This is Part Four of the four-part series “Free” Labor. The past three posts have introduced the concept of prison labor, tracked the historical roots of prison labor to the present day iterations, and explored the law as applied to incarcerated workers. This ... More »
This is Part Three of a four-part series. Part One gave a description of a recent prison uprising at Willacy County Corrections Center in south Texas. The event provided a platform for introducing the concept of incarcerated workers and the intersections betwe... More »
This is Part Two of a four-part series. Part One gave a description of a recent prison uprising at Willacy County Corrections Center in south Texas. The event provided a platform for introducing the concept of incarcerated workers and the intersections between... More »
This post is the first in a four-part series. On the morning of February 20, 2015, a large number of inmates at Willacy County Correctional Center, a state prison facility at the southern end of Texas, went on strike. Inmate workers refused to go to work at th... More »
A study reveals rampant wage theft in the Massachusetts construction industry, The Boston Globe reports. Many of these workers are immigrants hired by subcontractors as “independent contractors,” in an attempt to skirt “overtime and health insurance rules and ... More »
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka delivered a speech today stating that labor is not ready to endorse a candidate for the 2016 presidential election, a message that has been characterized as a “memo to Hillary” by Politico. Trumka said that working men and wome... More »
In the wake of merger negotiations between Boston Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center, SEIU Local 1199 is working to unionize the “1,000 Tufts workers in service, clerical, and technical jobs, from housekeepers to surgical technicians,” The Boston Globe re... More »
McDonald’s announced today that it plans to raise U.S. workers’ hourly wage by $1 per hour and increase benefits by the end of 2016, The Wall Street Journal and Time report (note that the WSJ article is behind a pay wall). The changes will affect workers in ro... More »
Fast food organizers driving the Fight for $15 campaign say they are expanding the scope of their campaign to other low-wage workers, including workers in airports, on college campuses and domestic workers laboring in homes across America, AP reports. The Figh... More »
Today, the Supreme Court announced its ruling in Young v. UPS, coming down 6-3 in favor of former UPS employee Peggy Young. The question at the center of the case was whether the Pregnancy Discrimination Act requires employers to offer accommodations to pregna... More »
According to The Wisconsin State Journal, Wisconsin law makers will likely vote Thursday on a proposed bill that would strip private unions in that state of their ability to charge mandatory fees of all workers that they represent. Such laws are commonly calle... More »
In continued coverage of the West Coast seaport labor dispute, Department of Labor Secretary Thomas Perez is meeting with negotiators on both sides of the dispute today in San Francisco, The Washington Post reports. Negotiations between dockworkers and their e... More »
May 12th, 2015