New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation yesterday that is aimed at protecting public workers’ rights in advance of the Supreme Court’s potentially adverse ruling in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31.  The new law allows unions to deny full benefits to workers that opt out and makes it easier for unions to receive dues.  “Too often, and at the hands of this federal administration, we are seeing the labor movement going backwards,” Cuomo said. “In New York it is a different story, and our efforts to protect working men and women are moving labor forward, making the workplace fairer and more just than ever before.”

The Japanese government announced plans to create a new program for foreign workers in an effort to counteract a labor shortage.  There are about 1.6 jobs open for every job seeker, despite the fact that Japan already has an existing program to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country as “trainees.”  According to the Wall Street Journal, “Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeatedly said he doesn’t want to open the door for foreign laborers to immigrate to Japan and settle permanently, although many companies would eagerly hire such immigrants if they were available.”

Yesterday morning, the major player unions—NFLPA, NBPA, NHLSPA, and MLBPA—released a joint statement to clarify their position on gambling, in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the New Jersey sports betting case (Murphy v. NCAA).  Their statement includes the following language: “Our unions have been discussing the potential impact of legalized gambling on players’ privacy and publicity rights, the integrity of our games and the volatility on our businesses.  Betting on sports may become widely legal, but we cannot allow those who have lobbied the hardest for sports gambling to be the only ones controlling how it would be ushered into our businesses.  The athletes must also have a seat at the table to ensure that players’ rights and the integrity of our games are protected.”