Labor News & Commentary December 11, DOL settles a farmworker lawsuit & more

[Omaha Steve]

https://onlabor.org/december-11-2024/

By Anjali Katta, Anjali Katta is a student at Harvard Law School.

In today’s News and Commentary, Biden’s NLRB pick heads to Senate vote, DOL settles a farmworker lawsuit, and a federal judge blocks Albertsons-Kroger merger.

Democrats have moved to expedite re-confirmation proceedings for NLRB Chair Lauren McFerran, which would grant her another five years on the Board. If the Democrats succeed in finding 50 Senate votes for McFerran’s re-confirmation they can lock in a 3-2 majority on the Board. If McFerran is left unconfirmed, however, President-elect Trump will have the ability to flip the NLRB’s majority. With only two weeks left in the session, time is running out.

The DOL has settled a lawsuit with farmworker organizations, including the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, who alleged that the DOL violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by failing to coordinate the enforcement of statutes that protect farmworkers. The DOL has agreed to establish a committee coordinating farm labor enforcement across the Department’s various offices, including the Wage and Hour Division and OSHA. The attorney for the farmworker organizations, Michael Kirkpatrick from Public Citizen Litigation Group, stated that the settlement’s “enforcement mechanisms[] will ensure that DOL lives up to its responsibilities to serve and protect farmworkers.”

After a three-week hearing, U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson temporarily halted the supermarket merger of Kroger and Albertsons. The merger, proposed in 2022 and valued at $24.6 billion, would be the largest grocery store merger in U.S. history. The FTC sued earlier this year asking Judge Nelson to block the deal until an administrative judge at the FTC could consider the implications. The FTC argues that the merger would eliminate head-to-head competition between the top two traditional grocery chains, leading to higher prices for shoppers and reduced bargaining power for unionized workers. Kroger and Albertsons will likely appeal the ruling.