| | | | |  | | By Nick Niedzwiadek | With help from Shayna Greene
|  | Quick Fix | | — Public pension funds have lost tens of billions amid the stock market slide of 2022. — Last week the House advanced a spending measure that would allow the NLRB to create an online voting platform. — The EEOC is taking on Hobby Lobby over the termination of a employee with a disability. GOOD MORNING. It's Wednesday, July 6. Welcome back to Morning Shift, your go-to tipsheet on employment and immigration news. Send feedback, tips, exclusives and whether you know what a golden birthday is to emueller@politico.com and nniedzwiadek@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter at @eleanor_mueller and @nickniedz.
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| | | STOCK STRUGGLES HIT PENSIONS: This year's financial market selloff has battered the pension funds of millions of public-sector workers that had been on the upswing in recent years as the Great Recession receded from view, your Shift host reports for Pros. Why it matters: The downturn is the worst start to a calendar year in decades and raises the prospect of the retirement funds having to raise costs on workers or their government employers, and may prompt administrators to reexamine their projections for the coming years. What's happened: The 100 largest public pension funds in the U.S. have seen their estimated funded status — which compares a fund's assets and investments relative to the amount of money promised to beneficiaries — slip from 85.5 percent at the close of 2021 to 78.6 percent at the end of May, according to a recent analysis by Milliman. That includes a negative investment return of 4.8 percent — or roughly $220 billion in market value — in one month alone, between the end of March and April, as the financial markets were rocked by the onset of Russia's war in Ukraine and other difficulties. The effect: This is not a crisis moment for these funds, many of which enacted substantive changes after the Great Recession, but it is a sizable shock that will reverberate and test the resolve of administrators.
| | | ICYMI, HOUSE DEMS PUSH FOR ONLINE UNION VOTING: Democratic lawmakers have renewed efforts to allow the National Labor Relations Board to set up electronic voting, which could be the last chance before a possible Republican takeover after the midterms. As Pro subscribers were told last week, the appropriations bill advanced Thursday would allow the agency to spend at least $1 million to create a system that workers could use to vote online, rather than on pieces of paper delivered in person or via the mail, Nick and Shayna report. The debate: Those in favor of online voting say it's more efficient and workers more comfortable to vote. Republicans, however, see it as a way for unions to gain greater control over the process. Democrats have been trying to get this done since the first term of the Obama administration but a GOP-backed provision blocking the measure has been added to every congressional appropriations bill since 2012. What's next: It remains to be seen whether Senate appropriators will go along with the measure.
| | | EEOC VS. HOBBY LOBBY: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against the arts-and-crafts retailer for allegedly denying accommodations for an employee and violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. The details: The EEOC claims in the suit that a cashier at the Olathe, Kan., location was denied the ability to bring her service dog to work to help with symptoms related to PTSD, anxiety and depression, Shayna reports. The employee renewed her request for reasonable accommodation but was sent home after bringing her service animal to work. She was allegedly told by the store manager that if she could not work without her service dog, it would be considered job abandonment. The employee did not return to work and was fired. What's next: The EEOC is seeking "back pay, compensatory and punitive damages and reinstatement for the employee, as well as injunctive relief to prevent future discrimination." SPEAKING OF THE NLRB: The agency is celebrating nearly 90 years of the National Labor Relations Act, which was passed in 1935 and protects workers' freedom of association. NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo tweeted on Tuesday : "87 years ago, FDR signed the NLRA, making it the policy of our nation to encourage collective bargaining and to protect workers' rights to freedom of association, self-organization, & choice of representative. Today's NLRB employees work hard every day to effectuate that policy." NEW ENGLAND MCDONALD'S OWNER OWES $1.6M IN EEOC SETTLEMENT: Vermont-based Coughlin, Inc., which owns and operates ten McDonald's restaurants in Vermont and New Hampshire, will pay $1.6 million to settle a sex discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the EEOC, the State of Vermont, and others. The suit alleges that employees at the Randolph, Vt., location were subjected to a hostile working environment by a male night shift manager who physically and verbally harassed workers. "The employer also retaliated against at least one employee by revoking her disability-related reasonable accommodation and forcing her to quit after she complained," the EEOC said in a statement. Next steps: In addition to the settlement amount, the five year consent decree includes provisions to prevent future discrimination and harassment. The EEOC will monitor Coughlin's compliance with these requirements for the next five years.
| | | WITHER THE OFFICE PARK: The corporate office complex on the side of a major thoroughfare may be a thing of the past after Covid, the New York Times reports. "Far from downtowns, there is a different kind of emptiness in suburban settings that were already isolated and lightly populated by design. From the outside, it's hard to know that the 20th floor of a skyscraper has gone vacant." Shift sidebar: These (sometimes unremarkable) outposts are economically important for bedroom communities and other areas where lunch spots and other businesses have sprouted up to serve them. More workplace news: " Bosses Offer Midyear Raises to Retain Employees as Inflation Takes Toll," from the Wall Street Journal. Even more workplace news: "U.S. seeks 250,000 mentors, tutors to address pandemic learning loss," from Reuters.
| | | WEST COAST PORT CONTRACT RAN OUT: The contract between employees represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and employers represented by the Pacific Maritime Association expired on July 1. The details: Workers are pushing for increased wages while the shipping companies want to expand automation to speed up production. The ILWU — representing 22,000 workers at almost 30 ports — and the PMA released a joint statement on Friday that even though no deal has been reached, work and negotiations will continue. Challenges: It's possible that a breakdown could develop later on, further disrupting the supply chain and raising already-high inflation. In the meantime, shippers are routing cargo away from the West Coast but that strategy has created cargo backups on the East and Gulf coasts. High stakes for the administration: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh has visited the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., offering help to both sides of the negotiating table to come to an agreement. Walsh recently told Reuters that the talks were going well with no major sticking points. President Joe Biden also met with the two groups earlier in June. The administration is under pressure to keep things stable while wrestling with the impact of inflation not only on the economy but on the midterms as Democrats worry about maintaining their slim majority.
| | | MINIMUM WAGE BALLOT FALLS SHORT: Voters in California won't have the opportunity to vote on raising the state's current $15/hour minimum wage to $18/hour in November. Counties did not finish certifying that the proposed ballot initiative had enough signatures before a June 30 deadline. "The miss removes a high-profile — and likely expensive — fight from the ballot chessboard," our Jeremy White reports. Any hope?: "The campaign was not ready to admit defeat, with a representative saying in a late Thursday night statement that they would 'exhaust every possible remedy' to make the 2022 ballot. But the California secretary of state's office confirmed on Friday that Thursday's list of qualified measures was final." What's next: The measure could make a comeback for the 2024 ballot, which will attract a larger, and likely more liberal, electorate that could improve its chances.
| | | | DON'T MISS 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. | | | | | | | | — "Office Owners Reeling From Remote Work Now Fret About Recession," from The Wall Street Journal. — "For some workers, office mandates aren't just a pain. They're harmful." from The Washington Post. — " Meditation App Headspace Relieved Stress for Everyone but Its Own Employees, Say Former Staff," from Bloomberg. — "SAS, the Scandinavian airline, files for bankruptcy protection after pilots strike." from The New York Times. — "Soccer union warns of high-risk countries for salary default ," from The Associated Press. — "Former Archegos employee sues for millions in lost pay, cites 'toxic' culture," from Reuters. — "Britain Gears Up for a Summer of Labor Discontent," from The New York Times. — " Red States Are Winning the Post-Pandemic Economy," from The Wall Street Journal. — "German leader gathers employers, unions to tackle inflation," from The Associated Press. THAT'S ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT! | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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