In today’s news and commentary, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit announces the latest installment of a labor dispute spanning over a decade, the Minnesota Department of Labor settles the largest wage theft case ever brought by the department and an alliance of New Mexican union and immigration groups organizes a walkout on Friday to commemorate International Workers Day.  

In a case spanning more than a decade, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled on Tuesday that the NLRB misapplied its standard for determining whether a worker’s statements were protected by the NLRA. In 2024, the Board found that Oncor Electric Delivery Co., a Texas utility company, unlawfully fired employee Bobby Reed when he raised safety concerns about smart meters over a decade before. Oncor fired Reed in 2013 for violating its code of conduct by allegedly giving false accounts of the meters causing fires at a Texas Senate hearing. Reed’s union, an affiliate of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, filed charges against Oncor beginning a series of decisions that would ricochet between the Board and the  DC Circuit over the next twelve years. In the most recent installment, Judge Neomi Rao, writing for the Court of Appeals held that Reed’s termination was legal and that the Board misapplied the Jefferson Standard test, “because nothing in [Reed’s] testimony communicated a connection to a labor dispute between the Union and Oncor” and consequently was unprotected by the NLRA.

Next, two construction subcontractors agreed to pay $1.28 million in back wages and damages to 26 workers, settling the largest wage theft case ever brought by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Allegations of wage theft were first reported in 2022 at a mixed-use development called Viking Lakes, built by the Wilf family who own the Minnesota Vikings. Though the investigation began at Viking Lakes, it expanded to include wage and hour violations by the same two subcontractors at 18 other apartment projects. Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry Commissioner Nicole Blissenbach described this as a “big win for workers across the construction industry” at a press conference on Monday.

Finally, an alliance of New Mexico immigrant groups and unions are urging a walkout of work and school this Friday. Friday, May 1, marks International Workers day, a holiday that celebrates the use of strikes to enact the eight-hour work day. Organizers, including the Teamsters Local 492, are planning a demonstration that includes nearly forty groups to commemorate the holiday and also show opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and global war policies. Neidi Dominguez, the executive director of labor group Organized Power in Numbers told reporters, “We’re going to show what we can do together and remind people that we have collective power.”