Benjamin Sachs is the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School and a leading expert in the field of labor law and labor relations. He is also faculty director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy. Professor Sachs teaches courses in labor law, employment law, and law and social change, and his writing focuses on union organizing and unions in American politics. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 2008, Professor Sachs was the Joseph Goldstein Fellow at Yale Law School. From 2002-2006, he served as Assistant General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Washington, D.C. Professor Sachs graduated from Yale Law School in 1998, and served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. His writing has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the New York Times and elsewhere. Professor Sachs received the Yale Law School teaching award in 2007 and in 2013 received the Sacks-Freund Award for Teaching Excellence at Harvard Law School. He can be reached at [email protected].
In an interview published last week in Seminarian Casual, Justice Alito offered some important remarks about work-life balance. Asked how he has managed to balance “work and family life,” Alito answered:
I have been fortunate to have jobs that allowed me to control my work schedule to a very great degree. As an appellate judge, I have had to work very long hours, but I have largely been able to choose when and where I have done my work. I think I attended just about every one of my kids’ athletic events, concerts, and school programs. That often meant saving my work for late at night and weekends, but I was able to do that. Very few people today have this luxury, and it is hard for busy people to balance work and family life. Our society needs to do a better job of making this possible.
As OnLabor readers will be aware, unions play a critical role in making possible the kind of life that Alito rightly celebrates. Evidence for this union effect is available here, here, here, here and here. Alito himself has the capacity to enable unions to play this role, and thus to ensure that our society does a better job allowing more of us to balance work and family life.
(Thanks to Andrew Strom for calling this to our attention.)
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September 5
Pro-labor legislation in New Jersey; class action lawsuit by TN workers proceeds; a report about wage theft in D.C.
September 4
Eighth Circuit avoids a challenge to Minnesota’s ban on captive audience meetings; ALJ finds that Starbucks violated the NLRA again; and a district court certifies a class of behavioral health workers pursuing wage claims.
September 3
Treasury releases draft list of tipped positions eligible for tax break; Texas court rules against Board's effort to transfer case to California; 9th Circuit rules against firefighters seeking religious exemption to COVID vaccine mandate.
September 2
AFT joins Target boycott, Hilton workers go on strike in Houston, and the Center for Labor & A Just Economy releases a new report
September 1
Labor Day! Workers over Billionaires protests; Nurses go on strike, Volkswagen ordered to pay damages.
August 31
California lawmakers and rideshare companies reach an agreement on collective bargaining legislation for drivers; six unions representing workers at American Airlines call for increased accountability from management; Massachusetts Teamsters continue the longest sanitation strike in decades.