Sophia is a student at Harvard Law School and a member of the Labor and Employment Lab.
In today’s news and commentary, Trump fires regulator in charge of reviewing railroad mergers; fired Fed Governor sues Trump asserting unlawful termination; and Trump attacks more federal sector unions.
On Thursday, Robert Primus, a member of the Surface Transportation Board, discovered that President Trump had fired him after returning home from an event unveiling new high-speed Acela trains. Primus’s removal comes just as the board weighs a merger between Union Pacific Corporation and Norfolk Southern Corporation. The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART) condemned Trump’s action, citing a retaliatory motive given that Primus had vocally opposed the merger out of concerns of corporate consolidation. Primus was the sole dissent in a March 2023 board decision that approved a merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern.
On Monday, President Trump announced via social media that he had fired Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Prior to Cook’s removal, no president had fired a central bank governor in the bank’s 111-year history. Cook filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday, alleging that her firing was “unprecedented and illegal.” The lawsuit raises the possibility of a landmark legal battle over the Federal Reserve’s status as an independent institution.
President Trump issued a directive yesterday expanding on a March executive order ending collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) for many federal agencies. The latest agencies affected include the Bureau of Reclamation, the International Trade Administration, the Office of the Commissioner for Patents, the National Weather Service, the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, NASA, and the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Trump’s latest effort to curb federal-sector collective bargaining comes after the Supreme Court allowed Trump to proceed with the elimination of CBAs for certain agencies. In the wake of that decision, several agencies have canceled union contracts for their employees including Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency, and just this week – Health and Human Services.
Daily News & Commentary
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May 28
University of California workers union reach agreement; Texas shrimp industry asks for more visas.
May 27
DC Circuit sidesteps NLRB's remedial Thryv powers; UC workers ratify bargaining agreement; OPM proposes federal NDA.
May 26
Massachusetts rideshare drivers become the first in the nation to unionize; the Pope warns of AI risks to workers.
May 25
Intuit announces layoffs; CA Governor Newsom issues executive order.
May 24
A majority of House Representatives sign a discharge petition for the Faster Labor Contracts Act, and the House Transportation Committee adopts a railroad safety amendment in the Build America 250 Act.
May 22
U.S. employers spend $1.7B on union avoidance each year and the ICJ declares the right to strike a protected activity.