Martin Drake is a student at Harvard Law School.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in Nebraska arrested 133 workers in one operation, the Washington Post reports. The workers were taken at 8:45 a.m. in the small 3,700-person town of O’Niell, Nebraska. The superintendent of the town’s public schools suspects that up to 100 children in her district may have had a relative or immediate family member taken in the raid. The raid is part of a surge of employer audits and aggressive enforcement actions by the Trump administration.
The Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board asserted on Sunday that the recent successful pro-union ballot measure in Missouri highlights the broad popularity of the labor movement. The editorial points out the recent spate of pro-union activity in red states, including the successful teacher strikes in West Virginia and Oklahoma, along with the Missouri ballot initiative, which overturned the state’s right-to-work legislation. The editors also point out that, according to Gallup polling, public approval of labor unions is at 61 percent, its highest since 1963, and a Pew Survey shows that young people view unions more favorably than corporations.
A recent study shows that more than half of American workers are forfeiting their vacation days, CNN Money reports. The study, produced by Project: Time Off, found that more than 200 million vacation days were left unused by workers in 2017, amounting to $62 billion in untapped worker benefits. The study also showed that 24 percent of Americans have gone a year without vacation. The majority of the employees surveyed said they were reluctant to take time off because their “workload is too heavy,” and they fear looking replaceable.
Finally, an AARP survey shows widespread age discrimination in the workplace, Forbes reports. 90 percent of those surveyed saw age discrimination as a common occurrence, and 61 percent say they have personally seen or experienced it. Women are more likely than men to have experienced age discrimination, and over 75 percent of African-American respondents had seen or experienced age discrimination. AARP surveyed 3,900 people age 45 and older for the study.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
May 22
U.S. employers spend $1.7B on union avoidance each year and the ICJ declares the right to strike a protected activity.
May 21
UAW backs legal challenge to Trump “gold card” visa; DOL requests unemployment fraud technology funding; Samsung reaches eleventh-hour union agreement.
May 20
LIRR strike ends after three-day shutdown; key senators reject Trump's proposed 26% cut to Labor Department budget; EEOC moves to eliminate employer demographic reporting requirement.
May 19
Amazon urges 11th Circuit to overturn captive-audience meeting ban; DOL scraps Biden overtime rule; SCOTUS to decide on Title IX private right of action for school employees
May 18
California Department of Justice finds conditions at ICE facilities inhumane; Second Circuit rejects race bias claim from Black and Hispanic social workers; FAA cuts air traffic controller staffing target.
May 17
UC workers avoid striking with an 11th-hour agreement; Governor Spanberger vetoes public employee collective bargaining protections; Samsung workers prepare for an 18-day strike.