In New York State, legislators are reportedly considering a bill, brokered by gig companies including Uber and Lyft, that would remove app-based drivers and food delivery workers from virtually all labor and discrimination protections. Though its supporters are selling this “Right to Bargain Act” as a novel form of bargaining in the app-based economy, there’s nothing …
Given the wealth of information available online, conducting research on your employer is more possible than ever—and more important than ever, as firms become more complex and globalized. There’s no reason we should ever begin bargaining or start an organizing campaign without a strong sense of who the employer is, how it generates its profit, …
What Your Boss Doesn’t Want You to Know, and Where to Find It Read More »
Nearly 50,000 members of the United Auto Workers are on strike, demanding that General Motors pay them their fair share of the billions in profits the company raked in last year. The response from General Motors was shocking. The automaker, which accepted billions in government bailouts during the last recession, cut off its payment of insurance premiums …
The southern United States is not known as a bastion of union strength or worker power, but 20,000 AT&T workers across nine states are on strike this week. The workers’ union, the Communications Workers of America, has been trying to negotiate a new contract with AT&T and, with negotiations having broken down, has said the …
A two-year legal battle over a Seattle, Washington law allowing Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize was prolonged again this week, after a federal appeals court ruled Friday that it can be challenged under federal antitrust law. The first-in-the-nation law was unanimously passed by the Seattle City Council in 2015 and sought to give ride-share …
Federal court deals a blow to Uber, Lyft drivers trying to unionize in Seattle Read More »
More than a year after graduate students at Columbia University voted to unionize with the United Automobile Workers, hundreds of students participated in a walkout Tuesday to protest the university’s refusal to bargain with them. The students plan to stage a week-long strike during what is the university’s most hectic time, when students and professors are …
Our latest roundup of worker wins begins with flight attendants and air traffic controllers standing together to make the skies safer for working people and travelers and includes numerous examples of workers organizing, bargaining and mobilizing for a better life. Flight Attendents Reach Tentative Agreement with Mesa Airlines: Flight attendants at Mesa Airlines, represented by the Association of Flight …
The Skies Just Got Friendlier for Working People: Worker Wins Read More »
This article was first posted at Labor Notes. They didn’t end three-tier in a single blow. But in a new contract covering 200,000 members, the American Postal Workers Union made serious headway and fended off most concessionary demands, including the Postal Service’s effort to create yet another tier. The union entered bargaining with little obvious …
Obamacare enrollment season is here again, and people with insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces are being urged to look at their options. It’s been a year since the exchanges originally opened. Despite spectacularly incompetent website design and poor management by the federal and many of the state exchanges, most of the glitches were …
Employers Keep Shifting Costs to Workers Under Obamacare Read More »
One sign, among many, of labor’s current travails is the stalled union growth strategy known as “Bargain to Organize.” More than a decade ago, there was no bigger buzzword in union organizing circles. When John Sweeney was elected AFL-CIO president in 1995, he encouraged affiliates to employ the tactic by pressuring unionized companies to permit …
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.
