The House passed the GOP tax reform bill yesterday afternoon, but will have to vote on it again today to avoid potentially violating the Byrd Rule, which governs the types of legislation that can be passed under reconciliation. The Senate passed it last night on a party-line vote. Reuters has a good, simple run down of what made it into the final version.
Sharon Block details the NLRB’s December Massacre of Obama-era NLRB decisions here. She notes that “[i]n every one of the precedent-reversing cases, the Board split along political lines with the Republican majority having its way. The breadth of the carnage was unexpected in light of the fact that this majority has been together only since the end of September.” Mark Joseph Stern at Slate, also remarking on the NLRB’s past five decisions claims that, “[t]he Trump administration is engaged in a full-fledged legal assault on unions that’s poised to wreak havoc on collective bargaining.”
But the NLRB rejected Columbia University’s appeal and certified the graduate workers of Columbia union – which was organized by the UAW. Columbia graduate students voted for a union over a year ago. Earlier this month the NLRB also upheld a previous NLRB decision that the Harvard graduate student union vote was invalid. Harvard had previously appealed the decision but will now have to hold new elections, which could be as early as January 2018.
The European Court of Justice has ruled that Uber is a taxi-cab business, not a technology/information business. The case arose out of Barcelona. “In its ruling, the ECJ said that a service whose purpose was ‘to connect, by means of a smartphone application and for remuneration, non-professional drivers using their own vehicle with persons who wish to make urban journeys’ must be classified as ‘a service in the field of transport’ in EU law.”
Following an announcement that it would meet with pilots’ unions in order to avoid a strike originally planned for today, Ryanair also announced that it would meet with cabin crew unions in the new year.
Happy New Year! Apparently 18 states and 20 cities will implement minimum wage increases on or around January 1, 2018.
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April 16
EEOC publishes final regulation implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, Volkswagen workers in Tennessee gear up for a union election, and the First Circuit revives the Whole Foods case over BLM masks.
April 15
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of bakery delivery drivers in an exemption from mandatory arbitration case; A Teamsters Local ends its 18-month strike by accepting settlement payments and agreeing to dissolve
April 14
SAG-AFTRA wins AI protections; DeSantis signs Florida bill preempting local employment regulation; NLRB judge says Whole Foods subpoenas violate federal labor law.
April 12
The EEOC weighs in on an anti-discrimination lawsuit against Workday; a rule expanding overtime protection moves closer to publication; Amazon decreases spending on anti-union consultants.
April 11
Maine Legislature votes to grant farm workers minimum wage and labor rights; Apple store workers in New Jersey petition to unionize; and Wisconsin Governor vetoes legislation to rollback child labor laws.
April 10
NLRB general counsel vows not to succumb to pressure from SpaceX, Amazon, and others, the NLRB will seek make-whole remedies for unlawful work rules, and the LA County Federation of Labor joins the call for a ceasefire in Gaza.