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The U.S. Justice Department’s competition enforcers have teamed up with the National Labor Relations Board to combat collusion among employers in their competition for workers, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Justice Department’s antitrust division and NLRB intend to coordinate more closely on investigations and enforcement actions under a memorandum of understanding signed yesterday. The antitrust division, which has the power to bring criminal charges, will apply “extraordinary vigilance” to protecting workers’ right to earn a fair wage, said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, who heads the division. In addition to coordinating on enforcement, the interagency agreement also calls for the two agencies to train each other’s staff and consult regularly.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. approved a Teamsters union's application for a federal assistance program that aids struggling multi-employer plans, Pensions & Investments reported. The Western Pennsylvania Teamsters & Employers Pension Plan will receive $715 million under the Special Financial Assistance Program, the PBGC announced in a news release Monday. In August 2019, the Pittsburgh-based pension plan that covers 21,110 participants in the transportation industry, implemented a benefit suspension under the terms of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014. The plan reduced the benefits of about 15,000 plan participants by an average of 20%, according to the PBGC. PBGC's approval of the special financial assistance application enables the plan to restore all benefits suspended under the terms of the MPRA and to make payments to retirees to cover prior benefit suspensions. As of Dec. 31, 2020, the Teamsters plan had $603.2 million in assets and $1.38 billion in projected benefit obligations, according to the plan's most recent Form 5500 filing. Under the program, created by legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden in March 2021, a multiemployer plan is eligible for assistance if it satisfied one of four criteria: it has been in critical and declining status in any plan year beginning in 2020 through 2022; it has had its benefits suspended as of March 11, 2021; it is in critical status, has a modified funding ratio below 40%, and has a ratio of active-to-inactive participants of less than 2-to-3; or it became insolvent after Dec. 16, 2014, but as of March 11, 2021, has not been terminated.

Three of the largest U.S. poultry processors have agreed to settle claims by the Justice Department over their alleged longstanding efforts to share information about workers in order to drive down compensation, Reuters reported. Cargill, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms have agreed to pay more than $84 million in restitution to workers harmed by the information-sharing to resolve civil antitrust lawsuits, according to proposed consent decrees made public Monday. The government also sued and reached a settlement including a data consulting firm, Webber, Meng, Sahl and Co. "Through a brazen scheme to exchange wage and benefit information, these poultry processors stifled competition and harmed a generation of plant workers who face demanding and sometimes dangerous conditions to earn a living," said Doha Mekki of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division in a statement. Under the agreement, Cargill Meat Solutions is to pay $15 million, Sanderson will pay $38.3 million and Wayne $31.5 million. The settlement was filed on Monday in a U.S. District Court in Maryland shortly after the lawsuits were filed. Wayne Farms said it was glad to resolve the matter and that the agreement shows its commitment to workers and farmers. Cargill denied wrongdoing but said it settled with the Justice Department to avoid litigation and distractions.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) yesterday fined Bank of America $100 million for botching the disbursement of state unemployment benefits at the height of the pandemic, according to a CFPB press release. Bank of America automatically and unlawfully froze people’s accounts with a faulty fraud detection program, and then gave them little recourse when there was, in fact, no fraud. Today’s order requires Bank of America to undertake a process that is estimated to result in hundreds of millions of dollars in redress to consumers. In a separate order, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is also fining the bank $125 million. Bank of America has contracts with various state agencies to deliver unemployment and other benefit payments to consumers electronically through prepaid debit cards and accounts. For example, since 2011, Bank of America has had an exclusive contract with the State of California to deliver unemployment and other benefit payments to California consumers electronically through prepaid debit cards and accounts. Under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, consumers are protected when they use electronic methods to transfer money; this includes prepaid cards. Protections include that after a consumer contacts the financial institution that there has been an error, the financial institution must conduct a prompt, reasonable, and timely investigation.

SAS said today that a pilot strike now in its 11th day threatened the airline's ability to access bridge financing without which it may be forced to radically downsize or could collapse, Reuters reported. SAS and unions were locked in more talks on Thursday to end a strike among most of its pilots at the peak of the holiday travel season, over conditions related to the Scandinavian carrier's rescue plan. "The strikes ... threaten the company's ability to ultimately successfully raise critically needed near-term and long-term capital to fund the company's successful reorganisation," SAS said in a statement. "In such an event, the company will need to consider selling valuable strategic assets under duress while also radically downsizing SAS's operations and fleet." Talks between SAS and pilot unions on Thursday were due to run until 2000 GMT at the latest, mediator Jan Sjolin said. "We really hope that we will reach an agreement today. These are constructive talks," he said. The parties resumed collective bargaining talks on Wednesday after negotiations broke down on July 4. SAS' chief negotiator Marianne Hernaes around midday told reporters outside the venue it was hard to tell whether a deal would be reached on Thursday. The carrier, whose main owners are the governments of Sweden and Denmark, cancelled 201 flights on Thursday, or 64% of those scheduled, according to FlightAware.