| | | | |  | | By Nick Niedzwiadek and Eleanor Mueller | | | | AMERICA'S (LABOR) PASTIME: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh raised some eyebrows last week when he signaled a willingness to intervene in Major League Baseball's ongoing labor impasse, as first reported by POLITICO's Jonathan Lemire. Though his entreaty was essentially "call me if you need me," it signaled an eagerness for direct involvement in professional sports negotiations that certainly departs from the Obama administration's approach — let alone former President Donald Trump's. Loyal Shift readers will recall that Walsh told Eleanor last month that he "absolutely would love " to wade into employer-union negotiations if the respective sides believe he could be of service. But with spring training season nearing, several baseball historians said the effect on talks would be mostly symbolic. "In terms of actual impact a labor secretary can have, it's close to nil," said Robert F. Burk, who has authored several books on the sport's labor history. DOL chiefs have gotten involved in MLB standoffs before, and it wasn't exactly fruitful. In 1981, Raymond Donovan — the first of Ronald Reagan's three labor secretaries — dropped in during the heat of the midseason players strike. Bill Clinton was so keen on putting his stamp on the last time there was a significant MLB work stoppage, he not only looped in his own labor secretary, Robert Reich, but also one of Gerald Ford's — William Usery, who served as the mediator for talks between the players association and MLB. "It was a flop," Lee Lowenfish, author of "The Imperfect Diamond," told POLITICO. He pointed to a 1995 ruling by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, then a district court judge in New York, in the players' favor as what ultimately moved the needle. Even Reich shares that dim assessment. Over the weekend, he published a piece on Substack urging Walsh to "stay the hell away from baseball" and giving his front-row perspective on the episode. Still, some are closely monitoring Walsh's moves as a sign of how he'll respond to other labor disputes. "Whether it is just baseball players, or professional athletes more generally, these are the most notable people we talk about as union members," said Gwendolyn Lockman, a University of Texas PhD. candidate in U.S. history who studies labor and leisure. "Those events do amplify one another." (And as a historical aside: Former President Richard Nixon, an avid sports fan, was once tapped to arbitrate a playoff pay dispute between baseball's umpires and the league — a decade after resigning from the White House in disgrace.) GOOD MORNING. It's Monday, Feb. 14. Welcome back to Morning Shift, your go-to tipsheet on employment and immigration news. At risk of sounding cheesy, you're all our Valentines. The warmest of welcomes to Nick Niedzwiadek, a longtime POLITICO who (formally) joined our team last week by way of our breaking news desk and, before that, our Albany bureau. No pressure, it's pronounced needs-wa-DECK (it means "little bear" in Polish, more or less.) Send feedback, tips and exclusives to emueller@politico.com and nniedzwiadek@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter at @eleanor_mueller and @nickniedz.
| | | | BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we've got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don't miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now. | | | | | Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories.
| | | LARGE-SCALE UI FIXES MUST WAIT FOR CONGRESS: The Labor Department is moving quickly to mend the country's crumbling unemployment insurance system — but government officials and labor experts warn that without legislation from Congress, millions of jobless Americans could again be left without checks, Eleanor and Katherine Landergan report. Union heavyweights like the AFL-CIO, along with worker advocacy groups including the National Employment Law Project, are lobbying the White House to include unemployment system reform in its fiscal 2023 budget request. Without congressional action, they say, history is likely to repeat itself: Past recessions also lent momentum to fixing the system, only for those efforts to fade as the economy improved. "There's a chance that that's going to happen this time," Michele Evermore, deputy director of the Labor Department's Office of Unemployment Insurance Modernization, said. "It's what always happens." DOL is partnering with state officials in Arkansas and New Jersey to launch pilot programs to test out fixes next month, Evermore said, and the department will "add more bells and whistles as time goes on." A key focus will be sharing information between states and the feds. "That sounds very elementary, but there's a lot involved with that," Evermore said, such as exchanging claimant data and implementing user testing. But no matter how wisely DOL administers its funds, Democrats and labor experts say that Congress will need to mandate the more structural overhaul needed. MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The Senate HELP Committee will hold a hearing in Hart Tuesday morning "to discuss how to address barriers to employment — especially for women, people of color, people with disabilities, people struggling to make ends meet, and others — through improved workforce development."
| | | DOL SOLICITS INFO ON RETIREMENT THREATS: DOL is requesting information on what the agency should do to protect retirement savings and pensions from risks associated with changes in climate. The request for information follows an executive order from Biden that directed the agency to identify actions it can take "to safeguard the life savings and pensions of U.S. workers and families from the threats of climate-related financial risk." "The public and stakeholders in general are a valuable source of information for us" in determining how to move forward, acting Assistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Security Ali Khawar said in a statement.
| | | EMAILS ON 'DINOBABIES' ROIL IBM: IBM executives derided older workers at the company as "dinobabies" who should be made an "extinct species" in emails, Bloomberg's Josh Eidelson reports. The communications show "highly incriminating animus" against older employees by officials who at the time were in the company's "highest ranks," according to a court filing Friday in an age discrimination case against the company.
| | | MASKS TEST NEWSOM-TEACHER RELATIONS: California Gov. Gavin Newsom seems ready to eliminate mask requirements in schools, as his counterparts in New Jersey, Oregon and Connecticut did this week. But Newsom cannot go where teachers unions aren't ready, as was the case with school reopening a year ago, our Susannah Luthi and Victoria Colliver report. The California Teachers Association, which has more than 300,000 members, declined to comment on its discussions with the Newsom administration. The state's second-largest teachers union, the 120,000-member California Federation of Teachers, says any end to mask restrictions must have sufficient justification beyond political reasons. RELATED: "The Supreme Court rejects a bid by New York teachers to block a city vaccine mandate" from The New York Times
| | | OZ BUSINESS HIT WITH LARGEST ICE FINE EVER: A tree-trimming business partly owned by Senate candidate Mehmet Oz was once fined $95 million by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over a scheme to knowingly employ illegal immigrants — the largest ever levied in the agency's history, the New York Post's Jon Levine reports. "Dr. Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and Oprah protege, injected some star power into a closely-watched GOP Senate primary in Pennsylvania. The fight to replace the state's retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey is one of several races that will determine control of the Senate for the remainder of President Biden's term in office." "Neither Dr. Oz nor Lisa Oz have even worked at the company or had any involvement in decision-making regarding its business practices, period," campaign spokesperson Erin Perrine told Levine.
| | | At 10 a.m. The National Association of Community Health Centers holds its annual forumon "policy and issues" virtually. At 11 a.m. The Brookings Institution holds a virtual discussion on "supervision, and state and federal roles in financial regulation."
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | — "Clashing Executives, Office Romance, Angry Anchors: Inside the Week That Shook CNN," from The Wall Street Journal — "Long COVID is contributing to America's labor shortage," from Axios — " How The Pandemic Is Changing Our Bodies," from BuzzFeed News — "A Rhodes Scholar barista and the fight to unionize Starbucks," from The Washington Post — " Higher Inflation Is Probably Costing You $276 a Month," from The Wall Street Journal — " America Runs on a Sick Workforce," from Gawker — " Thousands of vacancies at NC DHHS lead to burnout for state workers still on the job," from the Raleigh News & Observer — "Uber and Lyft are finally starting to look like different companies," from The Verge THAT'S ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT! | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
Comments
Post a Comment