Following its largest city, Los Angeles County voted to increase the minimum wage to $15 by 2020. Between the county law—which applies to all unincorporated areas of the county—and the Los Angeles city legislation, more than half of the county workforce will be guaranteed more than state minimum wage. According to the Los Angeles Times, organized labor’s next challenge is to convince other local governments within the county to adopt the same increases.
The AFL-CIO leadership convenes next week, when they will meet with four presidential contenders: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley and Mike Huckabee. According to Politico, the federation plans to push candidates on trade, wages and strengthening collective bargaining. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka tells Politico that the federation is seeking to pass a series of smaller bills, including an expansion of the NLRA’s coverage, new remedies for workers who win unfair labor practice cases, and possibly a proposal to make labor organizing a civil right.
The Chicago Tribune reports that the state of Illinois waived 99% of pension penalties for school districts that had given steep raises to outgoing educators. Since 2005, when the state created penalties for hefty raises for retiring teachers, school districts have amassed more than $150 million in penalties. But after finding loopholes in state law, more than half the districts have avoided paying the majority of their penalty bills.
In Kenya, teachers unions are appearing before the Court of Appeal today to defend a judgment that requires the government to increase their salaries, reports the Daily Nation. A lower court called on the government to increase teacher pay by 50-60% over the next four years. The government claims it cannot afford the salary increases, which go into effect immediately, and that the order takes away the parties’ freedom to negotiate voluntarily through the collective bargaining process.
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September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.
September 10
A federal judge denies a motion by the Trump Administration to dismiss a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees against President Trump for his mass layoffs of federal workers; the Supreme Court grants a stay on a federal district court order that originally barred ICE agents from questioning and detaining individuals based on their presence at a particular location, the type of work they do, their race or ethnicity, and their accent while speaking English or Spanish; and a hospital seeks to limit OSHA's ability to cite employers for failing to halt workplace violence without a specific regulation in place.
September 9
Ninth Circuit revives Trader Joe’s lawsuit against employee union; new bill aims to make striking workers eligible for benefits; university lecturer who praised Hitler gets another chance at First Amendment claims.
September 8
DC Circuit to rule on deference to NLRB, more vaccine exemption cases, Senate considers ban on forced arbitration for age discrimination claims.
September 7
Another weak jobs report, the Trump Administration's refusal to arbitrate with federal workers, and a district court judge's order on the constitutionality of the Laken-Riley Act.