January 26th 2021
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President Biden is set to sign an executive order this morning bolstering the federal government’s “Buy American” policy. While order’s full text had not yet been released at the time of this post, CNN reported that its key provisions included increasing the...
The University of Kansas Graduate Teaching Assistant’s Coalition (GTAC) will join university students on a Labor Day strike today to demand the school close due to rising Covid-19 cases on campus. KU is one of a few major universities to allow its students to...
As unemployment benefits declined this week, lawmakers have remained at an impasse over the contents of Congress’s upcoming relief bill. Republicans thus far have offered to extend expanded unemployment benefits at a reduced $400 per week and have proposed...
The Department of Labor reported this morning that another 1.4 million Americans filed for state unemployment benefits in the last week. New numbers mark the first increase in the weekly tally in the past three months. In addition, about 975,000 workers not...
I recently wrote about how the Trump National Labor Relations Board has allowed employers to fire workers for urging their co-workers to vote for unionization during working time. On the heels of that decision, the Trump appointees gave employers another tool...
Yesterday, the Supreme Court released two landmark decisions striking at the heart of federal employment law. In Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, No. 19–431, the Court ruled 7-2 to uphold two Trump administration rules expanding existing religious...
COVID-19 has laid bare the consequences of years of noncompliance with and underenforcement of employment laws. Misclassified workers have been denied paid sick time and leave to which they are entitled under a number of states’ laws. Because gig-companies have...
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Epic Systems Corp v. Lewis, which upheld employer use of class and collective action waivers, plaintiffs’ lawyers have turned to filing hundreds or thousands of simultaneous individual arbitrations against employers. This...
With the economic uncertainty wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is more urgent than ever that gig economy workers be recognized as employees with the attendant rights, protections, and benefits like sick leave. Mandatory arbitration agreements that prohibit...
Yesterday, Kickstarter employees voted to unionize, becoming the first well-known technology company to do so. The New York Times reports that the employees will be affiliated with the Office and Professional Employees International Union and will begin contract...
Organized labor is set to play a key role in the Democratic presidential nomination this year, and most candidates have taken note. Unions are far from unified around one candidate, however; while labor support helped power Bernie Sanders to victory in New...
The New York Times reports that the American Federation of Musicians and Employers’ Pension Fund—the largest musicians’ pension plan in the United States—is seeking to cut benefits that have already been earned by thousands of musicians to prevent the plan from...