Linh is a student at Harvard Law School.
In the continued thread of Starbucks’ “dirty war” on the labor movement, the NLRB ruled yesterday that Starbucks had violated federal law when it fired a union activist due to her participation in protected activity. In its decision, the Board upheld an ALJ’s October 22 ruling against Starbucks for firing Hannah Whitbeck, a Michigan worker who initiated a union organizing effort at her store by contacting Workers United and participating in a labor board proceeding. To date, regional NLRB officials have issued hundreds of complaints alleging Starbucks of unfair labor practices.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) officially has a Democratic majority as of yesterday as Kalpana Kotagal was sworn in as commissioner. Kotagal, formerly an employment and civil rights attorney at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll in Washington D.C., was narrowly confirmed last month in a 49-47 Senate vote. Her addition to the Commission promises to break a partisan deadlock and allow Democrats to ramp up agency action.
Also on Wednesday, the EEOC settled a first-of-its-kind AI discrimination lawsuit against a tutoring company that allegedly programmed its recruitment software to reject older applicants. The joint notice of settlement, filed in the Eastern District of New York, stipulates that the company will pay $365,000 to the 200+ applicants rejected due to their age in the specified timeframe and be enjoined from using age or sex as a disqualifier. This is the first AI discrimination lawsuit the EEOC has ever brought.
Finally, in case you missed it on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a new rule to raise wage standards for unionized construction workers performing federally funded jobs. Under the new rule, employers are required to pay construction workers the equivalent of wages made by at least 30% of workers in a given trade and locality. This rule aims to restore an old definition of “prevailing wage” that was abolished by the Reagan administration.
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March 11
The partial government shutdown results in TSA agents losing their first full paycheck; the Fifth Circuit upholds the certification of a class of former United Airline workers who were placed on unpaid leave for declining to receive the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons during the pandemic; and an academic group files a lawsuit against the State Department over a policy that revokes and denies visas to noncitizens for their work in fact-checking and content moderation.
March 10
Court rules Kari Lake unlawfully led USAGM, voiding mass layoffs; Florida Senate passes bill tightening union recertification rules; Fifth Circuit revives whistleblower suit against Lockheed Martin.
March 9
6th Circuit rejects Cemex, Board may overrule precedents with two members.
March 8
In today’s news and commentary, a weak jobs report, the NIH decides it will no longer recognize a research fellows’ union, and WNBA contract talks continue to stall as season approaches. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that employers cut 92,000 jobs in February while the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.4 percent. A loss […]
March 6
The Harvard Graduate Students Union announces a strike authorization vote.
March 5
Colorado judge grants AFSCME’s motion to intervene to defend Colorado’s county employee collective bargaining law; Arizona proposes constitutional amendment to ban teachers unions’ use public resources; NLRB unlikely to use rulemaking to overturn precedent.