Latest news with #BreakRoom
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Building trades hold out hope for data center tax breaks in Minnesota budget — and other labor news
Construction continues on the sprawling Rosemount Data Center on land bought by Meta near Dakota County Technical College, shown Thursday, May 29, 2025. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer) Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: Building trades push for data center tax incentives; head of violence intervention nonprofit charged with felony wage theft; Trump flips on Nippon-U.S. Steel deal; Planned Parenthood lays off 66 workers; judge dismisses lawsuit challenging holiday pay for nursing home workers; and trade war hurts global jobs outlook. With Democrats and Republicans at an impasse over an infrastructure spending package for the third year in a row, building trade unions are banking on lawmakers extending tax breaks for data centers to spur investment in high-paying construction jobs. The push comes as President Trump's federal funding cuts and ongoing trade war, compounded by high interest rates, have soured the economic outlook for construction jobs. 'There's not a surplus of work right now,' said Richard Kolodziejski, government affairs director for the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters. Building one large data center can cost upwards of $1 billion, dwarfing the roughly $700 million bonding bill Minnesota lawmakers could authorize this year to pay for water treatment plants, roads and other infrastructure. The building trades unions warn that Minnesota will lose jobs to neighboring states if it doesn't compete on tax breaks to entice tech giants like Amazon and Meta to build data centers. The tax incentives also help justify prevailing wage requirements, which ensures much of the construction will be done by union workers. But some progressive lawmakers chafe at the idea of giving tax breaks to some of the richest companies in the world while the state stares down a looming budget deficit. They aren't convinced these projects wouldn't be built anyways given the state's cold climate and strong economy. 'I understand not wanting to give tax breaks to the wealthy, but those are the folks creating the jobs,' said Tom Dicklich, executive director of the Minnesota State Building & Construction Trades Council. One hyperscale data center costing $750 million creates upwards of 1,800 construction jobs and 300 ongoing operational jobs, according to a 2022 report on Wisconsin by Mangum Economics, which has produced similar reports sponsored by tech and energy companies for Virginia and Illinois. A coalition of building trades unions, energy companies and other businesses cited that report in a letter to lawmakers urging them to extend the sales tax exemption on software, servers and other equipment used to power the data centers. The growing cost of tax breaks for data centers has vexed public sector unions, who see the lost revenue cutting into funding for the schools, nursing homes and state agencies where their members work. The public sector unions — SEIU, Education Minnesota, AFSCME, MAPE and Inter Faculty Organization — signed onto a letter opposing an early version of the bill (HF1277) backed by the building trade unions, pointing out that the cost of the sales tax exemption has increased by more than 20-fold since 2018. That cost is expected to continue to rise, reaching $219 million in forgone sales tax revenue on servers, software and other equipment in fiscal year 2029. It was a rare instance of discord among unions who are typically disciplined about being unified in public, despite their many differences across industries. Member unions of the Minnesota AFL-CIO had signed onto a resolution in support of sales tax exemptions for constructing data centers, but the bill that was introduced in February went further. It extended sales tax exemptions on electricity and allowed data centers to claim the sales tax exemption up front rather than through a rebate, which creates a public record of how much sales tax was lost. 'It would be one thing, if the unions were upfront, that this bill is good for their members … Unfortunately, they want the rest of the Labor Movement to support their lobbying efforts and to call tax cuts for billionaires a 'pro-labor' bill. This we cannot do,' SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa President Jamie Gulley wrote in a post to his members in April, explaining his opposition. The debate was so contentious, Gulley wrote that one unnamed trade union to threaten to leave the AFL-CIO. The building trades counter that data centers add to state coffers through other taxes, including income taxes paid by their members. 'We don't have line items in the state budget that goes directly to the building trades,' Dicklich said. 'Where we can get work, we have to go after that.' Amazon announced amid the ongoing negotiations at the Legislature that the company is suspending plans for a big data center in Becker, the Star Tribune reported. Bishop Harding Smith, the head of the violence intervention nonprofit Minnesota Acts Now, was charged with felony wage theft and theft by swindle in Hennepin County on Thursday for allegedly pocketing $150,000 from a county contract intended to go to workers' wages. While wage theft is common, charges are still relatively rare even since Minnesota made it a felony in 2019. The first felony wage theft conviction was handed down just last month to a painting contractor for stealing more than $35,000 in wages from workers on an affordable housing project in Minneapolis. 'Bishop Harding Smith failed to pay his employees what he agreed to as part of the contract with Hennepin County and then lied about it when seeking payroll expense reimbursements,' Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement announcing the charges. 'As I said when our office secured the state's first wage theft conviction, this behavior will not be tolerated.' According to the charging document, Harding signed a contract with Hennepin County in 2021 in which he would be an unpaid volunteer and would pay all other workers $35 an hour. The contract was later updated to increase the contract amount to more than $550,000 and provide Harding with a $35 an hour wage. Investigators found most employees were paid $20 an hour even though he billed the county as if they were paid $35 an hour. Harding admitted to investigators that he did not pay workers what they were entitled to but denied fraudulent intent, according to the complaint. In a rare instance of unanimity on the campaign trail last year, both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump opposed Japanese-owned Nippon's $14.1 billion bid to purchase U.S. Steel. The politics were simple: The United Steelworkers, representing tens of thousands of workers in purple states like Pennsylvania, fiercely opposed the deal. And in a campaign fought over blue collar workers, supporting a foreign company taking over an icon of American industry would have been unthinkable. Now back in the Oval Office, President Trump has seemingly flipped on his opposition to the deal, writing on his social media platform last Friday that there will be a 'planned partnership' between the two steel giants Trump said U.S. Steel would remain in America with its headquarters in Pittsburgh, and the deal would create 70,000 jobs. It's unclear how a 'planned partnership' would be different than a buyout, and as The American Prospect noted, the U.S. Steel website describes the deal as a merger. United Steelworkers President Dave McCall sent a letter to members, which include 3,500 workers in Minnesota, reiterating his concerns. 'Throughout recent months, as the public conversation has turned to Nippon 'investing' in U.S. Steel or 'partnering with' U.S. Steel, Nippon has maintained consistently that it would only invest in U.S. Steel's facilities if it owned the company outright. We've seen nothing in the reporting over the past few days suggesting that Nippon has walked back from this position,' he wrote. Federal funding cuts are forcing Planned Parenthood North Central States to close eight clinics across Minnesota and Iowa this summer, laying off 66 workers and reassigning three dozen more. The health system, which is the main abortion provider in Minnesota, announced the closures on Friday afternoon, blaming a $2.8 million freeze in Title X funding in Minnesota that supports sexual and reproductive health. The organization also cited the near total abortion ban in Iowa following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade and House Republicans' 'big beautiful bill,' which defunds Planned Parenthood and makes cuts to Medicaid, which subsidizes care for more than 30% of its patients. More than 400 workers at the Planned Parenthood affiliate, which covers Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas, unionized with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa in 2022 and ratified their first labor contract last year. Megan Amato, a longtime licensed practical nurse in Iowa and Nebraska, said she was devastated by the news in a statement shared by the union. 'When I started 18 years ago, we had 17 clinics in Iowa. After these closures we will be down to two,' Amato said. 'I am the only person who does my job in the whole state and I worry about what that means for the future of abortion care in Iowa.' None of the clinics slated to close in Minnesota provide abortion care, but do provide birth control, education and other health care services. PPNCS said it will continue investing in telemedicine to serve patients, which includes medication abortion for patients with a Minnesota address. In a victory for Minnesota's new Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by two industry groups challenging the board's authority to mandate that nursing homes pay workers time-and-a-half on 11 holidays. The lawsuit was the first legal challenge to the board since the Legislature created it in 2023 to set minimum pay and working standards for nursing home workers across the state. The International Labour Organization cut its global employment forecast by 7 million jobs as President Trump's trade war roils the world economy. The United Nations agency previously projected the world would add 60 million jobs in 2025, revising it down to 53 million jobs this week. According to the report, nearly 84 million jobs across 71 countries are directly or indirectly tied to consumer demand in the United States, which is being throttled by uncertainty and higher prices from Trump's tariffs. A federal appeals court on Thursday reinstated Trump's 'reciprocal' tariffs after the U.S. Court of International Trade paused them on Wednesday. The International Labour Organization also reported that the share of the world's gross domestic product going to workers globally ticked down over the past decade from 53% to 52.4%. In other words, less of the world's income is going to the workers generating that income by creating goods and providing services. While the decline is slight, the International Labour Organization estimates it works out to about $290 less per worker in 2024 purchasing power.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bill ending subminimum wages for disabled workers falters in Senate — and other labor news
Nicholas Costanzo, 31, rings up a customer at the Golden Scoop, an ice cream and coffee shop in Overland Park, Kan. Photo by Kevin Hardy/Stateline. Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: Bill to end subminimum wages falters; Republican bill would let workers send union dues to anyone; Hennepin Healthcare resident physicians move to unionize; U.S. Senate confirms Trump's labor secretary; and fired NLRB member returns to work. A bill backed by Gov. Tim Walz to phase out subminimum wages for disabled workers by 2028 barely made it out of the Senate Labor Committee on Tuesday, signaling it's unlikely to make it to the governor's desk this year. Under a federal program known as 14(c) created in the New Deal of the 1930s for disabled soldiers, certain employers can pay less than minimum wages to disabled workers based on their productivity, usually for repetitive tasks like shredding documents or stuffing greeting cards in plastic sleeves in sheltered work environments. Most of these employers are organizations that also provide disability services and supervision. Opponents of the program, including disability rights groups, argue the practice is demeaning and exploitative while often trapping disabled people in menial jobs. 'Subminimum wage is an antiquated system that has continued to survive due to so many ideas that simply aren't true, the worst of which is that people aren't capable of more,' Jillian Nelson, policy director at the Autism Society of Minnesota, told the Senate Labor Committee on Tuesday. But supporters of the program, including many parents of severely disabled workers, say their children truly aren't capable of landing a job in the mainstream workforce. If they were, they would already be working for higher wages. They argue eliminating the subminimum wage will shutter work programs for disabled people, depriving their children of a meaningful experience and the opportunity to earn any wages. James Clapper told the Senate Labor Committee his son, Bob, has made incredible strides in his skills and productivity in the 17 years he's worked under the 14(c) provision, and his hourly wage has increased accordingly from about $2.35 to a little over $9. 'He does require close supervision and has very limited language skills so probably has reached his potential,' Clapper said. 'If 14(c) is eliminated in Minnesota, he will not likely make it to competitive integrated employment and may end up in just life enrichment and volunteer work only, which is unacceptable.' At least 16 states have already eliminated the subminimum wage, while the Biden administration proposed phasing out issuing 14(c) licenses. Minnesota has been moving toward eliminating the program as well, with a state Task Force to Eliminate Subminimum Wages recommending the Legislature end the practice by Aug. 1, 2025. The number of people paid a subminimum wage has been on the decline in recent years — now just over 3,000 workers in Minnesota — in large part because of a concerted effort to move disabled people into mainstream jobs. Some employment service providers like Richfield-based Lifeworks have voluntarily exited the 14(c) program and instead focus on supporting disabled workers in finding and maintaining jobs in the mainstream workforce. Keeri Tramm, director of disability initiatives at LifeWorks, told lawmakers that after the organization made the transition in 2017, some workers moved to competitive employment while others chose to retire or pursue non-work activities. Just one person opted to continue with subminimum wages through a different provider, Tramm said. Last year, the organization helped more than 500 people find or maintain work, with new hires earning on average more than $15 an hour. Yet Republicans and some Democrats remained skeptical that the 14(c) program should be eliminated altogether if it means ending work opportunities for the most severely disabled. 'I want to make sure that these folks have an option to get in the door to employment,' said Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, before voting with Republicans on an amendment that would have effectively killed the proposal. The bill (SF2149), authored by Sen. Jen McEwen, DFL-Duluth, was sent to the health and human services committee without a recommendation for its passage. Five Minnesota House Republicans introduced a bill to let union members send their dues to any 'national, state or local organization of their choice.' It's a unique variation on so-called right to work laws, enacted in 26 other states, that make paying union fees optional. In Minnesota, private sector workers covered by union labor agreements must at least pay 'fair share fees' to support the cost of the union's collective bargaining. The bill (HF2240) is certain to fail in an evenly divided House and Democratic-controlled Senate but nevertheless sends a message about Republicans' priorities should they win control of state government. Republicans have enjoyed a growing base of support among working-class voters even while sticking to a traditionally conservative policy agenda on unions, the minimum wage and worker safety laws. Labor leaders say the bill is an attempt to hurt unions by siphoning away funds they use to negotiate contracts, challenge unfair labor practices, organize new workers and lobby for worker-friendly legislation. 'What it comes down to is they want less power for unions,' said Brad Lehto, secretary-treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO. Proponents of right to work say requiring workers to pay any fees as a condition of employment at a unionized job infringes on workers' freedoms and forces them to bankroll political activities they may not agree with. The bill's lead author, Rep. Ben Bakeberg, a Republican school administrator from Jordan, was not available for comment. The bill includes public sector workers, although it would have no meaningful effect on them. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME that public employees could not be required to pay union fees because it infringed on their right to free speech. Since then, public sector unions have seen a significant drop in membership, though not as much as expected and they continue to be an influential force. About one-third of public-sector workers are union members nationally, about five times as high as the private sector, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Public sector unions have also seen a surge in new members since the Trump administration launched an unprecedented assault on the size of the federal workforce, with the American Federation of Government Employees growing to a record size. A majority of the more than 200 resident physicians at Hennepin Healthcare announced their intent to unionize on Wednesday, joining a wave of organizing campaigns by doctors and advanced health care providers across the country. Hennepin Healthcare resident physicians say they earn low wages while being pushed to the breaking point during long days treating some of the state's sickest and poorest residents at the major Level I trauma center in downtown Minneapolis. Resident physicians work under the supervision of attending physicians for several years after medical school, often putting in grueling 80-hour weeks. With a starting salary of around $67,000, residents complain they earn around the Minneapolis minimum wage of $15.97 an hour. Attending physicians are not unionized at Hennepin Healthcare, and it's still rare for doctors — traditionally the most privileged and valued of hospital staff — to pursue collective bargaining to improve their wages and conditions. But the consolidation of health care is making doctors increasingly feel more like workers on assembly lines than masters of their own practices. The petition will be reviewed by the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services, which oversees public sector unions. If the agency verifies that a majority of the bargaining unit has signed in support of unionizing, then the union will be certified without holding another election. President Trump's Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer won Senate confirmation on Monday by picking up 17 Democratic votes including from Sen. Amy Klobuchar which more than offset the three Republicans who rejected her nomination. Chavez-DeRemer, a one-term Oregon congresswoman, hopes to bridge the divide between Republicans' growing working-class base and the party's traditional pro-business agenda. The daughter of a Teamster, Chavez-DeRemer had the backing of Teamster President Sean O'Brien, who has curried favor with Trump by speaking at the Republican National Convention and declining to make an endorsement in the 2024 presidential election. Chavez-DeRemeber was a rare Republican co-author of the labor-backed Protecting the Right to Organize Act — PRO Act — which would weaken red states' 'right-to-work' laws. Those laws bar unions from charging fees to non-members who are covered by their collective bargaining agreements. The bill would also add penalties for employers that violate labor law and make it easier for workers to unionize. But during her Senate confirmation hearing, Chavez DeRemer walked back her support for the bill while not fully disavowing it, which did not seem to satisfy ardent supporters or opponents of the bill. Chavez-DeRemer takes the helm of the agency that investigates labor abuses and worker injuries — with the directive to carry-out massive layoffs as the president and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency purge the government of tens of thousands of workers. National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox returned to work on Monday to cheers from supporters after a federal judge ruled that she was illegally fired by Trump, writing that 'an American president is not a king.' The firing paralyzed the board, which oversees union elections and unfair labor practice complaints, because its remaining two members were not enough for a quorum to issue decisions. 'If we can't function … there are people who are waiting every day for our decision,' she told supporters, according to HuffPost. 'So for every day that a decision is not issued, we are really not doing our jobs.' NLRB members are supposed to be shielded from presidential removal, except for neglect or malfeasance. The Trump administration quickly appealed the ruling in a case that could greatly expand presidential power if it goes before the conservative supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mass purge of federal workers creates chaos across agencies — and other labor news
President Trump's purge of federal workers has gutted the ranks of wildland firefighters. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: Mass firings create chaos across federal agencies; HealthPartners office workers announce three-day strike; confirmation uncertain for Trump's secretary of labor pick; and Rep. Michelle Fischbach looks to repeal Biden's nursing home staffing levels. The federal civilian workforce of 2.3 million people is in chaos as the Trump administration's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, led by world's richest man Elon Musk, rips through agencies with indiscriminate firings of upwards of 200,000 employees. The U.S. Department of Agriculture laid off workers responding to the bird flu but is now trying to 'swiftly' rehire them. The Department of Energy laid off about 325 workers who maintain the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal and then rescinded most of the notices. The Department of Health and Human Services laid off 950 Indian Health Services employees before rescinding those notices. A Minnesota worker for the Small Business Administration was fired, then rehired, then fired again in a matter of days, the Star Tribune reported in a story featuring terminated workers at the Voyageurs National Park, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the General Service Administration. The Trump administration has also said 'You're fired' to firefighters, aviation safety workers, disaster response workers and cybersecurity personnel, among thousands of others. Some workers who accepted DOGE's suspiciously generous buy-out offer were fired instead with no severance. It's unclear how many of the roughly 18,000 federal employees in Minnesota have been laid off. The Office of Personnel Management did not respond to a request for data on layoffs affecting Minnesota workers. Unions have tried to intervene, but their lawsuit aiming to block the firings was unsuccessful. The purge of federal workers — which has included many Trump supporters — is worrying some Republican lawmakers, though not enough to do anything more than pleading. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said 'indiscriminate workforce cuts aren't efficient and won't fix the federal budget,' while Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy said he supports downsizing the government but not by firing new FBI agents. The cuts have disproportionately hurt veterans because the federal government is the nation's leading employer of veterans: About 30% of the federal workforce are veterans compared to less than 6% in the private sector. State Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, sent a letter to President Trump asking him to reverse the cuts to the U.S. Forest Service in the Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. 'The decision to cut these positions does not merely affect numbers on a budget sheet — it affects real people, real families, and entire communities that rely on these jobs. It undermines the efforts of those who have committed their lives to public service, often at the cost of personal sacrifice, and diminishes the well-being of the very communities they serve,' Hauschild wrote. The union representing some 1,000 HealthPartners office support workers announced a three-day strike beginning March 3 at approximately 30 facilities unless they reach a deal on a new contract. Front desk workers and other office support employees with OPEIU Local 12 voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike earlier this month, citing 'drastic' increases to workers' health care costs. Other unions have said their members could refuse to cross picket lines, potentially disrupting deliveries and other operations at the health system. The union is seeking to protect workers' health care benefits and seniority protections, along with pay raises and adding Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth as holidays. OPEIU Local 12 President Devin Hogan said workers have struggled with low wages: 'It is unacceptable for one of the largest companies in Minnesota to pay such low wages to frontline workers that they have to rely on food banks to feed their families.' A spokesman for HealthPartners said they are 'committed to staying at the bargaining table to reach a fair and financially responsible agreement with the union' and noted they will meet again next week. Trump's pick for secretary of labor Lori Chavez DeRemer faces an uncertain path to confirmation in the Senate after appearing not quite anti-union enough to lock in unified Republican support, but not pro-labor enough to win enough Democratic votes to make up the difference. Chavez DeRemer, a Republican and daughter of a longtime Teamster, hopes to be a bridge connecting the Republican Party's traditional pro-business coalition to its growing base of working-class supporters. Her nomination brought together strange bedfellows: Teamsters President Sean O'Brien and Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin. Mullin once challenged O'Brien to a fight in a Senate committee hearing, but the pair united behind Chavez DeRemer. The three appeared in a video together on Wednesday, with Mullin saying they have a good relationship — adding that if he and O'Brien were in a relationship, he would be 'the man.' During her single term representing Oregon in the House, Chavez DeRemer was a rare Republican co-author on the labor-backed Protecting the Right to Organize Act — PRO Act — which would weaken red states' 'right-to-work' laws, which bar unions from charging fees to non-members who are covered by their collective bargaining agreements. The bill would also add penalties for employers who violate labor law and make it easier for workers to unionize. But during her Wednesday Senate confirmation hearing, Chavez DeRemer walked back her support for the bill while not fully disavowing it, which did not seem to satisfy ardent supporters or opponents of the bill. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, previously said he'll vote against her and predicted more than a dozen other Republicans will join him, though he later said he may reconsider given her disavowal of eliminating right-to-work laws. Chavez DeRemer also defended Trump's unprecedented firing of National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, whose term was supposed to run through 2028. She is challenging the ousting in a case that tests Trump's executive authority. Her termination has paralyzed the NLRB, which has been a target of his billionaire supporters including Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Trump has appointed more traditional business-side leaders elsewhere in the labor department. He named David Keeling, a former safety executive at UPS and Amazon, to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Amazon, notably, has a sordid safety record and faces citations in Minnesota for allegedly violating the state's new warehouse worker safety law. Keeling did receive support from the Teamsters, which represents UPS drivers and are trying to unionize Amazon employees. U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach introduced a bill to halt a Biden-era rule, which has not yet taken effect, that would set minimum staffing levels at nursing homes. The bill is symbolic since President Trump's Department of Health and Human Services is unlikely to finalize the rule that the Biden administration argued would improve worker recruitment and retention as well as resident care. Opponents of the rule said it set unrealistic standards that would have forced nursing homes to shutter, while pointing to a report commissioned by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that said there's 'no single staffing level that would guarantee quality care.' Fischbach's proposal won praise from the Minnesota nursing home lobby. 'In a time when we face ongoing workforce shortages, tying the hands of providers to meet an unattainable standard will not have the intended impact of increasing quality. Rather, it will only jeopardize already-limited access to care for seniors,' said Kari Thurlow, President and CEO of LeadingAge Minnesota, in a statement. Meanwhile, nurses at North Ridge Health in New Hope and Episcopal Church Homes in St. Paul announced their intention to unionize with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa by interrupting manager meetings and calling for better staffing, higher wages and safer working conditions.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump idles National Labor Relations Board with two firings — and other labor news
Striking UAW workers walk the picket line outside the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich. on Sept. 16, 2023. Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance. Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: Trump kneecaps the NLRB; union membership declines nationally; union membership tied to longer life expectancy; and Deer River workers reach deal after 50-day strike. President Donald Trump ousted National Labor Relations Board Member Gwynne Wilcox on Monday in an unprecedented move that paralyzes the board while teeing up a constitutional challenge that could further weaken it. With Wilcox gone, the five-seat board now has just two members and lacks the necessary quorum to hear cases on alleged unfair labor practices in the private sector (although functions lower down in the agency may continue). NLRB members are supposed to be shielded from presidential removal, and Wilcox — a Biden appointee and one of two Democratic members — says she plans to challenge her removal. NLRB members may only be fired for neglect or malfeasance, and Wilcox was supposed to serve until 2028. But as Bloomberg reported, Trump ally Elon Musk's SpaceX has argued that the restriction on firing NLRB members is unconstitutional as part of a broad assault on the board by businesses including Starbucks, Amazon and Trader Joe's. Trump also fired NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, which was expected and in line with presidential transitions. The general counsel runs the enforcement arm of the agency, and Abruzzo — who spent her career at the agency — was one of the fiercest advocates for workers in Biden's administration. She pushed for banning mandatory anti-union 'captive audience' meetings, ending noncompete agreements and expanding workers' freedom of speech at work. 'These moves will make it easier for bosses to violate the law and trample on workers' legal rights on the job and fundamental freedom to organize,' AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler wrote in a statement decrying the firings. In Trump's first term, the NLRB general counsel was Peter Robb, who served as President Ronald Reagan's lead counsel during the air traffic controllers' strike in 1981, which was as a momentous defeat for organized labor. Attorney Matt Bruenig, who writes a newsletter following the NLRB, published the termination letter sent to Wilcox and NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. The letter cites a part of the Constitution that conservatives believe empowers the president to remove NLRB board members. Bruenig also notes that the letter refers to both of them as board 'members' and 'commissioners' even though Abruzzo was the general counsel. Trump has sent somewhat mixed messages on labor in his second term. His pick for Labor Secretary, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, was celebrated by the Teamsters and other unions. Union membership slipped to a record, single-digit low of 9.9% nationally, only a hair down from 10% in 2023 but nevertheless a symbolic milestone in labor's decades-long decline. In Minnesota, union membership ticked back up nearly a percentage point to 14.2%, returning to 2022 levels, according to federal data released on Tuesday. The decline comes despite the union-friendly Biden administration processing a surge in petitions for union representation and taking on major corporations like Starbucks and Amazon for union busting. Now, organized labor must confront an administration much more hostile toward unions and an idled National Labor Relations Board, which oversees private-sector unions. Four decades ago, the union membership rate was twice what it is today: Roughly 20% of the American workforce were members of a union in 1983, the first year comparable BLS data is available. Other data show union density was as high as 33% in 1945. The decline of union power since the 1980s has coincided with stagnating wages in many sectors and a rise in economic inequality, now higher than it's ever been since the Great Depression. Research by the progressive Economic Policy Institute shows union workers earn about 10.2% more in hourly wages, and even nonunion workers benefit in highly unionized industries. A recent study by researchers at the University of Minnesota finds that union membership is a key predictor of mortality. Using data from the longest running longitudinal data set in the country, Tom VanHeuvelen and his coauthors found that each additional year that someone spent as a union member was associated with about 1.5% lower odds of mortality after the age of 40. That appears to be about half as powerful as employment in general, which VanHeuvelen notes is remarkable given how important work is as a determinant of health. 'In addition to higher wages, unions also provide a wide range of superior benefits to otherwise less powerful workers: health insurance, time off and a pension, occupational security, a path for upward attainment, and workplace safety, to name a few,' VanHeuvelen wrote in a commentary in the Reformer. Some 70 workers approved a deal with Essentia Health's Deer River hospital on Sunday, ending the longest strike in more than 40 years for SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa. The unionized workers — nursing assistants, phlebotomists and other support staff — were on strike for 49 days before reaching the deal. Meanwhile, union nurses at Essentia's Sandstone hospital voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike after stalling on negotiations that began in July. The vote gives the nurses the power to call an unfair labor practices strike with a 10-day notice. The Deer River agreement includes 12% across the board raises over the three-year contract, additional market adjustments for pharmacy techs and cooks, and an increased bonus for returning to work with less than 10 hours between shifts. Under the agreement, Essentia will also have to raise the pay of current workers if they hire new workers with the same qualifications at a higher wage. 'I'm so proud of our membership for sticking together. Despite the many cold days on the strike line we became a family,' said Becky Shereck, a radiologic technologist at Essentia for 16 years. Essentia's executives have received massive bonuses in recent years. CEO David Herman received $1 million in 2022 and 2023, pushing his total compensation above $3 million and making him one of the highest paid health care executives in the state.
