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Dept of Labor

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We Uncovered A New Government Watchlist. Are You Their Next Target? - YouTube

Jun 25, 2026 MPU

We Uncovered A New Government Watchlist. Are You Their Next Target?

mpu 6 26

The Department of Labor doesn't have an official intelligence component, but its office of the Inspector General holds powerful investigative capabilities and liaisons with the FBI and other intelligence agencies, including DHS.

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It has also shown up on the Department of Homeland Security's joint task forces across the country. DOL’s top cop is literally a former cop.

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Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito, who previously served as an NYPD officer.

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And he was accused of stealing a golden chain from an arrestee and then lying to put a different guy in jail. The NYPD later paid out a six figure settlement to that guy.

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But even more concerning than D’Esposito is the top DOL lawyer, Jonathan Berry, the Solicitor General.

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While working as a corporate lawyer, Berry penned the chapter on the Department of Labor in the Policy Manual developed by the anti-worker Heritage Foundation, known as Project 2025.

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In the chapter, Berry calls for the transformation of the Department of Labor from a watchdog to ensure workers are protected from predatory corporations to an investigative arm targeting workers and unions.

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The chapter calls for using the office of the Inspector General to look into worker centers across the country, but it also calls for investigating unions

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without any initiating complaint, meaning investigations into workers and their unions could be undertaken without probable cause—at any time, and at any location across the country.

While Jonathan Berry's playbook takes shape, Spencer told me there's another element from the Department of Labor already in play.

We talk about these Homeland Security task forces and the Department of Labor, through its Office of Inspector General, participates in those task forces.

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14 minutes, 5 seconds

When you look at the press releases touting DOJ successes, they often include Department of Labor there, and it's usually through the Office of Inspector General.

It's concerning, because I think there is that risk to investigate workers. In other words, the Department of Labor has found a way to inject itself into the dirty business of intelligence work.

So where does this leave you, the American worker? Well, believe it or not, there's a vast range of tools to fight back against government surveillance.

Cities across the country have used their city council to terminate partnerships with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces carrying out NSPM-7.

Unions, like the American Federation of Teachers and United Auto Workers, are suing the government to shut down unconstitutional surveillance.

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Education

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Jihun Han

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'You seem to be celebrating it': CNN host calls out labor sec as Republicans cheer firings

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"Cuts, fear and understaffing" is causing employee morale to plummet at the United States Department of Labor, according to a report by The Guardian.

About 20 percent ofstaffat the department have resigned or retired ahead of threatened, devastating cuts at the agency.

"Staff charged with protecting US workers feel their core mission is being undermined," and despite the fawning by labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who called President Donald Trump "the transformational president of the American worker," the irony has not gone unnoticed by agency workers.

READ MORE:'I am not afraid of you!' Senator takes on Trump’s FBI director in explosive exchange

"Everyone thinks it’s a joke because it is a joke. There are parts of the building that have not been fixed. We have closed bathrooms all over the place. The front door doesn’t work, it’s been broken for two months, but we have money for a stupid banner,” one anonymous worker told The Guardian.

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That banner is the giant one draped over the labor department featuring a massive picture of Trump with the words, "American Workers FIRST!"

"Fawning over the president, regardless of who the president is, acting that way means [Chavez-DeRemer] can’t give him hard or bad news and you should be able to do that if you’re a leader," said the anonymous staffer.

But it's the undermining of the agency's mission— to "foster and promote the welfare of job seekers, wage earners and retirees through drastic cuts, deregulations that include pay cuts for workers, and mistreatment of those employed at the agency," says The Guardian, that has the biggest impact.

READ MORE:'He's not doing well': Psychologists say Trump showing telltale signs of 'early dementia

“They are gutting us. They are taking away everything that makes us helpful to the citizens of the states we work in,” another anonymous employee told The Guardian. “They say they’re changing things for the American worker. I was born in the US and am a veteran. I’m an American worker and they don’t care about us.”

Workers at the department are also being muzzled. Despite the National Labor Relations Act, which provides employees with a protected right to speak to the media about their working conditions and labor concerns, the labor secretary threatened workers with "serious legal consequences" if they did so.

“A federal worker shouldn’t be scared to speak the truth. For me to even be concerned about speaking is ridiculous, it’s how we stand up to protect ourselves and those around us,” said the second anonymous employee.

In response to workers' complaints about maintenance issues in the department's offices and bathrooms, a labor department spokesperson toldThe Guardian, "this fake news hit piece is exactly why public trust in the mainstream media is at historic lows."

READ MORE:'Something is wrong': MAGA pundits say Trump is 'lying to us' about Charlie Kirk shooting

The workers beg to differ.

“It’s kind of like working in a prison,” said the second anonymous employee. “It’s very clear how they treat us is a bellwether for how they want other workers to be treated.”

Julie Su, who was labor secretary under President Joe Biden, agreed, saying this is far from a golden age for American workers as the administration promised.

“The Department of Labor is being deployed fully as one arm of this president’s war on workers, which is even more painful given that the mission of the Department of Labor is to protect workers. The way you treat your own workers is a sign of how you believe workers in general deserve to be treated. And this administration has taken a very destructive approach to its own workers," she said.

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8 6? 25 zeteo robt r list of trump fuck over workers YT

7 25 note no f word but he got there

neoconservative writer Bill Kristol says President Donald Trump’s firing of the Commissioner of Labor Statistics over her department’s accurately reported numbers was moving the U.S. into “third world” territory.

“My alarm scale is pretty high,” Kristol told podcaster Tim Miller. “It’s been pretty high for quite a while, but it’s ticking higher.”

The furious president fired Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after a dismal June jobs report showing only 73,000 new jobs added and downward revisions of more than 250,000 for April and May.

READ MORE: Donald Trump just debunked his own lie — and it should get him sued

“She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “… The Economy is BOOMING under “TRUMP.”

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Kristol said past presidents often spun bad numbers with claims that ‘it’s complicated” or "these adjustments are a little bigger than usual."

“That would’ve been a normal political reaction,” Kristol said. “But spin is not OK anymore. I guess we just have to have pure propaganda. You can’t report the facts if they run counter to the narrative of America First, that everything is fantastic, everything that Trump does has instantaneously great results and there will never be another disappointment or a down month in the economy as long as Trump is president.”

Read more: 'Uncle Sam owns it now': Michigan auto CEO says Trump 'roadblocks' could kill his company

“The numbers weren’t even outright recessionary,” added Kristol, but now Trump has amplified them to shake confidence in everything now coming out of the administration.

Miller called the firing a "don’t believe your lying eyes-authoritarian creep" and agreed that McEntarfer lost her job “because she reported the facts.” This will signal that nobody will now be able to take as truth any “facts” coming from the administration, whether it’s economic numbers or the details of a hurricane.

“The economy is based on trust and the belief that institutions will pay their bills, that the numbers they report will be accurate and there will not be a corrupt scheme that hyperinflates or deflates the value of the dollar,” said Miller. “This is the reason the U.S. has the world’s reserve currency, why the U.S. is still la trusted world harbor for investment for people around the world It is because our institutions are strong and legitimate. If you delegitimize our institutions that puts you on a path of having an economy that looks like Argentina.

Miller asked why anybody would invest in the U.S. if they suspect the government is going to put out “fake numbers to please the despot.”

READ MORE: Trump official reminds the world that the US now has a 'national position' on a single word

And it is to please the despot, said Kristol. The abrupt nature of the firing proved that.

“They want the intimidation. They want the sense that the whole government works for Donald Trump,” Kristol said, adding that the all caps “Trump” in Trump’s Truth Social post was “revealing.”

Hear the Bulwark podcast at this link.

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A top official in the Department of Labor this week informed all staff members that they could face criminal charges if they speak to journalists, former employees or others about agency business.

A memo sent Monday by Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s chief of staff, Jihun Han, and obtained by ProPublica, states that “individuals who disclose confidential information or engage in unauthorized communications with the media may face serious legal consequences.”

Among the ramifications, the memo states, are “potential criminal penalties, depending on the nature of the information and the applicable laws,” and “immediate disciplinary actions, up to and including termination.”

The guidance document went on to say that “any unauthorized communication with the media,” regardless of what information is shared or how it is shared, “will be treated as a serious offense.”

The memo listed laws, regulations and a departmental guide to explain its legal position. Among them was a regulation concerning civil servants’ ethical obligations and a law, the Freedom of Information Act, guaranteeing the public the right to inspect certain public records.

“This message will serve as your only warning,” the memo stated.

The warning comes as current and former Labor Department employees have spoken to the news media about harms they see resulting from the dismantling of portions of their agency, which enforces laws guaranteeing rights to a safe workplace, fair pay and protections against discrimination.

“It’s very chilling,” a Labor Department employee who requested anonymity for fear of retribution told ProPublica. “It’s never a good look when you’re telling people to never talk about what you’re doing.”

Labor Department spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“These types of missives can chill the free flow of information to the press and the public,” said Gabe Rottman, vice president of policy at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “That’s a concern.”

Civil servants do not sacrifice their First Amendment rights by accepting a job with the federal government, but there do exist higher restrictions on what information they can disclose publicly. Government agencies that handle classified information have on rare occasions launched criminal investigations against leakers, but those are typically invoked only when leaks involve classified national security intelligence or protected financial information, Rottman said.

“But normally, disclosures to the press or others would be a matter of employee discipline as opposed to carrying criminal sanctions,” he said.

While the memo raising the possibility of criminal penalties was sent to Labor Department employees, it reflects a common approach by the administration of President Donald Trump to guard against federal government employees speaking to reporters.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, for example, has publicly announced an aggressive pursuit of leakers. Elon Musk, who launched the Department of Government Efficiency, which is at the heart of the shake-up of the federal government, has bragged about his tactics in rooting out leaks at his companies. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has blamed alleged leaks by former Pentagon staffers for reigniting controversy over his use of the Signal messaging app to discuss military operations.

Federal employees at various agencies told ProPublica that an air of suspicion has descended on their workplace during Trump’s second term, with rumors flying of surveillance of rank-and-file government workers. In the Department of Agriculture, for example, a banner temporarily appeared on government computers when employees logged in, telling them that “unauthorized or improper use of this system may result in disciplinary action, as well as civil and criminal penalties.”

Agriculture Department spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Labor Department employee told ProPublica that Monday’s memo felt like the latest attack on a workforce already weathering layoffs, spending freezes and reorganizations.

“It’s been horrible. It’s been a deeply exhausting roller coaster,” the employee said. “It’s very difficult to work when you’re in a constant state of being terrorized by your employer.”

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/how-americas-wealthiest-are-profiting-in-the-time-of-the-pandemic/

American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) Michael Strain wrote an op-ed in the New York Times recently explaining how “The American Dream Is Alive and Well,” and that in his opinion this nation has, “bigger issues than inequality.” Strain’s piece is part of the paper’s new pandemic-era series called “The America We Need” and engages in a set of impressive mental gymnastics to conclude that it ought to be of no concern that the rich are getting richer and that it would be better to focus instead on, “the relatively slow rate of productivity growth,” or “the long-term decline in male employment.”

Michael Strain is incredulous over our fixation on the concentration of wealth at the top, asking, “Do Americans really care as much about inequality as the attention by media and liberal politicians suggest?” He adds, “Given that income inequality has been stagnant or declining over the most recent decade, the timing… is odd” for a conversation “about whether inequality suggests that capitalism itself is broken.” However, inequality continues to steadily rise—a fact it seems the pro-free-market American Enterprise Institute is hoping we ignore.

In his op-ed, Strain chants a mantra that he and other proponents of capitalism want to realize through sheer repetition: “Capitalism isn’t broken. The game isn’t rigged. Hard work does pay off.” Most insultingly, he maintains that: “American workers are resilient and are accustomed to facing—and overcoming—economic challenges.” In other words, because American workers are used to being screwed over by the economy and most have seemingly managed to survive it, they will continue to do so in the face of ever-increasing hardship.

Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) during a Senate hearing on May 19 questioned Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, asking, “How many workers will die if we send people back to work without the protections they need, Mr. Secretary? How many workers should give their lives to increase our [gross domestic product] by half a percent?” Mnuchin responded, “I think your characterization is unfair,” but the Trump administration he attempted to defend has in fact forced people back to work, namely in the meatpacking industry. President Donald Trump invoked theDefense Production Act—not to direct the commercial production of much-needed medical and protective equipment, but rather to provide cover to the meat industry as it seeks to force workers back into a dangerous environment.

Thousands of workers have become infected in recent months. But if meatpacking workers contract the disease and die, it is their fault as per Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who recently claimed that it was the “home and social” conditions in the lives of meatpacking plant workers that were responsible for their COVID-19 diagnoses.He even went as far as suggesting more law enforcement surveillance of those communities where meatpacking workers live in order to police social distancing.

Making clear just how little Republicans in particular care about workers, Trump has opposed extending unemployment insurance for laid-off workers. His Labor Department has encouraged companies to snitch on workers so that their unemployment benefits are cut off if they are too fearful of returning to work. And, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to protect corporations from liability in coronavirus-related lawsuits by workers.

Republicans have also refused to take up any more stimulus bills even as more than 38 million Americans have lost jobs in just nine weeks. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, showing just how blind he is to the pain of workers, said, “I don’t see the need right now.” Senator McConnell echoed this, saying, “I don’t think we have yet felt the urgency of acting immediately. That time could… [come], but I don’t think it has yet.” Time and again conservative politicians, in shilling for the rich, have indicated that American workers, rather than being essential, are simply expendable. This is their version of a class war.

The White House’s latest idea for helping workers is to cut corporate taxes in half as a way to incentivize overseas jobs to return to the U.S. Larry Kudlow, the White House’s top economic adviser, touted a payroll tax cut as a way to put more money into Americans’ pockets. He failed to mention that cutting payroll taxes meant a cut in payroll-tax-funded programs like Medicare and Social Security—programs many Americans rely on that the class warriors have wanted to cut for years.

Amazingly, the stock market appears to not care that there is record unemployment as week after week even with skyrocketing unemployment, the Dow Jones and Nasdaq indices remain buoyed. Indeed, the indicators that are announced with much fanfare every day on the popular radio program Marketplace have never had a real bearing on the well-being of American workers, no matter how much enthusiasm host Kai Ryssdal musters during his announcements. To his credit, he has admitted as much, explaining that the “wealthiest 10 percent of American households own 84 percent of all stocks.”

Before the pandemic, Trump bet his reelection on a low unemployment rate and the buoyancy of the stock market. Now, with official unemployment figures so incongruent with the stock market’s growth, he has a harder time making a claim of widespread economic prosperity. In fact, there was no prosperity even before the pandemic. The official unemployment rate was low, but that did not indicate how many people had quit looking for work or how poor quality those jobs were. The pandemic has exposed the fact that Trump’s claims of financial triumph were always more of a mirage than a miracle.

As the anguish of millions of American workers remains irrelevant to the corporate profiteers and their political benefactors, we are expected to rejoice in the fact that JeffBezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, could become the world’s first trillionaire in a few years. It would be convenient for Michael Strain and the American Enterprise Institute if we are convinced to ignore such obscenity and focus instead on workers remaining “resilient” as the rich wage their class war.

The only rational response to the absurd state of the U.S. economy is to insist that billionaires (and especially trillionaires) are simply not allowed to exist. After the first $100 million, there is no need to continue to amass any more wealth. Congress could easily enact laws to tax billionaires heavily enough that they remained more than comfortable for the rest of their lives while funding necessary services that huge numbers of Americans could benefit from: paid sick leave, Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and so much more. There is no justification for individuals to hoard so much wealth compared to the rest of us. But they will never give up that wealth voluntarily. They will instead fight tooth and nail, lie and cheat, to preserve and expand their inconceivable riches. Against such a class war there is only one option.

Sonali Kolhatkaris the founder, host and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations.

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

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fox guarding the henhouse: How Trump’s labor secretary failed workers as the pandemic ragedTom Conway / Independent Media Inst

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Trump labor secretary slammed for ‘despicable’ efforts to roll back unemployment benefits and paid leave

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-labor-department-accused-of-quietly-twisting-the-law-to-slash-paid-sick-leave-amid-pandemic

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Trump Labor Department accused of quietly ‘twisting the law’ to slash paid sick leave amid pandemic

President Donald J. Trump participates in the ceremonial swearing in of Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia in the Oval Office, Monday, September 30, 2019. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams April 3, 2020

Two Democratic members of Congress on Thursday accused the Department of Labor of quietly “twisting the law” to limit the scope of already inadequate paid sick leave provisions contained in a coronavirus stimulus package that President Donald Trump signed into law last month.

Over the weekend, the Labor Department—headed by former corporate lawyer Eugene Scalia—published policy guidance on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) that Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said creates several “gratuitous loopholes” allowing corporations to limit the number of employees eligible for paid leave.

“The Trump administration is twisting the law to allow employers to shirk their responsibility and is significantly narrowing which workers are eligible for paid leave,” Murray said in a statement. “This simply can’t stand. This guidance needs to be rewritten so workers get the leave they are guaranteed under the law.”

The FFCRA, which Trump signed into law on March 18, provides two weeks of paid sick leave to eligible workers who fall ill and 12 weeks of leave to workers caring for children whose schools have closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The bill excludes workers at companies with more than 500 employees.

In a detailed letter (pdf) to Scalia on Wednesday, Murray and DeLauro said the Labor Department’s guidance blatantly “contradict[s] the plain language of the FFCRA and violate congressional intent.”

One example Murray and DeLauro highlighted is the Labor Department’s definition of “unable to work.”

“You are unable to work if your employer has work for you and one of the COVID-19 qualifying reasons set forth in the FFCRA prevents you from being able to perform that work, either under normal circumstances at your normal worksite or by means of telework,” the Labor Department wrote in its guidance.

Murray and DeLauro said that definition would “allow all employers to evade the requirements of the Act at any point during this pandemic by informing employees that it does not have work for them to perform at the moment—thereby fully depriving them of a day, a week, or 12 weeks of paid leave.”

“Nothing in the text of the FFCRA indicates the employer must have work for an employee to perform on any particular day for that employee to be able to qualify for paid leave on that day—nor does it give employers the authority to refuse their employees their statutory right to paid leave by not assigning them work, furloughing them, or closing a particular worksite,” Murray and DeLauro wrote in their letter.

In a press release, Murray and DeLauro summarized their concerns with the Labor Department guidance, warning that it would:

Require certification in order for workers to qualify for paid leave. DOL states that employers can require certification for employees to qualify for paid leave, even though the FFCRA does not require for any such certification from employees.

Restrict what qualifies as being “unable to work.” DOL states that employees only qualify for paid sick or family leave if they are unable to work and their employer has work for them, allowing employers to cut off employees’ rights to paid sick or family leave by claiming they have nothing for the employee to do. This guidance is in direct contradiction with the FFCRA, which does not allow employers to use those tactics to prevent employees from receiving paid leave.

Restrict worker’s ability to take leave intermittently. DOL states that an employee may only take their leave intermittently “if your employer allows it.” This conclusion is found nowhere in the text and gives the employer, rather than the employee who has the need for leave, the ability to decide how to use the employee’s leave.

Exempt employees from paid leave. FFCRA exempts narrowly defined “health care providers” from the paid leave provisions due to the nature of the current crisis. But without authority, DOL redefined a “health care provider” to include nearly any employee who happens to work for an employer who also employs a health care provider, works at any type of quasi-medical facility, works as an employee contracted for non-healthcare services in a facility that houses a health care provider, or merely works in the medical supply chain.

Not guaranteeing paid leave during a “shelter in place” order. DOL does not clarify that a government directive to stay at home qualifies for paid leave. In fact, DOL even indicates that employees lose their right to paid leave if their employer closes the employee’s worksite in the event of a government directive. This clearly defies the FFCRA which grants paid leave to employees who are subject to quarantine or isolation orders from government officials.

“In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration is robbing workers of the paid sick days and paid leave Congress passed into law for them. That is unconscionable,” DeLauro said in a statement. “People across the country are struggling to make ends meet, and essential workers who are still able to work need to know that if they or a loved one falls ill that they can take time off.”

“Keeping workers from getting other workers sick is good for employees, employers, and our broader public health,” said DeLauro. “Secretary Scalia needs to immediately rescind this guidance and put workers’ needs first.”

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'Literally taking money from the pockets of workers’: Trump Labor Department slammed for ‘wholly inadequate’ overtime pay rule

Jessica Corbett / Common Dreams

Labor rights advocates and progressive economists slammed the Trump administration after the Department of Labor announced Tuesday a final rule on overtime pay to replace a bolder Obama-era proposal blocked by a…

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‘Literally taking money from the pockets of workers’: Trump Labor Department slammed for ‘wholly inadequate’ overtime pay rule

9 August 2019 - Washington, DC - Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Patrick Pizzella Official Portrait..*****.Photographs taken by the federal government are generally part of the public domain and may be used, copied and distributed without permission. Unless otherwise noted, photos posted here may be used without the prior permission of the U.S. Department of Labor. Such materials, however, may not be used in a manner that imply any official affiliation with or endorsement of your company, website or publication...Photo Credit: Department of Labor.Shawn T Moore

Written by Jessica Corbett / Common Dreams September 24, 2019

Labor rights advocates and progressive economists slammed the Trump administration after the Department of Labor announced Tuesday a final rule on overtime pay to replace a bolder Obama-era proposal blocked by a federal court in Texas.

“While the administration may be trumpeting this rule as a good thing for workers, that is a ruse,” said Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). “In reality, the rule leaves behind millions of workers who would have received overtime protections under the much stronger rule, published in 2016, that Trump administration abandoned.”

The Labor Department outlined in a statement Tuesday four key results of its final rule, which is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2020:

raising the “standard salary level” from the currently enforced level of $455 to $684 per week (equivalent to $35,568 per year for a full-year worker);

raising the total annual compensation level for “highly compensated employees (HCE)” from the currently-enforced level of $100,000 to $107,432 per year;

allowing employers to use nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments (including commissions) that are paid at least annually to satisfy up to 10 percent of the standard salary level, in recognition of evolving pay practices; and

revising the special salary levels for workers in U.S. territories and in the motion picture industry.

The current standard salary threshold of $23,660 hasn’t been updated since 2004. The Labor Department projected Tuesday that about 1.2 million more workers “will be entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay as a result of the increase to the standard salary level” and another 101,800 workers “will be entitled to overtime pay as a result of the increase to the HCE compensation level.”

The federal government sets the minimum salary level but, as CNBC noted Tuesday, “several states including California and New York have salary thresholds for determining overtime eligibility that are higher than the federal standard.”

However, EPI’s Shierholz pointed out that millions more workers would have benefited from the blocked Obama-era rule, which would have raised the salary level to $47,476 and updated it every three years to account for increases in costs of living. Based on her analysis of the Trump administration’s overtime pay proposal from March—which had a slightly lower salary threshold of $35,308 per year—Shierholz explained:

I estimate that roughly 8.2 million workers who would have benefited from the 2016 rule will be left behind by the Trump administration’s rule. This 8.2 million is made up of 3.2 million workers who would have gotten new overtime protections under the 2016 rule and won’t get them under the Trump rule, and 5.0 million who would have gotten strengthened overtime protections under the 2016 rule and won’t get them under the Trump rule.

Additionally, unlike the 2016 rule, the Trump administration’s version does not automatically update, meaning workers’ annual losses will grow over time.

Additionally, unlike the 2016 rule, the Trump administration’s version does not automatically update, meaning workers’ annual losses will grow over time.

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https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/trumps-new-labor-rule-would-allow-massive-discrimination-by-for-profit-companies-broadest-protection-of-religious-exercise/

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Trump’s new labor rule would allow massive discrimination by for-profit companies: ‘Broadest protection of religious exercise’

Written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement August 15, 2019

President Donald Trump’s Labor Department on Wednesday announced a new rule that not only would codify the “right” to discriminate into practice, but would help corporations do so. The new rule applies to federal contractors, who employ up to one quarter of all employees. As NCRM reported earlier, it would allow any company, corporation, or organization with a federal contract that claims it is either religious or faith-based or follows any sort of belief system – so-called “religion-exercising organizations” – to discriminate based on those beliefs.

The word “religion” appears 241 times in the 46-page draft document.

The draft rule says “religious employers can condition employment on acceptance of or adherence

to religious tenets,” and “should be construed to provide the broadest protection of religious exercise permitted by the Constitution and other laws.”

The ACLU calls it ” taxpayer-funded discrimination in the name of religion. Period.”

Buzzfeed calls it “Trump’s latest move to let religious people sidestep civil rights policies,” and says it allows federal contractors to “cite religious objections as a valid reason to discriminate against their workers on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, LGBTQ status, and other characteristics.”

The new rule would not apply only to, say, churches, Catholic hospitals, or even a privately-held company like Hobby Lobby – if Hobby Lobby were a federal contractor. It would allow discrimination at literally any federal contractor that can show it has a “religious purpose,” but makes clear: “This need not be the contractor’s only purpose.”

The National Center for Transgender Equality says the new rule “would allow federal contractors to apply for broad exemptions to civil rights law after engaging in discriminatory behavior, including firing or refusing to hire someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. It could also lead to federal contractors refusing to hire women or unmarried workers who are pregnant or parents, or even discrimination on the basis of race.”

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may 2014

https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrishamby/department-of-labor-announces-plan-to-protect-coal-miners-af?utm_term=.qgJyp5opA#.psWDokxo6

The U.S. Department of Labor announced Friday that it plans to issue a new rule to address recent disclosures that lawyers representing coal companies have withheld medical evidence from miners in black lung benefits cases.

The announcement comes after a recent article by the investigative news outlet The Center for Public Integrity detailed a prominent law firm's decades-long record of keeping key evidence from sick miners, sometimes causing them to lose benefits cases.

The Labor Department offered little detail about the rule but said its purpose was to "ensure that coal miners have full access to information about their health and to enhance the accuracy of entitlement determinations." The department said it aims to release a proposal by January 2015.

John Cline, one of the few lawyers who regularly represent miners in federal black lung benefits cases, called the department's announcement "a big step and an important step."

"In our experience, it's an extensive problem," he said of the withholding of evidence by lawyers representing coal companies. "This is something that has been going on a long time and affecting a lot of claims."

Representatives for the coal industry's primary trade organization and the law firm featured in the CPI story did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The CPI story was the first installment in a series, "Breathless and Burdened," based on a yearlong investigation of the role of lawyers and doctors, working on behalf of the coal industry, in helping to defeat miners' claims. It found that lawyers at the industry's go-to law firm for black lung benefits cases, Jackson Kelly PLLC, for decades have withheld evidence indicating that miners whose cases they were contesting had the disease.

In court filings, the firm's attorneys have argued that they have no obligation to disclose reports by doctors they consulted whose opinions didn't support their case. Miners' lawyers have argued that the firm's approach amounts to misleading judges and the firm's other consulting doctors.

Judges have called the firm's actions "shocking" and "unconscionable" and its defenses "ludicrous" and "flimsy at best."

...

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07092017/coal-company-fights-black-lung-medical-benefits-appalachian-miner

WISE, Virginia—Retired coal miner Bethel Brock proudly shows the vegetable garden where he grows potatoes, onions, corn, butter beans and other greens for the dinner table. He's in that patch nearly every day hoeing, shoveling—and struggling just to breathe.

Brock, a soft-spoken 77-year-old, has black lung disease from decades working in the coal fields of Virginia.

When his chest constricts and he becomes so winded that he can no longer stand, he slowly folds his body like a collapsing accordion, feeling more dread than discomfort.

"I have to stop right where I am and sit in the dirt," he said. "It feels like I'm suffocating."

Brock was diagnosed in 1982 with the early stages of black lung, a progressive illness common in coal miners. It eventually robs the lungs of the ability to hold air. In 2003, he began battling the Westmoreland CoalCompany, its insurance carrier and their legion of lawyers and doctors for black lung benefits.   

The company successfully fought him 10 times by maintaining he is not seriously stricken with the incapacitating disease despite nearly two dozen findings to the contrary by his doctors—and one by a doctor hired by the company, which it did not disclose to a ...

Earlier this year, it looked as though Brock would finally win when the examiner ruled him eligible for benefits. But several months later, she inexplicably reopened the case and reversed herself on a technicality: The latest X-ray documenting the progress of his disease hadn't been stamped with the date it was taken. Once again Brock had lost in a system, created by federal law, designed to be adversarial and seemingly tilted in favor of industry.

But when InsideClimate News began asking questions, there was yet another surprising development: A supervisor decided the latest decision was "in error" and notified Brock he would be getting benefits after all. A U.S. Department of Labor spokeswoman then asked if ICN would be changing the focus of this story about the black lung benefits system.

Jennifer Grafton, Westmoreland's chief administrative and legal officer, said she was bound by privacy issues and could not talk about Brock's case. Colleen Smalley, the district director who overruled the examiner, refused to answer questions and hung up on a reporter.

Brock's 14-year fight with Westmoreland is typical of the David-and-Goliath battles coal miners face when seeking black lung benefits, which are paid by the company and include a monthly stipend and medical care for pulmonary illnesses. While thousands of miners and their survivors can struggle for decades to get benefits, coal companies and their insurers use every legal defense allowed under the Black Lung Benefits Act to deny them.

The companies engage high-profile law firms that in turn employ a cadre of doctors, setting the stage for protracted battles of conflicting medical opinions. Miners, meanwhile, are often overmatched because few lawyers will take their cases. Attorneys are barred from charging plaintiffs fees, meaning they receive modest compensation, and only if they win.

Over the last decade, 52,537 miners have applied to the Labor Department for black lung benefits. The department determined that only 7,252, or about 14 percent, were eligible, according to its data. The industry then challenged 70 percent of those claims, often denying the presence of the disease. It prevailed more than half the time.

In other words, of more than 52,000 claims, fewer than one in 10 was granted a disability award, despite the legal presumption that a miner with 15 years or more of service in the mines with lung problems has black lung as a result of his work. While rules were changed in 2000 to help level the playing field for miners, advocates, lawyers and statistics show companies still winning.

"The industry's tactic seems to be to just keep appealing until the miner or miner's wife dies or gives up," said Shannon Bell, an associate professor of sociology at Virginia Tech who has studied the impacts of the coal industry on the people of Appalachia.

This is just one front in wide-ranging battles by fossil fuel companies of all types to protect their bottom lines and their central role in providing America's energy.

"The fossil fuel industry thinks about the world differently than we do," said Brian O'Neill, who led a courtroom fight against Exxon on behalf of Alaskans devastated by the Exxon Valdez oil spill. "It's about protecting the company and invoking a kind of immunity that the world depends on their product. They are nation states and they decide what is fair treatment."

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Chao killed coal miners

geoff burr silica

Breitbart wing

Curtis Ellis was a columnist for WorldNetDaily, a website best known for its enthusiastic embrace of the false notion that President Obama was born outside the United States. A column headlined the “The Radical Left’s Ethnic Cleansing of America” won Ellis an admiring interview with Steve Bannon, now Trump’s top aide. He is a longtime critic of trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Ellis was hired Jan. 20 as a special assistant to the secretary at the Labor Department. Asked about his role in a brief phone interview Tuesday, he said: “Nothing I can tell you.”

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Committee_on_Education_and_the_Workforce

The Committee on Education and the Workforce is astanding committee of the United States House of Representatives. From 1947 until 1994 and again from 2007 to 2011, during Democratic control of the House, it was known as the Committee on Education and Labor.[1][2]

Contents

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History of the Committee

Attempts were made to create a congressional committee on education and labor starting with the early congresses but issues over Congress's constitutional ability to oversee such issues delayed the committee's formation. Finally, on March 21, 1867, the Committee on Education and Labor was founded following the end of the Civil War and during the rapid industrialization of America. On December 19, 1883, the committee was divided into two, the Committee on Education and the Committee on Labor. The committees again merged on January 2, 1947, after the passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, becoming the Committee on Education and Labor again. On January 4, 1995, when the Republicans took over the House, the Committee was renamed the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities. It was renamed again as the Committee on Education and the Workforce two years later on January 7, 1997. On January 4, 2007, with the Democrats once again in the majority, the committee's name was changed back to Committee on Education and Labor.[3] After Republicans recaptured the House majority in the 2010 elections, they returned to the name, Committee on Education and the Workforce, effective with the opening of the 112th Congress in 2011.[4]

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maj gop 114th 2016 lots of southerners

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CBS) A government whistle-blower says the Bush administration covered up the reasons for a toxic coal slurry spill in Appalachia that ranks among the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. [6]

Jack Spadaro tells Correspondent Bob Simon that political appointees in the Department of Labor whitewashed a report that said an energy company that had contributed to the Republican Party was responsible for the 300-million gallon spill.Simon's report will be broadcast on 60 Minutes, Sunday, April 4, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Spadaro was until recently the head of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy and played a key role in investigating the spill, which was 25 times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska."It polluted 100 miles of streams, killing everything in the streams, all the way to the Ohio River," says Spadaro of the October 2000 spill that affected West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky."The Bush administration came in and the scope of our investigation was considerably shortened. I had never seen something so corrupt and lawless in my entire career...interference with a federal investigation of the most serious environmental disaster in the history of the Eastern United States."Spadaro says his investigation found Massey Energy, the owner of the impoundment containing the viscous and toxic liquid, knew the containment was weak, and in fact, had leaked once before. The company was going to be cited for serious violations that could have resulted in large fines and criminal charges, Spadaro says.