The Department of Labor announced, out loud, at a law conference, that it will stop enforcing wage-theft and safety laws at unionized workplaces. The logic: if you organized, that’s your problem now. Jonathan Berry, the department’s top lawyer, stood at an NYU podium Thursday and told the room it should “respect that choice” and spend its “scarce resources” elsewhere. The agency literally named after you just told you to sort it out yourself.
Think about what that means. A hotel kitchen runs fifteen-year-olds past midnight. A warehouse docks overtime from every check. If the workers have a union, the federal government shrugs. If they don’t, maybe it shows up. Maybe. Your reward for collective bargaining is losing the safety net that made bargaining worth doing. That’s not deregulation. That’s a punishment for organizing.
They named the building after Frances Perkins. She got us the minimum wage, the forty-hour week, the ban on child labor. Now the guy sitting in her building says unions should police their own wage theft. Rename the place. Call it what it is: the Department of Go Handle It Yourself.