Yesterday we summarized the briefs submitted by petitioner New Prime Inc. and respondent Dominic Oliveira in New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira, the latest case before the Supreme Court to address the extent of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA)’s reach in the employment context. Today we summarize the briefs submitted by amici curiae for New Prime, and next week we will summarize those submitted fo... More »
In the forthcoming September issue of Vanity Fair, Uber engineer-turned-Silicon Valley watchdog Susan Fowler examines the future of the gig economy. In her piece entitled, “What Have We Done?: Silicon Valley Engineers Fear They’ve Created a Monster,” Fowler recalled from when she worked at Uber how the company manipulated fares to “trick” drivers into working longer hours for lit... More »
The New York Times editorial last week celebrating the landslide victory of the ballot initiative to repeal Missouri’s right-to-work (for less) law was entitled, “The Wind at Labor’s Back.” Those words haven’t been put together in that order in a long time, as we have witnessed a decades-long decline in the size, power, and vitality of the U.S. labor movement. This pro-labor momentum, building f... More »
On October 3 the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira, the first arbitration case before the justices since they decided Epic Systems in May. Today we recap the briefs submitted this summer by petitioner New Prime Inc. and respondent Dominic Oliveira. Tomorrow we will summarize the briefs submitted by amici curiae for New Prime, and next week we will summarize thos... More »
Yesterday Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced the Accountable Capitalism Act, a plan to reduce income inequality while still operating within a capitalist framework. The goal is to make large companies responsive not only to their shareholders, but also to their employees. Under the bill, corporations with more than one billion dollars in annual revenue would be required to procure a federal cor... More »
Gig-economy-giants like Uber, Lyft, and Instacart are quietly lobbying California Democrats to reverse a groundbreaking court ruling protecting gig workers’ rights. In the LA Times, law professor Veena Dubal explains the stakes. In Dynamex, the California Supreme Court updated the state’s test for which workers are employees — entitled to protections like state minimum wage, overtime, and sick lea... More »
President Trump acknowledged on Twitter on Monday that the White House required staff to sign nondisclosure agreements, which his aides have declined to confirm for months. Although legal experts say such agreements are essentially unenforceable for government employees because they infringe on First Amendment rights, the admission raises the question of how nondisclosure agreements—even those tha... More »
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in Nebraska arrested 133 workers in one operation, the Washington Post reports. The workers were taken at 8:45 a.m. in the small 3,700-person town of O’Niell, Nebraska. The superintendent of the town’s public schools suspects that up to 100 children in her district may have had a relative or immediate family member taken in the raid. The raid is... More »
U.S. workers’ real wages fell last year, the Labor Department reported Friday, as scant wage gains were wiped out by inflation. Between July 2017 and July 2018, average hourly pay increased 2.7% — but with cost of living increasing by 2.9% in the same period, workers’ purchasing power actually decreased. Workers’ wages have been stagnant since the Great Recession ground to an end in 2010. For year... More »
On August 7th, Missouri voters will decide the fate of Prop. A — a ballot initiative that could repeal the state’s newly passed “right-to-work” law. Last year, then-Governor Eric Greitens signed Senate Bill 19, a so-called “r... More »