
Labor Union Civil Rights Act & HOC Reform Act Passed/Signed
This afternoon, it seems that they were some progress in President Mouri-Kudo's Agenda as two pieces of critical legislation was passed that were deemed essential to the President during her campaign. The first piece of significant to the MK administration was the Labor Union Civil Rights Act, which passed the National Congress without any hard debate from the Civil Populists and Social Democrats in the House and mainly the Senate. The Act passed the House with 327 FOR and 214 AGAINST, while in the Senate was 58 FOR and 42 AGAINST. The Labor Union Civil Rights Act also called the Labor Rights Act helps:
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to give Labor Unions the right to peacefully protest and strike
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prohibit certain anti-union actions by employers and retaliation toward workers who participate in organizing
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creates a National Labor Relations Board with the ability to fine and penalize companies that do not comply with fair labor practices, including using retaliation methods on workers that vote for move of unionizing a workforce
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Prevents companies from making sudden lock-outs on union workers when unable to negiotate a contract
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Allows States and Territories to have a modified form of Right to Work Laws that give more benefits to workers that want to become union workers
This act was praised by many labor unions around the Commonwealth as a way to ensure economic equality within the nation, while those in the Big Business side like the Conservative Reform Party calling it a socialist work that harms those that do not wish to be in a union. With some Councilors of the CRP making violent tweets that resulted in Twitter having to take action against them. The bill was quickly sent to President Mouri-Kudo and signed into law.
The second important piece of legislation that was passed and enacted was the House of Councilors Elections Reform Act of 2021, which changed the manner of the sectors for the Constituency and List Seats. In addition, the Bill was amended in the House after the passing of the Article of Amendment that allows Legislative Electoral Committees/Alliances where it provides specific guidelines how these Alliances must work within Leagioan elections, especially federal/common level elections. This act was a piece of legislation that had been heavy political debating within the House of Councilors for the past 2 months where the Civil Populists and Social Democrats wanted a higher theshold for representation within the List Sector of the House starting the coming 2022 elections. However, the President wanted a thshold of no more than 3% with the List seats combined into regions for easier representation. But it seemeded that the terms that the President had was no negiotable with the Civil Populists and Social Democrats who seem more willing to negiotate with the Progressive Executive Leader of the Commonwealth. With many threats of an in-line veto that might have side effects on getting the rest of her agenda through, Mouri-Kudo invited the House leaders of the Civil Populists and Social Democrats to a meeting in the Executive Mansion to negotiate a compromise with them about a month ago. Many agreements were made within said compromise.
However, after the results that were seen from the recent European Union Commission Election, the Civil Populists and Social Democrats wanted to make some additional changes to the bill than what were agreed. At first there was confusion as some members of the two parties wanted to go to the region list idea when thinking it was not what Mouri-Kudo wanted, but instead was quietly reminded by fellow Councilors that it was something that the President would support. However, very quickly the Civil Populists and Social Democrats went back to the orginal proposal after they meet with the President and introduced a few changes that kept the by province division on the list sector of the House of Councilors. Eventually the act passed the House of Councilors with 375 FOR and 166 AGAINST, while in the Senate it was 67 FOR and 33 AGAINST. The provisions of the act contain the following that will be active for coming 2022 midterm elections:
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530 Total HOC seats starting 2022 = 270 Constituntency Seats and 270 List Seats
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4 percent electoral threshold required to attain a list seat with Alliances needing 6% to get a seat
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Exceptions to the electoral threshold in the list sector if a political party has either of the following: recognized status by the Burea of Election Security as a minority political party or 3 Constituency Seats; However, Alliances are excluded from the exceptions
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The seats for the two sectors will be redistributed every 6 years between the provinces as according to a new census timeline that will be starting this year for census taking and apportionment to the House