| | | | |  | | By Nick Niedzwiadek | With help from Eleanor Mueller and Lawrence Ukenye
| | FIRST IN SHIFT: Eight in 10 voters want politicians to prioritize investing more in caregiving policies like paid leave and tax credits, a Morning Consult poll out today from Melinda French Gates’ company Pivotal Ventures and Bipartisan Policy Center’s political arm found. That includes both policymakers and candidates. In fact, a majority of Democrats and Republicans say it is important they know a candidate’s position on caregiving before they vote, the poll found — and that they would be more likely to vote for a candidate based on it. The results are in line with previous polling on paid leave. Authors say they hope the new data spurs more focus on caregiving ahead of November — including during this week’s presidential debate. “I’m hopeful that this can help prove to candidates that they need to be talking about it, and that they need to be coming up with new solutions,” Bipartisan Policy Center fellow Adrienne Schweer told Shift. “Because voters are looking for it — and they're responding to it.” Pivotal Ventures funded the poll as part of Gates’ 2019 pledge to spend $1 billion over 10 years to advance women’s rights. Gates announced last month that she would donate another $1 billion over the next two years. “We see caregiving as this key barrier that holds women back,” Pivotal Ventures Vice President of Program Strategy Renee Kuriyan Wittemyer told Shift, and “data as core to the way we can push solutions; to unlock funding; to build political power.” The U.S. invested heavily in paid leave, child care and more during the pandemic before allowing much of that spending to lapse. The policies have since seen little momentum despite the maneuverings of a bipartisan working group and prodding from the White House (a far narrower child care proposal may hitch a ride on the farm bill). House Democrats recently began dusting off paid leave proposals with an eye on next session. Who is affected: One in 4 voters regularly care for family members right now, the poll found. That bumps up to 1 in 3 for younger voters — who were also more likely to say that caregiving should be a “top priority.” The economic hit: About 1 in 3 caregivers say they have been unable to save for emergencies or retirement as a result. One in 4 say they’ve declined a promotion or other opportunity. About 1 in 4 quit work entirely. Where are employers? About 1 in 3 voters say that their employers offer paid leave. About 1 in 5 say that their employers offer financial assistance for child care. The policy breakdown: Voters were most likely to support investments in paid leave and tax credits. They were less likely to support increased child care subsidies and new parent bonuses. — Eleanor Mueller GOOD MORNING. It’s Monday, June 24. 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 lukenye@politico.com. Follow us on X at @NickNiedz and @Lawrence_Ukenye.
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| | NOW BOARDING: The top Republican on the Senate HELP Committee is urging Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to hold a full confirmation hearing for a pair of nominees for the National Labor Relations Board. President Joe Biden in May nominated Chair Lauren McFerran for another five-year term on the board, where she’s served since 2014, as well as management-side labor lawyer Joshua Ditelberg to fill a Republican slot that’s been vacant since December 2022. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) wants the opportunity to grill McFerran over a series of board actions during her time as chair that Cassidy says were overly favorable to workers and labor unions at the expense of employers. “Her clear preference for unions, bias against employers, and glaring indifference toward the rights of workers who do not actively want a labor union to represent them requires accountability,” Cassidy wrote in a letter Friday. “This Committee should come together to question Chair McFerran about her tenure on the Board, as well as to question Mr. Ditelberg about his qualifications and his beliefs about the role and purpose of the NLRB.” HELP Republicans made a similar demand earlier this year regarding acting Labor Secretary Julie Su’s nomination and fumed when Sanders and committee Democrats instead voted in February to advance her without a new hearing. (A confirmation hearing for Su was held last spring.) A spokesperson for Sanders did not return a request for comment.
| | PLAYING THE FIELD: Teamsters union General President Sean O'Brien will be a guest at the Republican National Convention next month, with a speaking role that sharply contrasts with other labor leaders' embrace of President Joe Biden, Nick reports. Former President Donald Trump announced the appearance by O'Brien, whose union hasn't made an endorsement yet, on his social media platform. O’Brien has sought a similar role at Democrats’ convention in Chicago the following month, though planners say no final decisions have been made for their event. “We are building a convention in Chicago that will tell our story to the American people, including the stories of labor and union leaders and workers that President Biden has been delivering for as the most pro-union president in modern history,” Matt Hill, the Democratic National Convention’s senior director of communications told our Shia Kapos.
| | | | Understand 2024’s big impacts with Pro’s extensive Campaign Races Dashboard, exclusive insights, and key coverage of federal- and state-level debates. Focus on policy. Learn more. | | | | | | | | | FDIC LOOKS INWARD: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced Friday it will revamp its process for handling employee harassment and discrimination complaints in the wake of an external review that found the agency had failed to address years of pervasive misconduct, our Michael Stratford reports for Pro subscribers. The FDIC board signed off on the creation of two, new independent offices as part of a “fundamental structural” overhaul of how the agency addresses complaints from employees. The Office of Professional Conduct will investigate and address complaints of harassment and retaliation. A second new unit, the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, will handle complaints and investigate possible violations of federal anti-discrimination laws. Opinion: “We have run federal agencies. Here’s what the civil service needs,” by Mike Hayden, James Loy, J. Michael McConnell, John Negroponte and Sean O’Keefe for the Washington Post.
| | BEATING THE HEAT: California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health board approved a rule Thursday to protect workers from indoor heat, making California the third state in the country to do so, our Blanca Begert reports for POLITICO’s E&E News. The rules were modeled closely after California’s outdoor heat regulations, established in 2005, which set temperature targets at which point employers have to provide cooling stations, rest breaks, monitor workers for signs of heat illness and implement other protective measures. Under the new indoor standards, when temperatures hit 82 degrees Fahrenheit, employers need to provide cooling areas with water and encourage employees to use them if needed. At 87 degrees, employers have to take additional measures to protect workers if they can’t cool the area, like changing worker schedules to cooler times of day, reducing work intensity and speed, rotating workers on shorter shifts, and supplying personal cooling fans and vests as a last resort. More workplace news: "Workers sue Disney claiming they were fraudulently induced to move to Florida from California," from The Associated Press.
| | | MALLEABLE MESSAGING: Donald Trump privately hinted at a shift in immigration policy at a Business Roundtable meeting recently. He told the group “we need brilliant people” in this country, according to one of the attendees, who was granted anonymity to describe a private meeting, our Meridith McGraw, Adam Wren, Natalie Allison and Adam Cancryn report. The public move came a week later: On “The All-In Podcast” on Thursday, Trump said foreign nationals who graduate from U.S. colleges and universities should “automatically” be given a green card upon graduation. Trump’s latest comments on visas did not come out of the ether, but evinced an evolution on immigration, an issue that has been a raison d'être of his political story. When he spoke to the Business Roundtable, some of the titans of the tech industry seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when Trump appeared to support keeping high-skilled immigrants in the United States. More immigration news: “New $72,000 migrant smuggling routes to the U.S. start with charter flights,” Reuters and Columbia Journalism Investigations.
| | — “The Deadly Mining Complex Powering the EV Revolution,” from Bloomberg. — “Delivery Drivers Got Higher Wages. Now They’re Getting Fewer Orders,” from The Wall Street Journal. — “Film Crew Veteran, Injured in an Accident, Faults Amazon for His Pain,” from The New York Times. THAT’S YOUR SHIFT! | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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