Victory for Providence Worker Retention Law
An innovative Providence ordinance gives hotel workers a right to their jobs for 90 days after a change in ownership. Michael T. Anderson represented a coalition of workers and community organizations defending the Ordinance against a challenge by hotel employers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed a lower court decision upholding the Ordinance. This is an important victory for workers who use political power to establish new employment rights. It rejects employers' effort to misuse the National Labor Relations Act as a barrier against individual employment legislation.
Anderson told the National Law Journal that he foresees a new progressive movement "where state and local governments really start responding to economic crisis with innovative new solutions. There's nothing in the federal constitution or federal labor law that guarantees that employers be immune from progressive legislation like that."