OnLabor

Law. Workers. Organizing.

Editorials

Workers wear protective face masks for safety in machine industrial factory.

April 13, 2021

Zachary Boullt

Zachary Boullt is a student at Harvard Law School.

All by Zachary

Daily News & Commentary

Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all

May 12

NJ Transit engineers threaten strike; a court halts Trump's firings; and the pope voices support for workers.

May 9

Philadelphia City Council unanimously passes the POWER Act; thousands of federal worker layoffs at the Department of Interior expected; the University of Oregon student workers union reach a tentative agreement, ending 10-day strike

May 8

Court upholds DOL farmworker protections; Fifth Circuit rejects Amazon appeal; NJTransit navigates negotiations and potential strike.

May 7

U.S. Department of Labor announces termination of mental health and child care benefits for its employees; SEIU pursues challenge of NLRB's 2020 joint employer rule in the D.C. Circuit; Columbia University lays off 180 researchers

May 6

HHS canceled a scheduled bargaining session with the FDA's largest workers union; members of 1199SEIU voted out longtime union president George Gresham in rare leadership upset.

May 5

Unemployment rates for Black women go up under Trump; NLRB argues Amazon lacks standing to challenge captive audience meeting rule; Teamsters use Wilcox's reinstatement orders to argue against injunction.

OnLabor In The News

Wired

Hundreds of Video Game Workers Join New Union as Trump Attacks Labor Rights: Prof. Sachs on challenges to union organizing under the second Trump Administration.

Los Angeles Times

Column: How anti-union southern governors may be violating federal law: Ben Sachs quoted in a column about the anti-union governors' letter and the fragmentation of labor law; John Fry's post referenced on the question of whether state level card-check bans are preempted by the NLRA.

Fast Company

Amazon’s Labor Union is divided but closing in on electing leadership: Prof. Sachs on Amazon's use of legal roadblocks to delay negotiations.

Semafor

Unions’ picket power now extends to U.S. boardrooms: Prof. Block on the influence of labor unions on other playing fields.

Bloomberg Law

Boeing Talks Will Test Unions’ Sway as Labor Market Softens: Prof. Block on Boeing's labor negotiations with the International Association of Machinists.

More From OnLabor

The Future of Judicial Deference to the NLRB

May 7, 2025 Jason Vazquez

It has been nearly ten months since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Loper Bright Enterprise v. Raimondo displaced Chevron’s longstanding injunction that courts must defer to an agency’s “reasonable” interpretation of a statute Congress empowered it to administer — a bedrock precept of administrative law — with the directive to instead exercise “independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has […]

Maybe Disclosure Doesn’t Work

May 6, 2025 Andrew Strom

I used to think that disclosure laws had the potential to change corporate behavior. The idea is that if businesses have to publicly disclose what they are up to, then they will be shamed into changing their conduct. The problem is that much like the current President, corporate leaders seem increasingly immune from any sense of shame. […]

Updates from the Legal Struggle Against Prison Labor

May 3, 2025 Mikaela Rabb

“My three-year-old son thinks I’m a firefighter, which I like to think I am, too.” Joseph Sevilla, told reporters during the Los Angeles wildfires. Sevilla is a firefighter, but he also is incarcerated. He wears an orange uniform on the job and earns just $5.80 to $10.24 for an entire 24-hour shift. Non-incarcerated firefighters, conversely, earn $42.36 per hour. California deployed over 1,000 […]

Career and Technical Education at a Crossroads: Opportunity or Exploitation?

Apr 30, 2025 Riva Han

A bachelor’s degree is the most reliable pathway into the middle class. Over a lifetime, college-educated workers typically earn $1.2 million more than those with only a high school diploma. Yet faith in higher education is faltering while student debt has skyrocketed to a record $1.7 trillion. This crisis of confidence in higher education has fueled bipartisan interest in career and […]

Farmworker Access Rights Under Threat in Colorado

Apr 29, 2025 Meredith Gudesblatt

In 2008, Alfredo Conovilca traveled to Colorado to herd sheep on an H-2A visa. On paper, it looked promising: the employer would cover everything from transportation to housing and food. But Conovilca soon discovered there were hidden costs. When he fell ill with back pain—precipitated by kidney issues resulting from insufficient access to water—his employer refused to take him to […]

Enjoy OnLabor’s fresh takes on the day’s labor news, right in your inbox.