Articles by Mike Elk

“Whenever there is an increase in the criminalization of undocumented workers, it puts more pressure on workers to stay in the job that they are in, to not complain, to look the other way when there are hazards,” Robele says. “If you are choosing between saying that you are not going to go up on a rough in harness and potentially being deported and separated from your children most people aren’t gonna risk that.”

The three-and-a-half year delay in publishing means that the Trump Administration could use its power under the Congressional Review Act to block the rule. Under the act, congress can block a rule from taking effect within 60 days of the rule’s passage. Indeed, chemical safety advocates had warned of just this risk in a letter to the Obama Administration in March 2015.

This weekend, Payday Senior Labor Reporter was on NPR affailate WFPL in Louisville talking about how unions in the South are continuing to grow despite “right-to-work” legislation; gaining 150,000 union members last year alone.

However, Elk warns that if Trump dismantles the National Labor Relations Board that it will stop this organizing progress.

Last year, Republicans regained control of the Kentucky State House for the first time in 95 years. As a result of the Trump wave, Republicans now maintain a 54 to 36 majority in the State House. Under proposed “right-to-work” legislation, unions in Kentucky could lose tens of thousands of dues-paying members; thus denying Democrats the financial support needed to take back the State House.

“Truthfully, the whole thing has brought my family closer together. At first, my wife and I had some tough times and some tensions because of money” says Bryan Rodgers, a father of three, “but it brought us closer together. We had to because otherwise the company wins and tears us further apart.”

“The school bus operation has been outsourced to balance the books of the school district” charges the lawsuit filed in federal court in Chattanooga today. “To maximize profit, the contractor overcrowded routes and offered school bus drivers low pay, few hours, and inadequate driver training and support. To avoid a self-created driver shortage, as they had experienced in other markets, the contractor sought out the most poorly trained, inexperienced, and poorly-qualified drivers to transport the most precious commodity of this community”