Alexa Kissinger is a student at Harvard Law School.
The union representing more than 5,000 professors and coaches from 14 Pennsylvania state colleges and universities went on strike yesterday. The walkout is, according to the New York Times, a rare escalation in higher education that reflects increasingly widespread tensions between administrators and their faculties. Negotiations broke down around issues in including healthcare and the union’s bid to narrow the compensation gap between adjunct and full-time faculty.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose to the highest level in five weeks, but still remained relatively close to the recent 43-year lows. Weekly applications for jobless benefits rose by 13,000 last week to 260,000, the Labor Department reported earlier this morning. These numbers represent the highest rates since an identical 260,000 claim applications were filed the week of September 10. Overall, the labor market has continued to show steady improvement, although at a slower pace than in 2015.
Airbnb submitted an ambitious proposal to New York city officials hoping to address recent concerns. Airbnb’s proposal expressed its willingness to crack down on individuals in New York City who rent out multiple homes, create a new registry of hosts to make it easier for officials to enforce housing rules, institute revenue-sharing with landlords whose tenants rent their apartments, and establish a new hotline for neighbors’ complaints. The proposal stated Airbnb would bar hosts who violate local regulations three times, and that the company had already taken 3,000 commercial operators off its service. According to the New York Times, Airbnb previously proposed to collect millions of dollars in hotel taxes for New York City, a stance the company reiterated yesterday. Airbnb stated it had the potential to collect up to $90 million in taxes that could be used for the city’s affordable housing fund. It is unclear how these new proposals will affect the unusually contentious relationship Airbnb has with New York City, its largest market in the United States.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Netflix filed its cross-complaint in California Superior Court responding to 21st Century Fox’s employee poaching suit. Describing Fox’s contracts as “unlawful and unenforceable,” Netflix wrote that the Fox executives’ contracts “unreasonably restrict employee mobility, stifle competition and artificially suppress salary levels.” Fox filed a suit last month after Netflix hired two executives in existing contracts. Fox maintains that Netflix has been impermissibly targeting and poaching valuable executives from its ranks.
Daily News & Commentary
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November 21
The “Big Three” record labels make a deal with an AI music streaming startup; 30 stores join the now week-old Starbucks Workers United strike; and the Mine Safety and Health Administration draws scrutiny over a recent worker death.
November 20
Law professors file brief in Slaughter; New York appeals court hears arguments about blog post firing; Senate committee delays consideration of NLRB nominee.
November 19
A federal judge blocks the Trump administration’s efforts to cancel the collective bargaining rights of workers at the U.S. Agency for Global Media; Representative Jared Golden secures 218 signatures for a bill that would repeal a Trump administration executive order stripping federal workers of their collective bargaining rights; and Dallas residents sue the City of Dallas in hopes of declaring hundreds of ordinances that ban bias against LGBTQ+ individuals void.
November 18
A federal judge pressed DOJ lawyers to define “illegal” DEI programs; Peco Foods prevails in ERISA challenge over 401(k) forfeitures; D.C. court restores collective bargaining rights for Voice of America workers; Rep. Jared Golden secures House vote on restoring federal workers' union rights.
November 17
Justices receive petition to resolve FLSA circuit split, vaccine religious discrimination plaintiffs lose ground, and NJ sues Amazon over misclassification.
November 16
Boeing workers in St. Louis end a 102-day strike, unionized Starbucks baristas launch a new strike, and Illinois seeks to expand protections for immigrant workers