The Supreme Court hears oral arguments tomorrow in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, the First Amendment challenge to compulsory government worker union agency fees.  Adam Liptak previews the case for The New York Times, and Alana Semuels for The Atlantic.  The New York Times published an editorial calling on the Court to preserve precedent allowing “fair-share fees.”  OnLabor has extensively covered the briefs and movement leading to oral arguments.

The American labor market continues to impress.  USA Today reports that “the federal government reported that 292,000 new jobs were created last month — way above the 200,000 jobs forecast by economists.  To add to the upbeat message, the government revised up its job count in November by 41,000 and October by 9,000.  That’s an additional 50,000 new jobs.  For a third straight month, the nation’s unemployment rate stayed steady at 5%.”

Is the medical profession ripe for unionization?  The New York Times published a story on doctors in Oregon who unionized after the hospital where they worked announced plans to outsource their jobs to a staffing company.