Benjamin Sachs is the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School and a leading expert in the field of labor law and labor relations. He is also faculty director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy. Professor Sachs teaches courses in labor law, employment law, and law and social change, and his writing focuses on union organizing and unions in American politics. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 2008, Professor Sachs was the Joseph Goldstein Fellow at Yale Law School. From 2002-2006, he served as Assistant General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Washington, D.C. Professor Sachs graduated from Yale Law School in 1998, and served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. His writing has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the New York Times and elsewhere. Professor Sachs received the Yale Law School teaching award in 2007 and in 2013 received the Sacks-Freund Award for Teaching Excellence at Harvard Law School. He can be reached at [email protected].
There’s an interesting bit of behind-the-scenes news on the fast food campaign today. All the major chains (including McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s) are members of a retail trade group called the National Retail Federation (NRF). The NRF – like the National Restaurant Association – has long been an opponent of the kind of minimum-wage increases that the fast food campaign is calling for. Thus, the NRF said in April that “[t]here is clear evidence that mandated wage hikes undermine the job prospects for less skilled and part-time workers,” and it called minimum-wage advocacy “sound-bite politics.”
But Bloomberg Businessweek reports today that the NRF will soon have a new chairman with quite a different view of the minimum-wage issue. Kip Tindell, CEO of Container Store Group, will take the reins at NRF next month and told Businessweek that he will “encourage members of the association to boost wages and rethink their opposition to legislation.” Speaking of McDonald’s in particular, Tindell said “I get to talk to these guys, I know they’re going to do it.” And Tindell isn’t all talk. He’s succeeded in putting these values into practice: Container Store pays about two times the average retail wage and provides health-coverage for part-time employees.
Last week, I wrote about the current lack of dialogue between fast-food workers and employers and I sketched a vehicle for moving forward on the wage issue. The change of leadership at NRF is a promising development on this front. If Tindell decides to, he can take leadership here and encourage the kind of dialogue I outlined. If he does that, we may see some real progress before too long.
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May 9
Philadelphia City Council unanimously passes the POWER Act; thousands of federal worker layoffs at the Department of Interior expected; the University of Oregon student workers union reach a tentative agreement, ending 10-day strike
May 8
Court upholds DOL farmworker protections; Fifth Circuit rejects Amazon appeal; NJTransit navigates negotiations and potential strike.
May 7
U.S. Department of Labor announces termination of mental health and child care benefits for its employees; SEIU pursues challenge of NLRB's 2020 joint employer rule in the D.C. Circuit; Columbia University lays off 180 researchers
May 6
HHS canceled a scheduled bargaining session with the FDA's largest workers union; members of 1199SEIU voted out longtime union president George Gresham in rare leadership upset.
May 5
Unemployment rates for Black women go up under Trump; NLRB argues Amazon lacks standing to challenge captive audience meeting rule; Teamsters use Wilcox's reinstatement orders to argue against injunction.
May 4
In today’s news and commentary, DOL pauses the 2024 gig worker rule, a coalition of unions, cities, and nonprofits sues to stop DOGE, and the Chicago Teachers Union reaches a remarkable deal. On May 1, the Department of Labor announced it would pause enforcement of the Biden Administration’s independent contractor classification rule. Under the January […]