April 17, 2023
WRI Director, Mark Gaston Pearce, is quoted in Bloomberg Law giving his opinion on the legality of strike action taken by Sysco Seattle workers in support of striking Sysco Indianapolis and Sysco Louisville workers. In a case that has the potential to reshape the law, Sysco Seattle filed suit claiming that their workers had violated secondary boycott law because the employing entities were separate businesses. Gaston Pearce notes that existing precedent is on the side of the workers: "Because they hold themselves out as part of the Sysco family," he said, Sysco Seattle would usually be "considered a primary employer.”
March 29, 2023
WRI Director, Mark Gaston Pearce, speaks on Maine television to discuss why Chipotle decided to settle with workers accusing the company of union busting after the restaurant chain closed a location in the middle of an organizing drive. He speculates that for Chipotle the risks of being seen in the same light as Starbucks was too great and the workers' case was too strong to allow the NLRB process to continue.
March 20, 2023
On March 20 at 3-5pm, the Workers’ Rights Institute will host a workers’ rights forum as part of Labor Spring, a nationwide series of more than 60 labor teach-ins and events on campuses and in communities nationwide. Speakers will include Sara Steffens, Secretary-Treasurer, Communications Workers of America; Erica Smiley, Director, Jobs with Justice; Jennifer Abruzzo, General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board ; Sen. Sherrod Brown; Aleah Bacetti & Thanya Cruz Borrazá, Starbucks Workers United; and Elissa McBride, Sec-Treas, AFSCME.
