The Rise of Feminist Labor Unions in Japan
A good union is a feminist organization. We reduce the gender wage gap, fight for family-work-life balance and non-discriminatory promotion standards and sometimes literally sound the alarm on workplace sexual harassment and assault – among many other ways that working women use their union membership to fight for equality. For a time, Japanese labor unions fell far short of that standard. Although there are very strong labor protections and anti-discrimination laws on the books in Japan, they are often evaded through the proliferation of contingent employment and ignored with lame appeals to “cultural traditions.” Female workers routinely experience sexual harassment, workplace bullying and lack of career advancement. The traditional enterprise unions that are common in Japan had a pretty bad track record of even seeing these practices as wrong, let alone standing up for their female members. Starting in the 1990’s, a group of activists started new women-only unions to compete […]
Elon Musk’s Very Dumb Tweet
The United Auto Workers union (UAW) slapped billionaire gadfly Elon Musk with charges of violating federal labor law in a stupid tweet last week. Musk owns the unprofitable luxury electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors, which the UAW has been unsuccessfully trying to organize. Tesla has previously been scrutinized over allegations of “excessive mandatory overtime,” a lack of workplace safety and union busting. Musk’s tweet suggesting that Tesla workers would lose their stock options in the company if they voted for union representation raised eyebrows and prompted the UAW to file an Unfair Labor Practice Charge over the retaliatory threat. Speaking to Bloomberg news, former NLRB chair Wilma Liebman said, “If you threaten to take away benefits because people unionize, that’s an out-and-out violation of the labor law.” The dumb tweet was fired off in the middle of a surreal “It’s 2018 and, yes, this is actually happening” social media meltdown […]
What Is Janus and Why Does It Matter?
Half of the labor movement could go “right-to-work” depending on the outcome of a pending Supreme Court decision. In Janus v. AFSCME, the justices are weighing whether union shop contract clauses that compel represented workers to join or pay a representation fee should be illegal in the public sector. With 7.2 million union members’ participation at stake, the case represents the latest in the unrelenting corporate assault on union power and financial resources. Part of what the right wing is exploiting in this case is that for public sector workers, their employer is, in some sense, “the government.” That makes their union contracts more vulnerable to challenges from outsiders. Indeed, public sector workers won the right to negotiate for the same union shop clause that private sector unions have enjoyed for over a century in a 1978 Supreme Court case called Abood v. Detroit. That long-settled precedent has been under […]
Supreme Court Guts Workers’ Rights in Murphy Oil
With their decision Monday, May 21, 2018 in Murphy Oil, the Supreme Court has just gutted workers’ rights to act collectively to battle wage theft and discrimination. Murphy Oil is a gift to corporations, allowing them to force their workers to sign a class action waiver as a condition of employment. Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the 5-4 decision that might as well have read, “Because we have the votes.” A class action waiver is when a worker waives – that is, gives away – their right to band together with other workers, access the courts, and force their employer to stop doing something discriminatory, dangerous, or otherwise wrong. Class action lawsuits had been one of the most powerful ways for workers to win back-pay awards for employer misconduct. Arbitration, which takes place outside of the courts, is far more favorable to employers. That is doubly true when a worker must […]
Good job! New York State shows climate work can be union work
What if we could take bold steps to create thousands of good union jobs that also help save the environment? That’s the proposal of a New York State coalition of unions and environmentalists. Building trades, energy and transport workers unions have banded together to address the dual problems of inequality and climate change across New York State – and they’re winning. Without public policy that protects workers’ livelihoods as part of protecting the environment, many workers have to choose between good jobs or a healthy environment – a growing concern in New York State, and elsewhere. Climate change has hit New York hard. There was Super Storm Sandy as well as Hurricane Irene, unprecedented snowstorms, and more recently, Lake Ontario flooding, all of which have devastated communities across the state. To ensure cleanup and prevention jobs are good ones, Climate Jobs NY (CJNY) is a union-driven campaign to implement a […]
This job is killing me: Not a metaphor
You are more likely to be killed at work than in a terrorist attack or plane crash. On average, thirteen workers die on the job every day. Most of these deaths are completely preventable. And yet the complex web of state and federal agencies and insurance programs meant to protect worker’ssafety and incomes are persistently under-funded and under attack. Two new books shed light on the dangers we face at workand the laws that are letting us down. Jonathan D. Karmel’s Dying to Work: Death and Injury in the American Workplace (Cornel University Press) is a compelling call for action on a national health crisis that’s hiding in plain sight. The conventional narrative is that coalmine disasters and factory fires have been extinguished through reform laws. And also that efforts to pass new regulations are “red tape” that threatens jobs. At the center of those somewhat conflicting arguments is the […]
Beyond Bread and Butter: Labor Disputes for Social Justice
Football player Colin Kaepernick’s epic protest for Black civil rights has finally become an explicit labor relations dispute. As hundreds of players spent this season taking a knee during the national anthem in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and in defiance of Donald Trump, Kaepernick – who inspired the actions – was not there. The quarterback’s contract with the 49ers came to an end in between seasons. Although he is ranked as better than half of all players starting in that position this season, no team has signed him. In response to this obvious retaliation by team owners for his political activity, Kaepernick has filed a grievance under the contract’s prohibition against collusion, and the players union has offered words of support. The grievance, and the collective protest that Kaepernick’s symbolic action sparked, suggest two areas where unions should be doing more work to push beyond our traditional issues of […]