Skip to main content

What I’ve Been Reading This Week


While this week’s election might have caught the attention of some readers, I suspect that in the run up to the 2020 election next year, we will come across quite a few more relevant topics to cover here. With that being said, there are rumblings out of Virginia that Democrats in the state are already planning to repeal the state’s right to work law.  As the below article points out, with Democrats having gained majority control of the Legislature after Tuesday’s election, that topic will be something to keep an eye on in the coming weeks and months.

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



Nelson Schwartz at The New York Times wrote an article this past Sunday in which he pointed out that while the fight to increase the hourly minimum wage rate across the board in the U.S. has (and continues to remain) a partisan quagmire, there is some reason for a sense of optimism among minimum wage advocates.  For instance, there have been recent increases in certain sectors and parts of the country:  Hotel workers in Oakland have seen their hourly wage rate increase as have workers at airports in Denver and Houston.  Whether these local “victories” will spur a large scale change in minimum wage rates around the country remains to be seen.  For the time being, these local developments give minimum wage advocates a reason to cheer.


Virginia’s Right to Work Law a Target For Democrats

After the election earlier this week, for the first time in several decades, Democrats in Virginia have majority control of both the Senate and General Assembly.  With newly elected Governor Ralph Northam in office, Democrats in the state are already talking about repealing the state’s right to work law.  Now bear in mind that while Governor Northam has refused to speculate on the matter (as there is no right to work bill on his desk), he has indicated that he is interested in taking steps to protect workers in the state.  (Or in other words, he is likely willing to sign legislation to repeal the state’s right to work law once a bill reaches his desk.)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo
Post a Comment
Read more

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies in the state, to per
Post a Comment
Read more