Yesterday, President Trump privately issued an executive order imposing work requirements on able-bodied recipients of food stamps, Medicaid, and low-income housing subsidies. The order, entitled “Reducing Poverty in America,” requires all cabinet departments to produce plans that impose work requirements on recipients within 90 days. President Trump has referred to all need-based aid and public health safety net programs as “welfare,” which is a term traditionally used for cash assistance programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
Pro cheerleaders from the NBA, NFL, and NHL say that team officials have exploited them for profit by sending them into gatherings where they are subjected to offensive sexual comments and unwanted touches by fans. The cheerleaders are expected to do this as part of their job.
Yesterday was Equal Pay Day. Lily Ledbetter, the plaintiff in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, writes about how her story and Equal Pay Day intersects with the #MeToo movement and how both movements are fighting back against the devaluing of women in the workplace. In Ledbetter, the Supreme Court held that Ms. Ledbetter could not bring a salary discrimination suit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when she received the lesser pay during the statutory period of limitations, but when the discriminatory pay decisions occurred outside of the limitations period.
But women who have complaints to file against their employers may run up against delay as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is cash strapped and receiving more complaints in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Last year, a federal employee filing a complaint waited, on average, 543 days for a resolution. About 1 in 5 EEOC complainants are men; this rate has been relatively consistent in the past decade.
Despite previously refusing to allow students to vote on unionization in December of 2017, Georgetown University administrators decided last week to allow its students to vote. The vote allows for a type of privately negotiated pact of voluntary recognition, thereby bypassing the NLRB and any fears that the new NLRB might overturn protections for students to unionize.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
November 25
In today’s news and commentary, OSHA fines Taylor Foods, Santa Fe raises their living wage, and a date is set for a Senate committee to consider Trump’s NLRB nominee. OSHA has issued an approximately $1.1 million dollar fine to Taylor Farms New Jersey, a subsidiary of Taylor Fresh Foods, after identifying repeated and serious safety […]
November 24
Labor leaders criticize tariffs; White House cancels jobs report; and student organizers launch chaperone program for noncitizens.
November 23
Workers at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority vote to authorize a strike; Washington State legislators consider a bill empowering public employees to bargain over workplace AI implementation; and University of California workers engage in a two-day strike.
November 21
The “Big Three” record labels make a deal with an AI music streaming startup; 30 stores join the now week-old Starbucks Workers United strike; and the Mine Safety and Health Administration draws scrutiny over a recent worker death.
November 20
Law professors file brief in Slaughter; New York appeals court hears arguments about blog post firing; Senate committee delays consideration of NLRB nominee.
November 19
A federal judge blocks the Trump administration’s efforts to cancel the collective bargaining rights of workers at the U.S. Agency for Global Media; Representative Jared Golden secures 218 signatures for a bill that would repeal a Trump administration executive order stripping federal workers of their collective bargaining rights; and Dallas residents sue the City of Dallas in hopes of declaring hundreds of ordinances that ban bias against LGBTQ+ individuals void.