Keith Ellison Slams Trump Scheme to Resurrect Child Labor

Keith Ellison is calling into question a Trump-led Department of Labor scheme to loosen rules around child labor laws.

Mark Gruenberg
By Mark Gruenberg
A 16-year-old worker harvests tobacco on a farm in Kentucky. Marcus Beasdale | Human Rights Watch

Teenagers in coal mines. Kids driving forklifts. 17-year-olds operating heavy and dangerous machinery with little training. All of that could be possible under a Trump Labor Department plan to consider relaxing the rules governing child labor. And Rep. Keith Ellison, DFL-Minn., is asking questions – lots of questions. He doesn’t like

Read Full Article

Trump’s Ethics Rules Let A Lobbyist Help Run An Agency He Lobbied

President Trump’s executive order on ethics also cites a section of the law that doesn’t exist.

Justin Elliot
By Justin Elliot
Donald Trump looks on during a roundtable discussion with labor leaders and union members at American Legion Post 610, Monday, Sept. 5, 2016, in Brook Park, Ohio. (AP/Evan Vucci)

(ANALYSIS) --- Geoff Burr spent much of the last decade as the chief lobbyist for a powerful construction industry trade group. Burr sought to influence a host of regulations of the Department of Labor, opposing wage standards for federal construction contracts and working against an effort to limit workers' exposure to dangerous silica dust. In

Read Full Article

How Trump Could Kill A Plan To Get You Overtime Pay

A rule that could get overtime pay for four million workers is in limbo, and Trump will help decide whether it survives.

Justin Elliot
By Justin Elliot
In this Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013 photo, 16-year veteran skycap Fred Harris prepares multiple baggage tags for a traveler at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in SeaTac, Wash. There's a campaign underway to raise the minimum wage to $15 for the more than 6,300 jobs at Seattle's largest airport. If approved by voters on Nov. 5, the wage rate, as well as sick days and other benefits, would only apply to the city of SeaTac. The vote is one of the latest flashpoints in the national debate over the minimum wage after fast food workers and others held a series of summertime rallies to bring attention to their struggle to earn a living. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

(ANALYSIS) -- Donald Trump ran for president as the billionaire who would champion working people. As the president-elect put it in one of the major economic speeches of his campaign: "Too many of our leaders have forgotten that it's their duty to protect the jobs, wages and well-being of American workers before any other consideration." One

Read Full Article

Despite Popular Support, States Move To Block Legislated Sick Days

The preemption laws against paid sick leave requirements fly in the face of bipartisan public support.

Jo Erickson
By Jo Erickson

Flying just under the political radar in state politics is the issue of paid sick days. Ten states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin — have passed preemption laws that ban all cities and counties from enacting paid sick days bills, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg:

Read Full Article

New Labor Secretary Has Workers’ Rights Advocates Feeling Optimistic

Thomas Perez, who joins the Department of Labor after heading the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, has an excellent track record on workers’ issues.

Carissa Wyant
By Carissa Wyant

“Today is my first day as the secretary of labor, and I couldn't be more eager to get down to work,” newly appointed Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said last week. Perez is the first and only Latino appointed to President Obama's second-term cabinet. Formerly Assistant U.S. Attorney General, his nomination yielded much optimism given his prior work

Read Full Article