The National Labor Relations Board has a new general counsel after Vice President Kamala Harris broke a tie in the Senate to confirm Jennifer Abruzzo, 51-50. President Joe Biden fired Donald Trump’s NLRB general counsel, Peter Robb, on Inauguration Day after Robb refused to resign.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions also moved forward with two of Biden’s NLRB nominees this week. For context:
● Amazon denied a worker pregnancy accommodations. Then she miscarried, reports Lauren Kaori Gurley.
● Organizing a union in a disorganized world of small restaurants, from Priya Krishna.
● The ongoing coal miners strike in Alabama admittedly hasn’t gotten enough coverage here, for which mea culpa, but check out how aggressively the major networks have ignored it:
● Sen. Mark Kelly says he supports "overall goals" of PRO Act and would consider using budget reconciliation to pass parts of it, Igor Bobic and Dave Jamieson report.
● The incalculable cost of cheap chicken—and the hidden industry that shoulders it. And what do you know, it’s at the expense of immigrant workers, Tina Vasquez reports.
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The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions also moved forward with two of Biden’s NLRB nominees this week. For context:
A remarkable stroke of good luck and hard work by pro-NLRA forces, which should have all Senate confirmations finished by Labor Day. This will be the first time a Democratic President has *ever* gotten his Board majority and hand-picked GC in office in the first year of his term. https://t.co/p0tciCZP94
— Brandon Magner (@BrandonMagner) July 21, 2021
● Amazon denied a worker pregnancy accommodations. Then she miscarried, reports Lauren Kaori Gurley.
● Organizing a union in a disorganized world of small restaurants, from Priya Krishna.
● The ongoing coal miners strike in Alabama admittedly hasn’t gotten enough coverage here, for which mea culpa, but check out how aggressively the major networks have ignored it:
The miners went on strike April 1 to demand a new, fair contract from Warrior Met Coal. They took a $6/hr pay cut in 2016 to save the mine from bankruptcy. The company promised they’d raise wages once revenue went back up. Their offer? An extra $1.50/hr. pic.twitter.com/LrQhMExq4v
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) July 21, 2021
● Sen. Mark Kelly says he supports "overall goals" of PRO Act and would consider using budget reconciliation to pass parts of it, Igor Bobic and Dave Jamieson report.
● The incalculable cost of cheap chicken—and the hidden industry that shoulders it. And what do you know, it’s at the expense of immigrant workers, Tina Vasquez reports.
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If half of all non-union workers would join a union if given the chance, why do only 1 in 10 have a union on the job? It's too damn hard for workers to overcome intense, and often illegal, pressure from the boss when organizing. We need the #PROAct https://t.co/ow1MJTfSqn
— Steve Smith (@ssmith_calabor) July 19, 2021
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Today, the @NLRB upheld an Obama-era precedent by ruling that a union did *not* violate the National Labor Relations Act by displaying "a 12-foot inflatable rat with red eyes, fangs, and claws ('Scabby the Rat')" at the entrance to a trade show. SCABBY IS FREE, LONG LIVE SCABBY pic.twitter.com/A8eF6JQcfH
— Kim Kelly (@GrimKim) July 21, 2021
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Steelworkers union says that, almost 2 years after sub-contracted Google Pittsburgh staff voted to unionize & 9 months after NLRB issued a union-busting complaint against their employer HCL, they’ve reached a tentative union contract deal, including “meaningful wage increases.” https://t.co/8wTXrSc0d2
— Josh Eidelson (@josheidelson) July 23, 2021