News & Commentary

July 25, 2016

Adi Kamdar

Adi Kamdar is a student at Harvard Law School.

Today is the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, and labor is heavily represented. Monday’s speaker’s list includes AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, AFT president Randi Weingarten, AFSCME president Lee Saunders, Building Trades president Sean McGarvey, SEIU president Mary Kay Henry, and NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia. Winning over labor is crucial, especially after newly tapped VP pick Tim Kaine expressed agreement with provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership before renouncing his support for the deal soon after.

Meanwhile, those staying tuned to their mobile devices or taxi cab televisions in Philadelphia will see a flurry of ads regarding minimum wage waivers for union workers, according to the Wall Street Journal. The ads are sponsored by the Worforce Fairness Institute, “which has for years fought union-backed legislation in Washington.”

Roughly $66,000. That’s how much it’ll cost per employee for banks to move their British staff abroad post-Brexit, a consulting firm estimated, according to Bloomberg. This price includes the “cost of relocating staff, hiring and firing other employees and setting up new offices in cities that could include Amsterdam, Dublin, Paris or Frankfurt.” Many banks have threatened—or are planning—to move out of the U.K. in order to maintain free access to the rest of the European market.

A Bloomberg video talks about how the labor force participation rate is at its lowest rate in 30 years, and the U.S. birth rate is at its lowest in a hundred. The commentator notes that, because of factors like the low birth rate, there will be a continued threat to labor participation unless we look to immigration to fill some much-needed gaps.

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