Martin Drake is a student at Harvard Law School.
Workers from the D.C. Metro system’s largest union voted to authorize a strike yesterday, the Washington Post reports. Union members approved the potential strike by a 94 percent margin. Union leaders have yet to say whether they will go forward with the strike now that they have authorization. The strike would significantly disrupt a transit system that serves about 1 million people a day.
Tesla employees say they were ordered to walk through raw sewage in order to meet their production goals, Bloomberg reports. Dennis Duran, who works in Tesla’s paint shop at the company’s Fremont factory, says that raw sewage spilled onto to the floor and he and several colleagues were told to walk through it to “keep the line moving.” Duran supports unionization efforts at the car manufacturer. The Fremont factory is under three separate open investigations by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
European Amazon workers have walked off the job to protest the company’s tough working conditions, Forbes reports. Amazon workers in Italy, France, England, Germany and Poland have all joined the walkout, which started on Tuesday in Spain. The walkout came in anticipation of today, known as “Prime Day,” one of the Amazon’s highest volume days of the year. Online workers, gamers, and shoppers plan to boycott Amazon today in solidarity with the striking workers.
Employees at Deloitte are calling for their company to stop providing consulting services to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the New York Times reports. A petition circulated by Deloitte employees asks the company’s chief executive, Cathy Engelbert, to end all contracts with both ICE and United States Customs and Border Protection. The document also calls on Engelbert to publicly denounce the Trump Administration policy of separating migrant children from their parents. The news comes just after the consulting giant’s competitor, McKinsey & Company, cut its own contracts with ICE.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
December 22
Worker-friendly legislation enacted in New York; UW Professor wins free speech case; Trucking company ordered to pay $23 million to Teamsters.
December 21
Argentine unions march against labor law reform; WNBA players vote to authorize a strike; and the NLRB prepares to clear its backlog.
December 19
Labor law professors file an amici curiae and the NLRB regains quorum.
December 18
New Jersey adopts disparate impact rules; Teamsters oppose railroad merger; court pauses more shutdown layoffs.
December 17
The TSA suspends a labor union representing 47,000 officers for a second time; the Trump administration seeks to recruit over 1,000 artificial intelligence experts to the federal workforce; and the New York Times reports on the tumultuous changes that U.S. labor relations has seen over the past year.
December 16
Second Circuit affirms dismissal of former collegiate athletes’ antitrust suit; UPS will invest $120 million in truck-unloading robots; Sharon Block argues there are reasons for optimism about labor’s future.