This article originally appeared on StephenKoppekin.net on Sep. 25, 2017. In the mid-1930s, waking up to work at Flint, Michigan’s car factories meant crawling out of bed and into a nightmare. General Motors (GM) held sway over the town of Flint: Safety regulations were laughable as each day workers sparred with the possibility of injury … More The Great Sit-Down Strike of 1937
This article originally appeared on StephenKoppekin.net on Sep. 21 2017. Despite shifting political winds in Washington, several long-anticipated labor reforms have begun to take effect this year. However, many of these policies will face intense scrutiny from the new administration, which may lead to delayed rollouts or complete cancellations of those plans. A few of 2017’s … More Labor and Employment 2017: A Recap and a Look Forward
This article originally appeared on StephenKoppekin.net on Sep. 18, 2017. Job satisfaction is organizational mortar; it’s the substance that stabilizes pieces of a whole. Just as weak mortar may lead to loose, crumbling bricks, employees held at their workstations by a meager amount of professional pride and enjoyment are susceptible to habits of low motivation … More Unions and Worker Happiness
This article originally appeared on StephenKoppekin.net on Sep. 15, 2017. Calling certain provisions “unnecessarily burdensome,” the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has suspended pending EEO-1 pay reporting requirements that would have compelled businesses to report pay data, including hours worked, for employees broken down by gender, race, and ethnicity to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). … More Suspension of the New EEO-1 Pay Reporting Rule
This article originally appeared on StephenKoppekin.net on Sept. 5, 2017. How many employees do you have? Less than 10 or perhaps a few dozen? Maybe even more than 100 if you operate a large firm or multiple locations? While this question may seem straightforward, the answer can actually be quite complicated when you begin to … More An Employer’s Guide to Joint Employment
This blog originally appeared on StephenKoppekin.net on Aug. 29, 2017. Throughout the 1920s, a series of coin boxes began appearing outside of film studios where movie workers could deposit their spare change. Cameramen, set builders, and even movie stars—including the legendary Charlie Chaplin—would drop in whatever they could to help their colleagues and friends within … More Charity Spotlight: Motion Picture & Television Fund
This article originally appeared on stephenkoppekin.net on Aug. 22, 2017. Working in a cooperative environment involves spending weeks, months, or even years alongside a collection of people, all of whom hold a range of purposes and motivations. When considering how success is created in this setting, one may realize that it doesn’t matter whether a … More The Benefits of Saying Nice Things to Your Coworkers
This article originally appeared on stephenkoppekin.net on Aug. 8, 2017. Freelance work and the so-called “gig economy” have come to represent an enormous element of the modern labor force, with at least 27% of American workers engaging in some freelance or temporary “gigs” in 2016. Now—at least in New York City—the law is beginning to catch up with the … More New York City and the “Freelance Isn’t Free” Act
This article originally appeared on stephenkoppekin.net on Aug. 1, 2017. In July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy picked up over 209,000 jobs. Initially, predictions had only called for 180,000 new jobs, so the actual figures were a pleasant surprise for many: For a nation nearly crippled by an unemployment rate of more … More America’s Tight Labor Market
This article originally appeared on stephenkoppekin.net on July 25, 2017. While their methods may be fundamentally similar, public and private unions each serve a distinct realm of the economy. Private unions represent the interests of workers in the private sector, which is made up of members who work in non-governmental industries. These unions seek to … More Public vs Private Unions: What’s the Difference?
