The AFL-CIO wants to create a new super PAC with a $1 million buy-in according to Politico. The super PAC’s immediate goal would be to elect the Democratic nominee for president, but it would also be used to advocate for other issues that concern big labor. Leaders appear to have become concerned that the labor movement lacks the voter-data resources of other liberal advocacy groups like Organizing for Action. Without independent data, labor groups would operate at a disadvantage in advocating for policies where it opposes the stances of Organizing for Action, notably the Trans Pacific Partnership.
The Washington Post‘s Lydia DePillis profiled companies that provide online-platform-based services like Uber but retain their workers as employees rather than labeling them as independent contractors. The founders of Alfred, a platform that provides personal assistant services, decided to hire employees so that they could maintain a high degree of control over how the workers carry out their tasks and to reduce turnover. Similar reasoning prompted Honor, a supplier of home health aides, to retain their workers as employees. Honor maintains that it has been able to provide training and maintain control while still allowing flexible scheduling that has been a hallmark of platform-based work.
After Birmingham, Alabama, passed a measure raising the local minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, the Alabama legislature has been mulling whether to nullify the Birmingham measure by denying the city the power to set a local minimum wage, according to the New York Times. The measure passed the state house and is currently pending in the senate. Commenting on the legislature’s efforts, Scott Douglas, the executive director of the social services group Greater Birmingham Ministries, said, “It feels like they not only want to snatch it out of our hands, they want to deny Birmingham the possibility to grow. . . . What’s the worst problem that Birmingham faces? It’s being in Alabama.”
After the success of laws hiking the minimum wage in other locales, the New Jersey business community is launching a campaign to fight similar efforts in that state, according to NJ.com. In addition to targeting a minimum wage increase, the campaign will fight efforts in the state legislature to mandate paid sick leave and amend the state constitution to require contributions to state employees’ pension funds.
Daily News & Commentary
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September 10
A federal judge denies a motion by the Trump Administration to dismiss a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees against President Trump for his mass layoffs of federal workers; the Supreme Court grants a stay on a federal district court order that originally barred ICE agents from questioning and detaining individuals based on their presence at a particular location, the type of work they do, their race or ethnicity, and their accent while speaking English or Spanish; and a hospital seeks to limit OSHA's ability to cite employers for failing to halt workplace violence without a specific regulation in place.
September 9
Ninth Circuit revives Trader Joe’s lawsuit against employee union; new bill aims to make striking workers eligible for benefits; university lecturer who praised Hitler gets another chance at First Amendment claims.
September 8
DC Circuit to rule on deference to NLRB, more vaccine exemption cases, Senate considers ban on forced arbitration for age discrimination claims.
September 7
Another weak jobs report, the Trump Administration's refusal to arbitrate with federal workers, and a district court judge's order on the constitutionality of the Laken-Riley Act.
September 5
Pro-labor legislation in New Jersey; class action lawsuit by TN workers proceeds; a report about wage theft in D.C.
September 4
Eighth Circuit avoids a challenge to Minnesota’s ban on captive audience meetings; ALJ finds that Starbucks violated the NLRA again; and a district court certifies a class of behavioral health workers pursuing wage claims.