Celine McNicholas, the Economic Policy Institute’s director of labor and policy, said the decision will have “profound implications” for “every working person throughout the country.” “Today, these billionaire-backed organizations finally got their decision, succeeding in advancing an agenda that weakens the bargaining power of workers,” McNicholas said in a statement. “The result will be a reduction in state and local government workers’ wages and job quality as well as in the critical public services they provide.” (Celine quoted throughout)
Salon
June 28, 2018
“A weaker union is going to be less able to protect its workers, and the people who basically need the most protection are those who are usually discriminated against,” Janelle Jones, an analyst for the Economic Policy Institute, told Marketplaceearlier this year. Unionizing particularly tends to benefit minority workers, especially women of color. In February, Jones and EPI labor counsel Celine McNicholas released a brief showing that black women could be especially harmed by the case, due to their high levels of participation in public-sector union jobs, including in the education system.(EPI cited throughout)
VOX
June 28, 2018
Other observers are preparing for “greater instability in state and local workforces,” according to the Economic Policy Institute, a pro-labor think tank. The EPI pointed to recent teacher strikes in West Virginia and Oklahoma, where thousands of teachers protested in actions that didn’t always have formal union backing.
CBS Moneywatch
June 28, 2018
There are 17.3 million employees of state and local governments; of those, 58 percent are represented by unions, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a pro-labor think tank. Prior to today’s ruling, the EPI argued that black women—who make up nearly one-fifth of public employees—would suffer the most from an anti-union decision in Janus.
Mother Jones
June 28, 2018
Public sector unions have long been a source of economic power for African-American women, who are disproportionately represented in their ranks. A March brief from Celine McNicholas and Janelle Jones at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) shows that African-American women have the highest share of workers in the public sector—17.7 percent, equaling about 1.5 million workers. (Janelle cited throughout)
In These Times
June 28, 2018
A subsequent study by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that employees would likely lose $5.8 billion because of the rule change. … The Trump administration has killed rules intended to protect Americans from wealth and retirement advisers who don’t have their clients’ best interests at heart. Even an 18-month delay in the fiduciary rule could cost retirement savers an estimated $10.9 billion dollars, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Advisers are now free to recommend that savers invest money in ways that benefit the advisers rather than the savers.
Newsweek
June 28, 2018
According to a 2017 poll by Gallup, labor unions are more popular among Americans now than at any point in the last 14 years. Sixty-one percent of adults surveyed said they support unions. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning group, found that unions saw a boost in membership in 2017 of 262,000 people. Three-quarters of the increase was among workers under the age of 35.
The Philadelphia Tribune
June 28, 2018
According to Celine McNicholas, director of labor law and policy at the Economic Policy Institute, “the Court elevated the objections of a minority over the democratically determined choices of the majority of workers and prohibited state and local government workers from negotiating collective bargaining agreements with fair share fee arrangements.”
Common Dreams
June 28, 2018
Millennials have comprised a lot of recent gains in union representation across the workforce, according to a February 2018 report from The Nation. The millennial union workforce grew by 198,000 in 2017, which offset a drop in older workers in the same period (workers age 45 to 54 dropped by some 75,000 in 2017). Moreover, according to a 2017 report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the value of unionization can be critical to workers’ rights — especially for women and people of color. As of 2016, the report states, roughly 10.6 million of the 16.3 million workers covered by a union contract are women and/or people of color. That’s a massive chunk of the working population to be affected by this new fundraising quandary. As the EPI report simply states, unions exist to provide “working people who are not executives or company owners with an opportunity to get their voices heard in policy debates that shape their lives.” Just the same as managers, business owners, and CEOs organize to advocate for their economic interests. (EPI cited throughout)
Elite Daily
June 28, 2018