Edward Nasser is a student at Harvard Law School.
Over the last few weeks, Walmart announced plans to lean more heavily on automation and the gig economy, reports The Atlantic. The piece discusses two ways by which employers, like Walmart, keep wages down. First, by creating platforms for gig workers that allow employers to easily shop for labor. Second, by cutting its workforce down to a smaller, better-trained group that will be supplemented by gig workers and automation. One interesting note: the growth of flexible work arrangements, which include crowdsourcing platforms like Uber as well as freelancers and independent contractors, account for 94 percent of the net employment growth in the U.S. from 2005 to 2015.
Juli Briskman, the Virginia woman who lost her job after she was photographed giving the finger to President Trump, sued her employer, reports The New York Times. Her employer, a government contractor fearing retaliation from the Trump administration, made her resign for violating the company’s social media policy by sharing the photo on her personal Facebook page. Her complaint alleges that the gesture was “core political speech” protected by Virginia law and the Constitution.
The New York Times reports that the restaurant industry is facing a labor shortage. Employers have been forced to use creative means to recruit and retain employees, like repayment for culinary-school tuition, hiring formerly incarcerated persons as kitchen assistants, and using events like tequila-tasting seminars, flexible schedules and a promise of faster promotion. The Trump administration’s aggressive stance on immigration has played a part in the shortage, as restaurants are more weary to hire undocumented immigrants.
A group of unions is urging companies to reveal how they are spending the windfall from this year’s tax cuts, reports The Washington Post. The group, which includes the Teamsters, the Service Employees International Union, the Communications Workers of America, and the American Federation of Teachers, say that tax cuts have not translated into higher wages like the Trump administration promised. The most concrete result thus far has been an increase in large company’s buying back their shares, though an increasing number of small businesses report plans to raise wages in the future.
Daily News & Commentary
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July 11
Regional director orders election without Board quorum; 9th Circuit pauses injunction on Executive Order; Driverless car legislation in Massachusetts
July 10
Wisconsin Supreme Court holds UW Health nurses are not covered by Wisconsin’s Labor Peace Act; a district judge denies the request to stay an injunction pending appeal; the NFLPA appeals an arbitration decision.
July 9
the Supreme Court allows Trump to proceed with mass firings; Secretary of Agriculture suggests Medicaid recipients replace deported migrant farmworkers; DHS ends TPS for Nicaragua and Honduras
July 8
In today’s news and commentary, Apple wins at the Fifth Circuit against the NLRB, Florida enacts a noncompete-friendly law, and complications with the No Tax on Tips in the Big Beautiful Bill. Apple won an appeal overturning a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision that the company violated labor law by coercively questioning an employee […]
July 7
LA economy deals with fallout from ICE raids; a new appeal challenges the NCAA antitrust settlement; and the EPA places dissenting employees on leave.
July 6
Municipal workers in Philadelphia continue to strike; Zohran Mamdani collects union endorsements; UFCW grocery workers in California and Colorado reach tentative agreements.