On Tuesday, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on Wells Fargo’s sham account case. As the New York Times reports, Wells Fargo employees created nearly two million fake accounts to pad their sales numbers. At the hearing, senators noted that top executives had faced no real consequences, while the bank’s lowest-paid workers had “borne the brunt of the punishment.” As Senator Elizabeth Warren put it to John G. Stumpf, Wells Fargo’s chief executive, “Your definition of accountability is to push this on your low-level employees. This is gutless leadership.”
Forbes reports that 21 states have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Labor to block its new overtime rule. The suit, filed in the Eastern District of Texas, alleges that the rule is in contravention of the Tenth Amendment and the APA. Most of the states party to the lawsuit have also joined lawsuits seeking to block other Obama administration rules, including the challenge to DACA, the Clean Water Rule, and the Clean Power Plan.
According to
Politico, the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in
Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc. has served as a catalyst for state legislation protecting pregnant workers from workplace discrimination. In
Young, the Court held in favor of a pregnant UPS worker who alleged that she had been denied pregnancy-related accommodations as required by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. Although the holding was a narrow one, it seems to have prompted legislative action. Emily Martin, general counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, explained that since the decision, “we’ve seen even more bipartisan support for the notion that pregnant workers … should be entitled to very reasonable accommodations at work.”
A Thai court has found a British labor activist, Andy Hall, guilty of criminal defamation and violating cyber crimes law. The charges came in connection with his work on a 2013
report accusing Natural Fruit, a Thai-based company, of violating its workers’ rights. Hall was originally sentenced to three years in prison and fined $4,300, but the judge suspended his sentence. Still, human rights advocates are worried that the case will seriously hinder efforts to investigate and monitor workers’ rights abuses in Thailand. Coverage is available at the
New York Times,
Human Rights Watch, and
Jurist.
Daily News & Commentary
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November 22
In today’s news and commentary, nurses in Michigan vote to unionize and a hotel workers strike continues in Las Vegas. Nurses at Corewell Health in Michigan voted to unionize after a year-long campaign. This election resulted in one of the largest union election victories in nearly 20 years, according to the NLRB, with this election […]
November 21
Workers at electric vehicle battery production complex in Kentucky launch campaign to join the UAW; Amazon workers at company’s largest air facility on the West Coast start union drive to join the Teamsters; and medical residents and fellows affiliated with Brown University organize to join CIR/SEIU Healthcare.
November 20
Philadelphia unions plan a joint strike, Greece faces a 24-hour general strike, and University of California unions set strikes for today and tomorrow.
November 19
Fifth Circuit hears challenges to NLRB; Democratic NLRB majority may be ending soon; building trades unions criticize Democratic party
November 18
In today’s News & Commentary, the Democratic Party Union blasts staff layoffs and Philadelphia city workers threaten mass strike. The Democratic National Committee Staff Union has criticized party leadership following several days of layoffs in the wake of the 2024 election loss. The union claims these cuts go beyond typical post-election turnover and have impacted […]
November 17
DOL overtime rule struck down; Cornell Graduate Student Union speaks on campus repression.