Kentucky elects right-to-work governor

With help from Marianne LeVine.

KENTUCKY ELECTS TEA PARTY GOVERNOR: Tea Party Republican Matt Bevin beat Democrat Jack Conway for Kentucky’s governorship Tuesday night, an upset victory in one of the last strongholds for Democrats in the right-to-work South. (Since World War II Kentucky has elected only two — now three — governors.) Activists on both side of the right-to-work debate led aggressive outreach in the run-up to the election, and this loss surely stings for the AFL-CIO and its affiliate Working America, which led a massive get-out-the-vote effort to elect Conway.


Right-to-work, which would free employees from having to pay dues to the union bargaining collectively on their behalf, will likely be an early priority for Bevin, according to the Courier-Journal’s Joseph Gerth. “He will likely push Republican issues during his first session of the General Assembly, including bills that would allow people to work in union businesses without joining the union or paying union representation fees, charter schools, education vouchers and tort reform. Any of those measures will likely face stiff opposition in the House, unless the GOP can flip Democrats to support their causes.”

“Governor-elect Matt Bevin’s extremism is nowhere plainer than in his hatred for unions,” Kentucky labor leader Berry Craig said in a statement. “Before tonight, Gov. Steve Beshear and a Democratic-majority House of Representatives were all that stood between us and a right-to-work law and repeal of the prevailing wage. Now the House stands alone … So let’s mourn our loss tonight. But tomorrow, let’s get ready to fight like hell to help the Democrats hold the House.”

The Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, which is bankrolling a county-based right-to-work push in Kentucky, praised the result Tuesday evening. "Kentuckians turned out in droves tonight demanding changes in Frankfort: they want more choices in their schools, government out of their healthcare and the right-to-work.”

GOOD MORNING! It's Wednesday, Nov. 4, and this is Morning Shift, POLITICO's daily tipsheet on labor and employment policy. Send tips, corrections and exclusives to [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter at @ politicomahoney, @ TimothyNoah1 and @ marianne_levine

$15 LOSES IN PORTLAND… “In a rare setback for living wage activists, voters in Portland, Maine, shot down a $15 minimum wage proposal on Tuesday, voting against a ballot measure that would have doubled the wage floor in just four years,” the Huffington Post’s Dave Jamieson writes.

“Under the proposal , all employers with 500 or more workers would have had to pay at least $15 per hour by 2017, with smaller employers required to hit that mark by 2019. After that, the minimum wage would have been adjusted each year according to an inflation index.” http://huff.to/1RulIoQ

… AND TACOMA: Voters in Tacoma, Wash. voted down a ballot measure that would have raised the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, choosing a gradual increase to $12 instead. “The 15 Now Tacoma campaign was disappointed, a volunteer said, but people were taking comfort in the fact that they changed the conversation,” the News Tribune’s Kathleen Cooper reports. http://bit.ly/1Hq5SWV

HOUSTON REJECTS EQUAL RIGHTS ORDINANCE: From the Wall Street Journal’s Dan Frosch: “In a victory for social conservatives, voters in the nation’s fourth-largest city on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure to extend nondiscrimination protections to gay and transgender people. Known as the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or HERO, the measure would have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, race and a dozen other categories.” http://on.wsj.com/1LPmYRS

CLINTON WANTS $12: Hillary Clinton voiced her most emphatic support yet for a federal $12 per hour minimum wage at a town hall in Iowa Tuesday night. “I favor a $12 an hour minimum wage at the federal level,” Clinton said in Coralville, Iowa. “That would be setting it at a level that would be equivalent to the point in our history where the minimum wage was at its highest” since 1986, Clinton said, according to MSNBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald. Clinton’s position is at odds with that of her rivals Sen. Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley, who favor $15. http://on.msnbc.com/1WxqDqs

NLRB COULD FURTHER AID UNIVERSITY ORGANIZING: The NLRB on Tuesday agreed to review whether housekeepers at St. Xavier University’s are allowed to unionize. The question is complicated because, as a religious institution, St. Xavier claims it’s exempt from NLRB jurisdiction. A board regional director in June disagreed, applying a new test laid out in the board’s recent Pacific Lutheran decision. Under that test, the regional director allowed the election because the university did not indicate the housekeepers had a specific religious function. (Cleanliness is next to godliness?)

St. Xavier asked the board to reverse Pacific Lutheran in a request for review, but it looks like the agency won’t do that. Instead, it’s considering extending the precedent to include non-teaching employees not directly addressed by the Pacific Lutheran decision.

“On review, the parties should address whether the board should adhere to its current precedent, extend the test articulated in Pacific Lutheran University, to the non-teaching employees at issue here, or take a different approach.”

WILL UAW MEMBERS AGREE TO GM CONTRACT? Hard to say based on early voting results. With about a third of ballots cast a slight majority favors the agreement, which would give employees an $8,000 signing bonus and provide raises for veteran and entry-level workers, according to Melissa Burden of the Detroit News. The agreement would also end the pay gap between veteran and new hires, who could reach the $29 top hourly wage within eight years. GM workers at the Arlington Assembly Plant in Texas, at Toledo Transmission in Ohio, at Warren Tech Center in Michigan, and at the Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kansas, have all voted against the deal. UAW could release the results by this weekend.

“Some workers have been vocal on social media about the contract, saying it is unfair for workers at four General Motors Component Holdings plants, as they would be on a different pay scale than others,” Burden writes. “The four plants are expected to vote on the contract later this week.” http://detne.ws/1Q93yKZ

DAVID PLOUFFE TAKES A SPIN ON UBER: Former Obama campaign manager-turned-Uber public policy strategist David Plouffe suggested the ride-hailing company was a remedy for stagnating wages and inflexible scheduling in our 21st century work world. “In a world where more people than ever before are struggling to balance work, family, and bills they can’t pay, ride-sharing is a way to put money back in your pocket and time back on your schedule,” Plouffe said at a speech in Washington, D.C. Plouffe added that there are 1.1 million drivers on the platform, who earned $3.5 billion in 2015, according to Lydia DePillis of the Washington Post. He said half the Uber drivers in the U.S. drove fewer than 10 hours per week, suggesting they use the platform on a need-only basis and not as a full-time job.

“That argument helps Uber, because it undermines the idea that its workers should be employees rather than independent contractors — in public perception, if not in law,” DePillis writes. “Lawmakers and regulators might be less likely to press Uber to offer benefits like healthcare coverage if it's seen as something people do on the side, rather than as their primary income.” http://wapo.st/1Mxizk3

TRIBAL LABOR BILL VOTE PUSHED BACK: The office of Majority Leader Paul Ryan tells Morning Shift that the House will not vote this week on a bill prohibiting the NLRB from asserting jurisdiction over tribal government employers. A vote had been tentatively scheduled for early this week.

FIGHT OVER $15: Rival SEIU ballot measures proposing a minimum wage hike in California threaten to sully the unifying power of SEIU’s successful Fight for $15 campaign. SEIU State Council and Fight for $15 organizers on Tuesday announced the new measure, which would also include a more robust, broader sick leave law. But the ballot conflicts with the initiative announced by SEIU-UHW late last month. “The announcement is likely to be controversial, presaging a power struggle on the left over who will control and claim credit for what could be a landmark victory in the effort to raise pay for the working poor,” the Los Angeles Times’ Peter Jamison reports. http://lat.ms/1XNEBXU

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SEES LARGEST LAYOFF IN HISTORY: The National Geographic Society of Washington will cut nine percent of its staff in the organization’s largest layoff in history, Paul Farhi writes for the Washington Post. The layoffs will affect almost every department of the non-profit organization, including the magazine and the National Geographic Channel. An estimated 180 employees will get the axe. In addition to the layoffs, the non-profit will freeze pension plans for some employees, remove medical coverage for future retirees, and change its contributions to employee 401(k) plans so all employees receive the same percentage amount. http://wapo.st/1HpH5SJ

COFFEE BREAK

— "Quicken NLRB case delayed by settlement talks," from Detroit Free Press:

http://on.freep.com/1On0oUK

— NLRB holds hearing on UAW, Volkswagen vote, from AP: http://strib.mn/1P8f2Pw

— The 1 percent had a good 2014, from FiveThirtyEight: http://53eig.ht/1MfUySx

— “Tech Companies Have A Labor Problem, But Democrats Still Love Them,” from Huffington Post: http://huff.to/1GKm76m

— UAW casino workers authorize strike, from Detroit Free Press: http://on.freep.com/1Qab8F4

— OSHA gets a boost in new budget deal, from Knowledge at Work: http://bit.ly/1Qa7WJR

— "Is NUHW homeless in the House of Labor again?," from Chief Organizer: http://bit.ly/20sx9DM

THAT’S ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT.

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Follow us on Twitter Rebecca Rainey @rebeccaarainey