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Law of Work Archive

Obama and Labour Law

by David Doorey November 7, 2008
written by David Doorey November 7, 2008

   Wow, what an election this week in the U.S.   With a big Obama victory, the fight begins for labour law reform in the U.S.   As we noted earlier, Obama has expressed strong support for new laws aimed at rebuilding the American labour movement, including the Employee Free Choice Act.  As Professor Hirsch explained in his Guest Blog, that legislation would re-introduce statutory card-check (replacing mandatory ballots), among other things.  Empircal evidence from Canada indicates that unions are more successful organizing new workplaces when a certification can be obtained by collecting membership cards on behalf of a majority of workers. 
There was a fascinating story in the Washington Post yesterday  (the Post website might make you create a free account) describing the efforts of the AFL-CIO (the umbrella organization for most of the American labour movement) in support of Obama [Thanks Peter Cameron for pointing this story our to me].   Union members were encouraged to vote for Obama, and many did.  Check out these amazing figures cited in the Post article:

Exit poll data gathered for the AFL-CIO by Peter D. Hart Research Associates found that among union members, Obama won the white male vote by 18 points, while he lost that same group in the general population by 16 points. There were also wide disparities in support for Obama between union and non-union voters who are white weekly churchgoers, veterans, gun owners and whites who have not graduated from college. Union members supported him in each case, while he lost each group in the general population, the poll found.

The Obama camp (and the Democrats more generally) will probably take a good look at those types of numbers in deciding how to move forward with all those promises to reform labour laws. 
Here are some other interesing commentaries from American labour law experts on how Obama should proceed with his labour law reform agenda from Professor Paul Secunda (Marquette Law School) and Bill Gould (Stanford, and former Chair of the NLRB).
It will be interesting to watch whether, during the impending debates about the Employee Free Choice Act, opponents of the law argue that it could drive employers to Canada, where mandatory votes are the law in most places!  The Canadian shift from a card-check to a vote model over the past couple of decades will almost certainly be raised by the law’s opponents as evidence of the wrong-headedness of going back to a card-based model.  How odd it will be for those of us who grew up listening to Americans (and Paul Weiler) argue that U.S. laws should catch up to Canadian labour laws.  Interesting times indeed.

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David Doorey

Professor Doorey is an Associate Professor of Work Law and Industrial Relations at York University. He is the Director of the School of HRM at York and Director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s executive LLM Program in Labour and Employment Law and on the Advisory Board of the Osgoode Certificate program in Labour Law. He is a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program and a member of the International Advisory Committee on Harvard University’s Clean Slate Project, which is re-imaging labor law for the 21st century

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RSandillRicha Sandill@RSandill·
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@SCLSclinic and I were so fortunate to represent this client last year. I am thrilled that this decision brings more clarity for family status accommodations rights amidst a pandemic that has tested parents, caregivers, and families like never before. https://twitter.com/CanLawWorkForum/status/1364605259071561730

CLWF@CanLawWorkForum

New from @RSandill (counsel for applicant), discussing important new "family status" discrimination decision from OHRT:

"Kovintharajah v. Paragon Linen & Laundry: When Failure to Accommodate Child Care Needs is “Family Status” Discrimination"

https://lawofwork.ca/13360-2/

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TheLawofWorkDavid J. Doorey@TheLawofWork·
24 Feb

Here's my latest in @jacobinmag.

If Ontario's labor laws applied in Alabama, the Amazon vote would have been held months ago so workers could get back to their jobs. Instead, the NLRA permits Amazon to conduct a months' long onslaught of anti-union propaganda. https://twitter.com/jacobinmag/status/1364613560425275392

Jacobin@jacobinmag

Amazon workers in Alabama are voting on whether to unionize, but the company is bombarding them with anti-union propaganda. In Canada, by contrast, votes are held quickly, making it harder for companies to stack the deck — a model that can work in the US. http://jacobinmag.com/2021/02/amazon-alabama-canada-labor-law-union-vote

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CanLawWorkForumCLWF@CanLawWorkForum·
24 Feb

New from @RSandill (counsel for applicant), discussing important new "family status" discrimination decision from OHRT:

"Kovintharajah v. Paragon Linen & Laundry: When Failure to Accommodate Child Care Needs is “Family Status” Discrimination"

https://lawofwork.ca/13360-2/

Reply on Twitter 1364605259071561730Retweet on Twitter 13646052590715617304Like on Twitter 13646052590715617304Twitter 1364605259071561730
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