Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has filed cloture for a key National Labor Relations Board role, and, no surprise, Peter Robb is a management-side labor lawyer with extensive experience in fun stuff like:
… defending employers from unfair labor practice charges, age and sex discrimination charges, class action age claims, and wage/hour claims as well as bringing suits against labor organizations.
In short, he’ll be implementing the NLRB’s anti-worker pivot under Trump. Don’t believe me? How about these predictions from the management side:
“Robb’s nomination and confirmation would set the stage for the board to reverse many of the pro-labor rulings issued by the Obama board,” lawyers from the management-focused firm Jackson Lewis wrote in a blog post in August.
As general counsel, Robb would be in a position to pick cases as “tests” for the new Republican majority to “reverse Obama-era decisions that business owners say tilt too favorably toward the union agenda,” Joseph Hess, a Barnes & Thornburg associate, wrote in a blog post in August.
Like I said, no surprise … but still horrible.
● How Donald Trump's anti-immigrant hate is galvanizing hotel workers to fight back:
No friend of labor or working-class immigrants, President Donald Trump is nevertheless providing a back-handed boost to the hotel workers’ union UNITE HERE by helping it sign up new members at its union locals around the country. Trump’s threats to punish immigrants has prompted more and more workers to look to the union as a way to protect themselves in an uncertain political climate, UNITE HERE leaders say.
The boost is powerful enough that 2017 is proving to be a banner year for new organizing at the union. Spokesperson Rachel Gumpert says UNITE HERE is leading the field among big unions, with major recruiting efforts underway. Some 12,000 new members have been signed up since the beginning of the year, she tells In These Times, making 2017 the best year for new organizing in recent memory.
● Real-world data shows no link between corporate tax cuts and wage increases.
● Seriously, though, tip your hotel housekeeper.
● Bracing for right to work, public sector unions up the ante.
● Air traffic control privatization could face significant constitutional challenges.
● Paid leave is important for people with cancer:
Kesha Scrivner, a D.C. resident whose story is all too common, was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer in 2014. Disability wouldn’t make up enough of her paycheck, so she couldn’t take the time she needed to recover. Out of necessity, she did radiation on her lunch breaks, and then headed back to work — as so many other patients do.
Only 14% of Americans have paid leave through their employer , and fewer than 40% have short-term disability insurance. But half of men and a third of women will develop some form of cancer in their lifetimes. Without paid leave, who will take care of us? How will we take care of ourselves?
● Workers Independent News: