In a win for local workers, last week Illinois’s Cook County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed what workers’ advocates say is one of the strongest ordinances to combat wage theft to date in the U.S. The Cook County Wage Theft Ordinance aims to punish companies guilty of shortchanging their workers by taking away lucrative county …
Why the New Law Combating Wage Theft in Chicago is a Big Deal Read More »
The city of Philadelphia is set to become the 17th city (along with three states) that requires paid sick leave after Mayor Michael Nutter (D) signed legislation passed yesterday by the City Council. Philadelphia is the second city, after Tacoma, Wash., to pass paid sick days this year so far. Nutter previously vetoed similar laws …
There are least 43 million U.S. workers who cannot earn a single paid sick day and have to decide between losing wages or even risking their jobs to take care of their own illness or a sick family member. On Thursday, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced the Healthy Families Act …
Healthy Families Act Would Let Workers Earn Paid Sick Days Read More »
Paid maternity leave is mandated in nearly every country but ours: As President Obama noted in the State of the Union when he called for national paid family leave, “We’re the only advanced country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers.” Paternity leave, on the other hand, …
How Everyone Benefits When New Fathers Take Paid Leave Read More »
Franchise operators at Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches in Baltimore are proving true to the national chain’s anti-union reputation with an aggressive counter-attack against local labor organizing, including a decision in late January to fire an outspoken union supporter, say advocates for the Jimmy John’s Workers Union, an affiliate of the radical union Industrial Workers of …
Did Jimmy John’s Fire Yet Another Worker for Supporting a Union? Read More »
In Anacortes, Wash., last week, approximately 200 Tesoro workers began picketing the oil refinery where an explosion incinerated seven of their co-workers five years earlier. Butch Cleve walks that picket line, serving now as strike captain for the USW local union at Tesoro. On the day of the catastrophe in 2010, Cleve walked the coroner to …
On Monday, Oregon lawmakers considered a pair of bills that could significantly reduce the gap in average earnings between working men and women, which currently means the state’s women make 80 percent of what men do. House Bill 2006 would make it unlawful for employers to pay workers of different genders who do equivalent work …
One State That Could Take The Gender Wage Gap Head On Read More »
“There’s something happening right here in this country. It’s the sound of America…working with American materials in American factories.” The excerpt comes from WeatherTech’s second Super Bowl commercial, watched by millions of viewers on Super Bowl XLIX (if you missed it, check it out here). Highlighted by this commercial, something besides Russell Wilson’s fourth quarter …
Why buying Made-in-America matters, and how to do it Read More »
The economy added 257,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate ticked slightly up to 5.7% from December’s 5.6%, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was unchanged from December at 2.8 million, but the median duration of …
Forced labor and human trafficking exist in worksites and industries where workers’ rights are routinely violated and where a culture of exploitation reigns. In the tomato fields of Florida, more than 1,200 farm workers once toiled in conditions of forced labor. However, thanks to the organizing efforts of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), these …
Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.
