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 IBT.
On Monday morning, the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval to the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. The FDA’s release assured the public that it should feel “very confident” that the vaccine, which has already been administered to more than 100 million individuals in the United States since being authorized for emergency use, “meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product.” The shot’s full approval triggers vaccination mandates for more than one million workers across a range of industries, including hospitals, universities, the public sector, the military, and private enterprises. In addition, the FDA’s approval will likely give rise to more such mandates in the coming weeks. Indeed, following the news, New York City announced stricter vaccination requirements for city employees, and oil giant Chevron ordered its field workers to receive inoculations.
In organizing news, the New York City Council Union secured recognition from the New York City Council on Sunday night. The Union, which represents more than 350 Council aides, commenced its unionization efforts in 2019, although discontent among the poorly-paid staffers had been stewing for more than a decade.
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September 15
Unemployment claims rise; a federal court hands victory to government employees union; and employers fire workers over social media posts.
September 14
Workers at Boeing reject the company’s third contract proposal; NLRB Acting General Counsel William Cohen plans to sue New York over the state’s trigger bill; Air Canada flight attendants reject a tentative contract.
September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.
September 10
A federal judge denies a motion by the Trump Administration to dismiss a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees against President Trump for his mass layoffs of federal workers; the Supreme Court grants a stay on a federal district court order that originally barred ICE agents from questioning and detaining individuals based on their presence at a particular location, the type of work they do, their race or ethnicity, and their accent while speaking English or Spanish; and a hospital seeks to limit OSHA's ability to cite employers for failing to halt workplace violence without a specific regulation in place.
September 9
Ninth Circuit revives Trader Joe’s lawsuit against employee union; new bill aims to make striking workers eligible for benefits; university lecturer who praised Hitler gets another chance at First Amendment claims.