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Amazon Warehouse Workers Want to Be Paid for Waiting in Line

Josh Eidelson Bloomberg Business Week
In 2010 two former employees of Integrity Staffing Solutions, a temp agency that supplies workers at many of Amazon’s U.S. warehouses, sued the company demanding back pay for the time they spent in security lines after clocking out at Amazon warehouses in Nevada. On Oct. 8 the Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether that time counts as work.

An Epidemic of Wage Theft Is Costing Workers Hundreds of Millions of Dollars a Year

Brady Meixell and Ross Eisenbrey Economic Policy Institute
The researchers estimated that the average loss per worker over the course of a year was $2,634, out of total earnings of $17,616. The total annual wage theft from front-line workers in low-wage industries in the three cities approached $3 billion. If these findings in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles are generalizable to the rest of the U.S. low-wage workforce of 30 million, wage theft is costing workers more than $50 billion a year.

Partial Victory for New Mexico's Chileros

Joseph Sorrentino The Investigative Fund
It has taken almost a year of emails, letters and pressure, but at least some of New Mexico's contratistas (farm labor contractors) are finally paying farmworkers the minimum wage they're entitled to

The Republican War on Workers’ Rights

Corey Robin The New York Times
Inspired by business groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, they [the Republicans] proceeded to rewrite the rules of work, passing legislation designed to enhance the position of employers at the expense of employees.

labor

Inside Low-wage Workers’ Plan to Sue McDonald’s — and Win

Timothy Noah MSNBC
Last week workers filed wage theft lawsuits against McDonald's in three states. The suits are an attempt to get at the franchise system in particular, which has enabled large corporations to avoid legal responsibility for what happens in the franchise.

labor

Big Win for Labor in Chicago

Josh Eidelson Salon
City council passes "wage theft" law that threatens license of violating companies. Will other cities follow?
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