unions

President Biden Supports Amazon Workers’ Union Organization Vote

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Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest person, acquired on the backs of warehouse workers working long hours under often grueling, unsafe labor conditions. (Don’t believe those “we’re all one big happy family” ads Amazon runs on TV). Workers in Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama warehouse – yes deep red Republican anti-union Alabama – are … Read more

ASARCO strike

With #HB2872, #AZGOP Uses #ALEC Legislation to Attack Labor Unions (video)

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Arizona Republicans are on the attack in 2020. We have heard anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ, anti-voter, and anti-immigrant legislation so far, and now to round out the set– we have anti-union legislation. Today’s featured bad bill is HB2872 proposed by Majority Leader Warren Petersen. It is an anti-union model bill from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). … Read more

July jobs report is below expectations

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Steve Benen has the July jobs report. American job growth falls short of expectations in July:

Ahead of this morning’s new jobs report, most projections said the U.S. economy added roughly 190,000 jobs in July. Apparently, we didn’t do quite that well.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning that the economy added 157,000 jobs in July, while the unemployment rate inched lower, going from to 4% to 3.9%. It’s the second lowest monthly jobs total of the year.

That said, the revisions for the two previous months – May and June – looked very good, with a combined gain of 59,000 jobs as compared to previous BLS reports.

JulyJobs

In terms of the larger context, this morning’s data points to 1.5 million jobs created so far in 2018, which is evidence of a healthy job market, and which is an improvement on the totals from the first seven months of 2016 and 2017. That said, this year’s tally is still short of the totals from the first seven months of 2014 and 2015.

Here is another chart, this one showing monthly job losses/gains in just the private sector since the start of the Great Recession.

JulyPrivate

The Washington Post points out that wage growth remains stagnant (so much for the GOP tax cut scam):

The U.S. economy has added jobs for 94 consecutive months, a record streak that shows no signs of waning despite President Trump’s escalating trade war. Many business leaders have warned the standoffs with China, the European Union and other major trading partners could cause layoffs if tariffs stay in place for an extended period of time.

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SCOTUS conservatives rule in favor of ‘free-riders’ in their never-ending quest to destroy public sector unions

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In 1977, in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that government employees who do not belong to a union can be required to pay a fee – often known as a “fair share” or “agency” fee – to cover the union’s costs to negotiate a contract that applies to all public employees, including those who are not union members. The justices reasoned then that allowing the fees would help to avoid both labor strife and the prospect that nonmembers could be “free-riders” who benefit from the union’s collective bargaining efforts without having to pay for them.

Anti-union right-wing organizations have been aggressively trying to overturn this precedent in recent years, with Harris v. Quinn in 2013, and Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association in 2015. In both cases, the precedent of Abood was sustained. In Friedrichs, however, the conservative justices actually invited plaintiffs to try again and bring another case.

The third time was the charm. For the second time this week the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a long-standing precedent, rejecting its doctrine of stare decisis, to effectively say “the law is what we say it is.” It was a foregone conclusion that the conservative majority would rule in favor of a “free-rider” who did not want to pay dues to his AFSME Union, in their never-ending quest to destroy public unions. Justice Alito wrote the opinion for the conservative majority in a 5-4 decision in Janus v. AFSCME (.pdf).

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