| | | | |  | | By Eleanor Mueller | With help from Nick Niedzwiadek
| | | MOTOWN MOTIVATION: The AFL-CIO is teaming up with the Chris Gardner Foundation to launch a new program in Detroit this week aimed at getting more high school students from underserved communities — Black men, among others — into apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs in the building trades or automotive industries. Previewed first for POLITICO, the pilot will be expanded to other cities across the country — including Los Angeles, Austin and New York — over the next few months. The recently enacted infrastructure bill "has resources in there for apprenticeship programs," and it's "tied into affirmative action," AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond told Weekly Shift. But "it's labor's responsibility to go into those communities and help them recruit." Union officials and Gardner, whose story inspired the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness," will make presentations at local high schools where teachers will then recommend a core group of students. Those who end up participating will be matched with a mentor, and required to maintain a certain GPA and complete pre-apprenticeship curriculum set by founding partner North America's Building Trades Unions. "Our job is to let them know that they can and put them on a career path that can change their lives," Gardner told Weekly Shift. When they graduate , they will get a spot in a participating union's pre-apprenticeship or apprenticeship program as well as a stipend to cover the cost of tools and other necessary equipment. The program will also help them commute to and from their training locations. "They will graduate with zero student debt," Redmond said. "Zero. I want to make that clear." Why Detroit first? "The Michigan building trades were early adopters of apprenticeship readiness programs," Redmond said. Their "curriculum is flourishing in Detroit. I mean, building trades is really putting the pedal to the metal." GOOD MORNING. It's Monday, Sept. 19. Welcome back to Weekly Shift, your go-to tipsheet on employment and immigration news. Send feedback, tips, exclusives to emueller@politico.com and nniedzwiadek@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter at @eleanor_mueller and @nickniedz.
| | | | HAPPENING 9/29 - POLITICO'S AI & TECH SUMMIT : Technology is constantly evolving and so are the politics and policies shaping and regulating it. Join POLITICO for the 2022 AI & Tech summit to get an insider look at the pressing policy and political issues shaping tech, and how Washington interacts with the tech sector. The summit will bring together lawmakers, federal regulators, tech executives, tech policy experts and consumer advocates to dig into the intersection of tech, politics, regulation and innovation, and identify opportunities, risks and challenges ahead. REGISTER FOR THE SUMMIT HERE. | | | | | 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.
| | | THE QUESTION ON EVERYONE'S MIND... is whether the U.S.' unionized freight rail workers will vote to ratify the tentative agreement that their leaders signed off on last week. Social media is filled with discontent over the amount of time off, among other things, and reporting abounds on the rank-and-file's generally negative reaction to the deal's contours. Some workers are even reportedly planning informational pickets before and after their shifts Wednesday. "According to internal SMART-TD polling data obtained by Labor Notes, 78 percent of members think the union should 'reject the PEB (potential self-help/strike) and ultimately let Congress decide the National Rail Contract'," Labor Notes' Jonah Furman reports. Mark your calendars: Ratification votes will wrap between Sept. 28 and mid-October. For now, those who were in the room remain optimistic. "I think last night's deal will be very good for the members when they get a chance to look at the whole issue; all of the issues," Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told your host Thursday. MORE MARTY MUSINGS... "'Could have gone either way': Railroad union deal barely survived," from our Ben White and your host ...AND OTHER POST-DEAL REPORTING: " US Rail-Union Deal Showcases Labor Angst Extending Beyond Wages," from Bloomberg
| | | FIRST IN SHIFT: A new poll from Paid Leave for All Action and Global Strategy Group found that more than 8 in 10 voters in battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — support a federal paid leave policy ahead of the midterm elections. That's a double-digit increase over the last year. In fact, candidates opposing both paid leave and abortion rights hand their opponent a 35-point edge overall and a 56-point edge with suburban women, the poll found. Party breakdown: Nearly three-quarters of independents and 68 percent Republicans support paid family, parental, and medical leave. The 81 percent overall support for paid leave exceeds support for other high-profile initiatives, like student debt forgiveness (51 percent support) and raising taxes on large corporations (72 percent). Roe fallout: The recent Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade played a large role in swaying voters, according to the groups. One-third of battleground voters have become more supportive of paid leave policies since the decision. "Voters have always supported paid leave, but over the last year that support and urgency has magnified," said Dawn Huckelbridge, director of Paid Leave for All Action. "In the aftermath of Dobbs, candidates who fight for both families and freedom will be rewarded at the ballot box." "This data doesn't just tell us that paid leave remains an overwhelmingly popular policy — it tells us that paid leave is a motivator for progressive base voters and persuadable women voters across the political spectrum." WATCH: Your host will be moderating a panel later this week on the anniversary of California's first-of-its-kind paid leave program. Tune in. DEMS, GOP ROLL OUT COMPETING CARE PLANS: In potential deference to the trends above, GOP Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Rep. Ashley Hinson (Iowa) and Democratic Reps. Dean Phillips (Minn.) and Rosa DeLauro (Conn.) rolled out their respective parties' messaging bills on care policy last Thursday. Democrats' "Providing Real Opportunities and Lifelong Investments For Everyone Act" or PRO-LIFE Act — first previewed for POLITICO — includes policies that progressives fought unsuccessfully to include in the party-line tax, climate and health care bill that was signed into law earlier this summer, such as a restoration of the enhanced child tax credit, national minimums for paid family and medical leave and an expansion of postpartum Medicaid coverage to a full year nationwide. Republicans' "Providing for Life Act" would also expand the child tax credit, as well as the tax credit for adoptive parents, among other things. It also includes a bill Rubio introduced earlier this year as an alternative to Democrats' paid leave proposals, which would allow parents to dip into their Social Security to fund paid parental leave. Progressives met the latter with intense scrutiny akin to when Rubio first rolled out that bill. "Rubio's proposal forces parents without any other paid leave option now to bother against their own future financial security — without providing for adequate wage replacement or any guarantee of job protection," Vicki Shabo, who studies paid leave at the left-leaning New America, told Weekly Shift. "This is not paid leave." "It's beyond comprehension that politicians across the aisle have failed to embrace the tested, comprehensive paid family and medical leave program model that's in 11 states and D.C."
| | | | JOIN THURSDAY FOR A GLOBAL INSIDER INTERVIEW : From climate change to public health emergencies and a gloomy global economic outlook, the world continues to deal with overlapping crises. How do we best confront all of these issues? Join POLITICO Live on Thursday, Sept. 22 at 10:30 a.m. EDT for a virtual conversation with Global Insider author Ryan Heath, featuring World Bank President David Malpass, to explore what it will take to restore global stability and avoid a prolonged recession. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | TENSION AT THE VA: The union that represents workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs has soured on the agency's top negotiator and is openly lobbying members of the administration and Congress to get him replaced. The American Federation of Government Employees is singling out the VA's Kurt Martin, accusing him of being an active hindrance to the collective bargaining process, and the union has lodged several grievances to the Federal Labor Relations Authority in recent months alleging that he's bargaining in bad faith and making impermissible proposals. "I don't want to castigate the department as a whole," AFGE's Bill Wetmore told Weekly Shift. "Right now our feeling is that Martin is rogue and doing things on his own." Though the Biden administration wants to thaw the iciness that developed between the federal government and its workforce during the Trump years, the VA is one of several agencies where the respective union has been upset with how that's played out in practice. (The EEOC is another such raw nerve.) Wetmore said that the sides have made little progress since bargaining picked up in March, laying blame at Martin's feet. As a result, AFGE said they have been raising their concerns to folks at the VA, White House and Congress in order to get them to take a closer look at how negotiations are being handled. AFGE's existing collective bargaining agreement was signed in 2011 , and the union's membership rejected a management-friendly update drawn up during the Trump administration. The VA did not respond to a request to comment Friday.
| | | A COMMON THREAD: Worker shortages are fueling America's biggest labor crises in sectors like health care, education and transportation, The Washington Post's Abha Bhattarai points out in her latest. "With more than 11 million job openings and only 6 million unemployed workers, employers have struggled for more than a year to hire enough people to fill their ranks," Bhattarai writes. "That mismatch has left employees frustrated and burnt out, and is fueling a new round of power struggles on the job." "While the railway dispute … has garnered the most attention, a number of other strikes are spreading across the United States. Some 15,000 nurses walked out of the job in Minnesota this week, and health-care workers in Michigan and Oregon have recently authorized strikes. Seattle teachers called off a week-long strike, delaying the start of the school year." RELATED: " Strikes Becoming More Common Amid Inflation, Tight Labor Market," from The Wall Street Journal
| | | UPS, UNION REACH AGREEMENT: UPS and its aircraft mechanics union have reached a deal for a three-year contract extension with pay increases and benefit improvements after several months of negotiations, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Kelly Yamanouchi reports. "Labor relations for airline workers including the UPS aircraft mechanics are governed by the Railway Labor Act — which covers both airlines and railroads that are crucial to the nation's transportation infrastructure and is more restrictive on the ability to strike than the broader National Labor Relations Act. Those restrictions can prompt unions to be more likely to agree to a deal, as railroad unions just did to avert a national strike, and as the UPS aircraft mechanics union did."
| | | FAST FOOD EMPLOYERS FIGHT NEW CALIFORNIA BILL: The fast-food industry is seeking to overturn a new law in California that will establish an industry council for the sector on wage standards, safety regulations and more, The Guardian's Michael Sainato reports. "As workers are now organizing to collect signatures to create the councils, the fast-food industry is mobilizing to try to overturn the law, claiming it will harm businesses and lead to a 20% increase in menu prices due to possible wage increases to up to $22 an hour in 2023. The industry also claims the law will not bolster worker protections." "The law is set to come into effect on 1 January 2023, but could be delayed if a referendum vote is allowed to move forward. If the referendum request is accepted by California's attorney general, the groups backing the referendum would have until 1 April 2023 to collect roughly 623,000 valid voter signatures to qualify for the 2024 state ballot." MORE STATE NEWS: " Michigan lawmakers weighing new job attraction spending bill ahead of election," from the Detroit News.
| | | MIGRANT TUG-OF-WAR: Leaders across the political spectrum agreed on Sunday that migrants sent to northern cities from the southern border had been used to make a political point, but they differed on the ethics of the issue — and who they said should take any blame, our Olivia Olander reports. The sending of migrants to New York by Republican governors is "a humanitarian crisis created by human hands," New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on CNN's "State of the Union." Republican leaders have said they are merely distributing around the nation the burden of those arriving from Venezuela and elsewhere. MORE IMMIGRATION NEWS: "Kirsten Gillibrand wants to send NYC migrants upstate so cities could get federal funds," from the New York Post
| | | — "Do Wages Drive Prices, or Vice Versa? The Answer Matters for Interest Rates," from The Wall Street Journal — "Nurse 'Trapped' in Job Sues Over Contract That Punishes Quitters," from Bloomberg — " Quiet Quitting Is a Fake Trend," from the Atlantic — "That's not a real job opening: Some companies are posting 'ghost jobs' but don't actually plan to hire you — or anyone," from Business Insider — "The Price People With Hard-to-Pronounce Names Pay in the Job Market," from The Wall Street Journal — "New York City is getting closer to the tipping point in return to office work," from CNBC — "It's White-Collar Jobs That Are at Risk in the Next Recession," from Bloomberg THAT'S ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT! | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
Comments
Post a Comment