The picture for robust protection of workers’ rights at the federal level is not a pretty one these days. In the Obama Administration, there were three basic components to our strategy to advance worker protections: (1) promulgate regulations that keep worker... More »
The prison strike enters day nine, as the estimated 900,000 incarcerated laborers (out of a population of 2.4 million) demand “an immediate end to prison slavery.” Sarah Holder of City Lab, quoting ACLU National Prison Project’s David Fathi, breaks down the c... More »
On Saturday, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected a series of President Trump’s executive orders. Jackson ruled that boosting federal agencies’ firing rights would deny collective bargaining rights for ... More »
Starting tomorrow, no Costco employee will earn below $14 an hour. While some locations already saw a $13.50 an hour minimum wage, the new mark, which nearly doubles the federal minimum of $7.25, signals that the “fight for $15” is edging forward, and the nat... More »
The Department of Labor is currently investigating several worker centers to determine whether they constitute “labor organizations” under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). Earlier this year, Reps Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) (chairwoman of ... More »
Cornell University violated the National Labor Relations Act in March of 2017, but Cornell Graduate Students United (CGSU) will not receive a unionization revote, an independent arbitrator ruled last week. In an email sent twenty-four hours prior to the elect... More »
n January 11, 2018, Jon Nash of Emory University School of Law and I submitted comments to the Department of Labor (“DOL”) on its proposed regulation regarding the freedom of employers that pay direct cash wages of at least the Federal minimum wage and do not... More »
The Independent Drivers Guild launched its own open enrollment campaign to raise awareness of health insurance options for app-based drivers and assist in health plan enrollment. The move comes in response to the Trump administration’s decision to cut fu... More »
On Friday, fifteen civil and human rights leaders published a letter to José Muñoz, chairman of Nissan North America, urging him to allow workers at the Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi to organize through a free and fair union election. The signatories, in... More »
On Friday, the Trump Administration finally took a position in the Fifth Circuit litigation over the validity of the Obama Administration’s rule to raise the overtime salary threshold to $47,476 from the $23,660 level that has been in place since 2004. On the... More »
President Trump announced one choice for the National Labor Relations Board, William Emanuel. Emmanuel is a partner at Littler Mendelson and has worked with Republicans in Congress and major trade groups from various industries. President Trump has one other p... More »
In his hearing yesterday before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta announced that DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) will reinstate the practice of providing “opinion letters.” These letters are legal interpretations of the laws t... More »