As we move out of the holiday shopping season, there are several reminders that the economy is still struggling: According to the New York Times, Macy’s announced on Wednesday that it plans to lay off 2,500 employees. The most recent round of large-scale lay offs at Macy’s was in 2009, when Macy’s laid off 7,000 employees. In other lay off news, a the Resorts World Casino in Queens, New York closed its restaurant and laid off approximately 175 employees, according to the Times. In late October, the casino had been involved in a labor negotiations with the Union, resulting in a labor arbitrator ordering that the casino nearly double its workers’ salary. The casino stated that this week’s lay offs were unrelated to the October ruling.
In immigration news, House Speaker Boehner announced that House Republicans are preparing to release their initial principles for reforming immigration in the New Year, according to the New York Times. House Republicans report that they hope to release the document before the President’s State of the Union. In 2013, the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
The Governor of Maine, Paul LePage, released a statement on Tuesday that state child labor laws were hurting Maine’s economy, according to the Washington Post. Governor LePage is proposing that those laws be loosened. In the past two years Idaho, Wisconsin, and Michigan, have all eased their child labor laws.
In international news, Abu Dhabi is reacting to concerns about poor labor conditions for construction workers, according to the Wall Street Journal. Abu Dhabi is “planning to move 80,000 low-wage workers” to new “labor cities” outside of the city center. Abu Dhabi is currently building major new cultural institutions such as a campus of NYU and a Louvre museum on Saadiyat Island. In the past two weeks, the U.K. newspaper The Observer has reported that construction workers in Saadiyat were living in unsanitary conditions and had their passports confiscated.
President Obama announced late Thursday that he will nominate Chris Lu, a White House aide, to be deputy secretary of the Department of Labor, according to the Washington Post. Mr. Lu would be the first Asian-American that President Obama has appointed to a deputy secretary level position.
Daily News & Commentary
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December 11
In today’s News and Commentary, Biden’s NLRB pick heads to Senate vote, DOL settles a farmworker lawsuit, and a federal judge blocks Albertsons-Kroger merger. Democrats have moved to expedite re-confirmation proceedings for NLRB Chair Lauren McFerran, which would grant her another five years on the Board. If the Democrats succeed in finding 50 Senate votes […]
December 10
In today’s News and Commentary, advocacy groups lay out demands for Lori Chavez-DeRemer at DOL, a German union leader calls for ending the country’s debt brake, Teamsters give Amazon a deadline to agree to bargaining dates, and graduates of coding bootcamps face a labor market reshaped by the rise of AI. Worker advocacy groups have […]
December 9
Teamsters file charges against Costco; a sanitation contractor is fined child labor law violations, and workers give VW an ultimatum ahead of the latest negotiation attempts
December 8
Massachusetts rideshare drivers prepare to unionize; Starbucks and Nestlé supply chains use child labor, report says.
December 6
In today’s news and commentary, DOL attempts to abolish subminimum wage for workers with disabilities, AFGE reaches remote work agreement with SSA, and George Washington University resident doctors vote to strike. This week, the Department of Labor proposed a rule to abolish the Fair Labor Standards Act’s Section 14(c) program, which allows employers to pay […]
December 4
South Korea’s largest labor union began a general strike calling for the President’s removal, a Wisconsin judge reinstated bargaining rights for the state’s public sector workers, and the NLRB issued another ruling against Starbucks for anti-union practices.