For the first time in decades, British Airways pilots are on strike. Pilots went on a 48-hour strike that started at midnight on Sunday over a contentious pay dispute: British Airways cut pay and pension benefits for pilots during precarious years for the airline following the financial crisis, and pilots now argue they deserve a bigger share of the airline’s newfound profits. The airline has canceled over 800 flights, affecting up to 145,000 passengers per day, throwing London flights into disarray. If the union and the airline don’t reach a deal, pilots intend to go on strike again on September 27.
Southern California grocery workers are considering starting the “largest private-sector strike since 74,000 General Motors employees walked off the job in 2007.” 47,000 workers Ralphs (a grocery chain owned by Kroger) and Albertsons are negotiating new contracts for workers at 500 stores in Southern California. Workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) will begin voting next week on whether to accept the proposed contract—and if they reject the deal, they will vote on whether to authorize a strike. A grocery store strike would be a rare show of union power in an industry with low union density. Only 4.5% of retail workers are unionized, according to CNN—even fewer than the law 6.4% unionization rate for private-sector workers.
On the subject of organizing grocery store, Bloomberg reports that that the National Labor Relations Board just held that a Kroger supermarket didn’t violate the NLRA by calling the cops on a union organizer who was soliciting in the store’s parking lot. The decision overturns the NLRB’s 1999 Sandusky Mall decision and held that Kroger didn’t discriminate against union organizing, despite the fact that “the regularly allowed several charitable organizations to solicit on its property.”
The Cornell Institute of Labor Relations is hosting a conference this month on Labor and the U.S. Constitution, featuring leading labor law scholars and organizers from across the country to think creatively “about the U.S. Constitution as a source of workers’ rights.” The conference followsJanus and Epic Systems, two devastating decisions for workers’ rights issued last year.
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September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.
September 10
A federal judge denies a motion by the Trump Administration to dismiss a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees against President Trump for his mass layoffs of federal workers; the Supreme Court grants a stay on a federal district court order that originally barred ICE agents from questioning and detaining individuals based on their presence at a particular location, the type of work they do, their race or ethnicity, and their accent while speaking English or Spanish; and a hospital seeks to limit OSHA's ability to cite employers for failing to halt workplace violence without a specific regulation in place.
September 9
Ninth Circuit revives Trader Joe’s lawsuit against employee union; new bill aims to make striking workers eligible for benefits; university lecturer who praised Hitler gets another chance at First Amendment claims.
September 8
DC Circuit to rule on deference to NLRB, more vaccine exemption cases, Senate considers ban on forced arbitration for age discrimination claims.
September 7
Another weak jobs report, the Trump Administration's refusal to arbitrate with federal workers, and a district court judge's order on the constitutionality of the Laken-Riley Act.