OnLabor

Law. Workers. Organizing.

Follow OnLabor on X
Subscribe via RSS

Category:From Senior Contributors

Re-Post: A Further Observation about Justice Scalia and Friedrichs

Jan 12, 2016 Catherine Fisk

Note: This post was originally published on October 5th, and is being re-published in light of yesterday’s oral arguments in Friedrichs. Given Justice Scalia’s consistent view that public employees have minimal free speech rights, doctrinal consistency should require him to reject the First Amendment challenge to union fair share fees in Friedrichs. As Professor Sachs points […]

Re-Post: Scalia May Be Critical Vote in Friedrichs v. California Teachers’ Ass’n

Jan 11, 2016 Catherine Fisk

Note: This post was originally published on June 30th, and is being re-published in light of today’s oral arguments in Friedrichs. The Court today granted review in Friedrichs v. California Teachers’ Ass’n. This suggests that four Justices may want to extend to public school teachers the right-to-work regime the Court imposed on home care workers […]

The NLRB is Going All Out to Defend Collective Legal Action for Workers

Jan 7, 2016 Andrew Strom

In a typical month, if the NLRB decides twenty cases, each case will address a different issue. So, it is notable that over the last two months, the NLRB has decided twenty-seven separate cases addressing the same issue – employment policies that prohibit workers from bringing collective legal actions. These decisions highlight the extent to […]

Will Justice Thomas Bring His Brand of Originalism to Friedrichs?

Dec 10, 2015 Andrew Strom

The Supreme Court has now scheduled the oral argument in Friedrichs for January 11, 2015. At the conclusion of the argument, court observers will undoubtedly try to predict the outcome based on the questions the Justices ask. But, one safe bet is that Justice Thomas will remain silent during the argument. This will allow for […]

The VW Chattanooga Union Win is Democracy at Work

Dec 9, 2015 Catherine Fisk

The 71 percent majority vote of the skilled maintenance workers at VW’s Chattanooga plant to elect the United Auto Workers is an important test of whether critics of the labor law model of exclusive representation really believe that those workers who want a union should be allowed to have one (as they claim) or whether […]

Wealth Inequality and the Labor Movement: What’s the Connection?

Dec 7, 2015 Jake Rosenfeld

Tuesday’s report from the Institute for Policy Studies exposes an enormous concentration of wealth among America’s elite. Among the shocking findings: The country’s wealthiest 20 people have a combined worth equal to the bottom half of the U.S. population, and the wealthiest 100 households hold as much wealth as the entire African-American population – all […]

Friedrichs and Broccoli

Dec 1, 2015 Andrew Strom

The more I think about the Friedrichs case, the more I am reminded of broccoli. Remember how the opponents of the Affordable Care Act kept going on about broccoli? If the government could make you buy health insurance, then couldn’t the government also force you to buy broccoli? The implication was that this would be […]

Combating Wage Theft: Mechanics’ Liens and the California Fair Day’s Pay Act

Nov 25, 2015 Catherine Fisk

The working poor need more than an increase in the minimum wage. They need effective enforcement of the wage laws already on the books. The ideal would be to expand to all workers the long-established principle of the mechanics’ lien, which allows any worker who performs labor to improve real property to assert a lien […]

Which Parts of Their Collective Bargaining Agreements Do the Friedrichs Plaintiffs Oppose?

Nov 24, 2015 Andrew Strom

The theory of the Friedrichs case is that requiring the plaintiffs to pay fair share fees imposes a “severe and ongoing infringement” of their rights to free speech. Their Complaint asserts that each plaintiff “objects to many of the unions’ public policy positions, including positions taken in collective bargaining.” The fair share fees that are […]

Majority Rule and the Rights of Minorities: Friedrichs and Penn Plaza

Nov 3, 2015 Catherine Fisk

Catherine Fisk is Chancellor’s Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine. While the primary importance of the Supreme Court’s decision in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association will be for the future of public sector unions, the conceptual issue that makes the case interesting is how the Court will balance majority rule and individual […]

Newer
1
…
20
21
22
23
24
25
Older

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.

Learn more about OnLabor

OnLabor is unable to accept unsolicited submissions.

Follow OnLabor on X
Subscribe via RSS

Contact: [email protected]
Site design: Jon White Studio

Sections

All Editorial Writing
All News & Commentary
From The Editor
From Senior Contributors
Analysis From Guest Voices
OnLabor In The News
All Featured Coverage
About

Connect

Follow OnLabor on X
Subscribe via RSS

Search for:

Re-Post: A Further Observation about Justice Scalia and Friedrichs

Re-Post: Scalia May Be Critical Vote in Friedrichs v. California Teachers’ Ass’n

The NLRB is Going All Out to Defend Collective Legal Action for Workers

Will Justice Thomas Bring His Brand of Originalism to Friedrichs?

The VW Chattanooga Union Win is Democracy at Work

Wealth Inequality and the Labor Movement: What’s the Connection?

Friedrichs and Broccoli

Combating Wage Theft: Mechanics’ Liens and the California Fair Day’s Pay Act

Which Parts of Their Collective Bargaining Agreements Do the Friedrichs Plaintiffs Oppose?

Majority Rule and the Rights of Minorities: Friedrichs and Penn Plaza