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.
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July 4
The DOL scraps a Biden-era proposed rule to end subminimum wages for disabled workers; millions will lose access to Medicaid and SNAP due to new proof of work requirements; and states step up in the noncompete policy space.
July 3
California compromises with unions on housing; 11th Circuit rules against transgender teacher; Harvard removes hundreds from grad student union.
July 2
Block, Nanda, and Nayak argue that the NLRA is under attack, harming democracy; the EEOC files a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by former EEOC Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels; and SEIU Local 1000 strikes an agreement with the State of California to delay the state's return-to-office executive order for state workers.
July 1
In today’s news and commentary, the Department of Labor proposes to roll back minimum wage and overtime protections for home care workers, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by public defenders over a union’s Gaza statements, and Philadelphia’s largest municipal union is on strike for first time in nearly 40 years. On Monday, the U.S. […]
June 30
Antidiscrimination scholars question McDonnell Douglas, George Washington University Hospital bargained in bad faith, and NY regulators defend LPA dispensary law.
June 29
In today’s news and commentary, Trump v. CASA restricts nationwide injunctions, a preliminary injunction continues to stop DOL from shutting down Job Corps, and the minimum wage is set to rise in multiple cities and states. On Friday, the Supreme Court held in Trump v. CASA that universal injunctions “likely exceed the equitable authority that […]