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News & Commentary

February 14, 2024

Jacqueline Rayfield

Jacqueline Rayfield is a student at Harvard Law School.

In today’s News and Commentary, the American Association of University Professors signs on to a call for ceasefire in Palestine, the NLRB gives Dartmouth’s trustees extra time for a review of the board’s ruling on labor unions for NCAA athletes, and Swedish unions temporarily lift Tesla repair-shop blockade.

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) signed on to a call for “ceasefire in Israel and Palestine,” joining other labor unions including the UAW, Amazon Labor Union, and many others. Some critics call for further rank-and-file organizing to support the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in addition to a ceasefire.

Last week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that “student-athletes” on Dartmouth’s men’s basketball team were effectively employees of the school. However, the Board on Monday agreed to move the appeal deadline on this decision for Dartmouth trustees from February 20 to March 5. All 15 members of the team have already signed an initial petition asking to be represented by SEIU.

Swedish industrial workers’ union, IF Metall, blocked Tesla’s repair shops for almost four months, the longest running strike in Sweden since World War II. Starting this Monday, however, about 30 non-Tesla repair shops will temporarily open repairs on Tesla vehicles. IF Metall explained that this move is intended to help Tesla vehicle owners without ending the strike against the company.  

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Ruelas v. County of Alameda — California Pretrial Detainees Denied Minimum Wage for Corporate Labor (Part 3)

In Ruelas v. County of Alameda, the Supreme Court of California denied pretrial detainees’ state minimum wage claim, reasoning that section 4019.3 of the state’s Penal Code — capping jail laborers’ wages at two dollars per day — instead governed.  The first part of this three-part series discussed the California Supreme Court’s holding and reasoning.  The second part gave a history of California’s constitution and jail labor in the state, concluding that the two-dollar daily wage cap could not have applied to plaintiffs, who were pretrial detainees performing unpaid labor for a corporation.  

Ruelas v. County of Alameda — California Pretrial Detainees Denied Minimum Wage for Corporate Labor (Part 2)

In Ruelas v. County of Alameda, the Supreme Court of California held that pretrial detainees forced to labor for a corporation are ineligible for a minimum wage under the state’s Labor Code.  The court construed Penal Code section 4019.3 broadly, interpreting it as incompatible with California’s Labor Code. The court concluded that the Penal Code prevents pretrial detainees from earning more than two dollars per day for their labor, absent a local ordinance.  

How Three Simple Labor Laws Helped Unions Organize Amazon and UBER in Canada

In early July,  the British Columbia Labour Relations Board (BCLRB) certified UFCW-Canada as the bargaining representative for over 500 UBER drivers in the province’s capital city of Victoria.  A few days later, the BCLRB issued another decision that certified the union Unifor (formerly the Canadian Auto Workers) for a bargaining unit of hundreds of employees employed at an Amazon distribution centre […]

Ruelas v. County of Alameda — California Pretrial Detainees Denied Minimum Wage for Corporate Labor (Part 1)

Pretrial detainees in Santa Rita Jail are forced to labor for Aramark, a food-preparation company that provides meals to third parties outside of the jail. Neither Aramark nor the county pays detainees for their labor.  In 1990, California amended its constitution to allow companies to contract with prisons — facilities run by the state or federal government that detain convicted offenders — for labor, so long as prisoners were paid comparable wages to non-inmate laborers.  

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