| | | | |  | | By Olivia Olander | | | — New year, same appropriations tussles. — Labor’s hopes and dreams for manufacturing and construction workers in 2024. — And the death of “worker-centered” trade. GOOD MORNING. It’s Wednesday, Jan. 3. Welcome back to Morning Shift, your go-to tipsheet on labor and employment-related immigration. Send feedback, tips and exclusives to nniedzwiadek@politico.com and oolander@politico.com. Follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @NickNiedz and @oliviaolanderr. 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.
| | CIRCLING BACK : Lawmakers this month will once again face appropriations negotiations, including for labor agencies’ funding. The bill including funding for the Labor Department and National Labor Relations Board is embroiled with other non-defense bills in a fight over major proposed cuts, which Democrats have tried to soften with a handshake deal for “emergency” cash, our Caitlin Emma and Jennifer Scholtes report. Lawmakers departed last month without agreeing to overall spending numbers, a critical early step from which negotiations can still last several weeks, they note. Both Democrats and some Republicans are already rejecting a potential stopgap plan from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Caitlin and Jennifer report. Some lawmakers have balked at the idea of passing an omnibus appropriations bill. But the last time lawmakers didn’t use that strategy, Caitlin and Jennifer report, there was a record-breaking partial shutdown under the Trump administration. ICYMI: Our colleague Jordan Williams analyzed the WIOA reauthorization and short-term Pell bills, both of which are awaiting further consideration in the House. LACING UP TO LOBBY: A coalition of college sports collectives, key players in paying college athletes, has retained federal lobbyists for the first time, our colleague Caitlin Oprysko reports. The lobbyists include Tidal Basin Advisors’ Jesse McCollum, a former longtime Democratic lobbyist for Nike, Caitlin reports. The collectives are entities that facilitate payments to players, made legal by the 2021 NCAA rule changes allowing players to profit off their own fame. Critics have accused them of encouraging pay-to-play and gender inequities, Caitlin notes.
| | | | NEW UNION RESOLUTIONS: This year will be a critical one for manufacturing and construction unions, as they try to reap the benefits of Biden administration-backed energy, infrastructure and tech initiatives, Olivia reports. But actually converting new jobs into widespread union membership will be a challenge, and much of the subsidies are expected to go straight to states with anti-union “right-to-work” laws. The task is especially tough for production workers, as unions seek to have organized labor producing Teslas, batteries and cutting-edge semiconductors. “We’re kind of thinking of it as a new New Deal,” said Mariana Padias, assistant director of organizing at the United Steelworkers. Other unions including the IUE-CWA and United Auto Workers have already started to get in on the action, Olivia reports.
| | BACKLASH AT HOME ON GLOBAL TRADE: President Joe Biden has failed to sell “worker-centered” trade policy to key Democrats — particularly vulnerable Midwesterners on the Hill — rendering him vulnerable to backlash at the ballot box, our Gavin Bade reports. A series of trade setbacks “reveal that Biden and Democrats still fear that trade initiatives, even those framed as ‘worker centered,’ could be an electoral liability in battleground states that Trump wooed with a protectionist message in 2016,” Gavin reports. “The politics on this are a bit less nuanced and more anti-trade than some folks in the administration had been thinking when they embarked on this endeavor,” said Peter Harrell, who previously led the international economics team on Biden’s National Security Council. “At the end of the day the voter in Dayton, [Ohio], looks at this and says: trade deals have been bad for me, I don’t want more trade deals. This sounds an awful lot like a trade deal, and I’m against it.” More around the agencies: “Both sides are bracing for escalation in the war over ESG,” from our Jordan Wolman.
| | | $6.95 BILLION RAISE: An increase in minimum wage in 22 states, effective Jan. 1, raised pay for nearly 10 million workers, according to an analysis from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. The wage boosts will disproportionately affect Black and Hispanic workers, who make up a greater share of workers receiving raises than of the workforce overall, according to EPI. Tukwila, Washington — population approximately 21,000 — will have the highest minimum wage in the country this year, at $20.29, according to EPI. Meanwhile, Chicago joined a handful of other jurisdictions, including D.C., in starting to phase out tipped minimum wage. This year, seven states will have met or exceeded the $15 minimum wage advocates long fought for, according to a separate analysis by the left-leaning National Employment Law Project, while some activists have pushed for even greater gains. Federal lawmakers last year introduced legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 or even $17, but those proposals have faced opposition from fiscal conservatives. Twenty states still use the federal minimum wage of $7.25.
| | ‘ILLICIT DRUG TRAFFICKING’: Immigrants working in cannabis are facing designation as drug traffickers by federal officials, even in states where it’s been legalized, contributor Kaylee Tornay reports. That disparity at times has jeopardized dreams of citizenship. President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security “has not changed how immigration proceedings judge cannabis work,” Kaylee reports. Despite widespread legalization and booming industry at the state level, immigrants in the industry still face consequences ranging from denial of citizenship and lifetime bans from lawful permanent residency to deportation, she reports. More immigration news: “Outgoing Silicon Valley lawmaker says big tech needs immigration reform,” from our Kelly Garrity.
| | | Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su delivers remarks on wages and jobs, and meets with hospitality workers of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 in Las Vegas. Vice President Kamala Harris also delivers remarks. At 10 a.m. The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases job openings and labor turnover survey for November.
| | — “How a ‘Well-Intentioned’ Tax Credit Became a Colossal Mess,” from The Wall Street Journal. — “Delta Throttles Back on Pilot Hiring,” from The Wall Street Journal. — “Blue-collar workers won big in 2023, defying bleak predictions,” from The Washington Post. THAT’S YOUR SHIFT!
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