Politico reports that this morning Volkswagen of America announced a new “community organization engagement policy” that allows labor organizations representing a certain percentage of workers to have more say at the company’s plant in Chattanooga, TN. Prof. Sachs has described the plan as “sort of minority unionism,” since it makes different tiers of representation contingent on the amount of support the labor organization has in the workplace. The NY Times and Wall Street Journal write that the new policy could give the UAW a foothold in southern auto manufacturing plants, long-time goals for union organizing campaigns.
The Washington Post reports that postal workers will stage nationwide demonstrations on Friday to protest proposed plant closings and declining service standards imposed by ongoing budget cuts. The postal service is set to close 82 mail processing centers in January 2015, adding to the 300 facilities it has closed since 2006. The changes are also expected to affect service delivery: for example, while the agency currently tries to deliver mail within 12 driving hours in two days, the new cuts would increase that to three days.
The Wall Street Journal published a series of charts that attempts to explain why so many workers are still part-time after the recession. The question is whether the growth in involuntary part-time workers is cyclical, meaning that it will recede over time, or whether the new levels will remain a permanent fixture in the post-recession economy. Ultimately, the article finds mixed results. While the number of workers who are part-time because of slack business conditions has fallen, the number of workers who are part-time because they can’t find full-time work has risen. Some attribute the rise in part-time workers to regulations in the Affordable Care Act that mandate health care coverage for employees working 30 or more hours per week; however, empirical data hasn’t shown this to be the case. Finally, if businesses had a preference for part-time workers, we might expect that preference to be reflected in wages; however, wages have grown faster for full-time than for part-time employees.
Daily News & Commentary
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September 15
Unemployment claims rise; a federal court hands victory to government employees union; and employers fire workers over social media posts.
September 14
Workers at Boeing reject the company’s third contract proposal; NLRB Acting General Counsel William Cohen plans to sue New York over the state’s trigger bill; Air Canada flight attendants reject a tentative contract.
September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.
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.