News from the Field

Seattle Port Strike Challenges ‘Independent Contractor’ Lie

Feb 21, 2012
Truck drivers in the Puget Sound shut down ports for two weeks—and begin to shift the balance of power.

NELP Announces Immigrant Worker Justice Blog

Feb 20, 2012
The National Employment Law Project is pleased to announce the launch of the Immigrant Worker Justice Blog, located at www.immigrantworkerjustice.org. We invite you to join our online community! Our blog provides thoughtful analysis, informative articles, updates on the latest immigrant worker news, and the ability to connect with others in the...

Power at the Ports: Truckers Force Showdowns in Seattle, Los Angeles

Feb 17, 2012
A group of port workers in Los Angeles has filed for a rare union election, and another just ended a two-week strike that brought the Port of Seattle to a near standstill.

US Labor Department, California sign agreement to reduce misclassification of employees as independent contractors

Feb 9, 2012
WASHINGTON — Nancy J. Leppink, deputy administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, and California Secretary of Labor Marty Morgenstern have entered into a memorandum of understanding regarding the improper classification of employees as independent contractors. Leppink and California Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su hosted...

Proposal to establish rights for domestic workers splits lawmakers

Feb 7, 2012
Maria Moctezuma's workday began at 6 a.m. and often ran until midnight when she was nanny, housekeeper and cook for a family of four in Rancho Cucamonga. She hurried through her own meals in five minutes, she said, so she could get back to a long list of chores that included washing the family car, scrubbing the bathrooms, serving at late-night...

Warehouse Workers Win Support from Federal Court on Retaliation

Feb 2, 2012
Mira Loma, Calif. – Today, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued an unprecedented order against Walmart contractors Schneider Logistics and Rogers-Premier Unloading Services for threatening to discharge workers en masse in retaliation for the workers’ efforts to vindicate their rights in a federal class...

America's Truck Drivers Shut Down Port of Seattle to Expose Dangers of the Job

Feb 1, 2012
Monday mornings are the busiest at any port, but this past one in Seattle the trucks were parked. Drivers spanning the major companies that do the most business in the Puget Sound simply turned off the engines, got out of their cabs, and stopped hauling. They had somewhere else they needed to be. Steely determination led roughly 150 port drivers...

Union Membership Holds Steady in 2011

Jan 27, 2012
After falling by almost 1.4 million workers between 2008 and 2010, union membership hit a plateau in 2011. The total number of union members (up about 49,000) and the share of workers in a union (down 0.1 percentage points) were essentially unchanged last year.

Labor Takes Aim at Walmart—Again

Jan 23, 2012
In October two shabby buses filled with Walmart employees stopped unannounced outside the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. As the employees filed into the building’s expansive parking lot, plainclothes private security personnel sporting sleek sunglasses and Walmart emergency response badges rushed in and swiftly corralled the...

The New Blue Collar: Temporary Work, Lasting Poverty And The American Warehouse

Dec 20, 2011
JOLIET, Ill., and FONTANA, Calif. -- Like nearly everyone else in Joliet without good job prospects, Uylonda Dickerson eventually found herself at the warehouses looking for work. "I just needed a job," the 38-year-old single mother says. Dickerson came to the right place. Over the past decade and a half, Joliet and its Will County environs...