Alexander W. Miller is a student at Harvard Law School.
The Democratic National Committee elected former labor secretary Thomas Perez as the first Latino chairman of the party. The race for who would lead the rebuilding Democratic Party had been unusually contentious, going to a second ballot after the strong showing of Representative Keith Ellison. Perez immediately named Ellison his deputy, expressing a desire to present a united front against President Trump with progressive activists who had strongly supported the Minnesota Congressman’s bid.
Yesterday afternoon, after hours of impassioned testimony by workers and union members, the New Mexico House of Representatives killed a bill that would have made the state the 29th with so-called right-to-work laws on its books.
The New York Times looks at the career of Wilbur Ross, the billionaire investor who made much of his fortune through business decisions that embraced free trade and moved jobs overseas, but will now be tasked as commerce secretary with overseeing President Trump’s protectionist agenda.
The Lincoln Journal Star has an in-depth feature this weekend about the struggles of employers in Nebraska’s second-largest city to attract and retain workers. With an unemployment rate of just 3.4% and a dearth of young college graduates, new businesses are having to look further and further afield to fill vacancies.
Finally, the Guardian has a pair of articles covering potential impacts of Brexit on vulnerable sectors of the UK economy. The first addresses the potential for automation to replace EU workers involved in food production, but concludes that robots would be unable to fill the roles currently occupied by foreign employees. The second looks at the crucial roll immigrants from other EU nations play in staffing the country’s social care system.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
May 21
UAW backs legal challenge to Trump “gold card” visa; DOL requests unemployment fraud technology funding; Samsung reaches eleventh-hour union agreement.
May 20
LIRR strike ends after three-day shutdown; key senators reject Trump's proposed 26% cut to Labor Department budget; EEOC moves to eliminate employer demographic reporting requirement.
May 19
Amazon urges 11th Circuit to overturn captive-audience meeting ban; DOL scraps Biden overtime rule; SCOTUS to decide on Title IX private right of action for school employees
May 18
California Department of Justice finds conditions at ICE facilities inhumane; Second Circuit rejects race bias claim from Black and Hispanic social workers; FAA cuts air traffic controller staffing target.
May 17
UC workers avoid striking with an 11th-hour agreement; Governor Spanberger vetoes public employee collective bargaining protections; Samsung workers prepare for an 18-day strike.
May 15
SEIU 32BJ pioneers new health insurance model; LIRR unions approach a strike; and Starbucks prevails against NRLB in Fifth Circuit.