Center for Labor and Employment Law

On Thursday, October 16, the NYU Center for Labor and Employment Law offered the second iteration of its innovative lunchtime “TalkShop” series for in-house employment counsel. Around the table, leading the discussion were experienced in-house lawyers Melissa R. Gold. Esq. (JPMorgan Chase & Co.), Erika Ozer ’97 (Swiss Re America Holding Corporation) and Martin Schmelkin ’94 (Goldman Sachs & Co.). They were joined by Prof. Samuel Estreicher and Labor Center Advisory Board Member Zachary Fasman (whose firm, Proskauer Rose, hosted the event). Topics included Tracking and Using Internal Diversity Data, New Obligations of Government Contractors under Obama Administration Executive Orders, EEOC Review of Settlement and Release Agreements, Possible New NLRB Tests for Joint Employers, Designing and Implementing Employment Arbitration Policies, and “Implicit Bias” Issues and Training. The TalkShop format is designed to encourage sharing of issues of current concern and best practices among peer practitioners in various market sectors.

Recognizing that many recent campaigns to promote workers’ rights are led by worker centers rather than traditional unions, the Labor Center assembled a panel discussion on Thursday, November 6, Worker Centers: A New Form of Worker Organization?, to consider the goals, funding and structure of workers centers, how they compare to labor unions and how their goals and activities are affected, if at all, by US labor law.

Professor Kate Griffith ’04 of Cornell ILR School presented a paper on the organizing models, funding, sources, and achievements of worker centers, and addressed the questions various types of worker centers may pose for the National Labor Relations Act. Discussants included Dennis A. Lalli of Bond Schoeneck & King, Patricia McConnell ’78 of Meyer, Suozzi, English and Klein P.C., and Tosh Anderson of the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS), a New York City-based worker center organizing immigrant workers in New York’s service industry. Professor Estreicher introduced the program, and Aaron Halegua, a research fellow of NYU School of Law, moderated.