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What I've Been Reading This Week


It turned out to be a busy week on my end and I spent more time away from my desk than I expected.  Even with a lot of work travel, I still read through some good articles that I wanted to highlight.

As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week.


A Closer Look at the Impact of the Ambush Election Rules

Some readers might remember when the "Ambush Election" rules went into place last April.  Critics of the NLRB's proposed rules suggested that these new rules would unfairly skew the process and allow unions a better opportunity to organize.  Well, according to Connor Wolf over at The Daily Caller, it turns out they were right.  Union elections used to take on average 36 days before the Ambush Election rules were implemented.  That average is now down to 24 days.  Unsurprisingly, unions are winning about 3% more elections than they did in 2014 and approximately 8% more over 2012 and 2013.  Very interesting to follow along with Wolf's article and see the impact these rules have had.


As If Chipotle Did Not Have Enough Problems, A Sex Discrimination Claim Proceeds to Trial

This is a good article from Fatima Hussein on a recent sex discrimination trial playing out in a Cincinnati courtroom this past week.  According to the allegations in the suit, three former female general managers claimed they were wrongly terminated by a former manager who treated male general managers better than the females, despite the females having received similar or better evaluations.  Hussein's article does a good job breaking down each of the female general manager's specific facts.  Regardless of how this trial plays out, the last thing Chipotle needs right now is more bad press.



Some readers might have heard of a Republican debate last night.  Others might have heard that the presumed front runner, Donald Trump, refused to participate.  Going on that theme, Bloomberg.com has a note on a strike by fast food workers in Iowa who are pushing for a $15.00 per hour minimum wage.  Given that many Republican candidates for President have not addressed the minimum wage issue (or given it the "appropriate" attention that many voters feel it deserves), this is an interesting development.  The article does a good job pointing out differences between the Republican and Democratic candidates on the issue (for those readers who do not remember), as well as which cities have been aggressively pushing for higher minimum wage rates for workers in their cities.

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