News & Commentary

November 15, 2016

Edward Nasser

Edward Nasser is a student at Harvard Law School.

President-Elect Donald Trump is expected to appoint two employer-friendly nominees to the National Labor Relations Board.The Board currently has a 2-1 Democratic majority with two empty seats. A new board might revisit many consequential decisions over the past 8 years, including the Board’s rejection of class-action waivers in employment arbitration and allowance of student unionization on college campuses, among others.

Wal-Mart is warning its employees not to download an app created by an organization seeking higher pay and benefits for its employees. Wal-Mart is telling employees that the app, designed by OUR WalMart, is a scheme to gather workers’ personal information. The app uses IBM’s artificial intelligence bot, Watson, and information fed to it by so-called peer experts to answer worker’s questions about the company’s policies and employees’ workplace rights

Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York, and Bill de Blasio, Mayor of New York City, have extended olive branches to Mr. Trump. Both expressed optimism that they will be able to work with the incoming administration to find common ground, especially on infrastructure spending and transportation. Mayor de Blasio, who recently received endorsements from two unions in his bid for reelection, has been called “the worst mayor in city history” by Mr. Trump. After the most acrimonious election in history, Democrats in state and local governments will need to grapple with the question of whether and to what extent to cooperate with the Trump administration.

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