Amidst charges of “union-related extortion” against a senior official in Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s administration, the Boston Globe featured a story on the decreasing influence of unions in the US economy and politics. Compared to the 1 in 3 American wor... More »
Labor leaders have weighed in to protect pensioners in the Puerto Rico rescue package being finalized in the House of Representatives, according to Politico. The presidents of the SEIU and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the ... More »
Today’s major news is Uber’s settlement of two class action lawsuits covering 385,000 drivers in California and Massachusetts. Both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal provided detailed coverage on the settlement, under which Uber will continue classif... More »
Unions are experiencing delays in their efforts to create a $50 million super PAC to support labor-friendly Democrats in the 2016 presidential and congressional races. According to the Wall Street Journal, the delays are attributable to a few discrete factors... More »
The Illinois Supreme Court issued two rulings with mixed results for Chicago unions. First, Chicago city workers enjoyed a legal victory when the Court declared unconstitutional a 2014 law that required workers to contribute more toward their retirements whil... More »
Lydia DePillis at the Washington Post synthesized yesterday’s opening statements in McDonald’s high-stakes case before an administrative law judge at the NLRB in New York. The case—over whether McDonald’s is a “joint employer” liable for its franchisees’ alle... More »
As the Supreme Court gears up to hear Zubik v. Burwell and the six other consolidated cases once again challenging the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, an important question lingers about religious employers’ potential ability to flout the mandate ... More »
Governor Scott Walker’s push to cut collective bargaining rights for public sector workers not only has slashed union membership numbers, but also has diminished Wisconsin unions’ political role. This decrease in unions’ political influence, in turn, will dis... More »
Delays in the Labor Department’s processing of H-2B applications are “reigniting a clash over the program’s merits and whether it harms domestic workers,” reported the Wall Street Journal. Some in the business community are accusing the Labor Department of in... More »
Allegheny Technologies (ATI) will fight the complaint that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed over the lockout of 2,200 members of the United Steelworkers (USW) union. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the lockout—which began on Augus... More »
A federal district court in California recently denied an employer’s motion to compel individual arbitration in a wage-and-hour putative class action brought by a former employee. Totten v. Kellogg Brown & Root, LLC, ED CV 14-1766 (Jan. 22, 2016). Relyin... More »
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released figures showing that the national rate of union membership held steady in 2015. According to the Wall Street Journal, “[t]he share of U.S. workers in unions . . . was unchanged at 11.1%.” This percentage translate... More »
May 20th, 2016