Published May 24th, 2018 - Andrew Strom
After the oral argument in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, I wrote that the five Republican appointees on the Supreme Court would have to put their thumbs heavily on the scale for the employers to prevail. Sadly, it was no surprise that this is exactly what happe... More »
Published May 8th, 2018 - Andrew Strom
In 1964, Congress outlawed discrimination in employment based on race or sex, yet there is still a significant gap in the wages paid to white men compared to wages paid to other groups. Last year, the City of Philadelphia tried to address this wage gap by pas... More »
Published April 16th, 2018 - Andrew Strom
Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court decided Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro, one of those “boring” cases that no one pays attention to. The question in the case was whether service advisors at car dealerships are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act ... More »
Published April 5th, 2018 - Andrew Strom
Sometime in the next few weeks, the Supreme Court will issue its decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, one of the most closely watched cases of this Term. In that case, Jack Phillips, the co-owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop, a... More »
Published March 23rd, 2018 - Andrew Strom
So far, President Trump has appointed a Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch, who may cast the deciding vote to upend decades of settled labor law in two major cases, Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis and Janus v. AFSCME; he has nominated dozens of right-wing lawyers... More »
Published February 28th, 2018 - Andrew Strom
Mark Janus’s lawyers are desperate to have the Court decide Janus v. AFSCME without considering any facts. Janus is an Illinois state employee, who is represented by AFSCME Council 31. Like all other employees in his bargaining unit, he is required to pay fa... More »
Published January 31st, 2018 - Andrew Strom
Most of the coverage of Janus v. AFSCME, like this recent piece in USA Today, simply (and perhaps correctly) assumes that the five Republican appointees on the Supreme Court will use the case to overturn Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, the 1977 case uphol... More »
Published January 2nd, 2018 - Andrew Strom
Unpaid interns who sued Hearst magazines under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) recently learned an important lesson: judges often make law in the guise of statutory interpretation. The lawsuit against Hearst, along with a similar lawsuit against Fox Sear... More »
Published December 21st, 2017 - Andrew Strom
While the media was focusing on the drama over the Republican tax bill, last week the new Republican majority on the National Labor Relations Board issued five decisions overturning precedents: UPMC, Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors, The Boeing Company, Raythe... More »
Published December 14th, 2017 - Andrew Strom
The petitioner’s opening brief in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 contains many eyebrow-raising assertions, but one of the most audacious claims is that “enforcement of a collective bargaining agreement, such as through the grievance process, is just as political a... More »
Published November 27th, 2017 - Andrew Strom
Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a flood of alarming reports about powerful men who have engaged in repeated acts of sexual harassment, sometimes stretching across decades. Many women who had previously remained silent or shared their stories only with clo... More »
Published November 1st, 2017 - Andrew Strom
When the Obama NLRB modernized the Board’s election rules and eliminated some unnecessary delays, employers characterized the result as “ambush elections,” and insisted they would no longer have enough time to wage their anti-union campaigns. Even though the ... More »