Belabored Podcast #14: Labor and the Law

This week in Belabored: a living wage bill, the fight to save a Brooklyn hospital, and legal challenges to payroll debit cards and “independent contracting.” Plus an Explainer segment on employer retaliation.

Podcast (belabored): Download

Subscribe to the Belabored RSS feed here. Subscribe and rate on iTunes here. Tweet at @dissentmag with #belabored to share your thoughts, or join the conversation on Facebook. Belabored is produced by Natasha Lewis.

The 14^th episode of Dissent’s Belabored podcast opens with a round-up of news at the intersection of labor and the law, including a living wage bill, civil disobedience over an allegedly illegal hospital shutdown, a lawsuit over mandatory payroll debit cards, and a federal court challenge to “independent contracting.” Then, in the latest Belabored Explainer segment, Sarah and Josh tell you everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask about retaliation: What is it? When’s it illegal? Why does it happen so much anyway, and what’s labor doing about it?

Links for those following along at home:

Sarah on civil disobedience in defense of a SUNY hospital

Sarah on McDonald’s dropping a payroll debit card requirement

Moshe Marvit and Vincent Mersich on Chicago cabbies’ legal campaign to become employees

Dave Jamieson on Walmart’s wage claims and DC’s living wage bill

Josh on rapid-response protests that saved strikers’ jobs at Wendy’s and the Ronald Reagan Building

Josh on alleged Walmart retaliation and Alan Grayson’s bill to toughen remedies

Josh on the sorry state of US labor law

Sarah on fighting retaliation at Dishes

Jake Blumgart on your rights at work (or lack thereof)

Pieces we wish we’d written:

Francesca Borri, “Woman’s Work,” Columbia Journalism Review