After winning back the House of Representatives in last Tuesday’s election, House Democrats plan to grill President Trump’s Department of Labor about its policies regarding tipped workers. In December, the DOL proposed a rule allowing employers who pay tipped... More »
Massachusetts nurses wrote an op-ed in the Boston Globe supporting Ballot Question 1, an initiative that would guarantee safe nurse staffing levels (also known as safe patient limits) in order to ensure that all patients receive the care that they need. As au... More »
Uber has reached a settlement with 5,000 drivers who argue they were misclassified as independent contractors. The drivers were not covered by an arbitration agreement, though most drivers are now required to sign such an agreement before driving for the compa... More »
Nurses unions around the country are advocating for safe staffing levels at hospitals, i.e. limiting the number of patients assigned to each nurse so that nurses can provide safer care. For instance, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is promoting a ballot ... More »
On September 18, McDonald’s employees at restaurants in ten cities will go on strike for one day in an effort to force McDonald’s management to confront sexual harassment in the workplace. Walkout planning has been led by “women’s committees” at dozens of McD... More »
A new Gallup poll finds that Americans’ support for labor unions continues to remain high at 62 percent approval. This year’s level of support is the highest since 2003, when 65 percent of Americans approved of organized labor, and is on par with last year’s ... More »
In an interview with the New York Times, Chinese artist Cao Fei discusses how her art examines economic development in her country and broader questions about the nature of labor. Her new video piece takes place in a factor staffed almost entirely by robots. T... More »
NLRB Chairman John Ring recently wrote a letter to Senators Warren, Gillibrand, and Sanders defending the Board’s decision to move forward with rule-making to modify its joint employer standard. In his letter, Ring repeats what has become something of a mantr... More »
A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that over half of Americans view the decline in labor union density negatively, while just over a third see the traditional labor movement’s shrinking membership in a positive light. The results reflect a partisan... More »
Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board vacated its December decision in Hy-Brand Industrial Contractors. (Ben and Sharon had called for this action in OnLabor last week here and here.) The Board’s unusual action follows a finding by the Board’s Inspec... More »
Last week on the blog, we wrote about why the NLRB should withdraw the Hy-Brand decision (here and here)—in short, because a Board member who voted for the result, William Emanuel, should have recused himself (his former law firm represented one of the c... More »
In the first gig economy worker classification case to go to trial, a federal magistrate judge ruled yesterday that a GrubHub worker was an independent contractor under California law. The decision could have ramifications in suits against other gig companies... More »