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Category:Politics

Quiet Giant: The Underappreciated Federal Service Impasses Panel

Nov 8, 2021 Jack Leahey

On the eve of the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden promised that he would be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.” Three months into his administration, President Biden was talking like it—at least according to a Washington Post analysis of his statements, remarks, and proposals. Eight months in, some labor law experts noted that he was […]

On Labor Day, Millions Fall Through the Unemployment Safety Net

Sep 15, 2021 Kevin Vazquez

Last week, on Labor Day, an estimated 8.9 million workers and their families lost federal unemployment benefits, and nearly three million more had their weekly checks reduced by $300 per week. The Biden administration, despite the entreaties of many workers, activists, labor unions, and other organizations, allowed three key pandemic-era federal unemployment programs – Pandemic […]

Featured in Dems’ Newest Budget Draft: A Major Labor Law Proposal

Sep 9, 2021 Maxwell Ulin

Yesterday, Democrats on the House Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) released a completed draft for its part of Congress’s upcoming reconciliation bill. Along with other blockbuster proposals, the Committee’s $450 billion package includes a number of provisions designed to raise federal revenues by imposing civil penalties on employers who violate federal labor […]

As Dems Mull Reconciliation, NLRA Civil Penalties Are Worth Fighting for

Jul 28, 2021 Benjamin Sachs, Tascha Shahriari-Parsa and Maxwell Ulin

Recently, Senate Democrats have begun discussing plans to enable the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to levy civil monetary penalties on employers who commit unfair labor practices (ULPs) as part of their broader reconciliation bill on infrastructure. While specifics are so far lacking, the proposal is based on what House Democrats already put forward in […]

Federal Judge Recognizes President’s Ability to Remove NLRB GC At Will

Jul 26, 2021 Fred Wang

Hours into his administration, President Biden fired the National Labor Relation Board’s (NLRB) Trump-era general counsel (GC), Peter Robb. Upon Robb’s termination, many Republicans clamored that Biden’s move was inappropriate, divisive, even illegal. Many observers—including myself—were skeptical of that latter argument. But over the past few months, corporations in pending litigation with the NLRB have […]

July 15, 2021
News & Commentary

William Greenlaw

The Senate Democrats’ new budget reconciliation bill plans to financially penalize companies that violate workers’ rights. The proposal is planned to be embedded into the $3.5 trillion bill, utilizing the National Labor Relations Board to levy penalties where appropriate. Senator Bernie Sanders remarked that this provision would be part of the PRO Act’s integration into […]

June 11, 2021
News & Commentary

Hannah Finnie

A new survey conducted for the New York Times by the research company Equilar researched trends among C.E.O. pay and found that in 2020, amidst the pandemic, the ratio of C.E.O. pay to median employee pay grew even larger. In 2019, according to the survey, C.E.O.s surveyed received 245 times the pay of the median […]

The “Dignity of Work,” its Racist Roots, and How it’s Threatening Reform

May 26, 2021 Hannah Hilligoss

“Dignity of work” rhetoric has long been used to justify conditioning welfare assistance and tax relief on engagement in wage labor. The argument goes: “[w]ork is good, more of it is better and policy should be a conveyor belt from the moral torpor of idleness to the dignity of wage labor.” This argument has been […]

California’s FAST Act: A Promising Move Toward Sectoral Regulation

Apr 30, 2021 Benjamin Sachs

In the Clean Slate final report, we argued that a labor law designed to enable workers to build meaningful economic and political power should require both workplace-level and sectoral collective bargaining. Sectoral bargaining is essential because it positions workers to exercise countervailing power at a level of the economy where corporate power often has its […]

Why Universal Basic Income is a Labor Issue

Apr 30, 2021 Tascha Shahriari-Parsa

Most associate the call for Universal Basic Income (UBI) with former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, whose proposal for a “freedom dividend” of $12,000 a year to every American was the central message of his campaign. Running for mayor of New York City, Yang brings a modified cash relief program that would give an average of […]

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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.

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