Thread by @josheidelson

Here are some stories and examples that help explain the issues that 2020 Democrats' labor plans (like bloomberg.com/news/articles/… & bloomberg.com/news/articles/…) are trying to tackle:
(A thread)

Labor and civil rights laws leave out many types of workers, such as the fast-growing ranks of domestic workers:
thenation.com/article/labor-…

prospect.org/notebook/alt-l…

Companies in all sorts of sectors claim their workers are "independent contractors" rather than employees, and therefore excluded from a slew of workplace protections:

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Companies across the economy also increasingly rely on sub-contracted or franchised workers, who are ostensibly employed by someone else, making it harder for workers to bargain with the bigger company or hold it liable:

bloomberg.com/news/features/…

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

State "right-to-work" laws banning mandatory union fees have helped deplete unions' budgets & clout, and last year Supreme Court made the entire U.S. public sector "right-to-work":

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

When workers try to win union recognition through National Labor Relations Board process, companies have wide discretion to wage aggressive anti-union campaigns including mandatory meetings & ominous predictions, and allegations of threats and retaliatory firings are ubiquitous:

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Workers' only legal recourse for alleged illegal union-busting is to go through the federal Labor Board, which can drag on for years & has no threat of punitive damages or personal liability for executives:

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Some of the most historically effective strike tactics have been made illegal, and even in strikes that are legally protected, companies often have a right to respond by "permanently replacing" the strikers with new employees: thenation.com/article/longvi…

The law restricts workers' ability to pressure companies by going after other companies they do business with, even if workers believe the other company is the real decision-maker: inthesetimes.com/working/entry/…

Rather than sector-wide negotiations, the U.S. collective bargaining system is based on company-by-company talks, which some experts argue ensure instability and perverse incentives: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Federal law restricts states' ability to pass their own pro-union policies:

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

The federal wage has remained at $7.25 for a decade, and companies can legally pay some disabled or tipped workers less:

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Companies can require workers to give up their right to sue them via courtroom class actions rather than individual arbitration hearings:
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

With mandatory fees already banned for them, the Trump Administration has also moved to curb automatic payroll deduction of voluntary union dues for Medicaid-funded homecare workers as well:

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

The NLRB has repeatedly reversed its position on whether graduate students that teach and research are employees with labor rights:

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

inthesetimes.com/working/entry/…

Workers classified as contractors, if they try to somehow bargain collectively despite being excluded from traditional unionization, risk running afoul of anti-trust law: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

The Supreme Court has ruled undocumented workers aren't eligible for backpay if they're illegally fired for organizing: inthesetimes.com/working/entry/…