Adi Kamdar is a student at Harvard Law School.
Eleven striking Harvard dining hall workers will appear in court today after being arrested on Friday for blocking traffic during their protest, according to the Harvard Crimson. The workers, which included the president and lead negotiator of their union UNITE HERE Local 26, were to be charged with disorderly conduct. This protest and arrest was discussed ahead of time by the demonstrators and the Cambridge Police Department. In covering the arrest, the Guardian features interviews from Harvard dining hall workers who recently became homeless or had to borrow money to buy diapers, highlighting the real impact of their current wages.
In colleges on the other side of the country: 7 in 10 University of California clerical, administrative, and support workers struggle to put food on the table, says a new study by Occidental College released today. Reported on by the Los Angeles Times, the study found that nearly half these workers—most of whom were college educated, full time, and received $22 per hour—still went hungry at times. The study also found racial and gender disparities when it comes to food insecurity. This comes on the heels of another study that found 42% of UC students didn’t have access to high quality, nutritious food, leading the UC system to announce a multi-million-dollar effort to fix the problem.
A Washington Post columnist puzzles through the fact that two federal employee unions, the National Border Patrol Council and the National ICE Council, support Donald Trump, despite the two unions’ parent organizations’ (the American Federation of Government Employees and the AFL-CIO) support of Hillary Clinton. The unions, which represent border patrol employees, are attracted to Trump’s rhetoric on border security and are displeased with the Obama administration.
Recent research described in the Harvard Business Review found that employees donate three times more money to political campaigns supported by their CEOs. The study analyzed the reported ($200+) contributions by 3,861 CEOs and 162,162 employees of 2,181 companies, from 1999 to 2014. Was this trend due to similar political environments? Or did the CEOs have direct influence? The study focused in on instances when CEOs turned over and donated to different political candidates, and, lo and behold, employees switched their donations to the candidate their new CEO was supporting.
Daily News & Commentary
Start your day with our roundup of the latest labor developments. See all
September 1
California legislature passes a bill banning AI workplace surveillance of workers' emotional states; Labor Department repeals decades-old farmworker protection rules; Sixth Circuit upholds a $1.4 million verdict for farmworkers.
August 31
Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians stave off first-ever strike; Cleveland Public Library workers ratify new contracts; New York State AFL-CIO makes endorsements
August 30
Seattle teachers vote to authorize a strike days before the school year begins; BNSF Railway’s AI dispatching system puts workers in danger; and a California court finds that the DOL’s pay cuts for non-citizen farmworkers are unlawful.
August 28
Calls for a “token tax” on AI consumption grow and the number of Amazon workers on federal aid explodes.
August 27
NLRB GC targets Biden-era precedent; Starbucks Workers United calls for boycott; Encore Boston Harbor workers authorize strike
August 26
Trump administration proposes $103,000 H-1B visa fee after court blocks earlier attempt; Illinois governor signs law enabling state investment in AFL-CIO housing trust; Deloitte pays $21.5 million to settle DOJ probe alleging DEI-related discrimination in federal contracts.