Benjamin Sachs is the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School and a leading expert in the field of labor law and labor relations. He is also faculty director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy. Professor Sachs teaches courses in labor law, employment law, and law and social change, and his writing focuses on union organizing and unions in American politics. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in 2008, Professor Sachs was the Joseph Goldstein Fellow at Yale Law School. From 2002-2006, he served as Assistant General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Washington, D.C. Professor Sachs graduated from Yale Law School in 1998, and served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. His writing has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the New York Times and elsewhere. Professor Sachs received the Yale Law School teaching award in 2007 and in 2013 received the Sacks-Freund Award for Teaching Excellence at Harvard Law School. He can be reached at [email protected].
Michael Grabell’s New Yorker piece on Case Farms’ poultry plants is a must-read. Much of it will be depressingly familiar: horrid safety and health conditions (“since 2010, more than seven hundred and fifty processing workers have suffered amputations”); repeated use of immigration sanctions to deter organizing activity (“the union received a letter saying that it had come to the company’s attention that nine of its employees might not be legally authorized to work in the United States…[s]even were on the union organizing committee…[a]ll were fired”; food workers wearing diapers because they aren’t granted bathroom breaks. But in this 2017 version of The Jungle, one wonders how – if at all – the relevant federal agencies will respond. Hopefully not, as Grabell rightly worries, by increasing immigration enforcement during labor disputes.
Daily News & Commentary
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September 5
Pro-labor legislation in New Jersey; class action lawsuit by TN workers proceeds; a report about wage theft in D.C.
September 4
Eighth Circuit avoids a challenge to Minnesota’s ban on captive audience meetings; ALJ finds that Starbucks violated the NLRA again; and a district court certifies a class of behavioral health workers pursuing wage claims.
September 3
Treasury releases draft list of tipped positions eligible for tax break; Texas court rules against Board's effort to transfer case to California; 9th Circuit rules against firefighters seeking religious exemption to COVID vaccine mandate.
September 2
AFT joins Target boycott, Hilton workers go on strike in Houston, and the Center for Labor & A Just Economy releases a new report
September 1
Labor Day! Workers over Billionaires protests; Nurses go on strike, Volkswagen ordered to pay damages.
August 31
California lawmakers and rideshare companies reach an agreement on collective bargaining legislation for drivers; six unions representing workers at American Airlines call for increased accountability from management; Massachusetts Teamsters continue the longest sanitation strike in decades.