In today’s News and Commentary, President Trump proposes DOL budget cuts, NLRB rules in favor of cannabis employees’ unionization efforts, and Florida warehouse workers vote unanimously to authorize a strike.
President Trump’s newest budget proposal would slash the DOL’s current $13.3 billion budget by 26 percent, with agencies like OSHA, Wage and Hour, and MSHA each losing tens of millions of dollars. A model of last year’s proposal to cut the budget to $8.8 billion, the 2027 budget proposal includes many of the same controversial provisions which were rejected in the spending bill passed earlier this year, such as eliminating the Job Corps, a program designed to provide vocational training for low-income youth. Most of the reductions would come from the Department’s personnel compensation budget.
On Wednesday, the NLRB ordered cannabis company Curaleaf to recognize and bargain with the United Food and Commercial Workers local in Oxford, Massachusetts. The company defended its refusal to bargain with accusations that the union was improperly certified by an April 2024 election, but the three-member panel rejected the company’s claims as “without merit.” Curaleaf is one of several cannabis companies around the country that have faced sanctions from both the NLRB and state agencies over labor practices. As cannabis employees navigate the uncharted waters of unionizing in a workplace which remains illegal under federal law, state laws have sometimes facilitated organizing,...
(AP) If a government hopes to function, it has to be able to enforce its laws. Our country is no exception, and in fact, the U.S. government is very good at enforcement. So when a big fraud case c...