Labor News & Commentary November 17, members of Cornell's Graduate Student Union speak of repression & more

https://onlabor.org/november-17-2024/

By Gilbert Placeres Gilbert Placeres is a student at Harvard Law School.

In today’s News & Commentary, the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule is struck down and members of Cornell’s Graduate Student Union speak of repression on campus and the case of Momodou Taal.

On Friday, a Texas federal judge struck down the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule which would have expanded eligibility to four million new workers. The new rule would have made those who make less than $58,656 automatically eligible for overtime pay whenever they worked more than 40 hours. Judge Sean D. Jordan, of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, found the rule exceeded the agency’s authority because it effectively eliminated other overtime eligibility considerations, making it “a salary-only test.” “In sum, because the EAP [executive, administrative, and professional] Exemption requires that an employee’s status turn on duties—not salary—and because the 2024 Rule’s changes make salary predominate over duties for millions of employees, the changes exceed the Department’s authority to define and delimit the relevant terms,” he concluded.

In In These Times, Maximillian Alvarez interviews two members of Cornell’s Graduate Student Union, Jawuanna McAllister and Jenna Marvin, about the union’s role in issues of free speech and discipline on campus. Specifically, they discuss how the union sprung into action to defend Momodou Taal, a Ph.D candidate and international student who was suspended and faced possible loss of his immigration status after his participation in a protest pressuring the university to divest from Israel. McAllister and Marvin discuss how the administration has ignored a Memorandum of Agreement under which they are supposed to bargain over discipline that affects terms and conditions, how new president Laurence Kotlikoff is “spearheading… repressive tactics[,]” and how international students are targeted due to their vulnerability.