Go to Prison

prisonLast week I had the honor of joining my colleague Janine Geske on her regular journey to Green Bay Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison reminiscent of the prison in Shawshank Redemption.  The prisoners at Green Bay run the gamut of serious crimes from sexual assault to drug distribution to armed robbery to homicide.  Janine runs a three-day session on restorative justice, meeting with about twenty prisoners as part of a several-month program on the challenges and possibilities faced by these men.  She has been running this program here for years as part of our Restorative Justice Initiative, and I was so excited to finally fit this in my schedule.  Having done this trip last week and then spent the past weekend in services for Rosh Hashanah, I have had plenty of time to reflect on crime, punishment, repentence, and redemption.  In retrospect, I don’t know that I could have timed this better.  Suffice it to say, the experience was amazing. 

First, let me set the stage. 

Continue ReadingGo to Prison

Article Compares Research Results Using Westlaw and Lexis

This morning the Law Librarian Blog reports on a study that makes concrete the different research results achieved through the Westlaw and Lexis research systems.  The author of the paper, Susan Nevelow Mart, a reference librarian at UC-Hastings, provides this abstract on SSRN:

Continue ReadingArticle Compares Research Results Using Westlaw and Lexis

The Starbucks at the Milwaukee Hilton: Unit Clarification Story

Starbucks-logo

It is so rare that I actually get to write a post about traditional labor law that I usually jump at the chance.   Especially when the labor law concerns a local Milwaukee institution that most of us are aware of.

What you might not have know is that Hilton food and beverage employees are represented by a union.  Recently, the Starbucks located inside the Hilton became unionized as well. The question became whether the Starbucks employees could just join the Hilton union.

Even though the local regional director in Milwaukee ruled that such a combination was lawful, the National Labor Relations Board (in a 2-0 decision) reversed because (according to BNA) (subscription required):

Chairman Wilma B. Liebman and Member Peter C. Schaumber found that the baristas, who are employed by Milwaukee City Center LLC, have a separate identity from the bargaining unit and constitute a separate appropriate unit and that the two groups do not share an overwhelming community of interest.

The board emphasized the lack of interchange between Starbucks baristas and food/beverage employees in the bargaining unit and the absence of common supervision of the two groups.

Actually, not much controversy here. Just wanted the Marquette Faculty Law Blog readers to have a taste of what goes on in labor law once in a while.

Continue ReadingThe Starbucks at the Milwaukee Hilton: Unit Clarification Story