News & Commentary

February 23, 2014

The Wall Street Journal reports that Coca-Cola Co.’s Spanish bottler is being taken to court by its unions over the company’s plan to close plants and cut jobs in the Iberian region.

Bloomberg reports that Northwestern University football coach Patrick Fitzgerald testified for approximately three hours before the National Labor Relations Board in Chicago. Fitzgerald, whose testimony supports the school’s argument that the football players are not full time employees, proved a strong counter to the football players’ case, which was described as weak by an NLRB hearing officer.

The New York Times reports that student internships have come under criticism in Canada for requiring students to work long hours for little or no pay, similar to the concerns raised about internships in the U.S. There is a case pending before the Canadian courts that was filed by a student who is seeking back pay, claiming that her internship provided her with no educational benefit and required her to do the same work as paid employees.

The Los Angeles Times reports that over 1,000 entertainment industry workers gathered in Burbank yesterday in support of a campaign to expand California’s film and TV tax credit program in order to avoid jobs going out of state. The rally was organized by a coalition of entertainment industry unions.

The Associated Press reports that Nevada has agreed to pay $99,999 to settle a lawsuit filed by a female member of the Nevada Capitol police who claimed she was the victim of sexual and age discrimination.

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