Posts tagged White House
‘Betrayed’: Unions, White House irate over Teamsters president’s RNC speech
July 18, 2024 // President Biden secured a pension bailout that restored retirement accounts for about 350,000 Teamsters members, appointed staunchly pro-labor allies to the National Labor Relations Board and instituted labor requirements for federal contracts. The backlash against O’Brien’s speech reflects the high stakes of the 2024 presidential election for the nation’s labor movement, which fears Trump will undo these policies.
Biden Administration Unveils Historic Rules for High-Paying Clean Energy Jobs The White House
June 19, 2024 // Clean energy projects that meet the requirements of these final rules will receive a fivefold increase for clean energy tax credits for deployment of wind, solar, nuclear, hydrogen, and other clean energy technologies, as well as for projects receiving allocations under the Section 48C Advanced Energy Projects credit., providing a significant incentive for project developers to pay prevailing wages to workers for construction, alteration, and repair of clean energy projects and to hire registered apprentices to earn while they learn by working on those projects. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su also published a blog highlighting the use of Project Labor Agreements as a best practice for large construction projects and a tool to help project developers comply with the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements. Project Labor Agreements, or pre-hire collective bargaining agreements that set the terms and conditions for employment on a construction project, help workers and developers alike by providing strong worker and wage protections while ensuring a reliable supply of skilled workers to help deliver projects on time and on budget.
Union push pits the United Farm Workers against a major California agricultural business
May 10, 2024 // The 2022 law lets the workers unionize by collecting a majority of signatures without holding an election at a polling place — a move proponents said would protect workers from union busting and employers said lacked safeguards to prevent fraud. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom reluctantly approved the changes with a nudge from the White House after farmworkers led a weekslong march to the state Capitol. Farmworkers in California are overwhelmingly Latino and among the state’s poorest and most vulnerable residents. Many are seasonal workers, which makes it tough to organize a job site, and many lack legal status in the United States. The new law could lead to a rise in union influence and a resurgence of the UFW, which represented at its peak tens of thousands of farmworkers but has seen its numbers dwindle, said Christian Paiz, a professor of ethnic studies at University of California, Berkeley.
Biden Grants Micron $6.1 Billion for New US Chip Factories
April 25, 2024 // Micron is expected to build two new chip manufacturing plants in Clay, New York as part of the funding deal. It will also build a third in Boise, Idaho, where it already has a substantial presence. Micron will also receive state tax breaks from New York as it builds the new plants. The three plants will likely create 20,000 direct jobs as well as another 50,000 indirect jobs as the plants begin construction, according to the release. Micron is also supporting apprenticeships at the new plants, supports worker union organization, and is entering into project labor agreements (PLAs), a type of construction-specific collective bargaining agreement, for the plants.
What the Biden Administration Could Learn From California’s Attempt To Ban Independent Contracting
April 8, 2024 // In other words, the president promised to replicate AB 5 nationally but has failed. I can only surmise that the Los Angeles Times doesn't pay much attention to California news, either. As noted above, AB 5 isn't the victim of Congress or industry—but of massive, angry blowback from California freelancers, many of them Democrats—in multiple professions who didn't appreciate losing their jobs. The story focused on San Francisco's settlement with a company that connects workers with hospitality industry jobs, so AB 5 is still wreaking havoc. The most aggravating part of the Times article cites a study from the pro-union Economic Policy Institute, which finds "blue-collar workers classified as contractors are losing out on as much as $16,700 a year compared with what they would have made as regular employees." Perhaps it should show how much money these workers are losing when companies axe their jobs because of the AB 5-style mandates. When it comes to economics, union think tanks, reporters, and the Biden administration are as clever as those proverbial worms.
Commentary: Julie Su again headed toward DOL confirmation, trucking still opposed
February 28, 2024 // "No matter how many times she’s renominated, Julie Su’s record remains a huge red flag for our industry and any senator concerned about radical policies from California becoming federal law," said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. "The independent contractor rule she just finalized as acting secretary undermines the livelihoods of 350,000 professional truck drivers across our country who choose to run their own small businesses, and she needs to answer for it."
Opinion: Construction Unions Face Fork In The Road: Shrink Or Seize The Moment
February 16, 2024 // “This is the best shot the unions have had in decades,” said Joshua Freeman, a Queens College, City University of New York history professor. “There’s low unemployment, a sympathetic administration, an infrastructure ramp and sympathetic public attitudes. Lots of things are going in the right direction for unions.”
The Biden Administration’s Anti-Worker Policies Set to Fail Again
December 28, 2023 // “Conservatives in Congress are holding the line against President Biden’s desire to make California labor policies a standard for the entire Nation. This latest rejection of President Biden’s pick for labor secretary is another reminder to President Biden that restrictive contracting laws, high minimum wage requirements, and excessive regulations on small businesses do not put American workers first. These disastrous, anti-worker policies are why people are leaving California in droves, and we should not export them to the entire country.”
USPS Won’t Say Whether It Shared Americans’ Contact Information with Labor Unions
December 15, 2023 // But Americans for Fair Treatment (AFFT) uncovered a clause in the online form’s small print, saying USPS can disclose to labor organizations the highly personal information Americans submitted – without their consent. This information includes both where they live and how to contact them directly. USPS’s disclosure raised alarms about why USPS would potentially aggregate vast amounts of Americans’ sensitive data and give it to labor unions. Since then, it appears USPS has added this labor unions language to the fine print for purchases both through USPS.com and in brick-and-mortar stores. It even added the language to its Change of Address form.
Commentary: Is the NLRB Unconstitutional? The Courts May Finally Decide.
December 6, 2023 // While many agencies act politically, the Board is a special problem. Unlike other agencies, the Board makes almost all its decisions not through rulemaking, but through one-off panel decisions. That means it can change policy much faster. The “law” can swing wildly from case to case. In fact, according to one study, the Board during the Obama administration reversed a group of decisions that had been on the books for more than a collective 4,500 years. The Board’s constitutional flaws are also different from those of other agencies. For example, in a recent case involving the SEC, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the agency’s structure violated the Seventh Amendment. That was because the SEC can impose civil fines—the kind of claims that must be tried to a jury. The Board has no authority to impose civil fines, so it doesn’t have the same Seventh Amendment problem. Its problem instead comes instead from its unchecked power to decide cases. It controls the outcome in disputes affecting a range of private rights. And those disputes, according to Article III of the Constitution, should be decided only by real judges.