Peter Morgan is a student at Harvard Law School.
Today: UTLA reaches a tentative agreement, Comcast NBCUniversal is revealed to hold a role-playing exercise opposing unionization, the Texas House passes a bill restricting labor regulations, and a retail Barnes & Noble store announces organizing campaign.
The United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union has announced that the member bargaining team reached a tentative agreement with the district. The agreement, which would have to be voted on by all members and ratified by the school board, includes a 21% salary increase, class size reductions, and increased staffing of psychologists and other counselor positions.
Documents revealed that Comcast’s NBCUniversal held a role-playing exercise for managers to discourage unionization. According to reports, managers were instructed to play the role of a union leader and come up with reasons for why employees shouldn’t unionize. Company leadership noted this only occurred once in the last four years, but the company’s documents stated that “corporate management will not tolerate losing…nonunion status.” These kinds of statements have come under fire as potentially violative of labor law.
The Texas House of Representatives has passed House Bill 2127, which would prevent local governments from enacting certain regulations related to employment, housing, and other issues. The bill, passed under the rationale of providing uniform business conditions, would also overturn some existing labor regulations. The scope of the bill remains unclear, causing concern among labor advocates.
Workers at a Barnes & Noble store in Hadley, Massachusetts have announced their intention to unionize with the Union Food and Commercial Workers Local 1459. The workers cited concerns about low wages, limited benefits, inadequate staffing, and customer accessibility as reasons for their decision to unionize. This is the second Barnes & Noble store to file for an election (the first being a university store at Rutgers). If successful, the unionization effort could make the Hadley Barnes & Noble store the first unionized location in the company’s history.
Daily News & Commentary
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April 24
NLRB seeks to compel Amazon to collectively bargain with San Francisco warehouse workers, DoorDash delivery workers and members of Los Deliveristas Unidos rally for pay transparency, and NLRB takes step to drop lawsuit against SpaceX over the firing of employees who criticized Elon Musk.
April 22
DOGE staffers eye NLRB for potential reorganization; attacks on federal workforce impact Trump-supporting areas; Utah governor acknowledges backlash to public-sector union ban
April 21
Bryan Johnson’s ULP saga before the NLRB continues; top law firms opt to appease the EEOC in its anti-DEI demands.
April 20
In today’s news and commentary, the Supreme Court rules for Cornell employees in an ERISA suit, the Sixth Circuit addresses whether the EFAA applies to a sexual harassment claim, and DOGE gains access to sensitive labor data on immigrants. On Thursday, the Supreme Court made it easier for employees to bring ERISA suits when their […]
April 18
Two major New York City unions endorse Cuomo for mayor; Committee on Education and the Workforce requests an investigation into a major healthcare union’s spending; Unions launch a national pro bono legal network for federal workers.
April 17
Utahns sign a petition supporting referendum to repeal law prohibiting public sector collective bargaining; the US District Court for the District of Columbia declines to dismiss claims filed by the AFL-CIO against several government agencies; and the DOGE faces reports that staffers of the agency accessed the NLRB’s sensitive case files.