Posts tagged Texas
Backgrounder: Trump Civil Service Reform Proposed Rule
April 27, 2025 // On April 23, 2025, OPM proposed a new rule to improve accountability for federal career employees, especially those in policy roles. The rule implements President Trump’s Executive Order 14171, which he signed on his first day in office. Executive Order 14171 explicitly directed OPM to render civil service regulations implemented during the Biden administration inoperative, citing the President’s authority to manage the executive branch. Among other things, the rule would create a new job category called Schedule Policy/Career in the excepted service for policy-influencing positions, making them at-will employees and, therefore, meaningfully accountable for their performance and conduct.
Energy Transfer Drivers Across Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana Demand Vote to Remove Steelworkers Union From Power
April 21, 2025 // Drivers for Energy Transfer, an oil and gas transportation company with nearly 30 facilities across Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, are petitioning a federal labor board for a vote to end United Steelworkers (USW) union officials’ bargaining control over their work unit. Driver Jay Fifer, who is based at Energy Transfer’s workplace in Hearne, TX (near College Station, TX), submitted the petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) this week with free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. If Fifer and his coworkers’ requested vote is successful, over 420 Energy Transfer drivers will be free of USW union officials’ control.
Pennsylvania Teachers Union Admits Cyberattack That Hit 500,000 People in July
March 26, 2025 // Personal records of more than a half-million people were compromised in a cyberattack that occurred last July on the Pennsylvania State Education Association. The union acknowledged the data breach this week. On March 17, the state’s largest teachers union sent letters about a security data breach that occurred July 6, 2024. An investigation into the incident, completed Feb. 18, found that sensitive personal information was acquired by an “unauthorized actor” who accessed files on the union’s network, according to the letter.
Via 313’s Austin location unionizes after 3-year fight, labor board ruling
March 24, 2025 // Unionization efforts began in January 2022, reported Eater Austin, when employees alleged that management was not transparent about safety concerns related to the Omicron variant of coronavirus. A group of 46 employees across Austin signed a petition asking for sick and hazard pay, alongside improved COVID-19 safety procedures. Employees later filed for union election through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Aug. 2022.
US court upholds Biden minimum wage order for federal contractors
February 5, 2025 // The panel, which reversed a judge in Texas who had blocked Biden's order, said a 1949 federal law allows the president to regulate federal contracting in any way he deems necessary to promote economy and efficiency. The decision upholds an order from Biden, a Democrat, but could be a boon to his Republican successor, President Donald Trump, if he uses his powers over federal procurement to implement other parts of his agenda such as eliminating corporate diversity initiatives.
Teamsters Preparing to Strike Sysco’s Operations in Houston
January 15, 2025 // The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said more than 430 of it members are preparing to strike against Sysco in Houston, with the two sides unable to come to an agreement and the labor's current contract expiring on Jan. 17.
Opinion: Mitch McConnell: Nippon Steel Isn’t the Enemy
January 10, 2025 // In Georgetown, Ky., hundreds of skilled workers build automotive parts at a facility owned by Nippon Steel. About 5 miles away, another Japanese firm, Toyota, employs nearly 10,000 people full-time at the company’s largest vehicle-manufacturing plant in the world. Toyota recently announced more than $2 billion in new investments to expand and modernize its facilities there. Japan likely wonders why the Biden administration considers a major investment in American jobs and manufacturing a national-security risk but not its purchase of cutting-edge American military technologies.
Independent Contracting in 2025
January 8, 2025 // Independent contractors forgo workplace benefits that employees receive. Portable benefits are a way to give them access to benefits untethered from employment with one employer.
461 employees at ZeniMax Online Studios have unionized
December 20, 2024 // Another union has formed within Microsoft in a bid to 'create protections against layoffs and workplace exploitation.'
TEXAS: Government Collection of Union Dues | Fast Facts
November 17, 2024 // "The proper role of government is to preserve life, liberty, and property—not to act as a dues collector."