OnLabor

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Senatefloor

July 28, 2021

Jon Levitan

Jon Levitan is a student at Harvard Law School and a member of the Labor and Employment Lab.

All by Jon

Photo credit: Eric Haynes.

Daily News & Commentary

Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all

March 20

Residents and fellows at Mass General Brigham hospitals prepare to unionize; divisions in the New York Times NewsGuild union deepens as contract negotiations remain ongoing; the six-month Pittsburgh Post-Gazette strike turned violent on Saturday; Los Angeles schools prepare to close this week as workers plan to strike

March 19

Ninth Circuit reinstates Uber's Equal Protection challenge to California's AB5; reduction in SNAP benefits could lead to "hunger cliff" for low-wage workers; Amazon workers start unionizing campaign at Kentucky facility; ex-Google employees ask company to honor parental leave.

March 17

Texas committee considers sweeping legislation limiting municipal power; University of Chicago graduate students unionize; Tennessee Nissan technicians reject a unionizing effort; and protestors in France take to the streets after President Macron activates nuclear option to raise retirement age.

March 16

Florida's anti-union bills advance, questions remain about collective bargaining measures in California ballot initiatives, and a GAO report highlights gender disparities.

March 15

California court finds Proposition 22 legal; Michigan Senate votes to repeal right to work laws; American Airlines pilots authorize strike vote.

March 13

UAW secures a new agreement with Caterpillar Inc., Duke declares legal opposition to its grad student union, and the Ohio Senate passes a bill relaxing restriction on child labor laws.

OnLabor In The News

The New Republic

Starbucks Workers Are Unionizing. Their Bosses Are Refusing to Bargain.: Prof. Block on how employers' refusal to bargain harms the labor movement

Talking Points Memo

Chipotle Borrows From Starbucks’ Playbook As Workers Push To Unionize: Prof. Sachs on how though "policies in Washington have made it very difficult for workers to organize; at the moment, workers are defying those fierce headwinds."

SHRM

A Beneficial Union: Prof. Sachs on how employers can benefit from unions, explaining how unions "open up a new line of communication between management and workers" and how voluntary recognition "can be faster and less acrimonious" than using the NLRB process

Bloomberg

Apple to Withhold Latest Employee Perks From Unionized Store: Prof. Sachs explains why employers like Apple and Starbucks are wrong when they say they can't offer union workers the same perks that they're extending to nonunion employees.

The American Prospect

Laws That Create Countervailing Power: A roundtable discussion with Benjamin Sachs, Kate Andrias, Steve Kest, and Robert Kuttner.

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In Glacier Northwest, the Employer Wants the Court to Set Aside Sixty Years of Settled Law

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The employer in Glacier Northwest is asking the Supreme Court to overrule decades of long-settled law.

Historic New EU Law Part of Growing Push for Sectoral Bargaining

Jan 19, 2023 David Madland

This past fall, the European Union passed a “watershed initiative” to raise minimum wages and strengthen collective bargaining. There are numerous complexities to the new EU directive, but for pro-worker Americans the key point to understand is that the “historic” new law aims to improve working conditions by increasing minimum wages and dramatically increasing collective […]

The National Restaurant Association’s Training Scheme Is Unconstitutional

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Food-service workers in four states are being required to pay for a food-safety training class every few years. That money is then being used to fund political lobbying that many of the workers oppose. That's unconstitutional.

Job Advertisements in NYC Must Include a Pay Range

Jan 13, 2023 Jing He

New York City is taking a big step toward greater pay transparency—with a new law requiring that job advertisements come with salary ranges.

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