Jacqueline Rayfield is a student at Harvard Law School.
In today’s News and Commentary, Amazon workers in Missouri file an unfair labor practice charge based on company surveillance, labor unions push for a repeal of corporate tax cuts, and Mary Kay Henry steps down as president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Amazon warehouse workers in Missouri charge the company with using an algorithm to surveil and “interfere with Section 7 rights of employees.” The workers allege that the company uses an intrusive algorithm to monitor their activity and deter any discussion of unionizing. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has not yet investigated these charges. However, in 2022, the NLRB general counsel issued a memo explaining that challenging automated surveillance techniques would be a priority for the board.
Labor unions, including the United Auto Worker, the AFL-CIO, and the SEIU, joined a letter to congressional leaders yesterday, urging an end to Trump-era tax cuts for corporations. The Trump administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) lowered corporate taxes and cut individual and estate taxes in ways that benefit the wealthy, according to these labor leaders. The Congressional Research Service in 2019 confirmed that tax cuts from this act largely benefited high income people. Labor leaders call for this Act’s repeal before November.
SEIU president Mary Kay Henry steps down after 14 years in leadership. Henry expressed her enthusiasm for the next generation of leadership to continue the fight for sectoral organizing. In Henry’s 14 years as president, she oversaw the historic Fight for $15 campaign, organizing fast food workers around minimum wage increases around the country.
Daily News & Commentary
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February 27
The Ninth Circuit allows Trump to dismantle certain government unions based on national security concerns; and the DOL set to focus enforcement on firms with “outsized market power.”
February 26
Workplace AI regulations proposed in Michigan; en banc D.C. Circuit hears oral argument in CFPB case; white police officers sue Philadelphia over DEI policy.
February 25
OSHA workplace inspections significantly drop in 2025; the Court denies a petition for certiorari to review a Minnesota law banning mandatory anti-union meetings at work; and the Court declines two petitions to determine whether Air Force service members should receive backpay as a result of religious challenges to the now-revoked COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
February 24
In today’s news and commentary, the NLRB uses the Obama-era Browning-Ferris standard, a fired National Park ranger sues the Department of Interior and the National Park Service, the NLRB closes out Amazon’s labor dispute on Staten Island, and OIRA signals changes to the Biden-era independent contractor rule. The NLRB ruled that Browning-Ferris Industries jointly employed […]
February 23
In today’s news and commentary, the Trump administration proposes a rule limiting employment authorization for asylum seekers and Matt Bruenig introduces a new LLM tool analyzing employer rules under Stericycle. Law360 reports that the Trump administration proposed a rule on Friday that would change the employment authorization process for asylum seekers. Under the proposed rule, […]
February 22
A petition for certiorari in Bivens v. Zep, New York nurses end their historic six-week-strike, and Professor Block argues for just cause protections in New York City.