Esther Ritchin is a student at Harvard Law School.
In today’s news, the holiday season strikes against Amazon and Starbucks both conclude, and Amazon mandates a full-time return to office for its corporate employees.
The strike against Amazon, held at warehouses in the five days leading up to Christmas Eve, ended as scheduled. The strike was officially held at nine different warehouses, but there were protests and demonstrations at at least 200 locations throughout the strike period. While the strike has concluded, the Teamsters “will never let up and workers will never stop fighting for their rights at Amazon.” The complaints that brought workers to strike, including safety violations and unjust pay, continue. Starbucks workers also concluded their strike as scheduled at the end of the holiday season.
In related news, yesterday, the first workday of the new year, marked Amazon’s new mandatory return-to-office policy, five days a week, for its corporate employees. Many employees are frustrated by the policy, especially after inconsistent messaging from leadership on remote work and rumors of Amazon using this policy as a way to lower their number of corporate employees without having to lay people off.
Daily News & Commentary
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March 11
The partial government shutdown results in TSA agents losing their first full paycheck; the Fifth Circuit upholds the certification of a class of former United Airline workers who were placed on unpaid leave for declining to receive the COVID-19 vaccine for religious reasons during the pandemic; and an academic group files a lawsuit against the State Department over a policy that revokes and denies visas to noncitizens for their work in fact-checking and content moderation.
March 10
Court rules Kari Lake unlawfully led USAGM, voiding mass layoffs; Florida Senate passes bill tightening union recertification rules; Fifth Circuit revives whistleblower suit against Lockheed Martin.
March 9
6th Circuit rejects Cemex, Board may overrule precedents with two members.
March 8
In today’s news and commentary, a weak jobs report, the NIH decides it will no longer recognize a research fellows’ union, and WNBA contract talks continue to stall as season approaches. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that employers cut 92,000 jobs in February while the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.4 percent. A loss […]
March 6
The Harvard Graduate Students Union announces a strike authorization vote.
March 5
Colorado judge grants AFSCME’s motion to intervene to defend Colorado’s county employee collective bargaining law; Arizona proposes constitutional amendment to ban teachers unions’ use public resources; NLRB unlikely to use rulemaking to overturn precedent.