
Nicholas Anway is a student at Harvard Law School.
In today’s news and commentary: Union workers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art strike for better wages and healthcare; and a “Workers’ Right Amendment” will be on the ballot in Illinois this fall.
Nearly 200 union workers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art are set to strike today, as contract negotiations with the Museum’s management remain unresolved. Workers from the Local 397 of AFSCME DC Local 47 said that the Museum has been unwilling to resolve concerns about fair wages and affordable healthcare. “We’re just asking for a living wage. Folks at the museum are working two jobs just to get by,” Adam Rizzo, President of Local 397, explained to ABC. “A lot of the positions at the museum require a master’s degree at the very least. So, a lot of folks are saddled with debt.” The Museum’s high-deductible health care plan is also a concern. “[I]t means we can’t afford to go to the doctor even though we have health care,” said Rizzo. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the museum remained open while workers picketed outside its entrances during a “warning strike” last Friday. In a statement, the Museum said that it was “deeply disappointed that the union has again chosen to strike,” and that it planned to open again today.
This fall, Illinois voters will decide whether to enshrine workers’ right to unionize and collectively bargain into their state constitution, the Chicago Tribune reported. The “Workers’ Right Amendment” would recognize worker organizing as a “fundamental right,” guaranteeing the right to organize for “the most common elements of collective bargaining, like wages, hours and working conditions,” and for “‘economic welfare and safety at work.’” The proposed amendment would also essentially ban right-to-work laws that prevent companies and unions from requiring union membership as a condition of employment. As Marc Poulos, the “Vote Yes for Workers’ Rights” campaign committee’s counsel and executive director of the Indiana, Illinois, Iowa Foundation for Fair Contracting, told the Tribune, “[t]his would be the strongest constitutional protection in a state constitution in the country.”
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July 15
The Department of Labor announces new guidance around Occupational Safety and Health Administration penalty and debt collection procedures; a Cornell University graduate student challenges graduate student employee-status under the National Labor Relations Act; the Supreme Court clears the way for the Trump administration to move forward with a significant staff reduction at the Department of Education.
July 14
More circuits weigh in on two-step certification; Uber challengers Seattle deactivation ordinance.
July 13
APWU and USPS ratify a new contract, ICE barred from racial profiling in Los Angeles, and the fight continues over the dismantling of NIOSH
July 11
Regional director orders election without Board quorum; 9th Circuit pauses injunction on Executive Order; Driverless car legislation in Massachusetts
July 10
Wisconsin Supreme Court holds UW Health nurses are not covered by Wisconsin’s Labor Peace Act; a district judge denies the request to stay an injunction pending appeal; the NFLPA appeals an arbitration decision.
July 9
the Supreme Court allows Trump to proceed with mass firings; Secretary of Agriculture suggests Medicaid recipients replace deported migrant farmworkers; DHS ends TPS for Nicaragua and Honduras