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Supreme Court likely to decide fate of federal unions
A matter likely to end up before the Supreme Court soon is the right of federal government employees to form unions. Whether they retain that…
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‘With you or without you’ – The growing rift between unions and Democrats
A rift is growing between the Democratic Party and the labor movement. It was caused in large part by the party’s inability to move the…
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The flaw in Justice Kagan’s defense of the NLRB
Justice Elana Kagan authored a lengthy dissent to the Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday granting the Trump administration’s request to keep the Gwynne Wilcox,…
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Initiative 82 will hopefully get 86’d
The city of Washington, DC has belatedly realized that passing a law whose purpose is to make a product or service more expensive will cause…
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CEI suggests DOT put the brakes on train two-person crew rule
The Transportation Department recently asked the public for comments on how to reduce the regulatory burden. One thought that the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)…
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Trump’s tariffs: Look for the union label
One of the biggest boosters of President Trump’s tariffs has been the United Auto Workers (UAW). The venerable union wants to see domestic factories expanded…
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Why government reform may hinge on ending federal unions
President Trump’s executive order ending collective bargaining for a wide swath of federal cabinet agencies and other government entities is a laudable attempt…
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Trump’s push to remake the NLRB
Things are a bit topsy-turvy currently at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that oversees labor-management disputes in…
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Five ideas for Secretary Chavez-DeRemer
President Trump’s newly-confirmed labor secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, has been viewed with suspicion by many on the free-market right. She can rectify that…
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Hawley’s bill speeds up union elections by removing guardrails
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) thinks workers are having too hard of a time forming unions. His solution to that is to fast-track the process…
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Chavez-DeRemer exemplifies Trump’s complicated relationship with unions
The Senate confirmed former Oregon Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer in a 67-32 vote Monday as President Trump’s new labor secretary. CEI and others…
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You want hiring freezes with that? The effects of California’s minimum wage increase
California officially raised its minimum wage to $20 an hour last April in an attempt to help the state’s working poor. What those folks…
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White House requires federal agencies to disclose time spent working for unions instead of taxpayers
The Trump administration has restored reporting and transparency requirements for so-called “official time,” the practice where government workers are allowed to act exclusively on behalf…
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Trump labor department pick signals pro-market stance on joint employer, independent contract rules
Keith Sonderling, Trump’s pick to deputy secretary of labor, the department’s second-ranking position, told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee this…
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Trump labor secretary pick backs right to work, disavows past support for union-tilted PRO Act
President Trump’s pick to be labor secretary, former Oregon Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer, disavowed her past support for the union-tilted …
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Trump says labor law cannot prevent him from cleaning house at labor umpire agency
President’s Trump’s letter firing National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Chairwoman Gwynne Wilcox and the NLRB’s general Counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, makes the bold claim that…
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No, Virginia, there was no Amazon worker strike
The labor protests launched by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters against Amazon over the Christmas holiday were nothing more than a hollow …
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Hawley offers gift to union leaders, not workers
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) reportedly has proposed a “pro-worker framework for the 119th Congress” that amounts to a watered down wishlist of items wanted by unions leaders.
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Trump follows Biden precedent in sacking NLRB general counsel
President Trump’s decision to fire National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Chairwoman Gwynne Wilcox and general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo is controversial and will likely be challenged…
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Trump’s new Schedule F executive order is smarter, but could still backfire
President Trump’s re-instatement of his “Schedule F” executive order, making it easier to fire career federal employees,…
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Trump picks gig economy fan for DOL’s number 2 spot
President-elect Donald Trump has raised more than a few eyebrows in the world of labor policy when he nominated the frankly…
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Nice dock. Big shame if you modernized it, Trump warns ports
President Trump has signaled that if East Coast dockworkers go on strike, he will back them instead of the ports. This increases the odds that…
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Schumer moves to lock in place Democrat-majority labor board
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is attempting to ensure that the Democrats retain control of the National Labor Relations Board, the…
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Congresswoman Chavez-DeRemer is not qualified to be Labor Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump is considering Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) for the position of…
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Biden overtime rule overruled
A Texas court last week threw out the Biden’s administration’s attempt to rewrite the rules for overtime. The court said that the Department of Labor…
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NLRB moves to silence employers during union drives
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the independent federal agency that oversees union activity, ruled Wednesday in a case involving Amazon…
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Voters okay higher minimum wages, balk at more radical ideas
The ironic thing about Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ rhetoric is that it overlaps to a degree with old-school Democratic populism. This can be…
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The next president may face a ‘January Surprise’: Port strikes
The next president might face a test right as they are being inaugurated: a renewal of the International Longshoremen Association’s (ILA) strike against east coast…
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The origins and lessons of the ‘Satanic Panic’ of the 1980s
Moral panics are just one of those things that free societies seem to go through on a regular basis. The “satanic panic” was the big…
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Longshoremen stood down when they realized wrecking the economy wasn’t popular
Thursday’s announcement that the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) was ending its strike at east coast and Gulf of Mexico ports after…
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White House has several options in dockworkers strike, none of them good
President Biden likes to call himself “Blue Collar Joe” and declare his support for union workers, but his administration has been…
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The real issue in the port strike: Automation
Most news reports on the east coast dockworker’s strike are focused on the issue of wages, which obscures the real reason for the strike:…
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Teamsters non-endorsement: Outlier or sign of things to come?
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters’s internal poll on who to endorse in the 2024 presidential election was so lopsidedly in favor of Republican nominee Donald…
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Teamsters’ non-endorsement exposes internal divisions
The announcement that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters will not endorse a presidential candidate this cycle is a sign of the internal struggles within…
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Removing taxes on overtime would have only marginal impact
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s proposal to remove the taxes on overtime would likely have little effect on the workers and the economy. It…
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Just 5 percent of private sector workers voted for their unions
Imagine if you lived in a country where a vote held decades previous determined which party held control of the government and people had little…
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Proof of price gouging is harder to find than Bigfoot
The concept of “price gouging” is a lot like Bigfoot. Lots of people think it exists and have been chasing it for decades. Yet actual…
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Labor issues
Labor Day was established in the late 1800s to celebrate workers and their achievements. Back then, manual labor was the dominant type of work for…
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Scrapping tipping taxes is now a bipartisan issue. Good.
Never let it be said that Democrats think that Donald Trump is always wrong. Vice President Kamala Harris recently endorsed an…
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The NLRB’s Orwellian ‘Fair Choice – Employee Final Voice Rule’
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that oversees union elections, has a funny idea about what constitutes giving employees an honest say…
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Kamala Harris’s California quid pro quo for unions
Kamala Harris is now the Democrats’ likely nominee to succeed Biden and she may pull the administration’s already pro-union labor policy even further leftwards. A…
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NLRB backs down on Joint Employer
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has withdrawn an appeal of a district…
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Union leaders need Trump more than he needs them
Credit where credit is due, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien faced a tricky tightrope walk when he spoke before the Republican National Convention…
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The Supreme Court sends warning shot to NLRB
Only one of the Supreme Court’s cases this term dealt directly with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), but several addressed the broader question of…
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California’s Newsom grants exception to state law so restaurants can cope with other state law
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation over the weekend that exempted restaurants in the Golden State from…
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Biden’s pro-labor policies will linger past fall election
The Biden administration is trying to cement a pro-union labor policy into place for the next four years, even if likely Republican candidate Donald Trump…
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Even SCOTUS liberal wing skeptical of NLRB moves
The most notable thing about the Supreme Court’s ruling last week against the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Starbucks Corp.
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Yes, make tipping tax-free
Republican candidate Donald Trump’s proposal to make tips tax-free is a good idea, and not just because it will be a…
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The inherent contradictions of unionized political campaigns
President Joe Biden is the first candidate expected to win their party’s presidential nomination with a unionized staff. Whether this is…
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Unions outdo Donald Trump in crying foul over election losses
The US labor movement is rivaled only by Donald Trump when it comes to throwing out claims of election fraud. Like the Republican presidential candidate,…
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UAW revival gets flat tire in Alabama
The United Auto Workers (UAW) on Friday lost a high-profile bid to organize 5,000 Mercedes-Benz workers in a plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The loss…
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UAW loses 13,000 members
The United Auto Workers (UAW) lost 13,000 members in the last year, according to filings the union made to the Labor Department. The UAW said…
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R.I.P. Roger Corman, Filmmaker and Free Marketer
American cinema lost one of its great entrepreneurs last week when producer and director Roger Corman died at age 98. In a career that…
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NLRB seeks to revoke First Amendment for management.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last week sent a warning that literally anything management says about a union organizing bid…
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Biden’s veto of joint employer rule CRA a blow to small businesses
President Biden’s veto Friday of a Congressional Review Act (CRA) bill rolling back the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) “joint employer”…
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California’s $20 fast food worker minimum wage a regressive tax
California’s new $20 an hour minimum wage for fast food restaurants has turned into a regressive tax on the state’s low-income residents. People who wanted…
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Seattle’s new minimum wage rule undermining delivery drivers
A new Seattle minimum wage law meant to boost the incomes of app-based delivery drivers has instead backfired, resulting in less work for drivers. Some…
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Biden says his steel tariffs totally different from Trump’s, speculates uncle was eaten by cannibals
President Joe Biden vowed Wednesday that he would get tough on China’s steel dumping by tripling tariffs on imports. He argued this was totally different…
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OSHA tries to walk union officials into workplaces
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) issued a new rule Friday that will result in union organizers accompanying agency representatives during worksite inspections.
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California laggin’: As Golden State minimum wage rises, so does unemployment
California has been a pioneer in raising the minimum wage for decades, consistently putting its state-wide minimum well above the federal rate. Over that same…
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Diversity, equity, and exclusion: How the NLRB’s double standard on job-related speech hurts workers
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is supposed to protect workers who publicly raise questions about the policies in their workplace. A few recent cases…
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ACLU said NLRB’s general counsel Abruzzo ‘lacks authority’
Here’s some news that slipped through the cracks last year: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged the legitimacy of Jennifer Abruzzo’s appointment…
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Gov. Youngkin vetoes two-crew minimum bill in defiance of railroad unions
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently vetoed a slew of bills by the commonwealth legislature. One rejection in particular was well-deserved: nixing an ill-advised…
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Beware the labor regs of March!
A new rule from the federal government meant to protect workers is set to take effect today, March 11. It will instead leave most workers…
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FTC declares mergers to be union-busting
In a classic case of regulatory creep, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently asserted jurisdiction over labor unions and collective bargaining. The agency is…
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NLRB ruling on college athletes may foul foreign players
Nothing produces untended consequences like government action, and no one can say that the National Labor Relation Board’s (NLRB) isn’t producing its fare share. The…
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Amazon primal: Retailer calls NLRB unconstitutional
Amazon has joined the growing chorus of businesses declaring that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) may be unconstitutional. Along with SpaceX and Trader Joe’s,…
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NLRB v. EEOC: Damned if you fire, damned If you don’t
The National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) aggressive new enforcement stance is creating a terrible bind for some businesses: if they try to avoiding penalties from…
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FTC commissioner wants to regulate worker misclassification, decries ‘unfair competition’
Federal Trade Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya has announced that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will get into the business of enforcing labor law. That was the…
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Businesses ask courts if the NLRB is constitutional
The National Labor Relations Board has made a point in recent years of re-examining the laws and regulations that the federal agency enforces, offering up…
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The Ray Charles Theory of Marginal Utility
Musician Ray Charles’ nickname was “The Genius,” given on account of his ability to blend different genres of music – big band, rhythm and blues,…
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Study Finds that Outlawing Work Reduces Employment
George Mason’s Mercatus Center has provided further proof that California’s AB5 law, which was intended to boost worker employment by preventing them from being misclassified…
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Flight attendants try to decertify union that most never voted for
One of the underlying flaws with US labor law is that it sees workers and the unions that represent them as synonymous, rather than as…
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Congressional Review Act vote shows cracks in joint employer rule
A vote in Congress Friday showed off the cracks in the support for the National Labor Relations Board’s new “joint employer” rule. It is…
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Power to the… regulators? That’s what new worker classification rule will do
The US Labor Department’s new worker classification rule is a major step backwards, causing trouble for worker and employer alike as they try to…
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The existential threat AI poses to the Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild recently concluded a lengthy strike against Hollywood studios with a contract that included new protections for its members from artificial…
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A steel sumo that might wrestle China to the mat
There are ironies a-plenty in the news that Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. plans to buy U.S. Steel. The fact that a foreign company would own…
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Common sense has left the building: The push to redefine joint employer rule
The National Labor Relations Board did something earlier this year that union leaders and their allies on Capitol Hill have long demanded: It expanded…
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Is UAW still an automaker union? How Gaza became a top issue
The name “United Auto Workers” would appear to pretty clearly indicate who that union represents, but it is increasingly becoming inaccurate. Today, only about…
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Biden admin: Taxpayers don’t need to know about ‘official time’
The Biden administration is actively rolling back transparency requirements for unions, most recently by no longer posting information on the controversial practice of…
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Ringside seats at today’s Senate cage match
A lot of preparation goes into testifying before a Senate committee. To borrow from the late Donald Rumsfeld, there are the “known” things that…
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NLRB responds to CEI on government ‘encouraging’ unionization
The National Labor Relations Board recently issued a rulemaking that included a direct rebuttal to an argument made by the Competitive Enterprise Institute regarding…
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UAW strike epilogue: Big Three will continue to shrink
The United Auto Workers has won, according to the headlines. What the union has won will force three companies, Ford, GM, and Stellantis, owner…
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NLRB expands ‘joint employer’ rule to include kitchen sink
The National Labor Relations Board has issued its new rule for “joint employer status.” As expected, it extends the rule for when one company…
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Ford-UAW deal: Declare victory and go home
The current United Auto Workers strike against the Big Three automakers has been more of a public relations spectacle than an actual strike. At no…
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As Predicted, UAW Strike Remains Limited, Spares Automakers From Full Walkout
It only took about three weeks, but mainstream journalists are becoming aware of something the Competitive Enterprise Institute has been pointing out from the start:…
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The year of strikes ain’t over yet
2023 has had the most major labor strikes the country has seen in decades, with likely more to come. Unions leaders are itching to do…
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UAW’s Fain says new strike strategy has produced no ‘meaningful progress’
UAW President Shawn Fain announced Friday that the union would expand its strike against Ford and GM. Fain said an additional 7,000 members…
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UAW strike mostly a PR move
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain is making much of the fact that the union is currently engaged in its first-ever strike against three…
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United Auto Workers want a bigger slice of a shrinking pie
If the United Auto Workers go on strike this week – and as I write this it appears as though they will – it…
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An invitation for union organizers to cheat in elections
The National Labor Relations Board has issued a new rule for union organizing elections that says the election will go ahead even when there…
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Biden administration working overtime to regulate working overtime
The Biden administration issued a new rule this week that vastly expands of the number of workers covered by federal overtime rules. While some…
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What you don’t know about the Wagner Act
What stance does the National Labor Relation Act, the main federal law regarding union rights, take towards workers joining unions? A long-held article of…
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The Paycheck Protection Act gives Congress a chance to defend the little guy
Freshman Missouri congressman Eric Burlison (R) has introduced legislation called the Paycheck Protection Act. The act, a project of the nonprofit American Legislative…
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Hollywood and the collateral damage of strikes
The current Hollywood strike by writers and actors has forced several others who don’t have an issue with the studios to stop working.
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Teamsters’ UPS win suggests more strikes coming
Tuesday’s announcement that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and UPS have agreed on a contract is a likely sign that strikes and other union…
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Actors and writers unions are fighting technological change. Expect change to win.
The current strike by Hollywood writers and actors is a reactionary, rear-guard effort against changes in technology. The members of the WGA (Writers Guild of…
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The Teamsters want UPS drivers to go on strike
UPS’s drivers will likely go on strike at the end of the month. It would be a huge disruption to the broader economy – and…
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Supreme Court’s Janus case 5 years later: Workers are invoking their rights
A common argument made by unions and their allies is that workers want to belong to unions but that big business uses all manner of…
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Biden Labor pick Julie Su claims she cannot recall her Prop 22 vote
Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su claimed multiple times Wednesday that she could not recall how she voted on California’s Proposition 22, the ballot initiate…