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Tag:safety and health

September 27, 2020
News & Commentary

Deanna Krokos

This week, Eater published the account of Miriam Wojtas, a bartender working in Seattle during the covid-19 pandemic. Grounded in the bartender’s experience, the piece contextualizes and reifies some of the most pressing concerns about the pandemic. Miriam took the job after being laid off from another food-service position at the height of Seattle’s outbreak, […]

August 7, 2020
News & Commentary

Alexandra Butler

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the monthly jobs report this morning, showing a nonfarm payroll increase of 1.8 million jobs, as well as a slight decrease in the unemployment rate to 10.2% for the month of July. The industry with the largest employment gains was leisure and hospitality, adding 592,000 jobs. Yet, the report […]

Why Workers Need Voice on the Job Now More than Ever

Jul 13, 2020 Sharon Block and Benjamin Sachs

The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred multiple crises in our country including a public health crisis and an economic one. The need to protect the health of Americans and the need to protect their livelihoods might seem to require disparate approaches. But, as unlikely as it may seem, we believe that rewriting the rules of how […]

July 9, 2020
News & Commentary

Maxwell Ulin

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 exemptions to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) employer contraception mandate. Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence […]

June 25, 2020
News & Commentary

Maxwell Ulin

Since the pandemic began, declines in workforce participation have proven particularly stark among women. Experts attribute this phenomenon in part to women’s disproportionate representation in service-sector businesses, which have been especially affected by the pandemic. Turmoil in the child care industry has also played a major role; around 60% of U.S. child care centers closed […]

June 24, 2020
News & Commentary

Leigh Thomas

Clean Slate for Worker Power released a report today outlining recommendations for empowering worker voices and building a more equitable economy in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The report focuses on various threats COVID poses to working people: not just threats to health and safety, but also limits on worker organizing imposed by social […]

Sectoral Bargaining and Pandemics: Lessons from Uruguay

May 27, 2020 César Rosado

The U.S. meatpacking industry is providing some unfortunate lessons in how not to deal with a pandemic. For example, to address the emerging crisis in the industry, the White House and the state of Iowa ignored the voices of workers and instead consulted only with industry chiefs. The result was unsurprising, if tragic: policies compelling […]

Shelter From the Storm

May 4, 2020 Charlotte Garden

For many of us, our main contribution to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic is staying home. Many governors have issued orders to “shelter in place,” borrowing the term from natural disaster response. That is, stay where you are, leave only if absolutely necessary. This post considers what it would mean to apply the same […]

Temp Workers Face Greater Risk and Insecurity in COVID-19 Crisis

Apr 13, 2020 Jane Flanagan and Laura Padin

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, some of our most essential workers are temp workers. The warehouse workers who fulfill and package online orders often don’t work for Amazon but for temporary staffing agencies that contract with Amazon. The nurses brought in to alleviate dire staffing shortages at hospitals are likely not hired directly […]

They’re Looking Out for the Internet. But Who’s Looking Out for Them?

Apr 8, 2020 Jacki Silbermann

Ensuring that internet searches and social networking feeds remain free of graphic violence and explicit sexual content is no easy task. Companies like Facebook, Google and YouTube rely on thousands of content moderators in the U.S. and abroad to remove illegal or otherwise unacceptable content from their internet platforms every day. While much of the […]

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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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September 27, 2020

August 7, 2020

Why Workers Need Voice on the Job Now More than Ever

July 9, 2020

June 25, 2020

June 24, 2020

Sectoral Bargaining and Pandemics: Lessons from Uruguay

Shelter From the Storm

Temp Workers Face Greater Risk and Insecurity in COVID-19 Crisis

They’re Looking Out for the Internet. But Who’s Looking Out for Them?