Benjamin Sachs is the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School and a leading expert in the field of labor law and labor relations. He is also faculty director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy. Professor Sachs teaches courses in labor law, employment law, and law and social change, and his writing focuses on union organizing and unions in American politics. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 2008, Professor Sachs was the Joseph Goldstein Fellow at Yale Law School. From 2002-2006, he served as Assistant General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Washington, D.C. Professor Sachs graduated from Yale Law School in 1998, and served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. His writing has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the New York Times and elsewhere. Professor Sachs received the Yale Law School teaching award in 2007 and in 2013 received the Sacks-Freund Award for Teaching Excellence at Harvard Law School. He can be reached at [email protected].
Harris v. Quinn raises the question of whether unions will be able to collect dues from workers who are under no obligation to pay them. Because unions have to provide representation even to workers who decline to pay dues, Harris presents a classic free rider problem for unions. Is this an insurmountable problem? I’ve argued that it needn’t be, and today there is some preliminary evidence that it is not. As the Wall Street Journal reports, AFSCME has been engaged in an internal organizing effort to convert agency fee payers to full-fledged (no pun intended) members. That is, the union is trying to increase the number of workers who voluntarily pay full union membership dues. The union’s goal for July 1 was to convert 50,000 workers to full membership. Not only has the union reached that goal, it has added 92,000 union-represented workers to the membership rolls this year. And, most important in light of Harris v. Quinn, 21,000 of these new members are home care workers.
This should not, of course, be taken as evidence that the free rider problem that Harris creates (and that a reversal of Abood would create more broadly) is irrelevant or easily over-comable. It is neither of those things. But the AFSCME numbers are good evidence that unions may be able to adjust to the loss of agency fee, and that Harris v. Quinn may not be a fatal blow.
Daily News & Commentary
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December 13
In today’s News & Commentary, the Senate cleared the way for the GOP to take control of the NLRB next year, and the NLRB classifies “Love is Blind” TV contestants as employees. The Senate halted President Biden’s renomination of National Labor Relations Board Chair Lauren McFerran on Wednesday. McFerran’s nomination failed 49-50, with independents Joe […]
December 11
In today’s News and Commentary, Biden’s NLRB pick heads to Senate vote, DOL settles a farmworker lawsuit, and a federal judge blocks Albertsons-Kroger merger. Democrats have moved to expedite re-confirmation proceedings for NLRB Chair Lauren McFerran, which would grant her another five years on the Board. If the Democrats succeed in finding 50 Senate votes […]
December 10
In today’s News and Commentary, advocacy groups lay out demands for Lori Chavez-DeRemer at DOL, a German union leader calls for ending the country’s debt brake, Teamsters give Amazon a deadline to agree to bargaining dates, and graduates of coding bootcamps face a labor market reshaped by the rise of AI. Worker advocacy groups have […]
December 9
Teamsters file charges against Costco; a sanitation contractor is fined child labor law violations, and workers give VW an ultimatum ahead of the latest negotiation attempts
December 8
Massachusetts rideshare drivers prepare to unionize; Starbucks and Nestlé supply chains use child labor, report says.
December 6
In today’s news and commentary, DOL attempts to abolish subminimum wage for workers with disabilities, AFGE reaches remote work agreement with SSA, and George Washington University resident doctors vote to strike. This week, the Department of Labor proposed a rule to abolish the Fair Labor Standards Act’s Section 14(c) program, which allows employers to pay […]