The Obama administration announced two significant new worker protections of very different kinds this week. On the physical health and safety front, the Labor Department announced new rules governing worker exposure to silica dust:
Safety experts have urged a tightening of silica exposure standards since the 1970s because research shows that particles of the mineral, when inhaled, can cause silicosis, a disabling and sometimes fatal lung disease. However, progress was stymied for decades by resistance from affected companies and regulatory inaction. [...]
Officials estimate that the new silica standard, when fully in effect, will save 600 lives and prevent 900 new cases of silicosis every year.
This hazard has been known for decades—decades—and it’s only being addressed now. Meanwhile, the Labor Department is also making it harder for companies to fight dirty when confronted with worker organizing:
On Wednesday, the Labor Department announced a final version of its contentious “persuader” rule. Persuaders are lawyers and consultants hired by companies to discourage workers from unionizing. The art — sometimes subtle, sometimes not — is known as “union avoidance.” Unions, though, have a more derisive term for it: union-busting.
Employers are already required to report to the federal government any direct work these consultants do on their behalf — that is, any talks or presentations the consultants personally deliver to workers. However, consultants can also advise company supervisors on what to say to workers and how to say it, thus bypassing the reporting requirements with behind-the-scenes work that doesn’t have to be disclosed.
The result of that reporting requirement loophole is that workers and the government alike don’t know when outside anti-union messages are being used in a campaign. Unions face enormous reporting requirements, while companies and union-busting firms can operate in secret. This rule could begin to change that.
● The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has endorsed Bernie Sanders. The ILWU has 50,000 West Coast-based members.
● Spring break in Miami (and I suspect most of Florida) is a terrible time to be a hotel housekeeper, thanks to horrible hotel managements and horrible spring breakers alike.
● The Illinois Supreme Court won't let Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel cut worker pensions:
"Politicians caused the pension debt by failing to set aside adequate contributions, in effect borrowing from future retirees to avoid raising revenue or cutting spending instead. At the same time, city workers such as librarians and truck drivers, school social workers and nurses were faithfully paying their share. They earned, contributed to and counted on a modest pension — just $32,000 on average — instead of Social Security, for which city employees are not eligible," said the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, the Chicago Teachers Union, the Illinois Nurses Association and Teamsters Local 700.
● Grocery chain A&P's bankruptcy is screwing workers and dumping the problem in the government’s lap.
● California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez:
California has always led the nation in innovation. Once again, it’s time we do that — with innovative updates to our labor laws so that workers can keep up with the rest of our economy. I’ve introduced Assembly Bill 1727 — known as “The California 1099 Self-Organizing Act” — to accomplish exactly that.
This bill would simply allow independent contractors who perform their work through any hosting platform the basic rights to come together and collectively bargain. For the first time in history, these independent contractors could organize themselves into small or large groups and negotiate with their employer over working conditions, wages, health care and even retirement. The companies would simply have to bargain in good faith and couldn’t retaliate against workers who chose to organize.
● Nice:
The U.S. Supreme Court dashed business hopes for new limits on class-action lawsuits, upholding a $5.8 million wage award to workers at a Tyson Foods Inc. pork-processing plant in Iowa. [...]
The ruling is a victory for consumer and worker advocates who say class actions are an efficient way to hold companies accountable. Companies were seeking to extend a 2011 ruling that said Wal-Mart Stores Inc. couldn’t be sued by potentially a million female workers.
● Another look at Merrick Garland's positions on labor issues.
● The Kentucky Senate pulls anti-union bills from consideration.
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Education
● The Chicago Teachers Union voted to authorize a one-day strike on April 1 as the union continues fighting for a fair contract. The union and the Chicago Public Schools have resumed negotiations in the wake of the strike vote. Read up on what's at stake and why teachers are ready to strike.
● Teach for America’s diversity paradox.
● Non-tenure track faculty at Duke University have voted to unionize by a wide margin:
The Duke vote is the first union election in decades at a private university in the South, according to SEIU. But the Duke faculty join a national movement of unionization of college instructors. Some 10,000 have chosen to unionize in the past three years, SEIU said, at places such as the University of Chicago, Tufts and Georgetown universities.