Political Action

By Oregon AFL-CIO president Tom Chamberlain

On Aug. 7, Missourians handily defeated Proposition A, a statewide so-called “right to work” measure in a sweeping victory. At a 2:1 ratio, Missouri voters pushed back against this dangerous legislation and attracted national attention for creating a pathway forward for unions, inspiration for workers, and a renewed vigor for the labor movement on the heels of the Janus V. AFSCME decision in June by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed buyout of Tribune Media is dead. The $3.9 billion deal — which was strongly opposed by broadcast unions IATSE and NABET-CWA — would have made the nation’s biggest TV station owner even bigger by adding Tribune’s 42 stations to Sinclair’s 173. The acquisition plainly violated Federal Communication Commission (FCC) rules that bar any company from owning stations that reach more than 39 percent of the American public.

No worker should ever be forced to sign away her rights just to get a job. Today, the California state Senate resoundingly rejected the all-too-common practice of companies using forced arbitration to silence workers and strip them of their basic rights.

High profile electoral contests may grab more attention, but one race could actually determine whether or not public schools survive in our state. That’s the race for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

On April 30, the California Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc.  v. Superior Court of Los Angeles that made it harder for companies to misclassify workers as independent contractors. In California, the test of employment status has been developed through caselaw over several decades. Dynamex built upon the earlier Court-established test in Borello which itself evolved with the standards developed in Martinez and Ayala.

Written by Darrell West for the Brookings Institute.