Russia spent $51 billion to build facilities for the Sochi Olympics. Much of the construction work was performed by at least 100,000 migrant workers who endured poor working and living conditions, and were never paid the promised wages for their work. (Worke... More »
The Financial Times (behind paywall) reports on a speech by Google’s Eric Schmidt on the effects of robot technology on labor, in which Schmidt says: “There is quite a bit of research that middle class jobs that are relatively highly skilled are being automate... More »
In our continuing coverage of Wal-Mart’s labor and business practices, we now turn to some of the non-economic factors that influence employee satisfaction at the company. Part Two of this backgrounder, below, considers employee morale and the frequent complai... More »
What is it like to work at America’s largest private employer? Wal-Mart’s labor and business practices matter deeply, not only for the ripple effects the company causes throughout the retail industry and the economy as a whole, but more directly, for the 1.3 m... More »
There’s an interesting new study, from Wilma Liebman and David Doorey, of student attitudes about labor issues. The study is based on the authors’ poll of undergraduates in Canada and the United States. The sample sizes are, admittedly, small. But the resul... More »
A major theme in the debate over public-sector unions has been the idea that public-sector workers get paid more than their counterparts in the private sector. Joe Slater has an important new paper that sheds helpful light on this question. Slater reviews th... More »
My academic fields of expertise are at the intersection of national security law and international law, and I already blog at a site devoted to these topics. One thus might wonder why I am participating in this blog on labor law and politics. The short answe... More »
Welcome to On Labor, a new blog by Jack Goldsmith and myself dedicated to current developments in the world of workers, unions, and politics. Labor is a complicated field today. Complicated because the traditional labor movement is in dramatic decline, and, ... More »