Labor Attorney Nan Lassen Quoted by Vox on Regulators’ Failures to Protect Workers from COVID-19 as States Reopen

Vox’s Nicole Narea reports on the federal agency that is supposed to protect workers from unsafe conditions caused by Covid-19.

Non-union workers have been facing perilous conditions when depending on state and federal regulators like Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to protect them. Willig, Williams & Davidson’s Labor Attorney Nancy “Nan” Lassen spoke to Vox about the strength of workers organizing together to demand better working conditions in the face of OSHA delegating its enforcement authority and substantive authority. This has left the typical non-organized, non-union worker at the mercy of their employer.

Lassen said: “The first thing I always tell people is: Gather your fellow workers together and act as a group. People acting as a group tend to get a lot more attention from employers than squeaking wheels. Individual employees can get marginalized and isolated and retaliated against. But there truly is strength in numbers. Workers that are willing to say we rise together and we fall together have become less of a target and acquire more credibility.”

The National Labor Relations Act protects workers from retaliation should they engage in any concerted activity with respect to their hours, wages, and terms and conditions of employment. Lassen says the pandemic could present an opportunity for the labor movement if workers can collectivize and demand better working conditions through the collective-bargaining process.

Read the full article on Vox.

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