BY TERRI GERSTEIN AND JENNY HUNTER
Slate

All because they chose profits over humane working policies.

In the end, railroad companies are highly complex operations with extremely sophisticated logistics. It’s not plausible that it’s an unsolvable challenge for them to find a way for workers to take unpaid unscheduled leave for urgent reasons without penalizing them, which is perhaps why they ultimately made concessions. Maybe it was hard for companies to look Biden and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh in the face and say they just couldn’t figure it out.

Meanwhile, as we breathe a sigh of relief that there will not be a strike or lockout on Friday, we should remember what this fight is really about: the persistent difficulty some large corporations have in understanding that their workers are human beings, and not just one more piece of machinery.

Terri Gerstein
American Constitution Society

State Attorneys General (AGs) are playing an increasingly visible and important role in relation to workers’ rights. Although historically AGs have not been deeply involved in labor matters, since 2015, AG action in this area has mushroomed: ten states have dedicated labor units of various kinds, several jurisdictions have passed legislation granting state AGs expanded jurisdiction allowing them to address labor violations, and many AGs have brought cases to enforce workers’ basic rights.

As the midterms approach, with AG elections occurring in 30 states plus the District of Columbia, it is important to understand not only what AGs do in general, but also what they are doing and can do to protect our country’s workers.

Some state AGs have begun to play an increasingly visible and important role in protecting workers’ rights. On Labor Day 2022, it is worth celebrating this growing trend, while also noting the tremendous untapped potential that remains for more AGs to take up these issues in a pro-worker and constructive manner.... Read more about The Role of State Attorneys General in Protecting Workers’ Rights

BY TERRI GERSTEIN
Employees are all too readily fired just for speaking out about conditions at work.

Employers commonly take drastic measures to cancel workers who speak out virtually every day. Two household names—Amazon and Starbucks—have been among the most visible companies quashing worker expression in recent months. Amazon fired former warehouse worker and now Amazon Labor Union president Christian Smalls for organizing a protest about workplace safety during the height of New York’s first COVID-19 wave. The company later called the police on Smalls when he delivered pizza to former co-workers in a break room. More recently, Amazon called the police to deal with union organizers at its Albany, New York, warehouse.

But for those expressing deep concern about silencing of people’s voices, for those who genuinely hold a core belief in free expression, Labor Day should be their holiday, too. It’s high time for everyone who cares about free speech to fight for the people most frequently and all too easily canceled for speaking up: our country’s workers.

STP REPORTER
Shethepeople

As if society’s constant scrutiny over women’s bodies was not enough, now a new Twitter ad for a health and wellness app wants to stereotype how older women look. The promotional ad was advocating a daily walking challenge for women across 45 to 65 age groups when they went a little overboard with their graphics. The ad displayed a woman in the age group of 45-50 carrying a cane stick, with white hair and a wrinkled face.

The regressive poster was first noted by lawyer Terri Gerstein, who called out the advertisement on Twitter by writing, “Is this what they think women over 45 look like?” Gerstein further added that she appreciates and sends her love to women with any health and disability issues, “My reason for sharing the post was because of my shock at the bizarre & offensive graphics! I realise the exercise routines described might be good for many people but depending on their own situation & people of all ages should feel great about starting to exercise at whatever level.”... Read more about Do Men Really Age Better, Or Do We Tend To Dismiss Older Women As Irrelevant?

WSW Staff
Wall Street Window

At the same time they have fought to deny sick days and other vital benefits to workers in the freight industry, rail carrier executives have been rewarding shareholders with billions of dollars in stock buybacks and dividend bumps.

Last week, labor lawyer Jenny Hunter and Terri Gerstein, director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program, argued in Slate that railroad companies nearly inflicted an economic catastrophe on the U.S. because they chose profit-maximization over humane workplace policies.... Read more about While Fighting Workers, Railroads Made Over $10 Billion in Stock Buybacks – Kenny Stancil

David Brancaccio and Jarrett Dang
Marketplace Morning Report

Listen to interview

It’s valuable to realize at the outset of the conversation that what states are grappling with, from California to Massachusetts, everywhere, it’s not just in relation to gig workers, it’s also in relation to this broader issue of who’s an employee, and entitled to all of the protections that our social contract and our laws have said that employers have to follow, and who’s an independent contractor and really running their own business. 

Stephen Joyce
Bloomberg Law

States’ attempts to ensure employees can take their workplace disputes to court are seeing their efforts chipped away by the US Supreme Court.

The US Supreme Court has consistently held employers can enforce individual arbitration agreements as well as class action language prohibiting an employee class from launching a collective complaint through arbitration against an employer.

The arbitration-friendly rulings have led more employers to use the agreements in an attempt to mitigate exposures to expensive jury-trial...

Terri Gerstein
The Progressive Magazine

Inflation is a big problem these days. Prices are rising for everything from bacon to rent to hotel rooms. And while the Federal Reserve announced aggressive measures to curb costs last week, not all economists believe this is the best approach for helping working people. 

One thing is clear: rising wages aren’t responsible for recent inflation. In fact, wage growth has actually lagged behind inflation rates, dampening upward pressure on prices. 

The lingering low federal minimum wage drags down...

Mark Kreidler
American Prospect

Creation of permanent local offices of labor standards is a new frontier for municipalities, something that didn’t exist before because, by and large, it didn’t need to. Times have changed.

“Municipality by municipality isn’t ideally how you would do this. In the ideal, you’d have a Congress that protects workers and honors the will of the majority,” said Terri Gerstein, director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program. “But at the same time, these are ways to...

Jacob Seitz
Daily Dot

“Want some forced birth with your venti latte?” wrote Terri Gerstein, a workers’ rights lawyer. “Starbucks is leveraging Roe’s fall in support of its union-busting. Says it’ll provide access to abortion travel to employees but can’t promise that to workers in stores unionized w @SBWorkersUnited.  Shameful!!”

A Starbucks organizer pointed out that not only was the company not...

Terri Gerstein and LiJia Gong
Route Fifty

There’s a notable surge of action by cities and other localities in advancing workers’ rights, as documented in a report we wrote that was issued recently. Some cities and counties are now seeing worker protection as one of their core functions. 

More cities and localities should become champions for the working people in their jurisdictions. Local leaders—from mayors and city councilors to agency heads and longtime civil servant managers—should consider how they can use their powers to drive workplace justice....

Dan DiMaggio, Angela Bunay
Labor Notes

“Seven months ago if you asked me about a union I would’ve said, ‘I don’t know, cops have them?’” says Sarah Pappin, a shift supervisor at a Seattle Starbucks. But on June 6, she and her co-workers voted unanimously to join Starbucks Workers United, part of an upsurge of organizing by younger workers with little union experience that is breathing new life into the labor movement.

Now they’re dreaming even...

Terrie Gerstein
American Prospect

On Tuesday, the highest court in Massachusetts struck down a ballot initiative that would have come before voters in November. The initiative, funded by such gig companies as Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash, sought to designate workers as independent contractors rather than employees.

Many Bay State voters doubtless heaved a sigh of relief: Now they won’t face the overblown, misleading campaign that 2020 California voters encountered in those companies’ campaign for Proposition 22, a similar initiative. More importantly, Tuesday’s court decision means that workers’ rights will remain protected in Massachusetts for the near future.... Read more about In Massachusetts, a Limit on Gig Companies’ Deceptions