Labor

While Right-to-Work legislation has traditionally been the norm in the American south, the decision by the Michigan legislature to adopt the anti-union legislation has placed the issue on Canada’s doorstep. The importance may already be significant in light of a near 50-year low in the "coverage rate" for Canadian workers outside of the agriculture sector.

Coal companies, their lawyers and their hand-picked doctors will go to any length — ethical or not — to deny the small monthly benefits that stricken miners are due under the Black Lung Benefits Act. Reports show doctors at John Hopkins denying thousands of claims, while coal companies fight tooth and nail against any new regulations to lessen coal dust. It's a dirty game.

Danish researchers studying worker depression have found that a boss’ management style factors more clearly in employee stress levels than does size of workload. This study goes against the common thought process relating to worker depression as the researches discovered workplace injustice is the main driver of mental unhealth.

New Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey has sent a letter to the Department of Labor suggesting that companies such as Beneco may be teaching federal contractors how to evade the prevailing wage.

Pennsylvania’s broken record budget battle — in which the GOP is holding much needed infrastructure spending hostage in exchange for slashing wage protections — has laborers fuming. The State House is 30 votes shy of being able to pass a gas tax hike needed to fund the infrastructure and transportation plan, so Republicans are attaching a prevailing wage repeal to the legislation in order to earn conservative votes.

Unions are helping Boston Mayoral candidate Marty Walsh canvass in his final push for the primary. Though behind in the polls, unions have flocked to the candidate, and hope that their last-minute intervention will be enough to push him forward.

A major San Francisco Bay-area transit strike was averted for at least a day after two labor unions extended contract negotiations beyond a midnight deadline and agreed not to walk off the job Monday to allow more talks.

Jersey City, NJ, became the sixth city to require paid sick days for employees at private businesses after the City Council passed the new rules on a 7–1 vote. Mayor Steven Fulop (D) is a supporter of the measure and is expected to sign it into law.

With management resisting any attempt a fair negotiation, the Bay Area's BART transit system unions are preparing to strike. Rebuffed after multiple concessions, there are few options left to the workers.

Sitting down to eat barbecue at the Pipefitters Local 211 union hall in Houston, American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard may have looked out of place. However, with as many as 500,000 new jobs to find workers for in the Gulf Coast region (by the year 2020), the expectation that big company management and labor will forever be at odds is getting called into question.