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What I’ve Been Reading This Week

 

An effort to end right to work is underway at the federal level, based upon early reports about the substance of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan.  We will save a discussion about that proposal for another day but for the time being, we will lead things off this Friday with a look at continued efforts in New Hampshire to become the next right to work state.

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


On Party Line Vote, New Hampshire Right to Work Bill Advances

On Tuesday, the New Hampshire House Labor, Industrial, and Rehabilitative Services Committee voted to approve SB 61, the recent right to work legislation working through the New Hampshire Legislature.  Despite a 11 - 9 vote along party lines in favor of the legislation, there is still no guarantee that New Hampshire will become the 29th right to work state.  After all, prior attempts to pass right to work legislation have stalled out before.  However, with Republicans intent to approve the legislation and Republican Governor Chris Sununu previously indicating his support for such a measure, perhaps this is the year.


Volvo Implements 24 Weeks of Paid Leave For All Employees

Earlier this week, CNBC reported that Volvo has announced plans to implement the “Family Bond” program which will provide hourly and salaried employees with 24 weeks of paid leave for those employees who have become parents through birth, adoption, permanent foster care, or as surrogates.  Employees that have been with the company for at least one year are eligible for this paid leave.  Under this plan, employees would be paid 80% of their base pay when using leave.  As the article notes, the “Family Bond” paid leave program went into effect yesterday.

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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