By Rebecca Thiess, Americans for Financial Reform The CFPB recently brought legal action against a number of companies, including Universal Debt & Payment Solutions, for defrauding consumers by using threats, deception, and harassment to collect “phantom debts” that the consumers did not owe to the collectors or, in most instances, to anyone else. In this […]
By Matt Bruenig, Demos Timothy B. Lee has this to say about labor protection: The bottom line is that conventional labor laws are based on the assumption that employers dictate employees’ hours and working conditions, and so we need things like mandatory breaks, sick leave, and safety regulations to ensure employers don’t take advantage of workers. […]
By Mark Gruenberg, United Steelworkers The right wing GOP majority on the House Education and the Workforce Committee is going after the National Labor Relations Board – again. This time, they’re defending so-called state right-to-work laws. The laws, a key cause of big business, the radical Right and their GOP puppets SINCE 1947, let so-called “free […]
Katherine McFate, Center for Effective Government On May 20, five of the biggest banks in the world pleaded guilty to charges of interest rate manipulation and agreed to pay $2.8 billion in fines for the felonies they committed. Two of the banks, J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup, are U.S.-based. Each has a long rap sheet […]
By Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG Today, the House Appropriations Committee, at the behest of both Wall Street and predatory lenders seeking to run amok, will vote to eliminate the CFPB’s independence from the politicized appropriations process. The bill will also further hamstring the SEC, a federal financial agency that struggles to protect small investors since […]
By Jessica Schieder, Center for Effective Government Cities across the country have voted to increase the minimum wage, ensure workers can take paid sick days, and offer workers paid parental leave. But without wage and hour enforcement, employers will continue to steal employees’ wages, eroding progress toward a living wage and a better quality of […]
By Teamster Power Wall Street’s continuing war against workers seems endless. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does. And even when big players in the financial world get caught for wrongdoing, the penalties never seem to make a difference. The latest example came last week when the Justice Department announced that […]
By Liz Watson, Senior Counsel and Director of Workplace Justice for Women, National Women’s Law Center Yesterday the Obama administration released a proposed rule to implement the Fair Pay & Safe Workplaces Executive Order, which was signed by President Obama in 2014. The proposed rule is the first step toward making good on the executive order’s […]
By Teamster Power Secret corporate political spending is a scourge on U.S. democracy. And despite inaction by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the matter, a bipartisan collection of former SEC members are speaking out saying something has to be done now. In a letter sent today to SEC Chairman Mary Jo White, former […]
By Rena Steinzor, Law Professor, Center for Progressive Reform In her first major criminal settlement since becoming Attorney General, Loretta Lynch has delivered, trussed and on a platter, five of the world’s biggest banks—Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS. The five will actually plead guilty to specific crimes involving manipulation of […]
By David Cooper, Economic Analyst, Economic Policy Institute An eye-opening story published last week by The New York Times revealed how manicurists in New York’s booming nail salon industry are subject to brazen exploitation. Workers are exposed to dangerous chemicals, expected to work excessively long hours, subject to racial and ethnic discrimination and verbal abuse, […]
By Agata Pelka, Fellow, National Women’s Law Center Thursday morning, the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments in Home Care Association of America vs. Weil, the Department of Labor’s appeal of a district court decision vacating central provisions of new regulations extending basic protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)—like minimum wage and overtime pay—to […]