Kyle Fortson, United States Senate Labor Committee Policy Director, has been nominated to the National Mediation Board by President Trump. Read Chairman Lamar Alexander’s press release regarding Ms. Fortson here.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has submitted a proposal to rescind the Obama-era “persuader rule,” which required consultants to disclose any work they do for employers regarding union organization efforts. A Texas federal judge granted a permanent injunction to the rule in November 2016, calling it unconstitutional. Read the full DOL proposal here.

The US Department of Labor issued a statement on June 7 announcing that Alexander Acosta, the US Secretary of Labor, has withdrawn the department’s informal guidance on joint labor and independent contractors. This withdrawal does not remove the legal responsibilities of employers  in regards to the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. Read the full press release here.

Kendall Fells, the lead organizer for the “Fight for $15” campaign, has claimed that he is not paid for his part in organizing protests. Recent reports hint otherwise. According to documents filed with the Department of Labor, Fells is on the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) payroll. He is listed as their “deputy organizing director” and receives an annual salary of $146,000. Fox Business recently reported that Fells is “on loan” to the “Fight for $15” campaign by SEIU. Read more about it here.

The AFL-CIO’s Executive Paywatch report continues to come under fire for cherry-picking their data. Both the Washington Examiner and Washington Post’s Fact Checker have chimed in, with the Washington Post calling claims that the average CEO makes 300 times the average worker “completely wrong.”

When using the Department of Labor’s figures, which include a more accurate salary accounting of 28 million small businesses nationwide, rather than just the S&P 500 CEOs, the CEO-to-worker pay gap comes nowhere near the 347-to-1 figure the AFL-CIO claims.

Read the most recent Washington Examiner article here.

In mid-April 2016, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America conducted a strike against Verizon after they failed to negotiate a contract for workers. With apologies to her coworkers, one union employee in Lowell, Massachusetts decided to cross the line and continue working, earning additional compensation for doing so. After the strike, the union held a trial on the employee, fining her more than $24,000 for her perceived transgressions. They have since taken her to court to get her to pay.

Read more about the ongoing story here.