OnLabor

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Author:Jon Levitan

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

Collecting Money is Too Hard for Workers Who Have Experienced Wage Theft

Jan 14, 2022 Jon Levitan

When I learned I would be joining the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau’s (HLAB) Wage-and-Hour practice, I was thrilled. HLAB is a student-staffed legal aid clinic, and the wage practice represents workers who have experienced wage theft or retaliation for asserting their rights to be properly paid. I came to law school to fight for workers’ […]

December 14, 2021
News & Commentary

Jon Levitan

More news has continued to come out about the collapse of the Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, which killed six workers and injured another. Fred wrote yesterday how Amazon’s labor practices have come increasingly under fire after the collapse and workers’ deaths. Today, More Perfect Union released a screenshot of text messages between Larry Virden—who […]

TV Review: Capitalism is the Killer in Netflix’s Squid Game

Dec 1, 2021 Jon Levitan

This post contains spoilers. There are a number of horrifying moments in Squid Game, the Korean anticapitalist drama that has captivated the world and is now, remarkably, Netflix’s most watched show ever. A husband defeats his wife in a game of marbles, condemning her to death; he later dies by suicide as a result of […]

November 30, 2021
News & Commentary

Jon Levitan

Yesterday, the NLRB officially ordered a rerun election at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) lost an initial election last spring but filed election objections with the Board; after a multi-day hearing, an NLRB hearing officer found merit to the union’s objections and recommended a second election. […]

November 16, 2021
News & Commentary

Jon Levitan

A potential strike by IATSE—which would have been the largest in this country since 2007—has officially been averted as below-the-line workers in the television and films industries have ratified the Basic Agreement and Area Standards Agreement (ASA). Because IATSE has an electoral college-type voting system where each local gets a certain number of votes based […]

November 2, 2021
News & Commentary

Jon Levitan

The autumn of discontent marches on. At midnight on Sunday, about 500 steelworkers in Ohio went on strike after contract renewal negotiations between ArcelorMittal and their union—United Steelworkers Local 3057—broke down abruptly. USW Local 3057 staff representative Brian Sealy told reporters that the employer made its final offer Sunday, then picked up and left to […]

The Strike Wave May be Coming. Nonunion Workers Have Been the Ones Stirring the Waters.

Oct 29, 2021 Jon Levitan

The exercise of worker power is undoubtedly on the rise this autumn. Labor twitter has deemed this month #Striketober as tens of thousands of workers across the country have walked off the job. 10,000 John Deere workers are on strike across the Midwest after workers overwhelmingly rejected a proposed deal on the eve of the […]

October 19, 2021
News & Commentary

Jon Levitan

In response to the historic unionization drive in Buffalo, Starbucks management has seemingly launched a “counteroffensive … intended to intimidate workers, disrupt normal operations and undermine support for the union.” Starbucks headquarters has sent two managers—imported from out of state—into three Buffalo area stores that have separately filed for union elections with the NLRB. Michelle […]

October 5, 2021
News & Commentary

Jon Levitan

The results of the IATSE strike vote came in yesterday, and they were emphatic: over 98% voted to authorize a nationwide strike in the film and television industry. Perhaps even more encouraging for the union is that voter turnout was nearly 90% despite there being just under 60,000 eligible voters. In total, 52,706 IATSE voted […]

Joy Silk Can’t Help the Workers in Bessemer. What Can?

Oct 4, 2021 Jon Levitan

The Joy Silk doctrine—which would raise the penalty for employers who commit unfair labor practices in the run-up to a representation election, and thus provide a powerful deterrent—is poised for a comeback. The new NLRB General Counsel, Jennfier Abruzzo, has signaled that she intends to revive the 70 year-old doctrine. Joy Silk requires that when […]

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OnLabor

Law. Workers. Organizing.

OnLabor is a blog devoted to workers, unions, and their politics. We interpret our subject broadly to include the current crisis in the traditional union movement (why union decline is happening and what it means for our society); the new and contested forms of worker organization that are filling the labor union gap; how work ought to be structured and managed; how workers ought to be represented and compensated; and the appropriate role of government — all three branches — in each of these issues.

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Collecting Money is Too Hard for Workers Who Have Experienced Wage Theft

December 14, 2021

TV Review: Capitalism is the Killer in Netflix’s Squid Game

November 30, 2021

November 16, 2021

November 2, 2021

The Strike Wave May be Coming. Nonunion Workers Have Been the Ones Stirring the Waters.

October 19, 2021

October 5, 2021

Joy Silk Can’t Help the Workers in Bessemer. What Can?