Vail Kohnert-Yount is a student at Harvard Law School.
The Massachusetts House voted on Tuesday to pass a bill requiring companies seeking large state and local government contracts to disclose workplace safety violations. The bill is a response to the 2016 deaths of two workers, Kelvin Mattocks and Robert Higgins, in a trench collapse at a Boston construction site. While the company, Atlantic Drain Services, and its owner, Kevin Otto, face charges of manslaughter, a federal investigation found the company had previously been cited for numerous OSHA violations and violated 18 different regulations leading up to the collapse. Boston subsequently enacted an ordinance that requires city contractors to disclose OSHA violations and for applicants with “a history of engaging in unsafe, hazardous or dangerous practices” to be denied permits. The House bill would not automatically deny contracts to violators, but it would make violations part of the review for contract awards. It remains to be seen whether the Senate will vote on the bill before the formal legislative session ends on Tuesday.
The California Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that Starbucks and other employers in California must pay hourly workers for the time they spend off the clock on tasks including closing the store, setting an alarm, and locking the door. Starbucks employee Douglas Troester’s lawsuit, in which he argued he was entitled to be paid for the time he spent closing the store after he had clocked out, was initially rejected by a U.S. District Court on the grounds that it was minimal. Ultimately, the California Supreme Court said the cumulative effect of denying employees’ pay for a few extra minutes of work each day was significant. “That is enough to pay a utility bill, buy a week of groceries, or cover a month of bus fares,” Associate Justice Goodwin Liu wrote. “What Starbucks calls ‘de minimis‘ is not de minimis at all to many ordinary people who work for hourly wages.”
Disneyland workers called off a planned four-day protest in Anaheim, California, after reaching a tentative agreement with Disney management to improve wages and benefits for resort employees. Workers, including custodians, ride operators, and restaurant staff, had been preparing for “Shantyland,” a demonstrated described by SEIU-United Service Workers West as “an interactive encampment featuring displays that reveal the hard truth about how Disneyland treats employees and helps create poverty and homelessness throughout Orange County and the Anaheim area.” On Monday, a coalition of four unions representing Disneyland employees reached a tentative agreement with the Disneyland Resort, and instead workers are cautiously celebrating their victory.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is considering banning companies from offering their workers free meals, a common practice in the tech industry, as local restaurants complain about a lack of business. The ordinance wouldn’t apply retroactively to existing employee cafeterias, but instead to new construction in the city, and is backed by restaurant industry lobbying groups like the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. A similar ordinance has already been enacted in nearby Mountain View, exemplifying the growing tension between large tech companies and their surrounding communities.
Marisa Franco, co-founder of Mijente, a national Latinx organizing network, penned an op-ed in The Guardian yesterday asking employees in the tech industry to “unite to defeat America’s deportation machine.” Employees of Microsoft, Salesforce, and Amazon are protesting their employer’s contracts with agencies including ICE, CBP, and DHS, following in the footsteps of Google employees who successfully pressured their employer to cut its contract with the Pentagon to use artificial intelligence to help drone warfare. While tech companies continue to defend their work, Franco encouraged their employees to continue their activism, saying that the Google campaign worked because of “the magnitude and consistency of internal pressure that finally got the company to abandon its amoral work.”
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
August 11
Rideshare drivers nearing union certification in California; UFCW campaigns against electronic shelf labels; Teamsters support NYC delivery driver bill.
August 10
Employee sues for a fossil-fuel-free 401(k) plan as a religious accommodation; DHS submits a proposed rule eliminating 60-day grace period for H-1B workers; Eighth Circuit dismisses constitutional challenge to the FMSHRC.
August 7
Starbucks beats claims it denied shifts to union workers; Center for State Labor Innovation aims to address labor law shortcomings.
August 6
Taylor Farms faces scrutiny over labor practices; Bipartisan labor bill gains momentum.
August 5
Clash over potential change to Canada’s labor code; Harvard’s Center for Labor and a Just Economy releases model sectoral bargaining laws; NJ sues Amazon for antitrust violations.
August 4
WestJet reaches a deal to end a flight attendant strike; the NLRB rules Whole Foods legally banned Black Lives Matter display; a commentary argues college athletes should have the right to collectively bargain.