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Economy
Report Warns Trump Would Likely Worsen GOP's Assault on Child Labor Laws
"It's really urgent that we address our federal standards and raise them for children across the country," a co-author said.
Oct 16, 2024
A number of mostly Republican-controlled states have weakened child labor protections in recent years and a second Trump administration would likely escalate the deregulatory push, as per plans laid out in Project 2025, according to a report released Wednesday.
The 55-page report, Protecting Children From Dangerous Work, was prepared by Governing for Impact, the Economic Policy Institute, and Child Labor Coalition. It includes harrowing stories of teenagers killed on the job, documents right-wing plans for increased minor involvement in dangerous work, and calls for action by the U.S. Labor Department to strengthen and codify legal protections for workers under age 18.
Child labor violations in the U.S. nearly quadrupled between 2015 and 2022, according to Labor Department data.
The new report documents right-wing efforts to loosen child labor protections, particularly in the past four years, during which time lawmakers in 30 states have moved to do so. At least eight states—Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, and West Virginia—have tried to roll back protections on child labor hours or hazardous work just since the start of 2023, the report says.
"At the time when we're seeing violations on the rise, and we're simultaneously seeing states go back on their commitment to raising standards to be above federal minimums, I think it's really urgent that we address our federal standards and raise them for children across the country who may be working in hazardous environments or in an environment that is not appropriate for someone of their age," Nina Mast, an analyst at the Economic Policy Institute and a co-author of the report, toldThe Guardian.
The policy agenda of Project 2025, a 920-page manifesto which many observers consider a blueprint for a second Trump administration, includes explicit mention of child labor issues. Many of the authors worked for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during his first administration.
The chapter on the Labor Department, written by Jonathan Berry, who himself worked in the department under Trump, says that "some young adults show an interest in inherently dangerous jobs" and that "with parental consent and proper training, certain young adults should be allowed to learn and work in more dangerous occupations."
The right-wing push to deregulate child labor has led several states to adopt laws that are below federal standards established by the Fair Labor Standards Act, leading to confusion for employers and employees, the new report says.
Agriculture is a sector where child labor is particularly common and is subject to its own regulations. The Obama administration tried to push through legal protections for minors in the sector in 2012 but met with major resistance from industry groups.
Still, even without further action from Congress, the Labor Department has the authority to strengthen protections for minors in agriculture and other sectors, the report authors argue. In the 2000s, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health issued a series of recommendations on child labor, some of which the department didn't implement—but still could, they wrote.
A detailed investigation by The New York Times last year showed that much of the exploitation of child labor, both in farms and factories, is targeted at migrants.
The new report cites a particularly awful example of the dangers of such exploitation. In July 2023, Duvan Thomas Pérez, a 16-year-old, was working as a cleaner at a chicken processing plant in Mississippi—as he did on nights after school—when a moving component of a machine drew him in and killed him. He was employed in violation of current law, the report says, pointing to the need for better enforcement of the rules already on the books.
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After Gorging on Stock Buybacks for Years, Boeing Announces Mass Layoffs
"The corporate cure is always the same—lay off workers," said one critic. "Stock buybacks and layoffs are joined at the hip. It's time they were outlawed entirely."
Oct 12, 2024
The manufacturing giant Boeing, under the leadership of new CEO Kelly Ortberg, announced Friday that it will axe roughly 10% of its total workforce in the coming months, a move that drew attention to the company's massive spending on stock buybacks in recent years.
Boeing, which is currently facing a machinist strike, spent an estimated $68 billion on executive-enriching share repurchases and dividends between 2010 and 2019—spending that critics say refutes the company's claim that layoffs and inadequate worker compensation are necessary.
Les Leopold, executive director of the Labor Institute and author of Wall Street's War on Workers: How Mass Layoffs and Greed Are Destroying the Working Class and What to Do about It, told Common Dreams in an email that "Boeing is in trouble because it became a manufacturer of stock buybacks, not just planes."
"The corporate cure is always the same—lay off workers," Leopold added. "Stock buybacks and layoffs are joined at the hip. It's time they were outlawed entirely."
Leopold has urged Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, to campaign on the pledge that "no taxpayer money will go to corporations who lay off taxpayers and conduct stock buybacks." In 2022, Boeing received nearly $15 billion from contracts with the Pentagon.
"CEO Ortberg has an opportunity to do things differently instead of the same old tired labor relations threats used to intimidate and crush anyone that stands up to them."
Ortberg took over as Boeing's CEO in August following the former chief executive's departure—with a $45 million golden parachute—amid fresh safety concerns at the company after a door plug blew out of a Boeing plane mid-flight.
In a memo to employees on Friday, Ortberg—who stands to rake in $22 million in total compensation next year—announced Boeing will delay its new 777X jet and end production of its 767 freighters. Additionally, Ortberg wrote that "we must also reset our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and to a more focused set of priorities"—corporate-speak for mass layoffs.
"These reductions will include executives, managers, and employees," the CEO added. "We know these decisions will cause difficulty for you, your families, and our team, and I sincerely wish we could avoid taking them. However, the state of our business and our future recovery require tough actions."
The job cuts are expected to impact around 17,000 workers.
Ortberg's announcement came days after Boeing suspended contract negotiations with striking machinists, disparaging the union's demands as "far in excess of what can be accepted if we are to remain competitive as a business."
"The same company spent $68 billion on dividends and stock buybacks over the past decade and gave its last two CEOs multimillion-dollar golden parachutes," former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote in response. "What's unreasonable is Boeing's greed."
Jon Holden, president of District 751 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers—which represents Boeing workers who went on strike a month ago—said in a statement Friday that the company's management "keeps walking away from the table" and "using the same old tired tactics of bargaining in the press."
"The path to resolve this strike begins at the bargaining table," said Holden. "An unwillingness to stay at the table only prolongs the strike. CEO Ortberg has an opportunity to do things differently instead of the same old tired labor relations threats used to intimidate and crush anyone that stands up to them."
"Our membership is too powerful for that and is standing on principles," Holden added. "Ultimately, it will be our membership that determines whether any negotiated contract offer is accepted. They want a resolution that is negotiated and addresses their needs. Get back to the bargaining table."
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UAW Chief Slams 'Job-Killer-in-Chief' Trump Ahead of Michigan Visit
"Kamala Harris has stood with labor," said Shawn Fain. "She's walked the walk. Donald Trump serves himself. He's always served himself."
Oct 10, 2024
The head of the largest U.S. autoworkers union on Thursday highlighted the yawning chasm between former President Donald Trump's campaign promises to protect the country's auto industry and the 2024 Republican nominee's White House record—which includes hundreds of thousands of lost manufacturing jobs.
Speaking on a call hosted by the campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain argued that "there is a stark contrast between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris."
"Kamala Harris has stood with labor," Fain said of the UAW-endorsed candidate. "She's walked the walk. Donald Trump serves himself. He's always served himself."
Taking aim at Trump's claims that he's the best choice for U.S. autoworkers and that he's "always had their back," Fain said:
Look at the Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant. [Trump] told workers there, "Don't sell your houses." The plant closed. He came to Warren, Michigan, a week ago or two. Again, wants to talk about how he cares about autoworkers. But we had [General Motors'] powertrain plant in Warren closed under his watch. He did nothing. Trump stood there in 2016 and promised that he wouldn't allow a single plant to close.
However, plant closures and offshoring increased during the Trump administration, during which domestic auto production plummeted from nearly 12.2 million units in 2016, the last full year of the Obama administration, to under 8.2 million units in 2020, Trump's last full year in office, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. While Covid-19 affected that year's production, fewer than 10.9 million vehicles were manufactured domestically in pre-pandemic 2019.
Fain, who noted this trend, called Trump the "job-killer-in-chief."
The UAW chief also mocked reports that numerous attendees wearing "autoworkers for Trump" T-shirts at a Tuesday rally for the Republican in Detroit weren't actually autoworkers.
"It's pathetic. Everything he does is a con," Fain said of Trump.
Referring to the multibillionaire CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla, Fain added that Trump "sits there and applauds Elon Musk for trying to fire striking workers, and they laugh about that."
"And that's why I said Donald Trump is a scab," the union leader added, using the term for nonunion workers who cross picket lines during strikes.
During last year's UAW strike for a fair contract, President Joe Biden made history by becoming the first-ever sitting U.S. president to join striking workers on a picket line. Four years earlier, Harris, then a U.S. senator from California running for president, walked a picket line with striking UAW workers in Reno, Nevada.
The Biden-Harris administration has often been called the most pro-labor presidency in modern history.
Fain's remarks came hours before Trump infuriated many Michiganders by telling local business owners at a Detroit rally that if Harris wins, the entire country will "end up being like Detroit"—which is in the midst of an economic revival.
Congressman Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), who represents the city,
admonished Trump to "keep Detroit and our people out of your mouth."
"Detroit is a city with a booming economy, diverse culture, and some of the best people in America," he said, adding that the heavily Democratic city "will elect Kamala Harris."
Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes said Thursday: "Plain and simple, a second Donald Trump presidency would be a disaster for Michigan workers. His agenda will raise costs and kill jobs."
"When he was president," she added, "Trump gave tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of Michigan's working families, tanked our economy during the pandemic, and only helped the rich get richer."
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Progressives Say 2.5% COLA Increase Is a Reminder That Social Security Is on the Ballot
"Older Americans should pay close attention and make sure they support candidates who will protect the benefits they have earned—and even increase them—in the fast approaching November elections," said one advocate.
Oct 10, 2024
The cost-of-living adjustment announced Thursday by the U.S. Social Security Administration for more than 72 million senior citizens should serve as a reminder, said economic justice advocates, that the monthly Social Security payments—the "bedrock" of financial security for 58% of recipients—are on election ballots this year.
The administration announced a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment, commonly known as COLA, for 2025. People who get retirement benefits through the broadly popular New Deal-era program will see their payments adjusted starting in January 2025, and people with disabilities who rely on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will receive increased benefits starting in December.
To Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works (SSW), which advocates to protect and expand the program, the COLA announcement underscored the vast differences in how Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are likely to approach the Social Security program should they win the presidency in November.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, both co-sponsored legislation to update the COLA formula to better reflect the cost of living for seniors and people with disabilities, noted Altman.
"Republicans have a different perspective," she said. "The Republican Study Committee (which comprises over 80% of House Republicans) proposes annual budgets that include Social Security cuts. Page 104 of the Fiscal Year 2025 Republican Study Committee Budget calls the automatic nature of COLAs a 'problem' and implies that they should be subjected to annual Congressional approval. It also claims that the current COLA formula is too generous. Social Security beneficiaries likely disagree!"
The authors of Project 2025, the right-wing policy agenda co-written by dozens of people who worked in the Trump White House from 2017-21, have also endorsed increasing the full retirement age from 67 to 69, which would cut benefits for nearly three-quarters of Americans.
The current formula for the COLA is based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), but advocates have called for the Social Security Administration (SSA) to instead take into consideration the CPI-E, which measures the spending of Americans 62 years of age and older.
"The formula currently used to calculate annual COLAs under-measures the expenses that Social Security beneficiaries face," said Altman. "Seniors spend a greater proportion of their income on medical expenses―and the Social Security COLA should reflect that."
For beneficiaries who last year received $1,870 per month, the 2.5% increase will give them an additional $46.80 each month, Social Security and Medicare policy analyst Mary Johnson toldNewsweek.
"That's only going to buy about 14 gallons of gasoline per month at today's prices, or maybe enough groceries for one to last two or three days," she added.
Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said the group welcomes the COLA, but warned that "many older Americans struggle to make ends meet and afford even the most basic necessities like housing, food, and prescription drugs."
"We need a COLA that better reflects how seniors spend their money," said Fiesta. "Strengthening Social Security and increasing benefits must be a national priority. If billionaires and the top 1% pay their fair share into the system, we can afford to increase benefits across the board and ensure Social Security is there for our children and grandchildren."
"Raising the retirement age, slashing benefits and privatizing the program are among retirees' top concerns," he added. "Older Americans should pay close attention and make sure they support candidates who will protect the benefits they have earned—and even increase them—in the fast approaching November elections."
Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) pointed to the Social Security 2100 Act, legislation that would apply federal payroll taxes to earnings above $400,000 to ensure millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share toward funding and expanding Social Security.
"There is an urgent need to act to not only protect Social Security from the cuts that my Republican colleagues have proposed [but to] enhance benefits," said Larson.
Ahead of the elections, said Altman, "the bottom line is that Democrats want to make annual COLAs more accurate and generous, while Republicans want to make them stingier."
"Democrats also support other policies that would lower costs for Social Security beneficiaries, including Harris' recently released plan to expand Medicare to include home care, hearing, and vision benefits," she said. "Older voters should bear that in mind this November."
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