Melissa Greenberg is a student at Harvard Law School.
Yesterday, in a 2-1 decision, the Fifth Circuit vacated the fiduciary rule, which was issued by the Obama Administration. The Fifth Circuit found that the Department of Labor had acted arbitrarily and capriciously under the Administrative Procedures Act and the Department of Labor’s interpretation of “investment advice fiduciary” in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act should not be accorded deference under Chevron. The Fifth Circuit’s opinion was released in the same week as a Tenth Circuit decision, which upheld the rule, resulting in a circuit split. The fiduciary rule heightens the standard that brokers must adhere to when advising a client on retirement products by requiring brokers to act in their client’s best interest instead of simply requiring that they recommend “suitable” investments. The Trump Administration, which had allowed the rule’s best interest standard to go into effect last year while delaying implementation of other aspects of the rule, declined to say how it would respond to the court’s decision. Read more here.
President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum has continued to provoke controversy. In the Nation, Doug Henwood argues labor should not support Trump’s tariffs. He states, these policies “will do little if anything to help the steel industry, could harm steel-using industries, will probably provoke retaliations that will leave everyone worse off, and will add a fresh dose of bellicosity to a world already overdosing on it.” In the New Yorker, Benjamin Wallace-Wells examines the ways in which the American steel industry differs in the North and South. “The story of the U.S. steel industry is still set in the North, even as the mills themselves have moved South, and so it sustains a nostalgia that the industry itself cannot.” He notes the lack of response to Trump’s tariffs in the South. He writes, “the steel industry has come to stand in for a certain twentieth-century economic model, in which skilled industrial jobs could last a career and sustain a middle-class life. But that model did not survive the transition to the South—the work has grown less dangerous but also more automated.”
The Upshot asks, “Will Employment Keep Growing?: Disabled Workers Offer a Clue.” Workers between age 25 and 54 years old, or prime-age workers, who report not working due to health reasons has declined by seven percent since the middle of 2014. Economists had been troubled by the increase of workers in this category. People reporting a disability as their reason for not working started to increase before the recession, increased more rapidly in reaction to the 2001 and 2008 recessions, and continued to increase even as the economy rebounded. However, since the middle of 2014, this trend has started to reverse. Increased employment for this group suggests workforce participation could continue to grow. Read more here.
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October 8
In today’s news and commentary, the Trump administration threatens no back pay for furloughed federal workers; the Second Circuit denies a request from the NFL for an en banc review in the Brian Flores case; and Governor Gavin Newsom signs an agreement to create a pathway for unionization for Uber and Lyft drivers.
October 7
The Supreme Court kicks off its latest term, granting and declining certiorari in several labor-related cases.
October 6
EEOC regains quorum; Second Circuit issues opinion on DEI causing hostile work environment.
October 5
In today’s news and commentary, HELP committee schedules a vote on Trump’s NLRB nominees, the 5th Circuit rejects Amazon’s request for en banc review, and TV production workers win their first union contract. After a nomination hearing on Wednesday, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee scheduled a committee vote on President Trump’s NLRB nominees […]
October 3
California legislation empowers state labor board; ChatGPT used in hostile workplace case; more lawsuits challenge ICE arrests
October 2
AFGE and AFSCME sue in response to the threat of mass firings; another preliminary injunction preventing Trump from stripping some federal workers of collective bargaining rights; and challenges to state laws banning captive audience meetings.