Melissa Greenberg is a student at Harvard Law School.
A new Gallup Poll finds that 61 percent of Americans reported that they approve of labor unions. This approval rating is five percentage points higher than last year’s approval rating and the highest approval rating since 2003. 39 percent of Americans believe that labor unions should have more “influence” in politics. However, the poll’s findings are not all positive. 46 percent of Americans think union power is declining.
The Wall Street Journal reports that labor activists and representatives from the United States and Canada plan to utilize the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement to pressure Mexico to increase wages. Labor supporters argue that Mexico’s paltry wages are hindering its economic growth and creating an uneven playing field for the United States and Canada. The Mexican minimum wage is just $4.50 a day. Despite the existence of laws aimed at protecting workers, labor advocates argue that these laws are ineffective because of inadequate enforcement. The United States plans to ask for better enforcement and increased protections for workers, including better protection for union organizing and strikes. The article points to numerous factors that contribute to the country’s low wages, but labor advocates emphasized the role of weak Mexican unions in contributing to Mexican workers’ low pay.
Yesterday, the British government revealed its plan to curb the disparity between executive compensation and the average worker’s pay through increased transparency. While this disparity is not as great in Britain as in America, the average CEO of the FTSE 100—Britain’s leading stock exchange— earned 129 times the pay of a “regular employee.” The government’s plan includes a requirement that all public companies publicize the ratio between their CEO’s compensation and their average employee’s pay and mandates the creation of “a register that ‘names and shames’ firms that faced shareholder opposition over executive pay levels.” The New York Times has more here.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
July 11
Regional director orders election without Board quorum; 9th Circuit pauses injunction on Executive Order; Driverless car legislation in Massachusetts
July 10
Wisconsin Supreme Court holds UW Health nurses are not covered by Wisconsin’s Labor Peace Act; a district judge denies the request to stay an injunction pending appeal; the NFLPA appeals an arbitration decision.
July 9
the Supreme Court allows Trump to proceed with mass firings; Secretary of Agriculture suggests Medicaid recipients replace deported migrant farmworkers; DHS ends TPS for Nicaragua and Honduras
July 8
In today’s news and commentary, Apple wins at the Fifth Circuit against the NLRB, Florida enacts a noncompete-friendly law, and complications with the No Tax on Tips in the Big Beautiful Bill. Apple won an appeal overturning a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision that the company violated labor law by coercively questioning an employee […]
July 7
LA economy deals with fallout from ICE raids; a new appeal challenges the NCAA antitrust settlement; and the EPA places dissenting employees on leave.
July 6
Municipal workers in Philadelphia continue to strike; Zohran Mamdani collects union endorsements; UFCW grocery workers in California and Colorado reach tentative agreements.