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
October 16
Department of Labor reduces wage-and-hour enforcement at unionized workplaces; Fain's victory poses question of federal monitor's extension.
October 15
New reporting examines the rollback of child labor protections; California tries to block a strike; NLRB charges Wisconsin mental health provider with firing workers during union drive.
October 14
Eleventh Circuit overturns ERISA exhaustion rule; DHS finalizes removal of automatic renewal for work permits; AFGE challenges SSA over flexible scheduling policy.
October 13
Chicago hotel workers remain on strike; a coalition of Democratic states sues the Labor Department over canceled unemployment insurance grants; the Federal Labor Relations Authority establishes a new mediation framework for federal worker disputes.
October 12
Workers at the Obama Foundation begin organizing; MLB submits its latest collective bargaining agreement proposal; Brigham & Women's nurses postpone strike.
October 11
UAW President Shawn Fain succeeds in his reelection bid, and Spanish unions call for a general strike.