Today’s News and Commentary — May 21

Federal mediators yesterday sided with unions representing Long Island Rail Road employees in their dispute with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Presidential Emergency Board — the second one convened in the longstanding dispute — supported the LIRR unions’ push for a 17% raise instead of the 11% raises offered by the MTA.

The Wall Street Journal also reports that more than half recent black college graduates are underemployed — working in a low-paying occupation that typically does not require a college degree. The analysis from the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that 56% of black recent college graduates are underemployed, in contrast with a still-high 45% among all recent college graduates with a job.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina voted last week to open the union’s membership to athletes at the state’s 17 public campuses. USA Today reports that the decision comes two months after the regional NLRB ruling that players at Northwestern could create the first union of college athletes. The union’s decision would not require a team vote and is based on an individual athlete’s choice on whether to join.

A United Nations report released today forecasts persistently high unemployment for young people in developing countries. The New York Times reports that while developing countries are predicted to grow at nearly twice the rates of the developed world, they are growing “stubbornly slower” than before 2008. This is bad news for the world’s youth, as 90 percent of those between the ages of 10 and 24 are concentrated in developing countries.