In today’s News & Commentary, international trade politics create labor tension in France, Minnesota’s rideshare driver minimum wage law takes effect, and the second Trump administration could drop appeal of vacated overtime eligibility expansion rule.

In Cognac, France, Hennessy workers continue to protest, showing how international trade conflict can affect domestic production and create labor strife. Workers remain concerned even after management announced on Monday they were suspending plans to move bottling to China in response to new 35% Chinese tariffs. The company had previously planned to begin shipping their product and bottling materials in bulk to China to bottle there and workers began striking two weeks ago in response. One worker, fearing disastrous economic consequences, said “If the production lines are moved, I will lose my job, the others too, and Cognac will become a ghost town.”  

Commentators have seen the Chinese bottle tariffs as retaliation for European import tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in an escalating trade conflict. Brandy producers asked French President Emmanuel Macron to help find a solution and suspended, but did not cancel, their plans pending resolution of the “political and diplomatic situation.” French Prime Minister Michel Barnier has announced plans to visit China.

In Minnesota, a new minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers took effect today. The law is designed to increase driver pay after a study by the state Department of Labor and Industry found half of its drivers made $8.12 per hour or less. It is the result of a hard-fought battle by drivers, some of which organized through the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association (MULDA) and advocated at the city and state levels for the past two years. Through a set of reforms including increasing the per mile pay and setting a $5 minimum per trip, the new state law is expected to raise driver pay about 14%. Interestingly, it also requires Uber and Lyft to hire a nonprofit to provide “culturally competent driver representation services, outreach and education” to the many East African and other immigrant drivers on the platforms. While the companies have not announced which nonprofit that will be, it seems designed to be MULDA.

The Department of Justice has appealed a recent Texas District Court federal judge’s decision striking down a new Department of Labor rule increasing eligibility for overtime pay to the Fifth Circuit. I described the recent ruling vacating it here. While, as Elyse previously touched on, there is some reason for optimism considering the Fifth Circuit recently upheld the Department’s use of a salary test for overtime eligibility, some management-side attorneys have speculated that once President Donald Trump takes office his Department of Justice will withdraw the appeal, leaving the rule vacated.