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Enforcement Infrastructure

1. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Expansion

Current:

  • Budget: $300 million/year
  • Staff: 1,200 (for 150+ million workers)
  • Backlog: 20,000+ cases (takes years to resolve)

Transformed:

10x Budget Increase:

  • New Budget: $3 billion/year
  • Staff: 12,000 (10x increase)
    • Regional Offices: 100 (from current 26) - closer to workers
    • Investigators: 5,000 (investigate ULP charges within 30 days, not 2 years)
    • Administrative Law Judges: 500 (from current 34) - decide cases quickly
    • Attorneys: 3,000 (prosecute violations)
    • Support Staff: 3,500

Rapid Processing:

  • ULP Charges: Resolved within 90 days (not 2 years)
  • Elections: 10 days (from petition to vote)

Teeth:

  • Penalties: 15x increase
    • Firing Union Organizer: $100,000 per worker (not $20,000 backpay)
    • Captive Audience Meetings: $10,000 per worker per meeting
  • Criminal Referrals: For egregious violations (union busting = felony)

Cost:

  • Budget: $3 billion/year
  • Jobs: 10,800 new (investigators, judges, attorneys, and support)

2. Wage & Hour Division (DOL) - Expansion

Currently:

  • Investigators: 1,000 (for 10 million businesses)
  • Can inspect: Each business once every 150 years (joke)

Transformed:

20x increase:

  • Investigators: 20,000
  • Can Inspect: Each business once every 7 years (adequate)

Proactive Enforcement:

  • Target High-Violation Industries: Fast food, retail, agriculture, domestic work, and construction
  • Randomized Audits: Cannot just wait for complaints (employers know they'll be inspected)

Penalties:

  • Wage Theft = Felony: (Already covered above)
  • Criminal Prosecution: For willful violations
  • Treble Damages: 4x stolen wages

Cost:

  • Budget: $5 billion/year (from current $250 million)
  • Jobs: 19,000 new investigators + 10,000 support staff

3. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) - Expansion

Current:

  • Inspectors: 2,000 (for 10 million worksites)
  • Can Inspect: Each workplace once every 180 years
  • Average Fine for Worker Death: $7,000 (less than cost of a funeral)

Transformed:

10x increase:

  • Inspectors: 20,000
  • Can Inspect: Each workplace once every 18 years (still inadequate, but better)

Proactive:

  • Target High-Injury Industries: Warehousing, meatpacking, agriculture, and construction
  • Randomized: Cannot predict when inspection (deters violations)

Penalties:

  • Worker Death: Minimum $500,000 fine
  • Willful Violation Causing Death: Criminal charges (felony manslaughter)
    • Example: Amazon warehouse manager who enforces impossible quotas (causing injuries, deaths) = manslaughter charge
  • Repeat Violations: Exponential fines (1st = $25,000, 2nd = $150,000, 3rd = $2.5 million, 4th = shut down facility)

Worker Safety Committees:

  • Empower: Worker committees (can order safety improvements, stop production)
  • OSHA Works with Committees: Not just employers (workers are experts on hazards)

Cost:

  • Budget: $3 billion/year (from current $600 million)
  • Jobs: 18,000 new inspectors + 10,000 support staff

4. Worker Advocacy & Legal Aid

The Problem:

  • Workers can't afford lawyers: To fight wage theft, wrongful termination, discrimination
  • Employers have armies of lawyers: Workers lose

The Solution:

National Worker Legal Defense Fund:

  • Free Lawyers: For all workers (employment disputes)
    • Like Public Defender: But for labor cases
  • Staffing:
    • Lawyers: 30,000 (distributed across 500 offices nationwide)
    • Paralegals: 30,000
    • Support Staff: 10,000

Case Types:

  • Wage Theft
  • Wrongful Termination
  • Discrimination (race, gender, age, disability, etc.)
  • Union Busting
  • Safety Violations
  • Retaliation

Funding:

  • Budget: $8 billion/year
    • Salaries: Lawyers $85,000/year avg, paralegals $50,000/year avg, support $45,000/year avg
    • Operations: Offices, technology, legal research

Jobs Created: 70,000

5. Worker Centers & Organizing Support

Worker Centers:

  • Community Spaces: For organizing, education, and mutual aid
  • Services: Know-your-rights training, legal clinics, English classes, and job training

Federal Funding:

  • $2 billion/year: Grants to worker centers (500 centers, $4 million each)
  • Jobs: 10,000 (organizers, educators, and staff)

6. Sectoral Bargaining Councils

New Agencies:

  • 12 Sectoral Councils: (Fast food, retail, warehousing, healthcare, education, hospitality, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, domestic work, transportation, and tech)
  • Function: Facilitate industry-wide bargaining, set standards, and enforce contracts

Staffing:

  • Per Council: 100 staff (mediators, analysts, enforcers)
  • Total: 1,200 staff

Cost: $250 million/year

Total Enforcement Costs

Category Annual Cost
Enforcement (NLRB, DOL, OSHA, legal aid, etc.) $21.25 billion
Portable benefits infrastructure $15 billion
Tax credits for small businesses (75% wage offset) $150 billion (revised up)
Worker transition support (co-op loans, buyouts) $10 billion
Social Security expansion (doubling + age 60) $1.538 trillion
TOTAL GOVERNMENT COST $1.734 trillion/year

_(Massive increase due to Social Security enhancement)