| | | | |  | | By Nick Niedzwiadek | Presented by Kroger | | | | NLRB, THE PLACE TO BE: President Joe Biden has actively shaped his administration to be as supportive of organized labor as any of recent vintage — and lately, he's stepped up his public embrace of unions. Last Thursday, Biden dropped by and took photos with pro-union workers meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh at the White House (more on that below). And this Wednesday, the president is scheduled to headline the IBEW's International Convention in Chicago. He's also taken swipes at Amazon — first obliquely, then less so in April — as the mega-company aggressively counters unionization efforts inside several of its warehouses. But with Biden's legislative agenda on labor issues at an impasse, Democrats facing daunting midterm prospects and a federal court system willing to rebuff the administration's executive actions — as it did on OSHA's vaccine-or-test mandate — it is possible that the president's most lasting imprint on labor policy may have already occurred. That is to say, his labor nominations. What Biden may ultimately hang his hat on are his appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, where, in addition to swinging the board back to a Democratic-appointed majority, Biden booted GOP General Counsel Peter Robb and put in Jennifer Abruzzo. "That has been very impactful," Mark Gaston Pearce, executive director of Workers' Rights Institute at Georgetown University Law Center and former Obama-era NLRB chair, said in an interview with Shift. "Biden was willing to pull the trigger and did so because of the state of the NLRB and what the prior administration was doing regarding policy." The New York Times reported Friday that NLRB officials are formulating a complaint against Amazon after determining allegations made by union organizers against the company have merit. Also on Friday, the NLRB's regional director in Buffalo unzipped a complaint against Starbucks alleging "29 unfair labor practice charges that included over 200 violations of the National Labor Relations Act," per CNBC . (The company's response: "We believe the allegations contained in the complaint are false, and we look forward to presenting our evidence when the allegations are adjudicated.") That case comes on the heels of a separate one against Starbucks out of the Phoenix branch earlier in the week, which alleged the company's employee handbook contains a litany of "overly-broad and discriminatory rules" that are enforced in ways that infringe upon workers' labor rights. Former NLRB lawyers and outside observers say it's difficult to envision all these actions playing out similarly under Republican appointees. More sweeping changes could be on the horizon in the coming months as the board starts to hand down decisions on some of the closely watched cases it has been weighing. "The board has a lot coming its way," Wilma Liebman, who also chaired the NLRB under Obama, told Shift. "The board itself has yet to really grapple with any of these precedent-setting issues." Both Liebman and Pearce said they anticipate activity ramping up over the summer. That's because the NLRB typically tries to get cases out before the term of one of its board member's expires, as John Ring's does in December. GOOD MORNING. It's Monday, May 9. Welcome back to Morning Shift, your go-to tipsheet on employment and immigration news. Send feedback, tips and exclusives to emueller@politico.com and nniedzwiadek@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter at @eleanor_mueller and @nickniedz.
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| | | SENATE DEMS HUNT FOR CHILD CARE CONSENSUS: Senate Democrats have overhauled their child care proposal in hopes of winning over the likes of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and securing its inclusion in a future reconciliation package, Eleanor reported Sunday. Senate HELP Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is in the process of pitching the new language to the rest of her party — along with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a recent recruit to the cause, a Democratic aide said. Murray and Kaine are proposing to spend about half as much — between $150 and $200 billion — that had been included as part of Democrats' starcrossed reconciliation package that collapsed in December. The details: In one bucket spread over six years, $72 billion would go toward the existing Child Care and Development Block Grant program for more robust child care subsidies; $18 billion to a new grant program that would help states expand access to pre-K; and $12 billion to the Head Start program to raise wages for teachers. The lawmakers want to spend an additional $50-to-$100 billion on a pilot program within CCDBG that, like Build Back Better, would cap child care expenses for families making up to 250 percent of their state's median income so that they would spend no more than 7 percent of their income on care for children up to the age of 5. Momibuster: The news collides with the ongoing "momibuster," a compilation of more than 250 videos of moms, care workers and others that MomsRising is playing on LED trucks around the Capitol through Tuesday. The group is also delivering a book of care stories and a bouquet of paper flowers to every single member of Congress on Tuesday. HOUSE TO VOTE ON STAFFER UNIONIZATION: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is teeing up a vote on a resolution allowing congressional aides to organize, Punchbowl News reports. The expected vote is a win for the staffers who have reinvigorated an issue that has laid mostly dormant for the better part of three decades following the passage of the 1995 Congressional Accountability Act. That legislation cleared the way for possible unionization, though it hinged on an enacting resolution that never came to fruition. Pelosi paired that announcement with her move to boost the salary floor for House aides to $45,000, effective Sept. 1. That will be a meaningful gain for staffers at the bottom of the food chain, and it could have knock-on effects for other entry-level positions at D.C. think tanks, NGOs and the like — organizations that are in the market for the same folks. However, it's unlikely to fully quell the cost-of-living concernsand other issues that current and former Hill staff have cited as longstanding problems with how Congress operates… … SPEAKING OF: First-term Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), the first Ukrainian-born member of Congress, has emerged from the backbench in recent months as Russia has attacked the former Soviet republic. Behind the scenes, however, her office has seen tremendous turnover as staffers seek refuge from her workplace management, our Olivia Beavers reports. How bad is it? Spartz and her staff agreed to start recording her requests, so as to reduce the risk of miscommunication. Still, "Spartz at times would later deny that she asked her aides to take a certain action or accuse aides of doing something she didn't want."
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS OUT: An increased share of older Americans sought to exit the workforce and retire over the course of the pandemic. However, there's growing evidence that many of them are returning, amid a confluence of factors — ranging from a tight economy hungry for workers, Covid concerns fading from view and employers' increased adoption of flexible workplace arrangements. "In some cases, workers say rising costs — and the inability to keep up while on a fixed income — are factoring heavily into their decisions as well," The Washington Post reports.
| | | | A message from Kroger:   | | | | | | STARBUCKS PIPING HOT OVER W.H. UNION MEETING: A Starbucks executive sent a letter to a top Biden adviser steaming over the White House's decision to hold a highly visible meeting with organizers of several union drives — including at the coffee chain — without any representation on behalf of employers. "We believe this lack of representation discounts the reality that the majority of our partners oppose being members of a union and the unionization tactics being deployed by Workers United," senior vice president AJ Jones II wrote to White House counselor Steve Ricchetti, HuffPost reports. The letter went on to request an audience with the White House for Starbucks employees who oppose unionization.
| | | INFLATIONARY IMPACT OF IMMIGRATION CRUNCH: Workforce shortages in immigrant-heavy parts of the agricultural and foodservice supply chains are driven in part by a pileup of issues during the Trump administration that were compounded by Covid-related immigration restrictions, the Associated Press reports. "The U.S. has, by some estimates, 2 million fewer immigrants than it would have if the pace had stayed the same, helping power a desperate scramble for workers in many sectors, from meatpacking to homebuilding, that is also contributing to supply shortages and price increases." SECRETIVE BORDER PATROL TEAMS DISBANDING: The Biden administration is discontinuing use of "critical incident teams" within the U.S. Border Patrol that have had a role in internal investigations, The New York Times reports. "Disbanding the teams — which for decades operated with little to no public awareness — is one of [CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus'] first significant policy changes at the Border Patrol, which has long been criticized as lacking accountability."
| | | | DON'T MISS DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | — "Amazon Abruptly Fires Senior Managers Tied to Unionized Warehouse," from The New York Times. — "China Premier Warns of 'Grave' Jobs Situation as Lockdowns Weigh," from Bloomberg. — " The Class of 2022 Is in Demand. What Do New Grads Want?," from The Wall Street Journal. — "Workers grapple with new stresses as they return to office," from the Associated Press. — "How Roe Shaped the World of Work for Women," from The New York Times. — "Tesla covers travel costs for workers seeking abortions," from the Associated Press — "TikTok's Work Culture: Anxiety, Secrecy and Relentless Pressure," from The Wall Street Journal. THAT'S ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT!
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