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].
In advance of Labor Day, Sharon and I have a short piece up at Time laying out the case for state labor law reforms to facilitate sectoral bargaining. The op-ed also reports on some of the work we’ve been doing at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy, including our new model state sectoral bargaining law. The model law, the product of a great team of academics and practitioners, including labor leaders and former government officials, should be a resource for states interested in figuring out how to fill some of the gaps (chasms?) left by the increasingly eviscerated federal regime. From the Time piece:
The model law would give workers the right to petition a State Labor Standards Board for recognition of a bargaining sector, grant organizing and access rights once minimum support thresholds are met, and create a process through which workers and employers can negotiate sector-wide agreements covering wages, benefits, working conditions, and the use of artificial intelligence and other workplace technology. Every employer in a covered sector would be bound by the resulting agreement, and workplace-level collective bargaining agreements may exceed—but never fall below—the sector-wide standards.
States that act now could immediately ensure that workers ignored by federal law can raise standards for themselves. More broadly, states have an opportunity to build the infrastructure of worker power that this country will need in the years ahead.
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October 2
Gov. Newsom signs bill regulating AI in workplace; federal judge blocks Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee.
October 1
Senate confirms Keith Sonderling as Labor Secretary; Amazon warehouse workers launch an unfair labor practice strike.
September 30
Harvard grad union wins in First Circuit; AI data trainers initiate misclassification suits; Trader Joe’s found liable under ERISA.
September 29
Unions, AI companies, and private equity firms form a new coalition to shape data center policies; unions express support for the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.
September 28
The Protect College Sports Act nears passage in the Senate; San Francisco municipal workers agree to contract extensions.
September 27
The Trump Administration reaches a settlement with federal unions on reduction in force actions; the United Auto Workers file an en banc petition seeking review of a Second Circuit decision regarding labor arbitrations.