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Jason Vazquez is a staff attorney at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 2023. His writing on this blog reflects his personal views and should not be attributed to the IBT.
An unprecedent heat wave continues to scorch the West Coast, and employers in the agricultural industry have been scrambling to harvest their fields before crops wither in the blistering heat. As a result, the region’s agricultural laborers—who already find themselves subjected to highly exploitative conditions—have been pushed even harder in recent days. Thousands of fruit pickers have reportedly been working up to twelve hours a day, and many of them are deprived of access to breaks, shade, or water and pressured to continue toiling even when they are feeling sick, overheated, or dehydrated. In recent days, many farmworkers have contracted heat-related illnesses—and some, tragically, have died.
Labor groups in California have attempted to take advantage of the terrible conditions existing in the Golden State’s agricultural fields to galvanize public support for the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, a bill introduced in the California legislature earlier this year which, animated in large measure by the exploitation of “essential workers” so vividly displayed during the Covid pandemic, would empower a fast food sector council to establish industry-wide standards for wages and working conditions. On Tuesday, for instance, labor groups in the state coordinated a demonstration at a fast food franchise at which workers had walked off the job to protest triple digit temperatures in the facility.
This morning, President Biden nominated Jennifer Sung, a former labor lawyer and union organizer, to the Ninth Circuit. The news is timely, given Jon’s recent observation on this blog that Biden has faced criticism from some progressives for nominating management-side lawyers, prosecutors, and corporate attorneys to the federal bench. Although the president has so far appointed several former public defenders and civil rights lawyers, Sung’s nomination constitutes his first of a union-side labor lawyer.
Daily News & Commentary
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July 16
Teamsters president speaks at RNC; Starbucks decertification campaign fails; Biden taps new PBGC leader
July 15
Workday bias suit moves forward; DOL proposes new LMRDA rule; Bronx Defenders to go on ULP strike
July 14
Teamsters president to speak at RNC; youth work permit requirement rollbacks; eulogies to Jane McAlevey.
July 12
Dollar Tree and OSHA settle; union leaders split over Biden support; new report on low wages.
July 11
President Biden meets with union leadership and a New York law firm announces new applicant screening policy regarding student protest activity.
July 10
NSEU calls for indefinite strike; Disney may face nation's largest strike this year; UAW monitor reveals details of investigation