Lolita De Palma is a student at Harvard Law School.
On Thursday evening, thousands of unionized grocery store workers in California approved a new employment contract with major supermarket chains Ralphs, Vons, Pavilions, and Albertsons. UFCW leaders had advised workers to vote yes on the contract, which will last three years. UFCW president Marc Perrone said, “This contract not only rewards hard work, it provides affordable healthcare, strong pensions, and critical benefits that ensure our UFCW members are able to build the better life they’ve earned.” The previous contract had expired in March and workers had voted in June to authorize a strike if contract negotiations proved unsuccessful.
Google reached a settlement with the NLRB over employee complaints that the company has punished employees for expressing dissenting views. Google must now assure employees that they are allowed to speak out on political and workplace issues. While the most public complainant, Kevin Cernekee, alleged that Google fired him for expressing unpopular right-leaning political beliefs, left-leaning staff have also expressed concerns that Google has stymied their attempts to protest YouTube’s lax policies on hate speech. The NLRB has denied Mr. Cernekee’s requests for reinstatement and backpay.
Kickstarter has now fired two union organizers within the company. Clarissa Redwine was fired last week after working for the company since 2016. Taylor Moore was fired on Thursday after working for the company since 2013. Kickstarter alleges that the firings were for purely performance-related reasons. Redwine and the Office and Professional Employees International Union have filed an unfair labor charge with the NLRB, alleging that the nondisparagement clause in her proposed severance agreement is illegal. While Kickstarter has now offered to narrow the nondisparagement clause “only to statements about the company’s employees,” Redwine finds this compromise unsatisfactory: “I feel strongly that any agreement that treats severance as repayment for silence is an unethical one.”
Whole Foods has announced that it will be withdrawing medical benefits for its part-time workers starting January 1, 2020. Employees will now need to work at least 30 hours (instead of 20) to qualify for the health-care plan. Up to 1,900 workers will be affected.
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September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.
September 10
A federal judge denies a motion by the Trump Administration to dismiss a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees against President Trump for his mass layoffs of federal workers; the Supreme Court grants a stay on a federal district court order that originally barred ICE agents from questioning and detaining individuals based on their presence at a particular location, the type of work they do, their race or ethnicity, and their accent while speaking English or Spanish; and a hospital seeks to limit OSHA's ability to cite employers for failing to halt workplace violence without a specific regulation in place.
September 9
Ninth Circuit revives Trader Joe’s lawsuit against employee union; new bill aims to make striking workers eligible for benefits; university lecturer who praised Hitler gets another chance at First Amendment claims.
September 8
DC Circuit to rule on deference to NLRB, more vaccine exemption cases, Senate considers ban on forced arbitration for age discrimination claims.
September 7
Another weak jobs report, the Trump Administration's refusal to arbitrate with federal workers, and a district court judge's order on the constitutionality of the Laken-Riley Act.