Today’s News & Commentary — December 1, 2015
Hillary Clinton unveiled a $275-billion federal infrastructure program as part of a shift to a domestic “jobs agenda” in her presidential campaign, according to the New York Times. Clinton’s jobs proposals will be the most detailed and expensive planks in her campaign platform, and the infrastructure plan will stand as its “centerpiece.” Relying on data from the President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, the campaign stressed that each $1 billion in investment would result in 13,000 well-paying jobs.
Customer service and gate agents reached a labor agreement with American Airlines, according to the Dallas Morning News. The five-year agreement between the union and the company raises the pay of nearly 15,000 workers an average of 30%, making them the highest paid agents in the airline industry.
The Supreme Court agreed to expand the oral arguments in Friedrichs by ten minutes, according to the Wall Street Journal. The additional ten minutes will be allotted to Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who will argue that agency fees are constitutional. The California solicitor general will also speak for half of the time allotted to the defendant teacher’s union in support of the state’s agency-fee law.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Ford sought to downplay the increase in labor costs resulting from its new contract with the United Auto Workers in a conference call with its executives. The company brass argued that the costs will have minimal effects on Ford’s profitability, projecting that the pay increases will come at a rate lower than inflation and stating that domestic hiring will slow as a result of outsourcing and the use of temp workers.
