Skip to main content

What I’ve Been Reading This Week


It is not everyday that we have a chance to look at labor developments across the pond.  While there is often some noteworthy events taking place outside of the U.S., I often do not highlight those matters as there is enough to cover in these 50 states.  With that being said, a looming strike by Royal Mail workers is noteworthy and worth leading things off this week.

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



As reported in The Guardian recently, Royal Mail workers are to hold 19 strikes over this month and November following disputes over their pay and working conditions.  These strikes come on the heels of claims that the Royal Mail Group’s senior management has taken steps to move forward with cuts to workers’ terms and conditions of employment and sideline the union.  Notably, these strikes are set to take place around Black Friday and Cyber Monday as Royal Mail workers seek to dramatically slow down Royal Mail’s business.  Will this lead to a change for Royal Mail Workers?  Stay tuned.



Last week, two more Congressional offices voted to unionize with staffers overwhelmingly voting in favor of unionization.  The offices of Democratic Representatives Ilhan Omar and Ro Khanna voted 9 - 1 and 21 - 0 in favor of unionization.  With these two successful votes, that now brings the total number of Congressional staff offices that have unionized to three.  I would expect that in the coming weeks more will follow suit.



NPR published an article last week in which it noted that despite over 300 Starbucks stores voting to unionize over the past year, that does not mean that the desired changes sought by these workers and their union have gone into place.  In fact, as the article notes, discussions between the union and Starbucks are only just beginning with the company offering several weeks this month to discuss a collective bargaining agreement.  Granted, there are still hundreds of unfair labor charges that have been asserted against the company, with Starbucks also challenging several of the results of the elections.  That has led to a long, slow, and arduous process for these workers as they seek to reap their expected benefits of unionization.  As NPR reports, the unionization amongst Starbucks stores has only just begun.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies i...
Post a Comment
Read more

What I've Been Reading This Week

Recently, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Commissioner, Chai Feldblum, had her re-nomination on the brink, after Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee took steps to block it .  Readers might have heard that late last week, Commissioner Feldblum's re-nomination quietly slipped away and she tweeted out a thank you to supporters and friends, acknowledging that her time at the EEOC was over.  While there has not been much in the way of a further update in regard to that ongoing saga, we wait to see how things will play out at the EEOC, now that it has lost a quorum until additional Commissioners are confirmed by the Senate. For the time being, there are other developments for readers to review this week.  In particular, I call attention to the article on managing a wage & hour audit by the Department of Labor as well as steps an employer can take to better ensure compliance with the ADA. As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week. ...
Post a Comment
Read more