Labor Relations INK - Labor Relations News, Analysis and Insight
Labor Relations Ink March 2019
In this issue: AI and Risk Assessment? Autonomous Vehicles & Unions Could This Thinking Spread? Auto Workers, SEIU Watch, Insight and more… The bottom of each story contains a link to the individual post on our site. ********** Labor Relations Insight by Phil...
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Labor Relations Insight
by Phil Wilson What's The Plan? We’ve had a string of interesting campaigns over the last couple of months where a big issue has been how to educate younger workers on the realities of unions. I’ve never really bought into the whole “you have to communicate different...
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Union Bailout Update
The National Labor Relations Board rejected another Obama-era “balancing test” in favor of moving back to a “bright line” rule. In United Nurses & Allied Professional (Kent Hospital), the board ruled that lobbying costs of all kinds are not considered part of a...
read moreAI and Risk Assessment
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already deeply entrenched in the HR systems of companies worldwide, with 83% of U.S. companies using AI in some form. Globally, current uses include: Using chatbots to look up information such as company policies or benefits (56...
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Autonomous Vehicles & Unions
You saw this coming, didn’t you? Unions are already fighting tooth and nail to curb the rise of ride-hailing companies. As autonomous vehicle technology advances, so will the angst and activity of Big Labor. The Transportation Trades Department (TTD), the umbrella of...
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SEIU Watch
The SEIU Headquarters in Washington D.C. is gearing up for a strike by its own staff members. Employees of the union, represented by OPEIU Local 2, say they are fed up with SEIU’s ongoing practice of hiring cheaper, outside contractors instead of union laborers....
read moreIt’s All Academic
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this month that there was a “major problem” with the NLRB’s 2014 determination on organizing adjunct faculty at the University of Southern California. Specifically, the appeals court said the NLRB “wrongly concluded that any...
read moreMinimum Rising
The House of Representatives is expected to meet any day to discuss raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour. This comes after a vote earlier this month in favor of the bill by the House Committee on Education and Labor. The bill, introduced as the...
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Could This Thinking Spread?
We have covered the recent trend of organizing among media companies over the last few years. This story of the first podcast company joining this wave has some interesting implications. First, Gimlet, which was recently acquired by Spotify, is now considered a cross...
read moreBig Labor Not Shouting So Loud Over NYC’s ‘Just Cause’ Protection
New York City’s recent bill proposing to ban the city’s fast-food restaurants from firing workers without ‘just cause’ is just the kind of thing we’d expect unions to rally behind (think Fight for $15), but Big Labor isn’t showing its typical enthusiasm. The reason,...
read moreRight To Work
A West Virginia County Judge overturned the state’s right-to-work law late last month. While this decision is disappointing to many, the bright side is that we will most likely see the case move to the state’s Supreme Court. Once ruled on there, all West...
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Auto Workers
The hits just keep on coming for the UAW. After dealing with the aftermath of the FCA corruption case for the last year (speaking of, another former UAW leader was charged this month), investigators are now questioning whether “UAW leaders threatened to send...
read moreLabor Around The World
After two months of protests, 89 ‘maquiladora’ factories have agreed to a “20 percent raise and a bonus of 32,000 pesos (US$1,655)—half of the average yearly salary. A maquiladora is a factory in Mexico run by a foreign company that exports its products to the country...
read moreBreaking News – Beck Rights
On February 22nd, the National Labor Relations Board General Counsel release memo GC 19-04, titled "Unions' Duty to Properly Notify Employees of Their General Motors/Beck Rights and to Accept Dues Checkoff Revocations after Contract Expiration." The memo outlines the...
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Labor Relations Ink February 2019
In this issue: A.I. = Worker Apocalypse? Politics and (Union) Money Leaning On Millennials? SEIU Watch, Insight, Scoreboard and more… The bottom of each story contains a link to the individual post on our site. ********** Labor Relations Insight by Phil Wilson Aaron...
read moreAlt Labor
Of the nearly 700,000 private-sector employees who joined a union in the past decade, almost two-thirds were unionized in shops with fewer than 250 workers. This is an important figure because it highlights one of the primary strategies of labor unions for the new...
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Labor Relations Insight
by Phil Wilson Aaron Levenstein once said "Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital." February isn't a great month for bikinis, but it is a great month for union statistics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced...
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Union Bailout Update
Mark Pearce, the former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, has announced that he will not seek another term on the board. A renomination by the Trump administration at the expiration of his last term in August of 2018 surprised many and irritated...
read moreA.I. = Worker Apocalypse?
Much of the energy at the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, centered around the promise of artificial intelligence for bottom-line impact. According to a New York Times article, company executives “are racing to automate their own workforces to stay...
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SEIU Watch
SEIU never disappoints in setting an example of how Big Labor can come up with new ways to climb into the pockets of the private sector. This time, Andy Stern has joined the Board of Cambier Education, a California-based organization funded by the venture philanthropy...
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