Late Wednesday night, Congress passed a bipartisan bill to re-open the government after a 16-day shutdown, and raise the debt ceiling after coming within one day of default. The government will be funded through January 15th, and the debt limit will last through February 7th. The bill does not include major changes to Obamacare, which Republicans had pushed for as their original goal of the shutdown. The New York Times reports that “Congressional Republicans conceded defeat,” and the Washington Post quotes Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) as saying “we fought the good fight; we just didn’t win.” Yet the bill only funds the government at sequester levels, which already represents $1 trillion in across-the-board spending cuts. Jared Bernstein, an economist, is tracking the effects of the sequester here. The bill does include backpay for federal employees (an issue we have previously covered), and federal employees will return to work today. The Hill has more details on the contents of the bill. Politico reports that the House and Senate agreed to appoint budget negotiators by Dec. 13, a provision that Republicans objected to twenty-one times earlier this year.
In immigration news, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced his support for allowing undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition at New Jersey colleges and universities. The New York Times reports this as a “big reversal for Mr. Christie, who used to take the standard Republican” strongly opposing in-state tuition, even for undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children.
In international labor news, the New York Times reports that factories in Haiti are denying garment workers nearly one-third of their wages. The United States helped build one of the offending factories, Caracol Industrial Park, as the part of post-earthquake reconstruction. This factory makes goods for Gap, Target and Wal-Mart. The most recent report by the Worker Rights Consortium follows a report from last April by a group affiliated with International Labor Organization with similar findings.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the long-term unemployment rate (that is, people without work for more than 12 months) among the world’s richer countries is at its highest rate since 2008, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). While the overall unemployment rate for the 34 OECD member nations has stabilized, the long-term unemployed rate “has continued to climb.” This is in part due to the Euro-zone fiscal and banking crises, which hit developed European countries—such as Greece, Portugal, and Italy—the hardest.
The Los Angeles Times reports that “Steve Dayan defeated veteran labor chief Leo Reed” in the Teamsters Local 399 election. Teamsters Local 399 represents 4,500 people in Hollywood’s entertain industry, including casting directors, animal handles, and transportation coordinators. This was an unexpected upset in a closely watched race.
While many cities are cutting back on essential services due to the continuing bad economic, Richmond, Virginia, is launching a series of new programs to combat poverty. The New York Times reports that Richmond’s Mayor Dwight C. Jones is throwing his political capital behind this major initiative. Richmond is one of the country’s poorest urban areas, with a poverty rate of 26.3%. The mayor is considering “pairing every at-risk child ages 11 to 15 with an adult mentor;” creating mixed-income housing units, investing in “intensive manufacturing training program[s] . . . starting a farm-to-school program to promote adequate nutrition; and establishing an assistance program to help pay water and wastewater bills for low-income households.”
Daily News & Commentary
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July 6
Municipal workers in Philadelphia continue to strike; Zohran Mamdani collects union endorsements; UFCW grocery workers in California and Colorado reach tentative agreements.
July 4
The DOL scraps a Biden-era proposed rule to end subminimum wages for disabled workers; millions will lose access to Medicaid and SNAP due to new proof of work requirements; and states step up in the noncompete policy space.
July 3
California compromises with unions on housing; 11th Circuit rules against transgender teacher; Harvard removes hundreds from grad student union.
July 2
Block, Nanda, and Nayak argue that the NLRA is under attack, harming democracy; the EEOC files a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by former EEOC Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels; and SEIU Local 1000 strikes an agreement with the State of California to delay the state's return-to-office executive order for state workers.
July 1
In today’s news and commentary, the Department of Labor proposes to roll back minimum wage and overtime protections for home care workers, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by public defenders over a union’s Gaza statements, and Philadelphia’s largest municipal union is on strike for first time in nearly 40 years. On Monday, the U.S. […]
June 30
Antidiscrimination scholars question McDonnell Douglas, George Washington University Hospital bargained in bad faith, and NY regulators defend LPA dispensary law.