Final Reading: House panel taking up major labor reforms passed last year in Senate

For close to a century, workers across the backbone of Vermont’s economy — agriculture — have been barred under federal and state laws from joining a union. A bill that passed the Senate last year, and is now being marked up in the House, would change that. S.102 would authorize a workplace of five or more agricultural or domestic workers to form a collective bargaining unit, among other measures. The bill would also prohibit employers from forcing employees to attend meetings with express religious or political messages. That can include...