With help from James Bikales 

QUICK FIX

A WORLD APART: Senate HELP Chair Bernie Sanders met Thursday with Finland’s minister of social affairs and health in Washington, D.C., after the later attended a confab at the United Nations earlier in the week.

Sanders has spent his decades in politics at the vanguard pushing liberal social welfare policies in the United States, frequently touting systems in Scandinavia — Finland included — as models to emulate stateside.

One of those is paid time off for new parents to spend time caring for and bonding with children, which the U.S. lacks nationally — instead leaving it up to individual employers or state law. Indeed, the U.S. is the only wealthy nation without any kind of national paid family or medical leave after congressional Democrats cut it from their party-line social spending package last Congress.

“It seems amazing that there isn't a system in place. If there is no national system in place, it creates inequalities between families and people who are working for different employers,” Hanna Sarkkinen told Shift at Finland’s embassy in northwest D.C.

In 2020, the Finnish government overhauled its parental leave system to increase the amount of time allotted per child and did away with gender distinctions that gave fathers less time off than mothers, among other limitations that the left-wing governing coalition argued were ill-suited for the array of modern family constructions.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg caused a stir when POLITICO reported that he spent several weeks in 2021 on paid leave to care for his two newborn children, sparking blowback from conservatives.

Meanwhile several ministers in Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government have taken time off — including defense chief Antti Kaikkonen just last month — though under Finnish law they technically have to resign their positions to do so.

Nevertheless, men in Finland are somewhat less likely to avail themselves of parental leave than Finnish women. And of those who do take leave, men have tended to do so for shorter periods than women, a cultural barrier the updated policy has sought to change.

“I think it has big positive effects if we can encourage men to use their family leaves, and if we can also encourage employers to support them,” said Sarkkinen, who herself went on leave to care for her child as a member of parliament. “I’m very happy that we have also men in high positions who show that it is okay to use your family leave.”

Sanders’ office did not return a request to comment on the meeting.

GOOD MORNING. It’s Monday, Feb 13. Welcome back to Weekly Shift, your go-to tipsheet on labor and employment-related immigration. Your host got to see Jerry Seinfeld perform Friday. Send feedback, tips, and exclusives to [email protected] and [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter at @eleanor_mueller and @nickniedz.

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On the Hill

FOXX OBJECTS TO OFCCP RELEASE: House Education and Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx blasted the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs for its plan to release certain employee demographic data as part of a public records’ request.

“OFCCP’s failures could result in disclosing employers’ and employees’ sensitive, confidential information without due process,” Foxx wrote in a letter Friday to OFCCP Director Jenny Yang.

In 2019, a reporter with the Center for Investigative Reporting sought Type 2 EEO-1 reports for the year 2016 (and subsequently amended to run up to 2022.) OFCCP is allowing applicable contractors to object to the release of their organizations’ data, though Foxx believes that the agency’s efforts to promote this option have been insufficient.

The same day the letter was sent OFCCP announced it would once again extend its response deadline, this time to Feb. 17, and described it as “a final notice” for objections.

More hill news: “Bernie Sanders Has a New Role. It Could Be His Final Act in Washington,” from The New York Times.

Around the Agencies

GETTING HEATED: Seven state attorneys general petitioned the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Thursday to set an emergency occupational heat standard, arguing that climate change-driven temperature increases are posing a “grave danger” to workers. They urged OSHA to set a standard requiring employers by May 1 to give workers breaks, water and access to cool areas when the heat index reaches 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

A POLITICO and E&E News investigation in 2021 revealed that OSHA has for decades been reluctant to set a heat standard, despite rising temperatures increasing the risk for workers. The agency launched the rulemaking process for a heat standard later that year, but a final rule is likely years away.

OSHA chief Doug Parker said the agency is reviewing the letter and has received thousands of comments on its proposed heat rulemaking. “Rulemaking takes time, and it’s critical that we get it right,” Parker said in a statement.

FORMER NLRB GC DIES: Ronald Meisburg, the National Labor Relations Board’s top lawyer from 2006 to 2010, died earlier this month at age 76. Before becoming general counsel, Meisburg was a Republican appointee on the board.

More agency news: “Marty Walsh isn't gone yet. That's news to many Democrats,” from Nick.

In the Workplace

WHAT’S OLD IS NEW: There has been a small, but growing, rise in the number of state legislative proposals to loosen restrictions on the use of underage workers coming from Republican lawmakers, The Washington Post reports.

“Legislators in Iowa and Minnesota introduced bills in January to loosen child labor law regulations around age and workplace safety protections in some of the country’s most dangerous workplaces. Minnesota’s bill would permit 16- and 17-year-olds to work construction jobs. The Iowa measure would allow 14- and 15-year-olds to work certain jobs in meatpacking plants.”

The bills are being framed, in part, as a way to prepare young people for the workforce and combat labor shortages in certain industries.

Related: “‘It’s just crazy’: Republicans attack US child labor laws as violations rise,” from The Guardian.

Unions

TWU TICKED: The head of the Transport Workers Union of America said he would vehemently oppose efforts to install former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio as the successor to Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.

“At the heart of the matter he’s absolutely anti-union, regardless of what anyone says, and anti-blue collar workers in particular,” John Samuelsen told POLITICO.

While president of the union’s largest local branch, Samuelsen soured on de Blasio early in his first term, leading TWU to become a thorn in the mayor’s side throughout his tenure — and even dogged him outside the five boroughs in the runup to his 2020 presidential bid.

Samuelsen said he’d much prefer Deputy Labor Secretary Julie Su to de Blasio or fellow New Yorker Sean Patrick Maloney, as Democratic powerbrokers try to line up a successor amid Walsh’s expected departure to run the NHL Players’ Association.

“She’s highly qualified to do the job; she’s been invaluable to Marty,” he said. “Why would Biden throw [aside] a highly talented woman doing the job for a Sean Patrick Maloney or a Bill de Blasio. It makes absolutely no sense and would even be insulting.”

The former mayor did not return a request to respond to Samuelsen’s comments.

More union news: “LaGuardia Airport Workers Claim Anti-Union Retaliation,” from Documented.

IN THE STATES

DMV, THE PLACE TO BE: Labor markets in and around the nation’s capital are seeing their unemployment rolls shrink at the fastest rates in the country, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“The outsize decrease in the layoff measure for states near the nation’s capital shows a region where the economic recovery from the pandemic gained steam last year and where its largest employers, including the federal government and related contractors, were pillars of stability.”

More state news: “Georgia advances wage hikes for caregivers amid ‘workforce crisis,’” from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Immigration

PREPARING FOR A FIGHT: The Department of Homeland Security has hired impeachment attorneys as the new House GOP majority moves to boot Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the southern border, our Myah Ward reports.

The department has signed a contract with New York-based firm Debevoise & Plimpton to advise administration officials on how to handle document requests and questions from congressional investigators and to defend the department if Republicans move forward with an impeachment trial.

More immigration news: “U.S. officials prepping legislation to revamp asylum system,” from Reuters.

What We're Reading

— “As Federal Cash Flows to Unions, Democrats Hope to Reap the Rewards,” from The New York Times.

— Opinion: “Marty Walsh didn't do enough,” from Hamilton Nolan for MSNBC.

— “ERs staffed by private equity firms aim to cut costs by hiring fewer doctors,” from NPR.

— “Pilot shortage puts pressure on airline operations,” from The Associated Press.

THAT’S ALL FOR SHIFT!

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