For our end-of-the-year edition of Labor Relations INK, we thought we’d do something different and list some of our favorite articles from 2018. This was a big year for labor stories. The biggest story of the year of course was the Supreme Court decision in
Janus v. AFSCME. We are just beginning to see the impact of that decision on both public and private sector unions. And while some public sector unions actually grew in the immediate aftermath of the decision, the strong likelihood is that public sector dues income will decline over the next several years.
Union organizing activity hit the skids this year. At the end of the 3rd quarter RC activity was down 19% from 2017 as reported in our most recent
LRI RightNow Elections Review. It looks like that has improved slightly in the 4th quarter, but RC activity will hit a historic low for 2018. We think this is an anomaly as unions were heavily distracted with the mid-term elections in November. We predict organizing activity will increase substantially in the first quarter of 2019, as unions turn their attention back to filling their coffers.
Speaking of the mid-term elections, the House of Representatives will soon seat a Democratic majority for the first time in nearly a decade. And I bet you thought Washington couldn’t get more dysfunctional, right? A Democratic House means there will be a lot more pro-labor legislation, hearings, and investigations. You can expect to see EFCA 2.0 and attempts to block or roll back issues at the NLRB and DOL. Of course, at this point the chances of any of these attempts becoming law is practically zero. However, the Democrats suddenly have a lot more cards to play as leverage over the Administration and the Republican Senate.
The NLRB finally seated its own Republican majority this Spring and I’d be on the lookout for a number of important rulings and rulemaking during the first quarter of 2019. There are a ton of crucial issues on deck and the Board is well-positioned to go after them this year. Of course, the Democratic House (and the Democrat Senators running for President) will do all they can to throw up roadblocks to this important work.
Here are some of our favorite articles this year. All except the last (a bit of a cheat) are listed in the order in which they appeared in various editions of INK. Below is a short synopsis of the story, and a link to take you to the original post. Let us know your favorites. Finally, we here at LRI wish you and your family a happy, healthy, prosperous, and peaceful 2019!