OnLabor

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Author:Sharon Block

Sharon Block is a Professor of Practice and the Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School.

Will California Legislate Fairness for Gig Workers?

Sep 9, 2019 Benjamin Sachs and Sharon Block

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, gig workers would win important protections like minimum wage, overtime pay, […]

Making Bad Law Worse: The Inequity of the Board’s Walmart Decision

Aug 20, 2019 Sharon Block

Section 13 of the National Labor Relations Act says that “[n]othing in this Act shall be construed so as to interfere with or impede or diminish in any way the right to strike.” The Supreme Court has instructed that this protection should be given a “generous interpretation.” For a long time, however, the law governing […]

Sectoral Approach for Domestic Workers

Jul 16, 2019 Sharon Block

This week, Senator Kamala Harris and Representative Pramila Jayapal introduced the National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (HR 3760 and S 2112). The bill provides a number of important protections for domestic workers. The bill corrects several historical exclusions of domestic workers from the nation’s social safety net – ensuring that domestic workers are covered […]

Advocating for a Workers’ Advocate

Jun 27, 2019 Sharon Block

With gridlock in Congress the norm for the foreseeable future, the federal regulatory process has taken on greater importance as a policy tool. But relying on the regulatory process to advance progressive, pro-worker policy is problematic. The modern federal rulemaking process is not a level playing field in the contest between different stakeholders for influence. […]

The Uber/Lyft Drivers’ Association, Unionization, and Labor Law Reform

Jun 25, 2019 Sharon Block and Benjamin Sachs

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 describes is inspirational. Dubal also raises some important criticisms of the IDG, criticisms […]

More Epic Fall Out: Your Lawsuit or Your Job

Jun 24, 2019 Sharon Block

Last year, Ben and I flagged concerns about the breadcrumbs that the Supreme Court dropped in its opinion in Epic Systems v. Lewis on the path to narrowing the National Labor Relations Act’s protection for concerted activity. A recent filing by the Board’s General Counsel proves that our caution about the future of Section 7 […]

Questionable Opinion About the Gig Economy

May 8, 2019 Sharon Block

As OnLabor covered last week (here and here), the Department of Labor recently issued an “opinion letter” finding that the workers deriving income from an unnamed “virtual marketplace company” are independent contractors and not employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. This action is significant – it marks the Department’s first articulation of how […]

NLRB Changes Course on Charter Schools

Feb 22, 2019 Sharon Block

Earlier this month, the National Labor Relations Board announced that it again would wade into the murky waters of whether charter schools are employers under the National Labor Relations Act. The question that the Board has put before itself this time, however, is different and potentially much more significant than it previously has posed in […]

A Response: Is the New Prime Pill Even More Bitter?

Jan 23, 2019 Sharon Block

Yesterday, Ben and Adrienne sounded a note of caution about the Supreme Court’s opinion in New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira, which in many ways constitutes a rare win for workers at the Court. They found a potential long-term problem for Title VII in the originalist-style rule of statutory construction that the Court majority endorsed in […]

Worker Voice Beyond Wages, Hours and Terms and Conditions of Employment

Jan 17, 2019 Sharon Block

This week, United Teachers Los Angeles called their first strike in decades. While the parties are negotiating over wages and staffing, a central issue in the dispute is the much bigger question of underfunding of the public school system. Teachers are asking for smaller class sizes, repairs to crumbling school buildings, and the hiring of […]

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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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Will California Legislate Fairness for Gig Workers?

Making Bad Law Worse: The Inequity of the Board’s Walmart Decision

Sectoral Approach for Domestic Workers

Advocating for a Workers’ Advocate

The Uber/Lyft Drivers’ Association, Unionization, and Labor Law Reform

More Epic Fall Out: Your Lawsuit or Your Job

Questionable Opinion About the Gig Economy

NLRB Changes Course on Charter Schools

A Response: Is the New Prime Pill Even More Bitter?

Worker Voice Beyond Wages, Hours and Terms and Conditions of Employment