Sharon and I have a piece up at WaPo today making the case that California should follow AB5 with a new law that gives gig workers the right to form unions and collectively bargain with their employers. More »
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, g... More »
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... More »
Over at Law and Political Economy, Veena Dubal writes an important piece that raises concerns about Uber and Lyft’s suggestion that drivers in California form a “workers’ association.” Dubal worries that such an association would amount... More »
David Streitfeld has a great story in the NYT this morning about life as an Uber driver and the vast distance between what drivers earn and what investors will reap from the firm’s public offering. Drivers: $40,000 in a good year of full time work. Inves... More »
In an opinion released Tuesday, the ninth circuit has rejected a First Amendment challenge to exclusive representation. As Jared reports, the ninth circuit joins the eighth circuit in affirming the constitutional validity of exclusive representation, even in t... More »
The Supreme Court’s opinion in New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira is rightly being heralded as a victory for workers. The Court, after all, has finally found a mandatory arbitration agreement that it won’t enforce. But it seems odd that this Supreme Court would hand w... More »
Last spring, we promised to share information about the project we’ve launched at Harvard Law School, “Rebalancing Economic and Political Power: A Clean Slate for the Future of Labor Law Reform.” On Labor Day, we laid out our vision for this ambitious project... More »
Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program is very pleased to announce the creation of a new academic fellowship to support the development of labor law scholars. The Wertheim Fund Labor Law Academic Fellow will receive approximately $50,000 per yea... More »
As divided as we have become as a country, we arrive at this Labor Day with a shared national understanding: both economic and political power are wildly out of balance, with dire consequences for the vast majority of Americans who find themselves on the losin... More »
In Janus, the Supreme Court held that agency fees amount to compelled speech that violates the First Amendment. As I’ve explained, the underlying premise of this theory is that agency fees are employees’ money that employees pay to a union. Because... More »
In September, we worried that the Trump Administration was using Epic Systems (aka Murphy Oil) to lay the groundwork for curtailing protection of concerted activity outside the union organizing and collective bargaining context. To our relief, Epic Systems do... More »