Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1151081
66 CINEMONTAGE / Q3 2019 LABOR MAT TERS the works council without consequence and without loss, as the events in Chattanooga prove." WAYFAIR WORKERS DENOUNCE PROFITING FROM CHILD DETENTION Protesters filled Boston's Copley Square in late June as part of a "Wayfair Walkout," in which the company's employees staged a work stoppage to protest the retailer from profiting from President Donald Trump's child detention policies, according to Eoin Higgins in Common Dreams. Hundreds of Wayfair workers and supporters joined the action both in Boston and in Brunswick, Maine. The Boston Globe reported that management "indicated there will be no retaliation for employees who participate in the walkout." The protest grows out of worker unrest over Wayfair's contracting with BCFS, a company running child detention facilities. In a letter to Wayfair leadership on June 21, a group of 547 employees called on the company to reject the contract because "the current actions of the United States and their contractors at the southern border do not represent an ethical partnership Wayfair should choose to be a part of." REPORT EMPLOYER MISCONDUCT, FACE RETALIATION Social justice movements, such as the Fight for $15 and #MeToo, rely on workers to come forward to assert their rights — but workers who dare challenge an employer's policies or misconduct will almost certainly face retaliation, according to an article by Laura Huizar for the National Employment Law Project (NELP). Even highly paid Google workers have been forced to protest retaliation after a mass walkout criticizing the company's handling of sexual harassment. A new NELP survey of laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia shows that state laws overwhelmingly fail to provide workers with essential retaliation protections. In the article Exposing Wage Theft Without Fear: States Must Protect Workers from Retaliation, NELP offers an analysis of how state laws fail to protect workers when they challenge wage theft by lodging complaints with employers or government agencies, filing lawsuits or engaging in public actions. "It is more important than ever to ensure that state laws offer workers strong retaliation protections," said Laura Huizar, senior staff attorney with NELP. "The future of workplace conditions and workers' ability to organize depends on having strong retaliation protections in each and every state." This is especially true in the wake of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) general counsel's position, clarified in a case recently, that workers who file lawsuits or complaints with government agencies will no longer be entitled to the National Labor Relations Act's (NLRA) retaliation protections, under the theory that state laws already address retaliation. HOUSE COMMITTEE PASSES BILL TO RESCUE UNION PENSION PLANS The US House Education and Labor Committee approved a bill in June that would rescue failing multi- employer pension plans, according to an unattributed article in NW Labor Press. The bill, HR397, was originally sponsored by Representative Richard Neal (D-Massachusetts) and is currently co-sponsored by 185 representatives. If it passes the full House and Senate, the measure would help the 100 or so union-sponsored multi-employer plans that are in danger of insolvency, by giving them 30-year low- interest federal loans to shore up their assets. HR397 is backed by the AFL-CIO. It's estimated that about 1 million union workers, retirees and their dependents are in plans that are may be headed toward insolvency. Congress bailed out the banks back then, but has, so far, been reluctant to provide any help to the Protestors at the Wayfair Walkout in Boston, Massachusetts in June. Photo by Samantha Mercado/ Patch. Courtesy of Patch.com