Law Commons^™

Protecting Court Borders: Fencing Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. V. Nlrb Out Of Illinois Civil Courts, Patrick D. Kenneally

Northern Illinois University Law Review

An increasing number of jurisdictions have seized upon the reasoning in the United States Supreme Court's decision Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB to deny undocumented immigrant plaintiffs recovery for lost future earnings at their projected earnings while living in the United States. However, a correct reading of Hoffman and understanding of its precedent reveals a narrow ruling confined to the field of federal labor law incapable of influencing the availability and distribution of damages in personal injury actions in Illinois state courts. Illinois common law currently grants undocumented plaintiffs the right to recover damages for amounts they would have …

Expanding Nlra Protection Of Employee Organizational Blogs: Non-Discriminatory Access And The Forum-Based Disloyalty Exception, Andrew F. Hettinga

Chicago-Kent Law Review

As they fight for better working conditions both in the union and non-union context, employees increasingly use online web logs or "blogs" to better organize themselves. For organizational purposes, these blogs present numerous advantages over more traditional speech forms. This article adds to the growing voices calling for explicit protection of employee blogs under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA"), which protects "concerted" employee action taken "for mutual aid and protection" from employer retaliation, provided that such blogs otherwise comply with NLRA requirements. Furthermore, by analogizing to past NLRA jurisprudence concerning traditional organizational speech, this article argues …

Hearing: Civil Rights Division Oversight, Helen L. Norton

Congressional Testimony

No abstract provided.

Protecting Workers From Genetic Discrimination, Karen H. Rothenberg

Congressional Testimony

No abstract provided.

Days Without Immigrants: Analysis And Implications Of The Treatment Of Immigration Rallies Under The National Labor Relations Act, Michael C. Duff

All Faculty Scholarship

The massive immigration rallies of early 2006 were prompted by anticipated congressional action classifying all unauthorized workers as felons subject to immediate deportation. While a product of federal immigration policy, the rallies implicate federal labor law because they could be characterized as concerted employee action resulting in a series of work stoppages.

Some employees were discharged for missing work to attend the rallies, so an initial question is whether participation in the rallies is protected activity under the National Labor Relations Act. But even assuming the rallies were attended by unauthorized workers, those workers are undeniably employees within the meaning …

Guiry V. Goldman, Sachs & Co., Adam B. Hahn

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Trial, Douglas O. Linder

Faculty Works

It was a warm spring Saturday in New York City, March 25, 1911. On the top three floors of the ten-story Asch Building just off of Washington Square, employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory began putting away their work as the 4:45 p.m. quitting time approached. Most of the several hundred Triangle Shirtwaist employees were teenage girls. Most were recent immigrants. Many spoke only a little English. Just then somebody on the eighth floor shouted, Fire! Flames leapt from discarded rags between the first and second rows of cutting tables in the hundred-foot-by-hundred-foot floor. Triangle employee William Bernstein grabbed pails …

Female Immigrant Workers And The Law: Limits And Opportunities, Maria Ontiveros

Maria L. Ontiveros

This paper explains the reasons that traditional United States labor and employment laws are incapable of effectively addressing the types of workplace problems confronting female immigrant workers. It critiques the protections supposedly offered by the free market, labor standards, antidiscrimination laws and collective bargaining. It argues that statutory exclusion, immigration issues, nonrecognition of injury, and cultural limitations thwart the effectiveness of traditional approaches. It then describes a variety of initiatives and approaches being taken at the domestic and international level that more effectively address these problems. These initiatives include the use of the Thirteenth Amendment and antitrafficking legislation, as well …