Martin Drake is a student at Harvard Law School.
Workers at Silicon Valley firms are using their stock-based compensation to demand changes in their companies, the New York Times reports. In late November and early December this year, over a dozen Amazon employees filed identical shareholder petitions asking their employer to release a plan to address climate change. The Amazon employee actions come after similar activity by Google employees this year, who helped present a petition, filed by Zevin Asset Management, that would link executive compensation to diversity and inclusion goals. According to activist investors, the Amazon employee petition is the first time that tech employees have led their own shareholder proposal.
The UK government has introduced what it calls the biggest package of workplace reforms in 20 years, the Guardian reports. The legislation will give workers details of their rights from their first day working, and will increase fines for employers who violate employment laws. However, British unions said the new laws were a missed chance to empower gig economy workers.
Workers at two German Amazon warehouses went on strike today after organizing by German trade unions, Reuters reports. The union, Verdi, has organized frequent strikes at Amazon logistics centers since 2013, demanding that the retail giant pay workers rates comparable to collective bargaining agreements in the German mail order and retail industry. Amazon claims that warehouse pay should match competitors in the logistics sector, as opposed to retail. Germany is Amazon’s biggest market outside of the United States.
Thousands of teachers rallied in downtown Los Angeles this weekend in anticipation of a potential strike next month, the Associated Press reports. The teachers union in Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest school district, is threatening to strike for the first time in nearly 30 years after over 18 months of contract negotiations with the district’s administration. The union, United Teachers Los Angeles, rejected the latest contract last month, asserting that the district is refusing to tap into a large financial reserve that could improve student conditions and increase teacher pay. Among their demands are smaller class sizes and more full-time nurses and librarians.
Daily News & Commentary
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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.