Adi Kamdar is a student at Harvard Law School.
Uber will not release the race and gender breakdown of its 6,000 corporate office employees according to the Boston Globe, despite calls from activist groups to do so. Last week, Uber dismissed requests to add a tipping feature to its app, arguing that passengers’ unconscious biases would lead to disparities in tips between white and black drivers. (Notably, the fact that customers rate drivers may already be achieving similar disparate results.) Uber’s apparent race consciousness prompted Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition to ask the ridehailing company to release its internal diversity statistics, “even if the numbers aren’t good.” The Coalition has successfully pressured several other Silicon Valley firms to be more transparent about their employee makeup, revealing notable racial and gender disparities. While Uber is not required by law to disclose such diversity statistics to the public, as Rev. Jackson notes, “transparency is the first step toward credibility.”
Verizon employees will return to work Wednesday, reports the Associated Press. This news follows a tentative agreement reached Friday between the telecom giant, the Communications Workers of America, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The agreement includes “1,300 new call center jobs, nearly 11 percent in raises over four years and the first contract for Verizon wireless store workers.”
Secretary of Labor Tom Perez wrote a Letter to the Editor in the New York Times touting the Obama Administration’s recent rule doubling the salary threshold for guaranteed overtime pay from $23,660 to $47,476. The letter was in response to a Times editorial two weeks ago titled “The Broken Bargain With College Graduates,” decrying the lack of jobs for young Americans with new degrees. Secretary Perez notes that, of the 4.2 million workers expected to get overtime pay under the new rule, around “2.3 million are college graduates, who will get half of the $1.2 billion in additional yearly pay resulting from the update.”
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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.
September 13
Documents released on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks show that city officials encouraged workers to return to Ground Zero despite knowing the risks of asbestos exposure, and new polls demonstrate continued widespread support for labor unions.
September 10
Amazon workers allege pregnancy discrimination; federal unions challenge USDA reorganization; NYC warns of silicosis risks.