Tala Doumani is a student at Harvard Law School.
On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Southwest Airlines’s appeal to reverse a 7th Circuit ruling that held its workers suing the airline for overtime pay were exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The case, Southwest Airlines Co v. Saxon, is set to settle a circuit court split on how attenuated baggage supervisors are from interstate commerce.
The FAA requires the enforcement of employee arbitration agreements but exempts “seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” Southwest Airlines workers claim an exemption under this provision of the FAA as they “engage in interstate commerce” in their critical role of loading and unloading plane cargo. Southwest, on the other hand, argued that the exemption only applied to workers directly involved in the actual operation of the planes. In a parallel case involving Lufthansa Airlines, the 5th Circuit held the workers not exempt from the FAA. While a number of Justices appeared skeptical of Southwest’s reasoning, other members of the Court, including Justice Gorsuch, expressed discomfort with the employees’ definition of “engaging in interstate commerce” as opening the definition too broadly to encompass a myriad of workers.
Daily News & Commentary
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September 21
In today’s News and Commentary, the Seventh Circuit raises the bar for the NLRB to obtain preliminary injunctions, the California Primary Care Association sues SEIU-UHW for racketeering, and the Seventh Circuit finds that an employer group and think tank do not have standing to challenge an Illinois law banning captive audience meetings. On Friday, the […]
September 20
Culinary Workers Union members protests union leadership; lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft reveal internal concerns about the threat of AI training to human labor.
September 17
Unions push to block Google from buying Spirit Airlines employment records; U.S. Department of Labor sues Oklahoma coffee chain over alleged wage violations.
September 16
Trump nominates Catherine Eschbach as EEOC general counsel; NLRB declines to resolve union work-assignment dispute; Allina Health physicians begin four-day strike.
September 15
Documents reveal the inner workings of Amazon's union avoidance program; Washington state public sector unions reach tentative deals amid a difficult bargaining cycle; hundreds of Nevada Culinary Union members protest their union's health care changes.
September 14
NCAA and Big Ten file motion to dismiss in former star player's NIL suit; Seventh Circuit rules against former postal worker in discrimination suit.