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Guest Post: 2016 Steps Forward on Joint Employer Liability

Feb 2, 2016 Jennifer (JJ) Rosenbaum

Jennifer (JJ) Rosenbaum (@RosenbaumJJ) is a Robina Foundation Visiting Human Rights Fellow at the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School. From the on-demand economy to construction sites and fields, joint employer liability continues to be fundamental to combating growing inequality and substandard conditions for workers. The U.S. Department […]

Guest Post: Working Class Politics after the Great Exception

Feb 2, 2016 Jefferson Cowie

Jefferson Cowie holds the James G. Stahlman Chair at Vanderbilt University. In addition to the The Great Exception, Cowie is the author of Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of The Working Class. It is difficult to imagine that in the last big Democratic primary back in 2008, people were talking about the […]

Is Uber Wagging the Dog With Its Moonlighting Drivers?

Feb 1, 2016 Noah Zatz

There is a math problem with Uber’s most powerful argument for classifying its drivers as independent contractors, not employees. That argument emphasizes how weakly attached to Uber most drivers are, as evidenced by how many drivers work very few hours per week. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick recently defended the company’s labor practices by citing company […]

Liss-Riordan Statement on Lyft Settlement

Jan 29, 2016 Benjamin Sachs

As we’ve covered, Lyft has agreed to settle the class-action lawsuit brought by Shannon Liss-Riordan and Matthew Carlson on behalf of California drivers. The attorneys’ statement regarding the settlement is worth reading – both because it provides important details about the settlement agreement, and because it offers insight into the thinking behind the agreement. The complete statement, provided to OnLabor […]

Gig News — January 27, 2016

Jan 27, 2016 Jon Weinberg

This post is part of an ongoing series on labor and the gig economy. Uber may soon increase the control it has over its drivers. The Guardian reports that, in a pilot program, Uber is using smartphone sensors to track whether drivers accelerate and break too quickly. The company also said it is considering other […]

Public Employee Unions and Pensions

Jan 22, 2016 Catherine Fisk and Brian Olney

Catherine Fisk is an OnLabor Senior Contributor. Brian Olney is an Associate Attorney at Hadsell Stormer & Renick. Advocates of weakening public sector unions, both some who have filed briefs in the Friedrichs case and others who support anti-union legislation in Wisconsin and other states, assert that public sector unions contribute to state budget deficits […]

Chief Justice Roberts is Missing Something Important About Collective Bargaining

Jan 21, 2016 Andrew Strom

At the Friedrichs oral argument, Edward Dumont, the lawyer representing the State of California tried to make the point that collective bargaining for public employees often involves mundane workplace issues rather than major public policy issues. Chief Justice Roberts pressed Dumont to give examples of issues that do not present public policy questions. When Dumont […]

Beyond Misclassification: Gig Economy Discrimination Outside Employment Law

Jan 19, 2016 Noah Zatz

Amidst all the hubbub about whether Uber drivers et al. are to be classified legally as “employees,” some important things are easy to miss. First, these employee status issues are longstanding and widespread beyond the gig economy. Misclassification plagues workers who provide essential services but may be easier to ignore when commentators and policymakers do […]

Friedrichs, Citizens United, and the "Free-Speech Gap"

Jan 18, 2016 Juhyung Harold Lee

If Citizens United “promised something like a level playing field” for corporate and union political spending, what might Friedrichs do to upset that supposed equilibrium? In case you missed it, Adam Liptak examined this question today in the New York Times. Liptak notes at the outset of his article that the “level playing field” has proven […]

Friedrichs and the Private Sector

Jan 14, 2016 Benjamin Sachs

Friedrichs is a case about fair share fees in the public sector. The question is whether the First Amendment prohibits public employers from bargaining and enforcing fair share agreements. So it was notable that one of the first questions during Monday’s oral argument – and the first question that Justice Kennedy asked petitioners’ counsel – […]

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OnLabor

Law. Workers. Organizing.

OnLabor is a blog devoted to workers, unions, and their politics. We interpret our subject broadly to include the current crisis in the traditional union movement (why union decline is happening and what it means for our society); the new and contested forms of worker organization that are filling the labor union gap; how work ought to be structured and managed; how workers ought to be represented and compensated; and the appropriate role of government — all three branches — in each of these issues.

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