ISSA Advocacy Weekly Recap—September 16, 2019

Welcome to the ISSA Advocacy Weekly Recap! This is ISSA’s regular roundup of the latest public policy-related issues impacting the cleaning industry. 

Highest Tariffs in U.S. History: American Businesses Pay Record $6.8 Billion in July

 A new report from Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, a coalition of more than 150 associations including ISSA, “shows that tariffs cost American business and consumers US$6.8 billion in July, the highest monthly total in U.S. history. The $6.8 billion in overall tariffs paid is a 62 percent increase from July 2018, driven by $3.5 billion in new tariffs on goods imported from China. July marked the first full month of data collected after tariffs on many of those products increased from 10 to 25 percent earlier this year. The data does not include recent and upcoming tariff increases on nearly $300 billion in additional imports.”

California Bill Makes App-Based Companies Treat Workers as Employees

  According to The New York Times, “In California, the legislation will affect at least one million workers who have been on the receiving end of a decades-long trend of outsourcing and franchising work, making employer-worker relationships more arm’s-length. Many people have been pushed into contractor status with no access to basic protections like a minimum wage and unemployment insurance. Ride-hailing drivers, food-delivery couriers, janitors, nail salon workers, construction workers and franchise owners could now all be reclassified as employees.” California Governor Gavin Newsomis expected to sign the bill into law.

New York Ingredient Disclosure Rule Invalidated by Courts  

On August 27, the New York State Supreme Court invalidated New York’s Ingredient Disclosure Program for not following proper rulemaking procedures. Compliance with the program had been delayed twice from its original July 1, 2019 deadline. For now, the cleaning industry has been granted a reprieve and does not have to observe New York’s ingredient disclosure requirements. 

Other links:  

• California softens plastics bill, ACC now neutral but others in industry still oppose
• American Cleaning Institute’s 2019 Sustainability Report
• ISSA Submits Comments to California on 1,4-Dioxane
• Perception vs. reality on tax rates
• ISSA Advocacy Action Center