In today’s News and Commentary, former Wynn employees bring organizing-related charges, four New York workers challenge Amazon’s pregnancy-accommodation system, and new data show how a $100,000 H-1B fee reshaped employer demand.

Two former Wynn Las Vegas employees filed unfair labor practice charges, accusing the casino of firing union supporters and directing managers to gather intelligence about organizing among its nonunion facilities-maintenance workforce. Randall Crank, a former central plant manager, said managers were pressured to identify employees and departments discussing Operating Engineers Local 501. Napco Sharma, a former kitchen shop engineer, alleges Wynn knew he supported the union and discharged him in retaliation. The union says Wynn is the last flagship Las Vegas Strip property with nonunion facilities-maintenance workers, although its hotel workers are covered by a Culinary Union contract. Wynn denied the allegations. 

Four former Amazon warehouse workers in New York filed a proposed class action alleging Amazon denied routine pregnancy accommodations and then used centralized attendance systems to penalize necessary breaks and absences. The complaint challenges Amazon’s alleged requirement that workers provide medical documentation even for basic accommodations such as bathroom breaks, opportunities to sit, and time to pump. The plaintiffs say Amazon’s unpaid-time and time-off-task systems deducted protected time, generated termination warnings, and ultimately supplied the basis for firing them. One plaintiff, for example, alleges that Amazon classified time spent pumping in its lactation room as inactive time, while another says the company deducted time when she was hospitalized for pregnancy-related care. 

Employer demand for H-1B visas fell sharply after the Trump administration imposed a $100,000 charge on petitions for workers hired from outside the United States. According to Department of Homeland Security data, H-1B lottery registrations at heavily affected technology and staffing companies declined between 85% and 100%. Infosys cut more than 8,100 entries, Tata Consultancy Services cut more than 5,600, and Cognizant went from 3,752 entries to zero. Although that fee was blocked in court, DHS has proposed a $103,265 fee covering all cap-subject petitions, including those for recent U.S. graduates previously exempt from the charge. DHS assumes employers will continue using all 85,000 available visas, but an Institute for Progress analysis projects a 63% to 91% decline in demand. A fee intended to finance immigration administration could therefore undermine its own revenue base while pushing employers to offshore work or reserve sponsorship for only the highest-margin positions.