EverythingPeople This Week!

After four years under a republican administration, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is now shifting back to the priorities of the Obama Administration.  Unionization is favored, and the NLRB will be pushing the envelope to expand the traditional boundaries of the NLRB.  NLRB General Counsel, Jennifer A. Abruzzo, has issued her first memo—Mandatory Submissions to Advice Memorandum (GC 21-04), which lays out a clear agenda as to the priorities of the Office...

In 1894 Labor Day was formally established as a national American holiday to celebrate workers. Labor Day also marks the unofficial close of summer and the start of school.

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) held that a California regulation that required employers to allow union organizers onto private property was an illegal taking. The California regulation allowed union organizers to enter and stay on private property for up to three hours a day and for up to 120 days per year. Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid No.20-107 594 U.S ____ (2021). SCOTUS found that this amounted to a government taking of physical property and was illegal under the Fifth and...

Last week the U.S. Department of Labor officially repealed the Trump rules on independent contractor status. Going back to the Obama Administration, the Trump rules loosened up a very strict or narrow definition of independent contractor that virtually had eliminated most forms of independent contractor status.

As EPTW has previously stated, President Biden is not just a pro-labor supporter in order to get their election endorsement. He is reportedly a true believer.

Last week the National Labor Relations Board finished tallying the union election votes at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama warehouse facility. The union lost – 1,798 against vs. 738 votes for unionization. A huge defeat for organized labor.

As stated previously in EPTW, the Biden Administration is moving fast to rewrite the Trump Administration’s labor policy and regulations. Following the quick replacement of key Trump era National Labor Relations Board personnel, last week Congressional Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate re-enrolled the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, (PRO). It had been previously passed in the House last year but went no further. Unlike the often temporary regulatory and decision-based policy...

Biden’s long-standing position as a labor supporter will translate into policy change. That change will be implemented by his appointees. The list as it currently reads is a Who’s Who of the contemporary labor scene.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues and grows, worker concerns about safety, job security, and transparency on workplace issues have become forefront.  For example, Amazon has fired warehouse employees who protested the company's working conditions and COVID-19 mitigation measures.  Although Amazon stated it fired these employees for performance issues and violation of mitigation requirements within the warehouse, these firings are close to crossing the line for violations of the...

A new survey of workers in the U.S. from the ADP Research Institute reveals that an initially significant decrease in worker confidence appears to be leveling off despite the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on nearly every worker in the U.S.

Union membership numbers for 2019 were released last week from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that total union membership stayed pretty much the same as 2018 – 14.6 million wage and salary members. But with the number of U.S. jobs increasing, total union membership as a percentage of the U.S. workforce decreased .2 points down to just 10.3% overall. In 1983 union membership made up 20.1% of U.S. jobs with 17.7 million workers belonging to unions at that time.

With the tentative agreement between FCA and the UAW now expected to be approved by FCA’s rank and file, the 2019 Detroit Three UAW contract bargaining becomes history.

During some labor conflicts, workers have shouted, or in today’s technological world, made statements on social media that are clearly racially or other protected class motivated involving the use “off-color” language toward management and co-workers. When called out on this behavior, offending workers (and their union mentors) have tried to hide behind the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) arguing that verbal assaults and such behavior is protected concerted activity...

Ford Motor Company and the United Auto Workers (UAW) settled their contract less than a week after ratification of the General Motors-UAW contract.

As most are probably already aware GM-UAW Workers voted to ratify (57% for/43% against) their new four-year agreement with General Motors last Friday.  It also ended the longest nationwide strike against GM in over 50 years. Ford and FCA now have to finish their negotiations. The UAW has said it will now turn its negotiating focus on Ford Motor Company.