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What I’ve Been Reading This Week


Given that many readers are likely not working tomorrow or Friday, I wanted to get this post up before many left the office/workplace for the week.  With any luck, things will be slowing down by the end of this afternoon and this post will help readers get across the finish line into the Thanksgiving break.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.


A Breakdown of State & Federal Meal and Rest Breaks By State

The title says it all, really.  SwipeClock has provided a rather comprehensive list, by state, of the rest and meal breaks that are required by law.  This is well worth a quick review for employers and employees alike.


Stop WalMart Act Introduced in U.S. Congress

Last week, a bill was introduced in Congress that is designed to prohibit large employers from buying back stock unless they up worker wages to at least $15/hour, scale back pay for CEOs to no more than 150 times the mediation pay of all staffers, and allow employees to earn up to seven days of paid sick leave.  The bill, the Stop WalMart Act, was introduced by Independent Senator Bernie Sanders (from Vermont) and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna (from California).  With a Republican controlled Senate, this bill is for all intents and purposes D.O.A. on the Senate side.  However, with an incoming House that will be controlled by Democrats, this bill could get some attention in that part of Congress.  While portions of this legislation are worth a read, a great majority of it is likely nothing more than a dream at this point.


Columbia University Agrees to Baragin With Graduate Students

Back in 2016, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued a decision in which it held that graduate students at private universities could organize and form a union.  At the time (and perhaps even still today), this was viewed as a major victory for labor unions.  As a bit of an ‘uodate’, earlier this week, Columbia University announced it would bargain with graduate students ahead of a threatened December 4th strike.  This announcement by Columbia University is noticeable in so much that the University had fought recognizing the student union previously, even threatening to fight the matter in court (notwithstanding the NLRB decision from 2016).  For the time being, this is a big victory for labor unions.

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