Return of the Sit Down Strike

Sit_down_woolworths_strike The title of this post is courtesy of Harris Freeman (Western New England) who brings to my attention the current situation in Chicago concerning the developments at Republic Windows:

Harris writes:

Members of the UE Local have started a sit-down strike after the employer shut down on a 3-day notice, violating the WARN Act, after Bank of America cancelled the business’s line of credit.

Union members are rotating in thirty-person shifts to staff the sit-down.   Here is the URL for one of a series of articles in the Chicago Tribune on the sit-down.

The NYT also did an article on the strike.

Harris asks some good questions including: are we going to see some new — and old — tactics by workers who are seeking to defend their unions and livelihoods in response to the rapidly unfolding economic crisis?

He also points out that maybe the news of this sit-down will lead to some interesting exam questions.

Cross posted at Workplace Prof Blog.

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BCS Or Playoff System To Determine Football National Champion?

This year’s Florida-Oklahoma BCS national championship pairing provides strong ammunition for those, including President-elect Barack Obama, advocating there instead should be a playoff system to determine the  NCAA Division I football national champion.  Although Oklahoma and Florida are the two top-ranked teams in the regular season BCS standings, third-ranked Texas defeated Oklahoma 45-35 in October.  Obama’s proposal for an eight-team playoff would work well this year because there are seven one-loss BCS conference teams (but none are undefeated) and two undefeated teams from non-BCS conferences.  (But which one of the nine would be left out?) Obama has suggested he would be willing “to throw his weight around” to make this happen.  What he could do: push to eliminate the federal tax-exempt status of university athletic departments, or perhaps even propose federal legislation to directly regulate the NCAA.  

However, neither is likely to happen because Obama will have more important issues on his plate.  Moreover, reflecting the historically cozy relationship between sports and politics in America, Congress rarely (if ever) has enacted any sports-specific laws that would adversely affect national sports governing bodies and leagues or their respective members.  At most, we might see some future Congressional hearings or calls for a Justice Department investigation regarding whether the BCS system violates the federal antitrust laws — initiated by legislators from states in which a home university’s football team was perceived by constituents to have been treated unfairly.  But, after all is said and done, there will be a lot more said than done.  Besides, Obama’s proposal would make NCAA Division I football even more like the NFL, probably result in the elimination of many of the 34 existing bowl games, and reduce a source of lively debate among college football fans.

Continue ReadingBCS Or Playoff System To Determine Football National Champion?

Seventh Circuit Week in Review: What Do a MySpace Predator, an Unrepresented Corporation, and a Pair of Meth Traffickers Have in Common?

Answer: They all lost their appeals in the Seventh Circuit last week.  In fact, our diligent Seventh Circuit judges issued five new opinions in criminal cases last week, and the defendants lost in all of them.  Here are the highlights:

In the MySpace case, United States v. Morris (No. 08-2329), the defendant attempted to contact a minor through the minor’s MySpace page.  The minor’s mother responded by creating her own MySpace page, in which she posed as a 15 year old, and began a series of communications with the defendant.  After the mom agreed to have sex with him, Morris mailed a bus ticket to her so that they could meet.  The mom reported Morris to the FBI, resulting in his arrest and prosecution.  After his conviction for attempting to transport a minor across state lines to engage in illegal sexual conduct, Morris raised a single issue on appeal: that the person he intended to transport across state lines was neither a minor nor a law enforcement officer posing as a minor, but a private citizen conducting her own sting operation.  However, it is well established in such cases that the defendant has no defense if his intended victim is really an undercover law enforcement officer, and the Seventh Circuit (per Judge Posner) found no basis for distinguishing undercover private citizens: in either situation, the criminal justice system appropriately punishes the defendant for his demonstrated dangerousness. 

Continue ReadingSeventh Circuit Week in Review: What Do a MySpace Predator, an Unrepresented Corporation, and a Pair of Meth Traffickers Have in Common?
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