
Fred Wang is a student at Harvard Law School.
In today’s News & Commentary, a huge UC grad-student strike begins, the Labor Department uncovers disturbing child-labor violations, and Twitter layoffs continue.
Nearly 50,000 University of California academic workers are prepared to strike today, the Los Angeles Times reports, as graduate students and the university “remain far apart on key issues.” Graduate students are asking UC, among other demands, to more than double their annual pay (from $24,000 to $54,000). These workers perform vital functions in the UC academic system — they research, hold discussion sections, grade student work, and even lead lectures. But they’re also being stretched thin, especially as high rents eat into graduate-student pay. This would be the country’s largest academic-worker strike — at a time in the semester (mere weeks before final exams) where the university’s reliance on graduate-student labor is at its highest.
The Labor Department found that a major U.S. food-safety company illegally employed over two dozen children in various meatpacking plants, the New York Times reports. Packers Sanitation Services hired children as young as 13 to clean dangerous equipment with corrosive cleaners. Most of them did not speak English fluently. Several suffered injuries, such as caustic chemical burns.
Twitter laid off around 80% of its 5,500 contractors, with no notice, Platformer’s Casey Newton reports. Apparently, contractors “weren’t being notified at all” and were aware that they had been fired only after they began “losing access to Slack and email.” This story is just the latest Twitter-employment development after Elon Musk assumed control of the company earlier this month. Musk had already slashed the number of Twitter staff in half, prompting some Twitter employees to sue the company under the federal WARN Act.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
July 4
The DOL scraps a Biden-era proposed rule to end subminimum wages for disabled workers; millions will lose access to Medicaid and SNAP due to new proof of work requirements; and states step up in the noncompete policy space.
July 3
California compromises with unions on housing; 11th Circuit rules against transgender teacher; Harvard removes hundreds from grad student union.
July 2
Block, Nanda, and Nayak argue that the NLRA is under attack, harming democracy; the EEOC files a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by former EEOC Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels; and SEIU Local 1000 strikes an agreement with the State of California to delay the state's return-to-office executive order for state workers.
July 1
In today’s news and commentary, the Department of Labor proposes to roll back minimum wage and overtime protections for home care workers, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by public defenders over a union’s Gaza statements, and Philadelphia’s largest municipal union is on strike for first time in nearly 40 years. On Monday, the U.S. […]
June 30
Antidiscrimination scholars question McDonnell Douglas, George Washington University Hospital bargained in bad faith, and NY regulators defend LPA dispensary law.
June 29
In today’s news and commentary, Trump v. CASA restricts nationwide injunctions, a preliminary injunction continues to stop DOL from shutting down Job Corps, and the minimum wage is set to rise in multiple cities and states. On Friday, the Supreme Court held in Trump v. CASA that universal injunctions “likely exceed the equitable authority that […]