OnLabor

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Author:Sophie Rubinett Elsner

January 24, 2016
News & Commentary

Sophie Rubinett Elsner

More than 200 Chicago Public School employees headed into a dreary weekend, after receiving layoff notices. The Chicago Tribune reports that the district laid off 227 current employees and eliminated 180 vacant positions, in attempt to address its budget shortfall. The $32 million savings from the cuts will barely affect the almost half-billion dollar budget […]

January 20, 2016
News & Commentary

Sophie Rubinett Elsner

The Supreme Court will decide whether “President Obama has the authority to offer a ‘lawful presence’ and a work permit to as many as five million immigrants living in the country illegally,” reports the Los Angeles Times. Since the President announced his immigration program last year, Texas and 25 other Republican-led states challenged the executive […]

January 6, 2016
News & Commentary

Sophie Rubinett Elsner

In the lead up to next week’s oral arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, anti-union union members are putting on a full court press. Mark Janus, the lead plaintiff in Janus v. AFSCME, voiced his opposition in the Chicago Tribune to an Illinois law requiring state workers to pay union dues or fees. Teacher […]

December 23, 2015
News & Commentary

Sophie Rubinett Elsner

Christmas just got merrier for the 37 truck drivers awarded $7 million in back pay. The California Labor Commissioner’s Office ruled that a port trucking firm in Carson, Cal. had misclassified the drivers as independent contractors and made illegal paycheck deductions. Although the award covers a small faction of the nearly 12,000 drivers at Southern […]

December 9, 2015
News & Commentary

Sophie Rubinett Elsner

Do we need a third category for workers in the gig economy? Steven Greenhouse writes in the American Prospect about a new paper that proposes solutions for on-demand workers. The paper’s authors suggest on-demand workers should be subject to anti-discrimination laws and have the right to unionize, and employers should Social Security taxes. But they […]

November 29, 2015
News & Commentary

Sophie Rubinett Elsner

Walmart protests this weekend were short and sweet, thanks to a split in worker organizing. The OUR Walmart campaign, launched by the United Food and Commercial Worker Union to agitate for better conditions and higher pay, has drifted from the UFCW. Rather organize Black Friday protests, the UFCW focused on advertisements calling out problems with […]

November 19, 2015
News & Commentary

Sophie Rubinett Elsner

The vote is neck and neck on the proposed four-year contract between Ford Motor Company and the United Automobile Workers. Slightly more than half of Ford’s union members who voted so far have rejected the deal; if it fails, it would be another blow for UAW leadership (after an initial defeat at Fiat Chrysler last […]

November 11, 2015
News & Commentary

Sophie Rubinett Elsner

Demonstrators in an estimated 270 cities across the country rallied in support of an increase in the minimum wage. The Fight for 15 campaign, backed in part by the Service Employees International Union, is in its third year and demanding attention from politicians—and hoping for success at the ballot box in 2016. Workers from industries and unions […]

November 1, 2015
News & Commentary

Sophie Rubinett Elsner

Are wages stagnating? It depends who you ask. The Wall Street Journal reports the employment-cost index, which measures workers’ wages and benefits, rose 0.6% this quarter. But even with the slight rise in wages and benefits, Americans’ personal income has barely inched and the employment rate remains steady. The New York Times’ Steven Greenhouse presents […]

October 28, 2015
News & Commentary

Sophie Rubinett Elsner

The Republican Congress and President Obama reached a tentative budget deal, which includes cuts for Social Security disability benefits. Now eligibility requirements will be consistent state by state, and the changes are expected to save the government $5 billion, reports the New York Times reports. The new budget deal also aims to “smooth out the […]

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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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January 24, 2016

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