Leigh Thomas is a student at Harvard Law School.
The first presidential debate of the 2020 election left viewers reeling after ninety minutes of interruptions, falsehoods, and personal attacks, mostly leveled by President Trump. Commentators called the debate an “ugly melee,” an “embarrassment for the ages,” and “a disgrace,” among other things. If voters were hoping to hear alternative presidential visions for America’s economic recovery or coronavirus response, they were surely disappointed by the lack of substantive policy discussion. President Trump expressed frustration with public health restrictions and called on Democratic governors to open their states. He also said he “disagreed” with his health experts who say a vaccine won’t be available to the public until next year. Former Vice President Joe Biden criticized the Trump Administration’s response to the pandemic, calling the president a “fool on masks,” and “totally irresponsible” in how he handled social distancing. Neither candidate offered a clear plan on how to manage the ongoing pandemic nor the upcoming flu season.
Seattle passed a new law yesterday creating a minimum pay standard for Uber and Lyft drivers. Beginning in January, ride-hailing companies must pay drivers an amount close to the city’s $16 minimum hourly wage. The law is modeled on a similar New York City measure passed in 2018. As in New York, drivers will be compensated according to a formula that combines per-minute and per-mile rates, scaled up by a “utilization rate,” so that drivers remain adequately compensated even when less busy. The formula is intended to motivate the companies to keep their drivers busier rather than increase the number of drivers to reduce customer wait times. The Seattle Mayor said in a statement that the pandemic had “exposed the fault lines in our systems of worker protections, leaving many frontline workers like gig workers without a safety net.”
The Illinois Department of Labor announced the creation of a free consulting program to assist small businesses in the process of reopening with COVID-19 safety guidelines. Back to Business Illinois will pair businesses with Workplace Safety and Health consultants from within the Illinois DoL, to help with a variety of reopening questions. These include auditing physical operation and identifying best practices to keep workers and customers safe. The program will be non-punitive, and will offer a “Back to Business” certification to show employees and visitors that safety measures have been addressed.
Daily News & Commentary
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September 16
In today’s news and commentary, the NLRB sues New York, a flight attendant sues United, and the Third Circuit considers the employment status of Uber drivers The NLRB sued New York to block a new law that would grant the state authority over private-sector labor disputes. As reported on recently by Finlay, the law, which […]
September 15
Unemployment claims rise; a federal court hands victory to government employees union; and employers fire workers over social media posts.
September 14
Workers at Boeing reject the company’s third contract proposal; NLRB Acting General Counsel William Cohen plans to sue New York over the state’s trigger bill; Air Canada flight attendants reject a tentative contract.
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.