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News & Commentary

September 13, 2024

Esther Ritchin

Esther Ritchin is a student at Harvard Law School.

In today’s news and commentary, Law360 journalists go on strike, Amazon ruled a joint employer of contracted delivery drivers, and workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette look towards returning to work.

Journalists at Law360, a legal news service owned by LexisNexis, have gone on strike. 250 NewsGuild-Communication Workers of America workers went on strike on September 10th in response to multiple unfair labor practices by Law360, including unlawful layoffs of union members and unilateral changes to the health insurance plan.

A regional director at the National Labor Relations Board ruled earlier this month that Amazon was a joint employer of contracted delivery drivers at an Atlanta warehouse. The ruling comes in a review of unfair labor practices, and does not represent a board decision. However, in light of Amazon’s constant attempts to avoid joint employer status with regards to their many contracted delivery drivers, it’s a victory for those hoping to hold Amazon accountable, including unions such as the Teamsters working on behalf of Amazon workers.

Workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who have been on strike for many months, are holding a town hall meeting in anticipation of their strike coming to a close. The town hall looks forward to the staff returning to work, and invites the Pittsburgh community to reflect on what they want from local journalism.

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In Ruelas v. County of Alameda, the Supreme Court of California denied pretrial detainees’ state minimum wage claim, reasoning that section 4019.3 of the state’s Penal Code — capping jail laborers’ wages at two dollars per day — instead governed.  The first part of this three-part series discussed the California Supreme Court’s holding and reasoning.  The second part gave a history of California’s constitution and jail labor in the state, concluding that the two-dollar daily wage cap could not have applied to plaintiffs, who were pretrial detainees performing unpaid labor for a corporation.  

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