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].
With the Court and Congress back in session for the first time since Justice Scalia’s death, attention has turned to President Obama’s choice of a nominee to replace the Justice. The President’s decision will have obvious implications for all of American politics and society – and it will have profound implications for workers and unions. In the days ahead, OnLabor will run a series of posts covering the labor decisions and positions of some of the likely potential picks.
Our goal is to highlight pieces of the labor records of those on the most prominent “short lists” of nominees. But the series will, of necessity, be limited in two important ways. First, the group of nominees we’ll cover comes from cobbling together a number of published lists, and our (unscientific) process for choosing among these lists – and among candidates on the lists – means that we’ve likely included some candidates who aren’t actually under consideration and that we’ve excluded some who are. Second, given the time frame and space constraints, we won’t be able to analyze everything – or close to everything – that’s potentially relevant to workers, unions, and labor more broadly. Our aim is to discuss things that seem important to us; we can’t (and don’t pretend to) cover everything that’s actually important.
The first post, coming soon, will discuss Judge Merrick Garland.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
May 9
Philadelphia City Council unanimously passes the POWER Act; thousands of federal worker layoffs at the Department of Interior expected; the University of Oregon student workers union reach a tentative agreement, ending 10-day strike
May 8
Court upholds DOL farmworker protections; Fifth Circuit rejects Amazon appeal; NJTransit navigates negotiations and potential strike.
May 7
U.S. Department of Labor announces termination of mental health and child care benefits for its employees; SEIU pursues challenge of NLRB's 2020 joint employer rule in the D.C. Circuit; Columbia University lays off 180 researchers
May 6
HHS canceled a scheduled bargaining session with the FDA's largest workers union; members of 1199SEIU voted out longtime union president George Gresham in rare leadership upset.
May 5
Unemployment rates for Black women go up under Trump; NLRB argues Amazon lacks standing to challenge captive audience meeting rule; Teamsters use Wilcox's reinstatement orders to argue against injunction.
May 4
In today’s news and commentary, DOL pauses the 2024 gig worker rule, a coalition of unions, cities, and nonprofits sues to stop DOGE, and the Chicago Teachers Union reaches a remarkable deal. On May 1, the Department of Labor announced it would pause enforcement of the Biden Administration’s independent contractor classification rule. Under the January […]