Senate Republicans won’t even consider legislation to raise the federal minimum wage. Last month, the House approved the Raise the Wage Act, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $15, by a vote of 231 to 199. But to get to the President’s desk, the legislation would have to pass the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee—and committee Chair Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TE) refuses to consider the bill, or any legislation to raise the federal minimum wage at all. A $15 federal minimum wage would raise pay for 27 million American workers.
This week, Senator and Presidential contender Elizabeth Warren weighed in on the California worker misclassification debate. California’s state legislature is debating several bills to address rampant worker misclassification. One high profile bill is AB-5, which would codify the California Supreme Court’s Dynamex ruling into state law, modernizing the legal test used to determine whether a worker is an employee, who is entitled to key protections like the minimum wage and family leave, or an independent contractor, who is not. But the pro-worker bill is squaring off in the legislature against legislation to overturn Dynamex, leaving gig workers like Uber and Lyft drivers newly vulnerable to misclassification. Warren urged legislators to pass AB-5, ensuring workers have access to “basic protections like the right to organize, wage and hour laws, health care coverage and protections against sexual harassment.” You can read OnLabor’s recap of the legislative debate here and here.
Workers at the sports and pop culture website The Ringer announced that they’re unionizing earlier this week. Three days after their public announcement, Ringer management agreed to voluntarily recognize the union—a testament to growing union strength in digital media.
Gilded Age steel baron Andrew Carnegie famously crushed unions at his steel plants. Instead of paying his workers a living wage, he used a fraction his fabulous wealth to build libraries. This week, hundreds of employees at the Carnegie Library system in Pennsylvania voted to unionize.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
December 22
Worker-friendly legislation enacted in New York; UW Professor wins free speech case; Trucking company ordered to pay $23 million to Teamsters.
December 21
Argentine unions march against labor law reform; WNBA players vote to authorize a strike; and the NLRB prepares to clear its backlog.
December 19
Labor law professors file an amici curiae and the NLRB regains quorum.
December 18
New Jersey adopts disparate impact rules; Teamsters oppose railroad merger; court pauses more shutdown layoffs.
December 17
The TSA suspends a labor union representing 47,000 officers for a second time; the Trump administration seeks to recruit over 1,000 artificial intelligence experts to the federal workforce; and the New York Times reports on the tumultuous changes that U.S. labor relations has seen over the past year.
December 16
Second Circuit affirms dismissal of former collegiate athletes’ antitrust suit; UPS will invest $120 million in truck-unloading robots; Sharon Block argues there are reasons for optimism about labor’s future.