Greg Volynsky is a student at Harvard Law School.
In Today’s News & Commentary, the unemployment rate falls in November, Governor Newsom reconsiders $25/hour minimum wage for healthcare workers, Apple faces labor challenge in India, and former labor leader convicted.
The unemployment rate unexpectedly fell in November, as the economy added 199,000 jobs—14,000 more than economists polled by Bloomberg expected, although fewer than the monthly average over the past year. Wages increased by 4.1% over the last year.
California Governor Newsom is reconsidering a plan to raise the minimum wage for healthcare workers to $25 an hour, in light of a projected $68-billion state budget deficit, after signing the legislation in October. The wage increase was projected to cost $4 billion in 2024 – 25 fiscal year. Newsom said the changes were “part of an understanding” reached with labor leaders before he signed the bill into law.
Apple faces a labor challenge in diversifying its production away from China and into India. In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, where Foxconn and Pegatron factories assemble iPhones, a bill that would have allowed for 12-hour factory shifts, aligning labor practices with those in China, was shelved after encountering resistance from unions and opposition parties. Manufacturing in China and India present distinct challenges—China may impose nationwide inflexible policies (as the COVID-19 lockdowns), while India boasts robust courts and local governments with diverse labor policies.
Former Philadelphia labor leader John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty was convicted of embezzling over $650,000 from Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. This marks Dougherty’s second conviction since a 2019 indictment.
Daily News & Commentary
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September 15
Unemployment claims rise; a federal court hands victory to government employees union; and employers fire workers over social media posts.
September 14
Workers at Boeing reject the company’s third contract proposal; NLRB Acting General Counsel William Cohen plans to sue New York over the state’s trigger bill; Air Canada flight attendants reject a tentative contract.
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.