The United States Senate confirmed several more nominees of President Biden to a host of important federal posts. First and foremost, amongst the recent confirmations was new Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, who formerly served as Mayor of Boston for the past 7 years. Confirmed on a Senate vote of 68-29, Walsh will now oversee the…
Read More »Wasting no time in the wake of passing the $1.9 trillion Covid Relief legislation, the U.S. House also this week passed the latest iteration of the Protecting Right to Organize Act (PRO Act) and sent it to the Senate. The legislation, which has passed the House in prior sessions only to die in the then-republican…
Read More »Looking closer at the final COVID relief legislation, efforts by progressive democrats to incorporate the provisions of the Protecting the Right To Organize Act (PRO Act) in the American Rescue Plan Act were ultimately unsuccessful however, the legislation is not dead by any stretch. To the contrary, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced that…
Read More »Last week, we reported on the US Senate confirmation hearing for Boston Mayor – Secretary of Labor nominee – Marty Walsh. Well, we now know who has been nominated to serve as his second-in-command, California Labor Secretary Julie Su. She currently heads up the California Department of Labor and Workforce Development and was on the…
Read More »Last week, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it had ended the employer self-reporting wage and hour program that was implemented by the Trump administration. The Payroll Audit Independent Determination program (PAID), which was launched in 2018, allowed employers to self-report potential wage and hour violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and…
Read More »The US Senate confirmation hearing on Secretary of Labor nominee Mayor Marty Walsh was held yesterday by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions. There did not appear to be any significant issues with Mayor Walsh’s nomination and in the wake of that hearing, one can anticipate that Mayor Walsh will be confirmed…
Read More »Back during the 2020 Presidential Campaign, then candidate Joe Biden made it clear where he would come down on labor issues, pledging to the AFL-CIO at a Labor Day event that he will be “the strongest labor president you ever had” when he is in the White House. Well, he’s only been there two days,…
Read More »President-elect Joseph Biden named two elected officials from New England to his Cabinet yesterday with the appointments of Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo as incoming Commerce Secretary and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as Secretary of Labor. Both positions will require Senate confirmation. In her 6th year as governor of the Ocean State and the first…
Read More »
It would be hard to think of a tougher year for the restaurant industry than 2020, which saw the coronavirus pandemic turn the world upside down. But as we head into 2021, there is light and hope on the horizon. A slew of new vaccines is rolling out across the country, while the $900 billion…
Read More »Proceeding under the assumption that current presidential election results will not change significantly enough to alter the outcome announced to date, it may behoove us to take a closer look prospectively at a Biden Presidency. In that vein, we could expect one of the first actions in a Biden Presidency would be to rescind a…
Read More »
