Harvard University’s graduate student union (HGSU-UAW) has announced that they will hold a strike authorization vote beginning October 15. A two-thirds vote of the membership will allow the negotiating committee to call a strike. I thought it might be us... More »
Sharon and I have a piece up at WaPo today making the case that California should follow AB5 with a new law that gives gig workers the right to form unions and collectively bargain with their employers. More »
The battle for the gig economy’s future is underway in California. The fight is over a proposed bill – AB5 – that would classify many gig workers, including Uber and Lyft drivers, as employees for purposes of California employment law. Should AB5 be enacted, g... More »
In her second post on the Uber/Lyft drivers’ association, Veena Dubal rightly celebrates the success of the recent Uber/Lyft work stoppages. The example of workers, who have no labor or employment law rights, engaging in the kind of collective action that she... More »
Over at Law and Political Economy, Veena Dubal writes an important piece that raises concerns about Uber and Lyft’s suggestion that drivers in California form a “workers’ association.” Dubal worries that such an association would amount... More »
As has been widely reported, the U.S. Department of Labor issued an “opinion letter” yesterday concluding that an unnamed “virtual marketplace company” does not employ the workers who make the company viable. Instead, the letter finds t... More »
David Streitfeld has a great story in the NYT this morning about life as an Uber driver and the vast distance between what drivers earn and what investors will reap from the firm’s public offering. Drivers: $40,000 in a good year of full time work. Inves... More »
In an opinion released Tuesday, the ninth circuit has rejected a First Amendment challenge to exclusive representation. As Jared reports, the ninth circuit joins the eighth circuit in affirming the constitutional validity of exclusive representation, even in t... More »
Shortly before he died, Judge Stephen Reinhardt authored an en banc opinion for the ninth circuit in Rizo v. Yovino. The decision was groundbreaking, holding that employers could not justify salary differentials between men and women on the basis of prior sala... More »
In Janus, the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment prohibits mandatory agency fees in the public sector. Although Janus had nothing to do with the constitutional status of exclusive representation, the majority’s opinion mentions exclusive represe... More »
The Supreme Court’s opinion in New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira is rightly being heralded as a victory for workers. The Court, after all, has finally found a mandatory arbitration agreement that it won’t enforce. But it seems odd that this Supreme Court would hand w... More »
As Boomberg Law reports, the NLRB general counsel’s office has issued a new memorandum declaring that Uber may not bar employees from discussing, amongst themselves or with the media, an ongoing class action lawsuit. The memorandum is good news for emplo... More »