Jon Weinberg is a student at Harvard Law School.
This past weekend’s New York Times piece on working conditions at Amazon continues to generate news. CNET has the reaction from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, while The Upshot compares Amazon’s labor situation to that faced by Walmart before they instituted reforms.
Writing in The Washington Post, Lydia DePillis explores whether the recent success of the Fight for $15 movement will lead to increased mechanization in the fast food industry. DePillis explores investments made by restaurant companies as well as the possible limitations of automation.
Also related to Fight for 15, CBS News highlights the opposition of restaurant owners to the recent recommendation by a New York state Wage Board to raise the fast food worker minimum wage to $15 an hour. The state labor commissioner is widely expected to approve the recommendation for the wage increase.
Finally, turning to high-end restaurants, The Wall Street Journal reports an increase in complaints by employees alleging wage and hour violations. The story notes that “the number of wage-violation lawsuits has been on the rise for more than a decade, driven by a successful worker-organization movement, increased attention by plaintiffs’ attorneys and complicated labor laws that leave some employers confused, according to legal analysts and industry leaders.”
Daily News & Commentary
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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.