Vail Kohnert-Yount is a student at Harvard Law School.
More than 32,000 teachers in Los Angeles went on strike yesterday asking for higher pay, smaller class sizes, and schools fully staffed with nurses, counselors, and librarians. After negotiations stalled between the school district and the teachers’ union, United Teachers Los Angeles, an overwhelming 98% of teachers voted to authorize a strike. LAUSD is the country’s second largest school district, where eight in 10 students receive free or reduced-price lunches. UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl described the strike as “a fight for the soul of public education.” He told a picket line of educators outside a high school, “Here we are on a rainy day in the richest country in the world, in the richest state in the country, in a state as blue as it can be, in a city rife with millionaires, where teachers have to go on strike to get the basics for our students.”
In the American Prospect, Joseph McCartin suggested that a “sickout” by unpaid federal employees could bring the impasse over the government shutdown, now in its 25th day, to an end. Although they have no legal right to strike, public sector workers have turned to calling out sick en masse in the past when no other means of protest was available. “Collective action by federal workers might be the most plausible mechanism at hand to free the nation from the impasse in which we now are mired,” he wrote.
In the New York Times, Barbara Ehrenreich and Gary Stevenson advocated for TSA workers to go on “a genuine, old-fashioned strike” in response to the government shutdown. Although 5.6% of roughly 51,000 TSA workers called in sick last Saturday, the authors called for workers to take a more explicit stand against the shutdown, following in the footsteps of striking teachers.
NPR wrote about the pervasive discrimination faced by people with hearing disabilities in finding employment. The unemployment rate among the deaf and hard of hearing is disproportionately high, including for those with college and graduate degrees, and fewer than 40% of people with a hearing disability work full-time. Even as improvements in technology and accommodations make it easier for those who are hearing disabled to work and communicate with non-disabled colleagues, many deaf and hard of hearing job seekers report that prospective employers lose interest in their applications after they disclose their disability status.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
June 24
In today’s news and commentary, the DOL proposes new wage and hour rules, Ford warns of EV battery manufacturing trouble, and California reaches an agreement to delay an in-person work mandate for state employees. The Trump Administration’s Department of Labor has advanced a series of proposals to update federal wage and hour rules. First, the […]
June 23
Supreme Court interprets ADA; Department of Labor effectively kills Biden-era regulation; NYC announces new wages for rideshare drivers.
June 22
California lawmakers challenge Garmon preemption in the absence of an NLRB quorum and Utah organizers successfully secure a ballot referendum to overturn HB 267.
June 20
Three state bills challenge Garmon preemption; Wisconsin passes a bill establishing portable benefits for gig workers; and a sharp increase in workplace ICE raids contribute to a nationwide labor shortage.
June 19
Report finds retaliatory action by UAW President; Senators question Trump's EEOC pick; California considers new bill to address federal labor law failures.
June 18
Companies dispute NLRB regional directors' authority to make rulings while the Board lacks a quorum; the Department of Justice loses 4,500 employees to the Trump Administration's buyout offers; and a judge dismisses Columbia faculty's lawsuit over the institution's funding cuts.