Jacqueline Rayfield is a student at Harvard Law School.
In today’s News and Commentary, Union-negotiated pay raises hit an all-time high, the National Labor Relations Board rules that Apple illegally interrogated staff about their union, and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will be marking up the PRO Act.
For likely the first time ever, union negotiators have secured an average first-year pay raise of 7%. This average makes the 8th straight quarterly increase in pay raises negotiated in union contracts. Some worry that this increase could cause employers to drag their feet in the hundreds of workplaces that have unionized but still have not ratified their first contract. However, for most represented workers hoping to keep up with inflation, these pay increases are a significant win.
Yesterday, an NLRB judge ruled that Apple violated its New York store employees’ rights by interrogation workers about their legally protected activity with the union. The judge held that Apple must cease confiscating union literature and interfering with employee’s exercise of their rights. However, Apple’s actions against their workers and union activity had already halted the organizing campaign by the case’s first hearing in January.
Today, the Senate HELP Committee will be marking up the landmark PRO Act—one of the most significant labor law reforms in modern American history. The PRO Act aims to make it easier for workers to form a union by repealing state “right-to-work” laws, which undermine union organizing. The chairman of the HELP Committee, Sen. Bernie Sanders, discussed the PRO Act and accompanying legislation in detail yesterday afternoon.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
September 16
In today’s news and commentary, the NLRB sues New York, a flight attendant sues United, and the Third Circuit considers the employment status of Uber drivers The NLRB sued New York to block a new law that would grant the state authority over private-sector labor disputes. As reported on recently by Finlay, the law, which […]
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.