Beltway Buzz, October 4, 2024

Port Workers’ Strike Suspended. Workers represented by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) paused a brief three-day strike this week after reaching a tentative wage agreement with the group representing shippers and employers at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports. The tentative agreement reportedly will provide workers a 62 percent wage increase over six years. The ILA was demanding a 77 percent increase over seven years and previously rejected an offer from the ports that would have increased worker pay by 50 percent and tripled contributions to employee retirement plans. With the suspension of the strike, work at the ports will resume under provisions of the recently expired contract through January 15, 2025, while the parties negotiate over outstanding issues. These outstanding issues involve potential port automation and technology, which have been more readily embraced not just around the world, but also at ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California.

FTC to DOL, NLRB, and DOJ: It’s Not You, It’s Me. Late last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it would withdraw from the August 2024 Memorandum of Understanding it had entered into with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) general counsel, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division. The memorandum is intended to facilitate agency cooperation relating to labor issues in merger investigations. The FTC did not provide a reason for its withdrawal, but stated, “The agency will continue to closely scrutinize all issues related to mergers, including potential impacts on labor, in accordance with its merger guidelines.”

Republican Senators Introduce Bill to Curb “Parole in Place.” More than a dozen Republican senators have introduced the Visa Integrity Preservation Act. The bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to clarify that undocumented noncitizens must depart the United States and proceed through the in-person consular interview process to apply for employment authorization and permanent residency. The bill is intended to counter President Biden’s “parole in place” initiative, which allows certain individuals to obtain lawful parolee status and employment authorization without leaving the country if certain eligibility criteria are met.

DOL Releases AI and Inclusive Hiring Framework. The DOL and the Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology (PEAT), an outside organization funded by the DOL’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, have released the “Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Inclusive Hiring Framework.” A DOL press release describes the framework as “a new tool designed to support the inclusive use of artificial intelligence in employers’ hiring technology and increase benefits to disabled job seekers.” The framework, which does not have the force of law, lays out ten focus areas and related practices: (1) “Identify Employment and Accessibility Legal Requirements”; (2) “Establish Staff Roles, Responsibilities, and Training”; (3) “Inventory Technology and Classify the Technology”; (4) “Work With Responsible AI Vendors”; (5) “Assess Possible Positive and Negative Impacts”; (6) “Provide Accommodations”; (7) “Use Explainable AI and Provide Notices”; (8) “Ensure Effective Human Oversight”; (9) “Manage Incidents and Appeals”; and (10) “Monitor Regularly.” Each focus area is subdivided into various topics, goals, considerations, examples, and the like, which can be hard for employers to follow. Ogletree Deakins’ Technology Practice Group will continue to help employers navigate and implement ongoing policy developments relating to the implementation of new technologies in the workplace.

Marshall Joins SCOTUS. This week in 1967, Thurgood Marshall (1908–1993) was sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. After graduating first in his class at Howard University School of Law in 1933, Marshall joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). From 1940 to 1961, Marshall led the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund. During that time, Marshall famously argued Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, in which the Court unanimously ruled that public school segregation was unconstitutional. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Marshall to be solicitor general of the United States. As solicitor general, Marshall successfully argued in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections that poll taxes are unconstitutional. President Johnson quickly appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court, where he served until his retirement in 1991.