Jon Weinberg is a student at Harvard Law School.
Steel workers took to the streets in Brussels to demand continued European Union protections against cheap Chinese imports. According to The New York Times “some 5,000 protesters packed the European district of the Belgian capital, where many European Union offices are, and their leaders handed an engraved metal plaque with their demands to Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission.” Some assert that Chinese imports destroy both jobs and the environment, but the European Commission will decide this year whether to give China market economy status.
In the United States, the government is closing a loophole on products tied to slaves. The New York Times notes that “President Obama will sign legislation this week that effectively bans American imports of fish caught by forced labor in Southeast Asia, part of a flurry of recent actions by the White House, federal agencies, international trade unions and foreign governments to address lawlessness at sea and to better protect offshore workers and the marine environment.” The action closes a loophole in the Tariff Act of 1930, which “which bars products made by convict, forced or indentured labor” but “has exempted goods derived from slavery if American domestic production could not meet demand.”
Turning to Brazil, labor rights campaigners are asserting that over 300 Brazilian companies have been fined for operating with labor arrangements akin to modern-day slavery. The Thompson Reuters Foundation reports that the rights group Reporter Brazil revealed “that 340 Brazilian companies from May 2013 to May 2015 employed people working in slave-like conditions, including in sweatshops producing clothes, in farms, cattle ranches, timber companies, construction and charcoal production.” According to the group, the Brazilian minister of labor has fined the companies in question.
Coverage on how Justice Scalia’s untimely passing could affect the Friedrichs decision continues, with more from Moshe Marvit on In These Times, and from The Los Angeles Times.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
September 16
In today’s news and commentary, the NLRB sues New York, a flight attendant sues United, and the Third Circuit considers the employment status of Uber drivers The NLRB sued New York to block a new law that would grant the state authority over private-sector labor disputes. As reported on recently by Finlay, the law, which […]
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.