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Changing Clothes, from the Steel Mills to the Ski Slopes

Jan 27, 2014 Nikolas Bowie

Earlier today, the Supreme Court decided Sandifer v. United States Steel Corp., 571 U.S. ___ (2014), a case about whether employers are required to pay employees for the time they spend changing into and out of protective gear (and a case for which we wrote an Explainer back in October). With a few hints that he wished […]

The Problem with the WSJ's Appeal to Scalia

Jan 24, 2014 Benjamin Sachs

The Wall Street Journal editorial page is concerned that Justice Scalia might provide a fifth vote to affirm the seventh circuit’s decision in Harris v. Quinn. The Journal believes that there is a “first constitutional principle” at stake in Harris and that “such a stalwart supporter of the First Amendment as Justice Scalia” should not […]

Robots and Labor (Continued)

Jan 24, 2014 Jack Goldsmith

The Financial Times (behind paywall) reports on a speech by Google’s Eric Schmidt on the effects of robot technology on labor, in which Schmidt says: “There is quite a bit of research that middle class jobs that are relatively highly skilled are being automated out,” he said. The auto industry was an example of robots […]

Adjunct Unionization

Jan 22, 2014 Nikolas Bowie

Full-time, tenured university professors are starting to become a thing of the past — and not just in history departments. On Monday, the New York Times and NBC News published the latest in several recent articles on the rise of part-time and non-tenure-track professors, who now compose the vast majority of university faculty in the […]

Reuters on Harris v. Quinn Argument

Jan 21, 2014 Benjamin Sachs

Amanda Becker at Reuters has a careful and good review of today’s argument in Harris v. Quinn. She concludes: The U.S. Supreme Court seemed unlikely on Tuesday to embrace a sweeping argument advanced by a group of Illinois state employees that paying mandatory union dues violates their free-speech rights. Backed by the anti-union National Right […]

Oral Argument in Harris v. Quinn: Justice Scalia Siding with the Union?

Jan 21, 2014 Jack Goldsmith

Here is the quickie transcript of the oral argument this morning in Harris v. Quinn. Perhaps the most important takeaway from argument is that Justice Scalia appeared to believe that the First Amendment is not implicated when public employee unions bargain over employment conditions, and thus seemed disinclined to overrule Abood (even though he joined Knox, which stated in dicta […]

Harris v. Quinn Oral Arguments Today: Everything You Need to Know

Jan 21, 2014 Jordan M. Grossman

The Supreme Court hears arguments in Harris v. Quinn today, potentially one of the most important labor cases in years. We have temporarily placed all of our Harris-related posts over the last several months at the top of the page to provide readers with easy access to On Labor’s extensive analysis of this critical case.

Harris v. Quinn: The Context of First Amendment Claims

Jan 20, 2014 Benjamin Sachs

In its First Amendment jurisprudence, the Supreme Court has long taken the view that the nature of the relationship between government and citizens varies across contexts. And the Court has repeatedly held that as the nature of this relationship varies so does the strength of the First Amendment’s protections for individual speech and expression. When […]

Is Abood in Trouble?

Jan 19, 2014 Jack Goldsmith

That question is the title of Lyle Denniston’s preview of Harris v. Quinn at SCOTUSblog. After reviewing the history of the case, Denniston explains how it “has mushroomed, since the Court granted it, into a major test of the continuing validity of the Abood precedent.” (Abood held that agency shop arrangements in the public sector are consistent […]

Petitioners' Reply Brief in Harris v. Quinn

Jan 18, 2014 Jack Goldsmith

It can be found here. Oral argument is Tuesday.

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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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