Will States Step Into the NLRB's Void?
And Philly city workers prepare to strike
News and Views
New York’s legislature passed a bill earlier this month that would allow the state labor board to adjudicate private sector union disputes while the NLRB lacks a quorum. “New York lawmakers this week backed an increasingly popular argument that the federal National Labor Relations Board’s exclusive jurisdiction over labor matters doesn’t apply after President Donald Trump fired NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox and stripped the board of the quorum it needs to fully function,” Bloomberg reports. It remains to be seen if Governor Kathy Hochul will sign the measure into law. California and Massachusetts are considering similar proposals.
Philadelphia’s largest municipal union is set to strike on June 30. District Council 33 represents 9,000 city workers including trash collectors, police and fire dispatchers, and maintenance workers. They’re demanding higher wages, better benefits, and stronger job security. Meanwhile, Philly teachers just voted to strike at the beginning of the upcoming school year if they haven’t won a contract by then.
A judge has ordered the Trump administration to keep Great Society-era Job Corps workforce development centers open amid an ongoing lawsuit challenging his order to close them.
The San Diego City Council is advancing a $25 minimum wage for tourism and hospitality workers – after Los Angeles raised the hourly wage for those workers to $30 by 2028. Hospitality worker unions spearheaded the efforts in both cities.
Today’s Win
In case you missed it yesterday, a federal judge indefinitely halted Trump’s order to dissolve the unions that represent more than a million federal workers.