LABOR/OBAMA ADMIN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Labor Department is wiping an Obama-era rule off the books that sought to give labor unions and workers more insight into talks employers have with legal counsel about thwarting union organizing campaigns. The department rescinded on Tuesday [7-17-18] a 2016 regulation known as the ‘Persuader Rule,’ which was rolled back because it exceeded the department’s authority under the law and impinged on attorney-client privilege by requiring the disclosure of confidential information, the Labor Department said…The rule, which more than 50 business groups had sued to block, never went into effect. In late 2016, a federal judge in Texas issued a permanent national injunction. The department could have pursued appeals but didn’t do so after President Donald Trump, a Republican, took office…The rule is one of several labor regulations the Trump administration has rolled back. The department is rewriting overtime rules and is likely to propose changes that would make fewer workers eligible for automatic time-and-a-half pay than the Obama administration sought. The Trump administration last year also withdrew guidance that broadened the definition of when multiple employers could be responsible for the same worker, and it blocked the implementation of a rule that sought to require firms bidding on government contracts to disclose past labor-law violations.”
-Eric Morath, “Labor Department Removes Rule Forcing Employers to Disclose Anti-Union Deliberations,” The Wall Street Journal, 7/17/2018 11:20 am