It was costing the administration around half a million dollars. That, in and of itself, is not something that can bridge this kind of a gap, but it's an indication of the ways in which money has been spent while refusing to account for the actual costs of what these programs are.
Five days after Oakland's City Council voted to drop a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines, the Oakland airport's biggest carrier, for allegedly denying workers paid sick leave, Mayor Barbara Lee met with Southwest's CEO to talk business. A spokesman for Lee's office told The Oaklandside that the mayor met virtually with Southwest CEO Robert Jordan and the company's government affairs staff on Oct. 28 to "discuss partnerships to promote Oakland Airport."
The workers, backed by the union, filed class-action lawsuits in Illinois and Colorado, and filed complaints with California's Labor and Workforce Development Agency in a push for the agency to penalize the coffee chain. According to the lawsuits, Colorado state law prohibits employers from imposing expenses on workers without the workers' consent. Meanwhile, several plaintiffs say they asked their employer to reimburse them for funds they spent on new clothing, but their requests were denied.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that religious colleges are not under the purview of federal labor laws and need not recognize unions. Many religious colleges have chosen to do so voluntarily anyway. But in recent years, several educational institutions - now including Loyola Marymount - have claimed the religious exemption suddenly and without warning, effectively using it to shut down established faculty unions that they had previously recognized.
The White House issued an executive order at the end of last week that added NASA to the National Security Exclusions list. Being on the list means that NASA employees no longer have the same protections under US federal labor laws. Union rights have been stripped away, meaning that collective bargaining and negotiation regarding potential cuts will not be possible under the order. The move also repudiates existing collective bargaining agreements.
Petitions for union elections with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) doubled from 2021 to 2025. Workers have formed their first-ever unions at big companies, including Amazon, Starbucks, Trader Joe's, and REI. And people in the United States support unions more now than they have in decades: 70 percent of those surveyed in a Gallup poll approve of labor unions, the highest since 1965.
When state legislation starts dictating to a business - and I know that this government has been referred to as a dictatorship in recent years - as to how they should run their business, then it's going to make me question whether or not where you're based is where you should be based,
In recent courtroom decisions, judges expressed frustration with the constant reference to Moore's Federal Practice, suggesting it should not be a primary resource for legal staff. The expectation is for professionals to rely more on precedent and case law rather than textbooks.
The Patent Office Professional Association (POPA) has filed a charge against the USPTO regarding denied representation during discussions about employee policies, alleging violation of fair labor practices.
