The Article in the New York Times
On 31 August 2015 The New York Times published a rather controversial article by the title ‘As His Term Wanes, Obama Champions Workers’ Rights’. The story is an almost perfect example of labor economics, as it involves the employees of the labor services and their working rights and demands.
The administration of President Obama had been maintaining a combative and belligerent operation that involves promises regarding reestablishing the insurance and protection rights for employees that suffered from enterprise activism, traditional administration and the sharp rise in the progression of the economy within recent several years.
The Campaign of Obama
Over the past few months, the Administration of President Obama has been announcing a string of administrative changes. Among them are: “a rule that would make millions more Americans eligible for extra overtime pay, and guidelines suggesting that many employers are misclassifying workers as contractors and, therefore, depriving them of basic workplace protections” (Scheiber, 2015, para. 2). This series has become a fundamental matter for the expansion and prosperity of several self-styled gig economy organization, for instance, Uber.
On the middle of the August 2015 a federal appeals panel granted a little less than 2 million home care employees minimal payments and work stability and security in case of overtimes. This was done by affirming a regulation that had been proposed earlier only for care workers who had been previously exempted. Moreover, President Obama’s delegates had established an extensive directive in the National Labor Relations Board. According to the new ruling, the workers of franchises received simplified bargaining rights for negotiating with the organizations that may affect the business of the contractors.
Benjamin I. Sachs, a professor at Harvard Law School and a former assistant general counsel for the Service Employees International Union, claimed that “these moves constitute the most impressive and, in my view, laudable attempt to update labor and employment law in many decades. The goal is to keep pace with changes in the structure of the labor market and the way work is organized” (Scheiber, 2015, para. 4).
The Results of the Campaign
The outcome of these actions was controversial. The labor workers denounced that Obama was unsuccessful in his attempts to organize the employees. Moreover, the representatives of the Liberal Party also criticized the ways Obama acted while implementing his delegates in various agencies. The President of the Economic Policy Institute Lawrence Mishel said that “They were very weak on getting people into their positions in the first term. They lost many years of potential fruitful activity” (Scheiber, 2015, para. 5).
References
Labor economics. (2014).
Scheiber, N. (2015). As his term wanes, Obama champions workers’ rights. The New York Times.
Soergel, A. (2015). Where are all the workers? Web.