $15.74 to $16.28 due to an inflation adjustment. Still, by increasing the federal minimum to $17 an hour over five years, the Democrats’ Raise the Wage Act of 2023 would affect 28 million workers,