Jason Vazquez is a staff attorney at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 2023. His writing on this blog reflects his personal views and should not be attributed to the Teamsters.
Hundreds of workers at a critical port in the United Kingdom walked off the job on Tuesday, touching off a two week strike in demand of higher wages that threatens to pinch an already squeezed global supply chain. The work stoppage may preview a wave of labor tumult poised to convulse the British economy in the weeks ahead, as hundreds of thousands of disaffected workers across a sweeping range of sectors — from bus drivers to garbage collectors to railway operators to college lecturers — are preparing to strike amid the nation’s deepening cost-of-living crisis.
In the latest organizing news, workers at a Home Depot store in Philadelphia filed an election petition on Monday covering a unit of nearly 300 retail employees. The organizing drive reflects a recent surge of “independent unionization,” as embodied in the recent triumphs of the Amazon Labor Union, Starbucks Workers United, Trader Joe’s Union, Apple Retail Union, Chipotle United, REI Union, and Geico United, to name a few.
Home Depot remains the world’s largest home improvement retailer. Should the union, Home Depot Workers United, prevail in the upcoming election, the Philly store would become the first of the company’s more than 2,000 U.S. locations to unionize.
In employment law news, New Jersey’s labor enforcement agency announced Tuesday that Chipotle Mexican Grill has agreed to pay $7.7 million to settle “widespread and persistent violations” of the state’s child labor laws. The news surfaces on the heels of a similar announcement in New York City, which last month entered into a $20 million agreement — the largest in the city’s history — with Chipotle to settle wage and hour violations, as I outlined here.
Daily News & Commentary
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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.
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.