Monday, May 21, 2018

Supreme Corp screws workers, again

In their recent decision. As employees well know, they typically have to sign an agreement that in any dispute with the employer it must be adjudicated by an arbitrator, not a court of law. They also typically stipulate that said arbitration can only be on behalf of an individual employee, not employees as a class. And said arbitrator is inevitably hire by the employer and rules in their favor almost unanimously.

So the case before the Corp was for employees seeking to band together in a class when employers violate the National Labor Relations Act on issues such as wage and hour violations. Gorsuch, the newly minted lap dog of Repugnantas, wrote the majority opinion saying an earlier law, "the 1925 Federal Arbitration Act, trumps the National Labor Relations Act." (I don't think the word "trumps" is accidental here.)

The notorious RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsberg) wrote the dissent noting that


"[T]he edict that employees with wage and hours claims may seek relief only one-by-one does not come from Congress. It is the result of take-it-or-leave-it labor contracts harking back to the type called 'yellow dog,' and of the readiness of this Court to enforce those unbargained-for agreements. The FAA demands no such suppression of the right of workers to take concerted action for their 'mutual aid or protection."

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