Edward Nasser is a student at Harvard Law School.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit in the Middle District of North Carolina on behalf of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) alleging that a new state law would make it all but impossible for the farmworkers’ union to continue operations. The lawsuit challenges the North Carolina Farm Act of 2017, which targets FLOC in two ways. First, the law invalidates contracts guaranteeing that employers will honor employees’ requests to deduct union dues from their paychecks. Second, the law invalidates settlement agreements negotiated by the union to advance farmworkers’ rights. The ACLU is making rights to association and equal protection arguments against the law.
More than half of US workers did not receive a salary raise in the past year, reports USA Today. A survey conducted by Bankrate.com also revealed that while Labor Department reports show average wages have gone up around 2.5% annually the last few years, most the gains are being reaped by more highly educated workers whose wages are growing faster than average. Just 17% of workers earning less than $30,000 a year got raises, compared to 43% of those earning $75,000 or more.
Jason Moyer-Lee, general secretary of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain, questions whether workers will actually get their rights after a UK appeals court ruled that Uber drivers are workers, not contractors. Mr. Moyer-Lee argues that last Friday’s ruling only reinforced what was already true: workers in Britain’s on-demand economy have always been entitled to employment rights under UK law. He concludes, “the fundamental problem of employment rights is a lack of enforcement of existing law.”
Daily News & Commentary
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December 19
Labor law professors file an amici curiae and the NLRB regains quorum.
December 18
New Jersey adopts disparate impact rules; Teamsters oppose railroad merger; court pauses more shutdown layoffs.
December 17
The TSA suspends a labor union representing 47,000 officers for a second time; the Trump administration seeks to recruit over 1,000 artificial intelligence experts to the federal workforce; and the New York Times reports on the tumultuous changes that U.S. labor relations has seen over the past year.
December 16
Second Circuit affirms dismissal of former collegiate athletes’ antitrust suit; UPS will invest $120 million in truck-unloading robots; Sharon Block argues there are reasons for optimism about labor’s future.
December 15
Advocating a private right of action for the NLRA, 11th Circuit criticizes McDonnell Douglas, Congress considers amending WARN Act.
December 12
OH vetoes bill weakening child labor protections; UT repeals public-sector bargaining ban; SCOTUS takes up case on post-arbitration award jurisdiction