
Morgan Sperry is a student at Harvard Law School and also serves as OnLabor's Social Media Director.
In today’s news and commentary, Las Vegas culinary workers prepare to strike and SAG-AFTRA offers Halloween costume guidance.
Forty thousand members of Las Vegas’s Culinary Workers Union Local 226—including guest room attendants, kitchen workers, bell men, laundry, cooks, servers, and porters—have been working without a contract since September 15 and are prepared to strike for the first time in 39 years. Workers at 18 hotels and resorts owned by MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, and Wynn Encore Resorts are seeking raises and reduced hours. Vegas room rates have risen 95 percent while there has been an 11 percent decrease in resort industry jobs since 2019, forcing people to work more without a share of the resorts’ rewards. Workers without a contract held practice pickets down the strip last week to signal their preparedness to strike.
As Halloweekend approaches, SAG-AFTRA has instructed its members (many of whom are active content creators) not to post pictures of themselves dressed as characters from major productions, which could be perceived as promoting struck work. Despite pushback from some major stars (Ryan Reynolds tweeted “I look forward to screaming ‘scab’ at my 8 year old all night. She’s not in the union but she needs to learn”), the guild continues to encourage its members to stick with generic costumes (“ghost, zombie, or spider”) this year rather than specific characters, like Barbie.
Daily News & Commentary
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July 6
Municipal workers in Philadelphia continue to strike; Zohran Mamdani collects union endorsements; UFCW grocery workers in California and Colorado reach tentative agreements.
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.