Leora Smith is a student at Harvard Law School.
Millions of public sector workers in India are on strike today, in an action that union leaders are calling the biggest strike in history. The Guardian reports that some of the protesters’ demands include “a 692-rupee daily minimum wage (Ed. note: approximately $10 USD), universal social security and a ban on foreign investment in the country’s railway, insurance and defence industries.” Though the numbers have not been verified, organizers say that 150 million workers are striking.
In honor of Labor Day, the Pulitzer Prize organization revisits the work of 2005 winner Connie Shulz and her column on tipping, “Here’s a little tip about gratuities.” Eleven years later wage theft continues to be rampant in the service industry which continues to grow – Salon reports that the “U.S. add[ed] 177,000 jobs in August – and all of them were in the service industry.”
Governor Chris Christie vetoed a minimum wage raise on Tuesday, but the fight in New Jersey will continue, with advocates hoping to make the minimum wage a ballot question in the future. The Atlantic reports that ballot measures are being increasingly used as a tactic in states where legislatures are unlikely to raise wages on their own. Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington are all sending the minimum wage question directly to voters at the ballot box. And, while Republican-led state governments have proven unfriendly to minimum wage legislation, the issue does not seem to break down along party lines. In Alaska, Arkansas and Nebraska voters given the chance to weigh in on wages have simultaneously voted for Republican representatives, while also marking “yes” to a higher minimum wage.
Daily News & Commentary
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November 25
In today’s news and commentary, OSHA fines Taylor Foods, Santa Fe raises their living wage, and a date is set for a Senate committee to consider Trump’s NLRB nominee. OSHA has issued an approximately $1.1 million dollar fine to Taylor Farms New Jersey, a subsidiary of Taylor Fresh Foods, after identifying repeated and serious safety […]
November 24
Labor leaders criticize tariffs; White House cancels jobs report; and student organizers launch chaperone program for noncitizens.
November 23
Workers at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority vote to authorize a strike; Washington State legislators consider a bill empowering public employees to bargain over workplace AI implementation; and University of California workers engage in a two-day strike.
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.