Jason Vazquez is a staff attorney at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 2023. His writing on this blog reflects his personal views and should not be attributed to the Teamsters.
On Monday morning, the FDA granted full approval to the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. In its release, the FDA sought to assure the public it should feel “very confident” that the vaccine, which has already been administered to more than 100 million people in the United States since receiving emergency use authorization in December, “meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product.”
The jab’s approval will trigger vaccination mandates for over a million U.S. employees in a sweeping range of sectors, including, among others, government agencies, hospitals, universities, airlines , and the military. And the news is likely to spur even more mandates in the coming weeks — indeed, in the wake of the news, New York City announced stricter vaccination requirements for public employees and oil giant Chevron directed its field workers to receive inoculations.
In organizing news, the New York City Council Union secured voluntary recognition from the New York City Council on Sunday night. The Union, which represents more than 350 legislative aides, launched its unionization efforts in 2019, though discontent among the exploited staffers had been bubbling for a decade or more.
Daily News & Commentary
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November 25
In today’s news and commentary, OSHA fines Taylor Foods, Santa Fe raises their living wage, and a date is set for a Senate committee to consider Trump’s NLRB nominee. OSHA has issued an approximately $1.1 million dollar fine to Taylor Farms New Jersey, a subsidiary of Taylor Fresh Foods, after identifying repeated and serious safety […]
November 24
Labor leaders criticize tariffs; White House cancels jobs report; and student organizers launch chaperone program for noncitizens.
November 23
Workers at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority vote to authorize a strike; Washington State legislators consider a bill empowering public employees to bargain over workplace AI implementation; and University of California workers engage in a two-day strike.
November 21
The “Big Three” record labels make a deal with an AI music streaming startup; 30 stores join the now week-old Starbucks Workers United strike; and the Mine Safety and Health Administration draws scrutiny over a recent worker death.
November 20
Law professors file brief in Slaughter; New York appeals court hears arguments about blog post firing; Senate committee delays consideration of NLRB nominee.
November 19
A federal judge blocks the Trump administration’s efforts to cancel the collective bargaining rights of workers at the U.S. Agency for Global Media; Representative Jared Golden secures 218 signatures for a bill that would repeal a Trump administration executive order stripping federal workers of their collective bargaining rights; and Dallas residents sue the City of Dallas in hopes of declaring hundreds of ordinances that ban bias against LGBTQ+ individuals void.