![](https://onlabor.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Morgan-Sperry-headshot-300x300.jpg)
Morgan Sperry is a student at Harvard Law School and also serves as OnLabor's Social Media Director.
In today’s news and commentary, the Biden Administration prepares to defend a rule that extends organizing rights to farmworkers on temporary visas, and a majority of college athletes want to unionize.
The Biden Administration is gearing up for litigation over Department of Labor regulations that intend to expand organizing protections for farmworkers on temporary visas. Having been (and remaining) excluded from the NLRA, farmworkers lack the organizing protections that other employees enjoy. The Department of Labor’s proposed rule would add new protections for worker self-advocacy, better protect workers against retaliation, make foreign labor recruitment more transparent, and enhance the department’s enforcement. The Chamber of Commerce and allied critics have submitted public comments—available on Regulations.gov—questioning whether certain components of the proposed rule are permissible under existing court precedent.
A new poll indicates that a majority of college athletes want to unionize. While the NCAA dropped its prohibition on permitting college athletes to profit off of their names and likenesses in 2021, the National Labor Relations Board has not weighed in on the issue of whether athletes can form labor unions since 2015, when it declined to assert jurisdiction to answer the question of whether Northwestern University football players who received grant-in-aid scholarships were employees within the meaning of the NLRA. Earlier this year, the Dartmouth men’s basketball team petitioned the NLRB for a union election, giving the Board another opportunity to decide the question. Meanwhile, athletes in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, PAC-12, and SEC all support unionizing.
Daily News & Commentary
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July 26
Prop 22 survives; video game workers take action; NLRB challenged.
July 25
Disney union reaches tentative agreement, FAA agrees to improve worker conditions, and Olympic dancers drop strike notice.
July 24
Unions demand end to military aid for Israel; UAW and Teamsters hold out on Harris endorsement; Judge declines to block FTC ban on non-competes
July 23
NLRB drops appeal of a district court case striking down its joint employer rule; red states challenge EEOC’s pregnancy rule; and the WNBA players’ union taps advisors.
July 22
Unions respond to Biden's exit, many back Harris.
July 19
The Bronx Defenders Union announces a tentative collective bargaining agreement; Amazon workers continue a strike in Skokie; Bangladesh students continue protests over government job quotas.