10 March 2021
The House voted 225-206 to pass a sweeping labor rights bill Wednesday evening that would make it easier for workers to unionize and provide them increased power in workplace disputes.
Driving the news Five Republicans joined Democrats in favor of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act.
Yes, but: The bill is likely to stall in the Senate, where it needs 60 votes to pass. but is opposed by many Republican senators.
What they're saying: President Biden endorsed the bill on Tuesday, saying in a statement that it "would dramatically enhance the power of workers to organize and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions."
- "As America works to recover from the devastating challenges of deadly pandemic, an economic crisis, and reckoning on race that reveals deep disparities, we need to summon a new wave of worker power to create an economy that works for everyone."
The big picture: The PRO At would restrict companies like Uber and Lyft from classifying workers as independent contractors and improve protections for workers' right to strike, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
- Biden in the beginning of March said he supported a union vote by Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama that, if passed, would be the first Amazon warehouse to unionize.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.