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What I’ve Been Reading This Week


Here we are, a week into the new year and there are a few updates/developments on some labor & employment law topics that dominated the news during 2020.  I call attention to these updates in particular, given that these are ongoing topics that I expect we will hear more about as 2022 unfolds.  Of course in the coming weeks we will give a nod to the two cases that were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this morning.  However, for the time being, we will focus this post on a few other topics.

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



Let us call this a bit of breaking news as earlier this morning, Citigroup announced that by January 31st, it will terminate all unvaccinated workers.  While the company had previously indicated it would require the coronavirus vaccine as a condition of employment, it was a bit unclear as to what the company would ultimately do with those workers that did not get the vaccine.  According to Citigroup, because of its role as a government contractor, it decided to follow the edict previously set out by President Joe Biden that the employees of any federal contractor must get the coronavirus vaccine.  For those Citigroup workers that have not yet gotten the vaccine (which is apparently about 10% of Citigroup’s workforce), time is running out before the pink slip is handed out…  



Sebastian Herrera over at The Wall Street Journal wrote an article in which he noted that as a result of the high employee turnover at Amazon, it muddies the waters as union organizers and the company try and prepare for a second election at the Bessemer, Alabama warehouse.  As the article notes, an estimated 1,000 employees at the Bessemer location left their employment between the time when the first election occurred and when it ended (approximately a two month timeframe.)  Given the warehouse employs about 6,000 workers (with only about half voting in the first election), this has made it difficult for both the union organizers and the company to plan (and predict) the outcome of the second election that has been ordered to take place this year.  As with many developing stories headed into 2022, this is one to keep an eye on.



Marty Walsh, the Labor Secretary, recently did an interview with The Washington Post in which he touched on several key happenings in the employment law sector since he became the Labor Secretary nearly a year ago.  I will refer readers to the text of the interview itself.  While there is nothing “earth shattering” in terms of news or comments from Secretary Walsh, it is worth a quick read for anyone looking for some insight into how the Labor Secretary (and the President Joe Biden Administration) view the past year.

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