Latest news with #unionrights
The Sun
a day ago
- Business
- The Sun
Fury over Angela Rayner's push for new workers' rights law as firms warn ‘final nail in the coffin' for small businesses
LABOUR'S push to expand union rights will be the "nail in the coffin" for small businesses, entrepreneurs warned today. Firms slammed Deputy PM Angela Rayner's proposed workers' rights law as 'one of the most damaging proposals ever aimed" at the sector. Under 'pernicious' new rules, union chiefs would be given a legal right to enter any workplace, such as a bakery or hair salon, to recruit and organise. Access to small and medium businesses would be enforceable even against an employer's will, and bosses could be threatened with fines. Meanwhile, the 40 per cent vote threshold for union recognition could be slashed to just 2 per cent of staff. Furious entrepreneurs blasted the workers' rights proposals as completely stacking power against the modest employer. They demanded an exemption for small and medium sized firms, who employ 61 per cent of the private sector workforce. John Longworth, Chair of the Independent Business Network, said: 'The automatic right of access for unions to invade SMEs is one of the most pernicious aspects of the Employment Rights Bill. 'This is all about union power and union income. 'It's likely to lead to business closures and higher unemployment.' Roger Walters, Founder of Supercity Aparthotels, said: 'This Bill is just another pop at capitalism. 'If it's not defeated, Great Britain will become another Russia or North Korea.' John Elliott, Founder of EBAC Dehumidifiers, added: 'This is bad . 'We all agree employees should have rights, but we need to explain to the public that employers have rights too. 'It should be an equal relationship.'
CNN
02-06-2025
- Business
- CNN
Judge pauses Homeland Security's move to nix TSA officers' union contract
A federal judge on Monday paused the Department of Homeland Security's effort to end the collective bargaining agreement covering tens of thousands of transportation security officers at airports. It's the latest loss in court for the Trump administration's drive to reshape the federal workforce. US Senior District Judge Marsha Pechman of the Western District of Washington in Seattle issued a preliminary injunction, saying that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's justification for terminating the union contract with the American Federation of Government Employees in March was 'threadbare' and exposed 'the retaliatory nature of the decision.' 'The Noem Determination appears to have been undertaken to punish AFGE and its members because AFGE has chosen to push back against the Trump Administration's attacks to federal employment in the courts,' wrote Pechman, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, in her order. Noem's decision is at odds with more than a decade of agency belief that collective bargaining benefits the officers, the Transportation Security Administration and the public, Pechman wrote. She ordered DHS to notify officers in the union that the contract and rights are in effect, including the right to have their union dues deducted from their pay. When DHS originally announced it was rescinding the contract, the agency told employees that the move would allow officers to 'to operate with greater flexibility and responsiveness, ensuring the highest level of security and efficiency in protecting the American public.' DHS told CNN at the time that 'we invite the union to join all Americans and TSA employees in celebrating renewed efficiency, greater safety and shorter airport security wait times thanks to this action.' In separate cases, AFGE and the National Treasury Employees Union are each battling Trump's executive order to end collective bargaining with unions covering hundreds of thousands of federal workers in multiple agencies. In April, a federal judge in the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction in the case brought by the NTEU.
CNN
02-06-2025
- Business
- CNN
Judge pauses Homeland Security's move to nix TSA officers' union contract
A federal judge on Monday paused the Department of Homeland Security's effort to end the collective bargaining agreement covering tens of thousands of transportation security officers at airports. It's the latest loss in court for the Trump administration's drive to reshape the federal workforce. US Senior District Judge Marsha Pechman of the Western District of Washington in Seattle issued a preliminary injunction, saying that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's justification for terminating the union contract with the American Federation of Government Employees in March was 'threadbare' and exposed 'the retaliatory nature of the decision.' 'The Noem Determination appears to have been undertaken to punish AFGE and its members because AFGE has chosen to push back against the Trump Administration's attacks to federal employment in the courts,' wrote Pechman, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, in her order. Noem's decision is at odds with more than a decade of agency belief that collective bargaining benefits the officers, the Transportation Security Administration and the public, Pechman wrote. She ordered DHS to notify officers in the union that the contract and rights are in effect, including the right to have their union dues deducted from their pay. When DHS originally announced it was rescinding the contract, the agency told employees that the move would allow officers to 'to operate with greater flexibility and responsiveness, ensuring the highest level of security and efficiency in protecting the American public.' DHS told CNN at the time that 'we invite the union to join all Americans and TSA employees in celebrating renewed efficiency, greater safety and shorter airport security wait times thanks to this action.' In separate cases, AFGE and the National Treasury Employees Union are each battling Trump's executive order to end collective bargaining with unions covering hundreds of thousands of federal workers in multiple agencies. In April, a federal judge in the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction in the case brought by the NTEU.
Washington Post
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Court lifts block on Trump order to strip federal workers of union rights
A federal appeals court on Friday lifted a block on an executive order from President Donald Trump that seeks to strip union rights from federal workers at dozens of agencies and offices. Trump in March issued an executive order that said that parts of the United States Code that protect federal workers' rights to organize and collectively bargain would no longer apply to agencies including most or all of the Departments of Treasury, Defense, Veterans Affairs, State and Justice. The executive order covers about two-thirds of the federal workforce, according to the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which filed a lawsuit challenging it.
