Labor News & Commentary October 22, 2024 the FTC abandons one labor initiative but revives another & more

[Omaha Steve]

https://onlabor.org/october-22-2024/

By John Fry

John Fry is a student at Harvard Law School.

In today’s news and commentary, a new tentative agreement is announced at Boeing; the FTC abandons one labor initiative but revives another; and Starbucks stores continue to unionize amid national bargaining talks.

Boeing and its workers’ union have reached a new tentative agreement to end the five-week strike at the company. The deal would give workers a 35% raise over four years. The union has been demanding a 40% increase, and the company’s previous highest offer was 30%. The tentative agreement does not reinstate pensions at Boeing, but it would increase the company’s contributions to employees’ retirement accounts. The union’s members will vote to either ratify or reject the deal on Wednesday. Workers rejected an earlier tentative agreement in mid-September, leading to the current strike. Labor Secretary Julie Su helped broker the newly announced compromise.

The Federal Trade Commission has abandoned its effort to require new labor-related disclosures from merging companies. While the agency has scrutinized the labor impacts of mergers and acquisitions more closely under the leadership of Chair Lina Khan, the new requirements were dropped from a recently promulgated rule as part of a bipartisan compromise among the FTC’s five commissioners. However, the agency did announce last week that it will attempt to revive its ban on most noncompete agreements. A Texas court issued a universal injunction against the ban in August, and the agency filed its appeal on Friday.

FULL story at link above.