| | | | |  | | By Eleanor Mueller | Presented by Kroger | | | | In the scramble to bring prices back down, one obstacle is slowly garnering more attention: a decimated railroad workforce, which agency officials say is impeding efforts to transport goods and, in doing so, further hobbling an already-delicate supply chain. Over the last six years, Class I freight railroads — which include BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern Railway, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific — have hemorrhaged a combined 45,000 workers, according to the Surface Transportation Board. That's nearly 29 percent of their workforce. "They've cut labor below the bone, really," STB Chair Marty Oberman told the House Transportation Committee during a hearing Thursday. "In order to make up for the shortage of labor, they are overworking and abusing the workforces they have." The attrition coincides with existing supply chain challenges and resulting record-high inflation. As of April, prices were up 8.3 percent in the last year. "There has been a decent amount of focus on the problems in the trucking industry, but there hasn't been as much attention on the rail side — and frankly, all of them need to be in order for our supply chain to be functioning properly," AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Department President Greg Regan told Weekly Shift. "Every single component has to be working well, whether it be the ports, the railroads, the trucking industry or the warehousing industry." "You can't reduce workforce and reduce equipment by the levels they have and expect to be able to maintain the level of service and meet the demand of our economy," he added. "So this is really just chickens coming home to roost here." The carriers tell Weekly Shift that they're hiring rapidly: BNSF says it's on track to hire nearly 1,800 "Train, Yard and Engine" employees in 2022, while Union Pacific says it has already met nearly half of its 2022 goal to hire 1,400 new train crew members. Norfolk Southern says it has more than 850 active conductor trainees "and more on the way"; CSX says it is "pursuing every reasonable option to increase train-and-engine employee hiring and retention." "Major U.S. freight railroads are working to address the current labor shortage, taking reasonable steps to bring more people online — particularly conductors and engineers," Association of American Railroads spokesperson Ted Greener told Weekly Shift. "Such measures include offering vacation buybacks and incentive payments to move to particularly challenging areas on the network, awarding hiring bonuses and providing incentive compensation for helping recruit new workers. While railroads understand the unique pressures of this labor market — particularly in fields not conducive to remote work — the industry is confident in its plans to normalize the number of workers to a level consistent with demand." But the issue is still becoming a major fracture line in the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations between the carriers, who are represented by the National Carriers' Conference Committee, and the two coalitions of unions who represent the workers: SMART-Mechanical Division/Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes and the larger Coordinated Bargaining Coalition, which represents the rest of the freight rail unions. The low staffing levels are a sign that carriers need to pay better and adopt less punitive attendance policies, among other things, Regan said — or else risk more attrition and further disruption to the economy. "It would have been rare, say a decade ago, for somebody to start off as a railroader, build their seniority, build their experience, and then walk away from the job mid-career," Regan said. "But we're seeing people walk away now and mid-career in part because of the business practices the railroads are doing." The groups have been in mediation at the National Mediation Board since June 2021 and January 2022, respectively. The union coalitions have both since requested to be released, saying that the process has not been productive. The NCCC "does not agree that the parties have reached an impasse and believes the requests for release are premature," the committee said. If the NMB approves the unions' request, the groups have the option to enter into arbitration, during which a panel will make a binding decision. If one party declines arbitration, there will be a 30-day cooling off period before the groups can engage in so-called self-help by taking actions like strikes or lockouts. President Joe Biden would at that point have the option to create a Presidential Emergency Board to produce recommendations to prevent any work stoppage and resolve the dispute. The dispute could, at some point, end up before Congress: In a quirk of rail labor law, Congress would be able to vote to mandate the board's recommendations — in effect, imposing the contract on the parties. It could also take actions like mandating additional cooling-off periods or requiring additional arbitration. GOOD MORNING. It's Monday, May 16. Welcome back to Weekly 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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| | | HERE COMES WIOA: The House Rules Committee meets this afternoon to prepare Democrats' reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act , which funds most of the nation's workforce development programs, for a vote on the House floor later this week. The legislation authorizes $74 billion over six years — a significant boost from the 2014 edition, which authorized around $19.8 billion over six years . It also codifies a Labor Department program that helps those convicted of crimes find employment; expands existing youth employment programs; codifies a grant program that gives community colleges money to create employment programs tailored to specific sectors; and creates a new program that would encourage state and local workforce development boards to partner with employers, among other things. The House Education and Labor Committee began bipartisan talks on the bill early in the session. But fracture lines soon emerged — Democrats want more cash for the existing system, among other things, while Republicans would prefer to see it overhauled to allow for more private-sector involvement — and the panel's majority party produced its own draft in March. "It is more critical than ever that we expand access to high-quality job training opportunities," Chair Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said in a statement that day. The bill, which advanced out of committee by a party-line vote, is expected to pass in the House. What happens after that is less certain, given Democrat's razor-thin majority in the Senate. Should the legislation not survive to enactment, House Education and Labor ranking member Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) told Weekly Shift she is already planning to take it up first thing next session if her party wins control of the House. "There are a lot of problems with [Democrats'] bill," Foxx said. "We really need to reform."
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | | WALSH KICKS OFF PRIVATE-SECTOR 'GOOD JOB' EFFORT: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh met with companies Friday to launch the private-sector facet of the Biden administration's "Good Jobs Initiative." "Across the board, many workers are looking for opportunities to learn new skills and start new careers, and we are seeing the greatest movement in industries with the lowest wages and workers who are disproportionately women, people of color and immigrants," Walsh said at the event. "We need to look at how more of those jobs can become careers." "We want to identify solutions we can share, that move workers and businesses forward together," he added. "That's what the Good Jobs Initiative is all about: It's a collaborative effort to improve job quality — and job equity — across our economy." Participants included Carolyn Pincus, vice president of Strategy and Development at the American Sustainable Business Network, as well as BA Auto Care General Manager Sandi Weaver; Eileen Fisher Inc. General Counsel Elizabeth Richman; UPS Inc. President of the Central Plains District Darren Jones; and Sustainergy Cooperative CEO Flequer Vera.
| | | THANKS BUT NO THANKS: Tech workers are rebelling against bosses' urgings to return to the office, The Wall Street Journal's Katherine Bindley reports. "How the emerging power struggles play out will be a telling indicator of how much leverage remote-work converts in other sectors have as more employers call staff back to offices. A competitive job market, plus the relative ease with which businesses adjusted to work-from-home over the past two years, has emboldened many professionals to try to say goodbye to offices permanently." "Some tech professionals have already thrown down the gauntlet. Ian Goodfellow, a director of machine learning at Apple, announced to staff this month that he was resigning, in part because of the company's return-to-office policy." And a "group called Apple Together says more than 1,400 current and former employees signed an open letter to company executives asking for them to reconsider the office-return policy, which requires employees to work in-person on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays as of last month. Apple employs more than 165,000 people."
| | | 'PRO-UNION, PRO-CHOICE': With the Supreme Court poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, organized labor is flexing its political muscle in an attempt to safeguard workers' access to abortion, your host reports. But while some unions are taking a highly public stance against the forthcoming ruling, others are holding their fire as officials grapple with memberships scattered across a wide political spectrum. Service Employees International Union partnered directly with Planned Parenthood to organize hundreds of events across the country this weekend protesting restrictions on abortion access. Long-term, the union plans to "integrate it into our organizing and bargaining and our mobilization for the November election," SEIU President Mary Kay Henry said in an interview. "We're going to make sure that everybody running for the U.S. Senate and the Congress makes a commitment to standing for pro-choice position, just as we insist on them being pro-union," Henry said. "We will use our members as a political muscle to do both things." Other union officials, however, have been notably less outspoken. Teamsters; North America's Building Trades Unions; and Communications Workers of America are among those who have not issued formal statements in the two weeks since POLITICO first reported the draft decision. "It's the sort of issue that no business leader wants to get dragged into, right? If they could possibly avoid it, they would, because it is something people feel passionate about," Columbia Business School Professor Rita McGrath said. "That would apply to unions as well." MORE UNION NEWS: "United reaches new contract deal with pilots' union, the first of the major airlines in pandemic," from CNBC
| | | | A message from Kroger:   | | | | | | COLORADO PASSES COUNTY WORKER BILL: The Colorado legislature passed an AFSCME-backed bill last week giving collective bargaining rights to more than 36,000 essential county employees like electoral workers, public safety workers and child welfare workers. This would more than double the amount of Colorado public service workers eligible to join a union, according to AFSCME, in one of the country's biggest expansions of collective bargaining rights in years. A spokesperson for the union said it expects Gov. Jared Polis to sign the legislation this summer. "Across the country in recent months, workers have been standing up for dignity and respect on the job," local AFSCME official Connie Derr said. "Now, county employees — who are critical to keeping Colorado's communities running and strong — have the right to do so as well." Currently, only four of Colorado's 64 counties grant their essential workers collective bargaining rights. MORE STATE NEWS: "California's minimum wage projected to rise to $15.50 under inflation trigger," from Reuters
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | | — "All of Those Quitters? They're at Work," from The New York Times — "40 years later, labor leaders remember NYC Chinatown's garment worker strike," from NBC News — " The Devaluation of Care Work Is by Design," from The Atlantic — "How a new age of surveillance is changing work," from The Economist — "Bonuses are outdated in the age of knowledge work," from the Financial Times THAT'S ALL FOR WEEKLY SHIFT!
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