Today’s News and Commentary — August 2, 2016

While the fashion industry remains good at disguising labor, at least some fashion workers will now be part of organized labor.  Buzzfeed reports that more than 1,000 “store workers at Zara, the flagship brand of Inditex, the world’s largest fashion retailer, have voted to form a union in New York City.”  The workers will be represented by the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU).  The company agreed to card check recognition.

An Iowa court became the latest to express skepticism about the National Labor Relations Board’s general ability to seek injunctive relief.  According to Bloomberg BNA, the District Court for the Northern District of Iowa held last week that “a National Labor Relations Board official couldn’t obtain an injunction against a corn products processor because the company’s alleged labor law violations haven’t caused a union to lose any of its members.”  Since ” the NLRB’s evidence didn’t show that irreparable harm would likely occur without a federal court injunction, [the judge] denied the board’s petition for injunctive relief.”

The power of unions, in the United States and abroad, continues to generate commentary.  Writing for the Washington Post, Robert Gebelhoff asks why “the United States consistently ranks near the bottom among developed nations in terms of union membership,” while  Al Jazeera investigates whether the influence of French unions is declining in spite of their ability to organize paralyzing strikes.