| | | | |  | | By Eleanor Mueller | Presented by Kroger | With help from Nick Niedzwiadek
| | | NURSES' STRIKE HIGHLIGHTS BENEFITS CLASH: Nurses at Stanford Hospital and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital will return to work Tuesday if they vote to approve a new contract between their union, the Committee for the Recognition of Nursing Achievement, and their employers. Results are expected sometime today. If they choose to ratify the potential agreement reached over the weekend weekend, the 5,000 workers will avoid losing their employer-sponsored health insurance for the month of May — which, as union officials pointed out, would have given them less motivation to end their weeklong strike, the first since 2000. "We need to get back to work — but when we come back to work, they're not going to give us benefits," CRONA Vice President Kathy Stormberg told Eleanor at the picket line in Stanford, Calif. last Monday. So "then what's the hurry?" The union had gathered more than 30,000 signatures on a petition urging the hospitals to reverse their stance as of Sunday. Dale Beatty, Stanford Health Care's chief nurse executive, told Eleanor last week that revoking the nurses' benefits was hospital policy: "If you're not working at the first of the month, your benefits can be extended through COBRA." But the nurses union denied that: "They did not have to do it," CRONA President Colleen Borges told Eleanor. "It is not a policy. It is not in our contract." Zooming out: Hospital policy or not, the tussle highlights a practice common at picket lines across the country. Jon Donaire Desserts workers and Warrior Met Coal miners are among those currently without employer-sponsored health care due to ongoing strikes at their workplaces. The Stanford call stung extra "during a pandemic, when nurses have sacrificed and put their bodies on the line for two years … and this is the thanks they get," AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler told Eleanor in San Francisco on Thursday. "But it's not unique to health care, either. We're seeing it everywhere." "It's just a familiar story with corporate bad behavior and ruthless disrespect of working people and an undermining of the collective bargaining process," Shuler said. "What they're trying to do is a power play and undermine and weaken the solidarity — because if you incite fear, then they start dividing us, and that's a time-worn tactic." Policy pivot: The California Labor Federation is pushing for a California state bill, CA AB2530 (21R) , that would provide health insurance to workers who lose employer-sponsored benefits due to a labor dispute. Already the state has enacted legislation, CA AB237 (21R), that prevents public-sector employers from terminating employees' health insurance during a strike. At the national level, Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) introduceda similar bill in March that would make revoking or tweaking striking workers' health insurance an unfair labor practice punishable by fines up to $100,000 per violation. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who visited the Stanford picket line Friday, is a co-sponsor of the AFL-CIO-backed bill. The Senate HELP Committee, to which the measure was referred, has yet to mark it up. GOOD MORNING. It's Monday, May 2. Welcome back to Weekly Shift, your go-to tipsheet on employment and immigration news, where your hosts are considering playing hooky and making a trip to Takoma Park . Send feedback, tips and exclusives to emueller@politico.com and nniedzwiadek@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter at @eleanor_mueller and @nickniedz.
| | | | A message from Kroger: Investing in our Associates
At Kroger, we take seriously our role as one of America's largest employers. Since 2018, we've invested more than $4.5 billion in wage increases, training, pensions, and health care benefits for our associates. Our average hourly compensation is now over $22 when factoring in generous benefits like affordable healthcare, 401(k)s, and pensions.
Learn more about the opportunities made possible by the Kroger Family of Companies. | | | 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.
| | | WALSH, SCOTT TALK TRAINING IN VIRGINIA: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and House Education and Labor Chair Bobby Scott are in Newport News, Va., today for a trip focused on workforce development. The two will visit Thomas Nelson Community College's Workforce Development Center — with Eleanor in tow — for a tour followed by a roundtable discussion with local officials, higher education leaders and students. The talk will focus on expanding Registered Apprenticeships and ensuring more women and people of color can access such opportunities. As early on as his confirmation hearing, Walsh — who once led Boston's Building Trades Council — cited workforce development as one of his top priorities. The Biden administration lobbied for including billions for workforce development in the now-defunct Build Back Better spending package. Walsh told Eleanor in January that the White House is still hopeful those funds might somehow be enacted. Regardless of what happens, House Democrats are pushing ahead with a separate effort to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which funds many of the federal government's workforce development programs. OPINION: " America Must Work Harder for Homegrown Talent," from The Washington Post
| | | EBSA CONCERNED ABOUT FIDELITY PLAN: Ali Khawar, acting assistant secretary of the Employee Benefits Security Administration, has "grave concerns" that Fidelity Investments' plan to allow investors to put bitcoin in their 401(k) accounts risks the retirement security of Americans, The Wall Street Journal's Anne Tergesen reports. In an interview, Khawar "said he views cryptocurrency as speculative," claiming that there's "a lot of hype around 'You have to get in now because you will be left behind otherwise.'" FOIA FRACAS: A right-to-work nonprofit filed a public records lawsuit Thursday against the U.S. Postal Service over privacy language in the government's Covid-19 at-home testing program that the nonprofit says would allow labor unions to access users' personal information. "The Postal Service is really asking people to waive their right to confidentiality with no real statutory basis," Americans for Fair Treatment head David Osborne told Nick. "We're really just asking the question why." Osborne said the organization filed the FOIA request in February after some of its members flagged part of the privacy statement that mentioned "labor organizations." AFFT sought to find out where that phrase originated and if information had in fact been given to unions. Osborne said they found USPS's response to their requests inadequate, and AFFT's court filing states it does not believe the search was sufficiently diligent. "We didn't think we got a fair shake," he said. The case was filed in federal court in D.C. A USPS spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit as it is active litigation.
| | | | HAPPENING NOW - MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: Go inside the 25th annual Milken Institute Global Conference with our special edition Global Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive coverage and insights from one of the world's most influential gatherings. Stay up to speed with the latest from #MIGlobal, which brings together 3,000 of the world's most powerful leaders and features 700+ speakers representing more than 80 countries. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | WORKER COSTS ON THE RISE: Public- and private-sector employers spent 4.5 percent more in worker costs in the first quarter compared with the same period a year earlier without adjusting for seasonality, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. "That marked the fastest increase in records dating to 2001, and the gain eclipsed 4.0 percent annual growth in the fourth quarter," The Wall Street Journal's Sarah Chaney Cambon and Gabriel T. Rubin report. "Compensation for workers also accelerated on a quarterly basis, rising a seasonally adjusted 1.4 percent in the first quarter compared with a 1.0 percent increase in the fourth quarter" that "reflected strengthening wages, salaries and benefits." Big picture: "Big pay gains for workers reflect their increased bargaining power but also threaten to keep inflation high. Companies need to pass on price increases to consumers to compensate for higher labor costs, economists said." RELATED: "Why high wage growth may be fading," from CNBC
| | | KEEPING UP WITH SHULER: Eleanor sat down with the country's top union official, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, at the International Women's Policy Research summit in San Francisco last week to hear what's on her mind after some eight months in the office. Here's what Shuler had to say about: The federation's June convention, which happens every four years: "I want it to look like a mini CES," Shuler said, referring to the annual consumer electronics show. "We're showcasing the future of work and technology. Each union is bringing in their best examples of tech, like flight simulators for the pilots and virtual welding and all of the tools and technology that our members are right in the middle of as we're transitioning to a whole new stage of the economy." Winning reelection as federation president: "I don't anticipate [a challenger], but you never know. You never know. I'm just really focused on bringing unity." Holding Amazon and other employers accountable: "It's really a shared responsibility. It's the administration; it's Congress; it's corporations; it's consumers; it's workers. We all are partners in the future we want to create together." "Companies aren't going to do anything out of just the goodness of their heart. They have to be forced to; they have to be called out." The Senate-stalled Protecting the Right to Organize Act: "We're going to keep pushing. Sometimes it takes a sustained effort to get things done. As we know, things don't happen overnight." "Yes, we want the reforms — but it's also a hell of an organizing tool to get people motivated, to get them to focus on where the real action is, which is at the grassroots level, electing the right people and connecting the dots to the issues." The upcoming midterm elections: "We're doing a huge renewed effort in our political program this year on getting back into the work sites and doing face-to-face conversations on issues. Not talking about candidates. We have a whole lead time before we can talk about candidates. We're going to talk about issues — and our first issue is inflation." UNIONS AT THE WHITE HOUSE? Amazon and Starbucks union workers could soon be invited to the White House, in a rare show of support from a sitting president, The Washington Post's Jeff Stein and Greg Jaffe report. "The discussions come just weeks after the White House said it would resist picking sides in high-profile union disputes. The people familiar with the matter … said details are fluid and no meeting has been finalized." NLRB EYES HEARING ON STATEN ISLAND ELECTION: An NLRB official said in a filing Friday that evidence behind Amazon's claims of misconduct in a recent union election in Staten Island, N.Y. "could be grounds for overturning the election," Reuters' Jeffrey Dastin reports. "The online retailer has accused the NLRB's Brooklyn office of appearing to support the union drive and alleged that labor organizers intimidated workers to vote in their favor." The case was transferred to the NLRB's Phoenix region last month as a result of the allegations. The NLRB official "did not specify which of Amazon's 25 objections had the potential to invalidate the election's outcome. He said the parties can present testimony starting May 23, after which an NLRB hearing officer will recommend whether to uphold the result. The process could take weeks." MORE UNION NEWS: "Starbucks workers drive nationwide surge in union organizing," from NPR
| | | | A message from Kroger:   | | | | | | CONNECTICUT HOUSE PASSES 'CAPTIVE AUDIENCE' BILL: The Connecticut House of Representatives passed a bill Friday evening to prohibit employers from holding mandatory meetings on unionization and other sensitive subjects like political matters and religious issues. The House voted 88 to 56 to pass CT SB163 (22R), paving the way for Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont's signature. The state Senate passed the bill earlier in April. The issue has long been a priority of labor unions, and the legislation's passage delivers a win to a key ally of Democrats in Hartford ahead of an election year. If signed into law,Connecticut will join Oregonas the only states to ban what critics call "captive audience" meetings. Employers can still hold such meetings, but employees are shielded from being penalized or fired for abstaining. ICYMI: Nick last week took a look at Oregon's law and what effect it has and hasn't had since it was enacted more than a decade ago.
| | | RIP, IMMIGRATION REFORM: Policymakers are acknowledging that the Democratic dream of comprehensive immigration reform is all but dead, given the party's "ultra-slim majorities and a GOP that views broader reform as a nonstarter without addressing a rise in border crossings," our Marianne LeVine, Sarah Ferris and Laura Barrón-López report. "It's a red herring. It's not even an issue of immigration, but all the energy is being put there," said Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.), who's fervently pushed for reform and even threatened to tank Biden's party-line domestic policy package if it didn't address immigration. If Democrats deliver nothing on the issue after two years of controlling both the White House and Congress, Correa said, he fears for their fate in November. "Thirty-eight percent of Latinos voted for [Donald] Trump in this last election. You come home empty-handed, I don't think it's going to help the situation," Correa said.
| | | | INTRODUCING DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | This is the first installment of a semi-regular Weekly Shift section featuring the books, and their authors, starting conversations in the labor world right now. 'FIGHT LIKE HELL': …is the fitting title of labor journalist Kim Kelly's first book, released last week ahead of May Day Sunday. In it, Kelly profiles workers across decades who have gone mostly below the radar when it comes to their hard-won contributions to the landscapes of unions and, more broadly, work — whether the incarcerated workers currently pushing for higher wages or the southern Black women who tried to organize during Reconstruction. "It is significant that so much of the organizing that's happening now is being led by marginalized workers; workers who have either been written off as unorganizable or dismissed by the bosses or just kind of ground down in general," Kelly told Eleanor. "The folks leading this current wave of the labor revolution are queer, trans, young, Black and brown workers. And that's the kind of people that I wrote about in my book, because those are the most interesting stories." While reporting it, Kelly said she became particularly close with the miners working for Alabama's Warrior Met Coal who have been on strike for more than a year. "I started going down there early in the pandemic, [when] my whole social life was going grocery shopping with my best friend," Kelly said. "It was really lonely." Then "I met all these new people and got to know things about their wives and their families, [and] they became really personally important to me as people. We have a group chat; I text one of them every day." Kelly said she wants her readers to come away with the conviction that, like the Warrior Met workers, they "can do it too — no matter what your identity, where you come from, what you're dealing with." "There's always a labor angle, because everyone either has a job or has had a job or is going to have a job, and they're probably going to hate that job at some point … and they're probably going to want to do something about it," Kelly said. "So hopefully by putting out books like this … we can show people that there's an alternative to taking it." AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson, who wrote the book's foreword, will join Kelly in D.C. Tuesday for an event at Politics and Prose's Connecticut Ave location.
| | | — "For Instacart Shoppers, the Job Is Getting Harder, Slower," from The Wall Street Journal — "Amazon workers won't get paid for Covid leave anymore," from CNBC — " Meet the centenarian who holds the world record for the longest career at one company," from NPR — Opinion: "The Job That Taught Me the Power of Work," from The Wall Street Journal — "Automation Isn't the Biggest Threat to US Factory Jobs," from WIRED — Opinion: "In the name of job flexibility, 'Uberisation' is spreading its tentacles across society," from The Guardian — "Kenyan president hikes country's minimum wage by 12%," from Reuters — " A Manhattan pizza restaurant stole $175,000 in wages from its employees, Attorney General says," from Business Insider — "How To Fix Meeting Sprawl and Transform Your Work," from TIME THAT'S ALL FOR WEEKLY SHIFT!
| | | | A message from Kroger: Life at Kroger: People Matter
Our priority is to invest in our associates.
We strive to create a culture of opportunity and to be a place where a person from any walk of life can come for a job and stay for a career.
Some of the most attractive aspects of working at the Kroger Family of Companies are the benefits that can be enjoyed by both our part-time and full-time associates. Unlike with many other companies, you do not have to work a full 40-hour work week in order to be eligible for benefits like affordable healthcare, 401(k)s, and pensions with the Kroger family of companies.
Learn more about the opportunities made possible by the Kroger Family of Companies. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
Comments
Post a Comment