The Wall Street Journal reports that American Airlines will offer 4% pay raises for all unions able to reach post-merger labor contracts with the company, while raising non-union pay by the same. The move comes one year after American and US Airways merged, as the new company is eager to build a common culture among its staff. This is tricky, “since many American employees have been at odds with their former leaders for years.” The company earned about $4.2 billion in 2014, which also might help explain its desire to spend more for labor peace at this juncture. While some union groups have already formed contracts with American, others remain in the arbitration process.
This week marks the first time that young immigrants in Arizona in the President’s DACA initiative can receive driver’s licenses, according to AP. Arizona was one of the last states to actually issue the licenses, as state officials had waged lengthy court battles against the policy. But after several courts ruled against the state, the path was finally cleared for young people to apply.
The Huffington Post covers a new report from the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights on the working conditions inside an Apple supply firm in Shenzhen, China. According to the article, workers “are pressured into working 65-hour weeks, made to sleep on plywood beds in bleak dormitories and harassed by the facility’s security force. The work is so exhausting that some of the estimated 15,000 workers choose to sleep through their lunch breaks instead of eating, the report states.” Apple said the company was already aware of the Shenzhen plant’s labor violations and had placed it on probation, meaning it “won’t be eligible for new orders until it proves its payroll records are legitimate.”
Daily News & Commentary
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March 13
Republican Senators urge changes on OSHA heat standard; OpenAI and building trades announce partnership on data center construction; forced labor investigations could lead to new tariffs
March 12
EPA terminates contract with second-largest union; Florida advances bill restricting public sector unions; Trump administration seeks Supreme Court assistance in TPS termination.
March 11
The partial government shutdown results in TSA agents losing their first full paycheck; the Fifth Circuit upholds the certification of a class of former United Airline workers who were placed on unpaid leave for declining to receive the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons during the pandemic; and an academic group files a lawsuit against the State Department over a policy that revokes and denies visas to noncitizens for their work in fact-checking and content moderation.
March 10
Court rules Kari Lake unlawfully led USAGM, voiding mass layoffs; Florida Senate passes bill tightening union recertification rules; Fifth Circuit revives whistleblower suit against Lockheed Martin.
March 9
6th Circuit rejects Cemex, Board may overrule precedents with two members.
March 8
In today’s news and commentary, a weak jobs report, the NIH decides it will no longer recognize a research fellows’ union, and WNBA contract talks continue to stall as season approaches. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that employers cut 92,000 jobs in February while the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.4 percent. A loss […]