Esther Ritchin is a student at Harvard Law School.
Happy Valentine’s day! In today’s news and commentary, North Carolina Amazon warehouse workers hold a union election, and Trump nominates an Amazon alum to lead OSHA.
Workers at an Amazon warehouse just outside Raleigh, North Carolina, are currently holding a union election, with voting taking place this week. If the vote succeeds, the warehouse would be the second Amazon warehouse to unionize, after a 2022 yes vote at a union drive in Staten Island, a vote that still has yet to result in a contract. The election also comes on the heels of a successful union drive at a Whole Foods in Philadelphia, a grocery store chain owned by Amazon. This movement, Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE), is spearheaded by Reverend Ryan Brown, who was inspired to organize after his mistreatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaign faces many obstacles, including retaliation and anti-union marketing from Amazon, the company’s history of severe tactics in the wake of a union vote (including their recent shuttering of Canadian warehouses), and a newly destabilized NLRB.
Donald Trump has nominated David Keeling to lead OSHA. Keeling has been a safety executive at both UPS and Amazon, including the director of global road and transportation safety at Amazon. The nomination comes amidst a continual wave of reports of Amazon safety violations and complaints of disregard for worker health and safety, such as delivery drivers being forced to pee in bottles, long hours with strenuous physical work and minimal breaks, and continual prioritization of profits over health and human safety.
Daily News & Commentary
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September 15
Unemployment claims rise; a federal court hands victory to government employees union; and employers fire workers over social media posts.
September 14
Workers at Boeing reject the company’s third contract proposal; NLRB Acting General Counsel William Cohen plans to sue New York over the state’s trigger bill; Air Canada flight attendants reject a tentative contract.
September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.
September 10
A federal judge denies a motion by the Trump Administration to dismiss a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees against President Trump for his mass layoffs of federal workers; the Supreme Court grants a stay on a federal district court order that originally barred ICE agents from questioning and detaining individuals based on their presence at a particular location, the type of work they do, their race or ethnicity, and their accent while speaking English or Spanish; and a hospital seeks to limit OSHA's ability to cite employers for failing to halt workplace violence without a specific regulation in place.
September 9
Ninth Circuit revives Trader Joe’s lawsuit against employee union; new bill aims to make striking workers eligible for benefits; university lecturer who praised Hitler gets another chance at First Amendment claims.