Media clips
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Infosys (INFY) is an Indian information technology company that is one of the biggest users of the H-1B visa program, which has come under fire from President Donald Trump and others who claim the system allows businesses to hire cheaper foreign workers rather than Americans. That criticism is heard on both sides of the political aisle, with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute charging that Infosys and its competitors use the visa program to cut labor costs. … While Infosys vowed to hire in specific tech-related fields, it didn’t specify how many of the jobs would consist of support staff versus higher-paid tech workers. Hiring American programmers and analysts is considerably costlier than outsourcing tech staff from India, according to a 2015 study from EP
CBS Moneywatch May 3, 2017 -
Celine McNicholas, a labor lawyer with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the proposed reforms ignore the power balance inside a real-world workplace. “It sets up a dynamic, for the first time since [the law] was created, that employees are going to have to ask to be paid overtime that they’ve earned,” McNicholas said. “Sitting down with employers and electing to choose comp time or [to be] paid the overtime they’ve earned … we know in reality what those situations can look like in terms of pressure.” (Celine quoted throughout)
The Huffington Post May 3, 2017 -
“Given what we’ve seen so far in terms of the kinds of policies that are being set forth by this administration, I don’t sense that there will be great gains on narrowing these gaps, and in some cases, they could widen,” said Valerie Rawlston Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy and one of the report’s authors. She said in an interview that the annual reports provide a consistent barometer of how black and Hispanic Americans are faring “beyond the political talking points.”
The Washington Post May 2, 2017 -
During the campaign President Trump cast himself as a champion of working-class Americans. But critics point out that in his first 100 days in office, Trump has rolled back worker protections and outlined a budget that would starve the agencies in charge of looking out for laborers. The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington, D.C., last week released a report detailing Trump’s record on workers’ rights so far. Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson talks with Celine McNicholas (@CmMcNich), the institute’s labor counsel, about the report.
Here & Now May 2, 2017 -
“I think at this point it would be premature to say anything about a Trump policy effect, at least, since we haven’t passed any policies yet,” said Josh Bivens, research director at the Economic Policy Institute. Burtless added that Trump benefited from taking office during a period when economic signs were trending up. “The U.S. economy has been achieving pretty steady job gains for the past four or five years, and it’s hard to see that job creation is any faster since President Trump took office or won the election,” he said. “That trend was underway well before the election.”
NBC News May 2, 2017 -
“It’s a complete and total fraud,” said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the left-of-center Economic Policy Institute. Nothing under current law prevents companies from just offering paid sick days or family leave to their workers, opponents of the proposal say — or short of that, from granting requests for unpaid leave. Because workers right now could take paid overtime and then use the money to make up for unpaid leave taken later, they argue, there’s no benefit to them in letting them instead work unpaid overtime and then make up for it by taking paid leave. “It forces the employee to give the employer a loan — unsecured, interest-free — of the overtime pay, in order to have the hope — not a guarantee, but the hope — of having some time off later on,” said Eisenbrey. Either way, he said, employers still get to decide whether to actually grant their workers’ requests for time off.
Bloomberg May 2, 2017 -
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a liberal think tank, estimated in 2013 that NAFTA caused the direct loss of about 700,000 jobs because of manufacturers moving to Mexico, where wages are 30% of that of an American factory worker on average. “There were some job gains along the border in service and retail sectors resulting from increased trucking activity, but these gains are small in relation to the losses, and are in lower paying occupations,” it said.
USA Today May 2, 2017 -
During the campaign President Trump cast himself as a champion of working-class Americans. But critics point out that in his first 100 days in office, Trump has rolled back worker protections and outlined a budget that would starve the agencies in charge of looking out for laborers. The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington, D.C., last week released a report detailing Trump’s record on workers’ rights so far. Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson talks with Celine McNicholas (@CmMcNich), the institute’s labor counsel, about the report.Here & Now May 2, 2017 -
100 Days of Trump Impact on Workers – EPI Report
WORT-FM
Kayla Blado, Media Relations Specialist with the Economic Policy Institute. reviews the impact of actions by the Trump Administration in its first 100 days. The story was originally aired on WORT-FM’s Labor Radio, on Friday, April 28, 2017.WORT-FM May 1, 2017 -
Watchdogs: Trump’s Disastrous 100 Days Fueling “Golden Era of Activism”
Common Dreams/Nadia Prupis
Celine McNicholas for the Economic Policy Institute: “In his first 100 days in office, President Trump has continued to talk about creating ‘jobs where Americans prosper and grow.’ However, his actions during that time tell a different story.”
“Working Americans deserve more than talk,” McNicholas said Thursday. “If the president were serious about improving the lives of working men and women, he could strengthen overtime rules, work to increase the minimum wage, and support workers’ rights to bargain collectively. Instead he has steadily undermined the laws and institutions that protect working people and advance their interests.Common Dreams May 1, 2017