Senate Minority Leader
McConnell (R-Ky.) used a Senate privilege known as Rule 14 to place more than a dozen bills directly on the Senate calendar for consideration.
Senate Majority Leader
McConnell’s list includes a federal “right to work” proposal, (
Also up for consideration is a bill (
Rule 14 allows items to bypass committee debate, where senators can object to the legislation or amend it. McConnell’s strategic move to put the bills on the Senate calendar means they could come up for a vote at any time.
The labor measures are part of McConnell’s threat against Schumer to force votes on Republican-backed bills if the New York Democrat proceeds with changing the Senate’s filibuster rules to advance voting rights legislation.
President
VIDEO: Our comprehensive guide to how many votes are needed for almost any scenario in Congress.
Union Fees Targeted
Sen.
The term “right to work” relates to mandatory dues for private-sector employees in unionized workplaces. More than two dozen states permit workers to opt out of the payments. The others require all employees to pay the fees to support their share of collective bargaining costs if they’re covered by the contract, regardless of whether they are union members.
Unions say employees in “right to work” states can receive union benefits without paying for them.
Sen.
Republicans have previously favored a more narrow, business-friendly interpretation of joint employer liability, an issue that’s been extensively litigated.
During the Trump administration, for example, a Republican majority at the National Labor Relations Board largely shielded companies from liability faced by their franchisees by narrowly defining an employer as the entity directly making business decisions for workers.
At the U.S. Labor Department, the Trump administration enacted a joint-employment regulation that favored businesses, but it was rescinded after Biden took over.
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