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Liz Ford

@lizford.bsky.social
284 followers 314 following 43 posts

Law prof @ Seattle University, Workers' Rights Clinic. Write about wage theft and worker centers.

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Reposted by Liz Ford
Starbucks Workers United @sbworkersunited.org · 25/08/2026
🚨BREAKING: Our union of over 12,000 baristas are officially calling for a Starbucks boycott. Read this statement penned by Starbucks workers on why a boycott from ALL customers, allies, and organizations is necessary to fight back against corporate greed:
BOYCOTT STARBUCKS is written inside a zig-zaggy speech bubble against crumbled paper. Beside it are the Starbucks Workers United logo and an image of a coffee cup being poured out.We, the 12,000 and growing members of Starbucks Workers United, call on everyone who stands with working people to boycott Starbucks until they finalize a contract with union baristas and stop union-busting.
What we’re fighting for is simple: a minimum $17/hr wage, enough hours to live on, better staffing in our stores, and basic workplace protections. Every year, our living costs rise but our wages don’t keep up – a growing pressure many American workers are feeling as corporate greed accelerates unchecked in our country. 
Starbucks is banking on customers' blind loyalty to the integrity and values this company once stood for in order to keep squeezing them for profits. At a time when working-class people across the country are struggling in a challenging economy, it is no longer possible to be both a Starbucks customer and in support of workers; choosing to spend money at Starbucks is choosing a law breaking corporation over the baristas who make your coffee everyday exactly as you ask for it.
Starbucks has violated U.S. labor law more than any other company in modern history–the NLRB and its judges have found that Starbucks committed hundreds of labor violations and there are currently more than 550 unresolved unfair labor practice charges still pending against the company. Instead of finalizing a fair and reasonable union contract, Starbucks has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of care for the workers who fuel the company’s profits by wasting millions of dollars on AI and technology that doesn’t work, launching countless gimmicky drinks designed to distract from real problems, and inventing pointless policies that do nothing but make our jobs harder. 
This ongoing, irrational behavior by Starbucks and its refusal to settle a fair union contract with workers leaves us with no other choice than to call for a boycott. We know when working people stand up together, we win. 
No Contract? No Coffee.
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Power At Work @poweratwork.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Join Power At Work LIVE on LinkedIn for Episode #33 of the Power Half-Hour - 8/18 at noon ET/9 AM PT! 🎙️ @mrsethharris.bsky.social hosts @lizford.bsky.social (@seattleu.edu), Patricia Campos-Medina (@cornellilr.bsky.social), Michael Green (Texas A&M Law). Register: www.linkedin.com/events/thepo...
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
@fuelcoffeeseattle.bsky.social, I just saw that you reversed your no tipping policy, and at the same time you reduced you employees’ wages, effectively shifting your wage responsibilty onto your customers. And, to make matters much worse, you did not reduce prices.
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
My draft article, Thin Blue Advantage: Police Exceptionalism And the Two-Tier System of Public Sector Collective Bargaining, is up on SSRN! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Last night, at 9:45 p.m., Washington’s House of Representatives unanimously passed the Wage Recovery Act, including a first-in-the-nation wage recovery fund, based on my 2023 article: lnkd.in/gaapwvbi.
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
The current regime's cancelation of bargaining for all federal workers except law enforcement is an extension of a long-existing pattern of preserving collective bargaining rights for public safety employees while undermining them for everyone else. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/m...
nytimes.com
‘The Biggest Act of Union-Busting in U.S. History’: Trump’s War on Federal Workers
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Don't be fooled. This is bad. www.dol.gov/agencies/whd...
dol.gov
Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID)
Resolve wage and leave issues quickly through WHD's self-audit program without litigation.
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
With the closing of the Pineville W.V. office of the Mine Safety Health Administration, it's a good day to listen to Ghost of West Virginia. 22:43: "don't tell me you couldn't foresee what everyone reckons was a matter of time." www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5Qq...
youtube.com
Union, God and Country: A Livestream Performance of Ghosts of West Virginia + Q&A
YouTube video by Steve Earle
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
According to a new DOL WHD policy, it will now be brokering interest free loans from employees to their employers. This means that every time an employer gets caught by WHD committing wage theft, the employer makes money. I need a Bat Signal for @warren.senate.gov. www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov...
dol.gov
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Thank you @cfrosado.bsky.social and @jotwell.bsky.social for this wonderful review and mostly for engaging with my ideas. It's such a thrill to see my name next to César's and under JOTWEL's. Wow!
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Charlotte Garden @charlottegarden.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
For the “unions fighting for democracy” file
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
In good news, here are the good folks of Astoria, Oregon, population 10,000., saying “no kings!”
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AFL-CIO @aflcio.org · 10/06/2025
About 1 in 5 veterans go to bed hungry each day. The money used for Trump’s birthday parade could provide SNAP food assistance for nearly 18,000 veterans for an entire year.
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Trish K. Murphy @nwworkplacelaw.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Congratulations to the 2025 Mary Ellen Krug Award recipients! Calum Bryant, Teresa Dennerlein & Ates Serifsoy, three outstanding labor & employment law students from the U. of Washington Law School and Seattle U. Law School, were honored at the 2025 Pacific Coast L&E Law Conference #employmentlaw
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Thank you, @booker.senate.gov!
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
It's bad enough that Trump just pretended to prohibit collective bargaining in almost all federal departments, but check out who's totally exempted:
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
I am so excited to say that my article “Alt Legal Services: Revisioning Lawyers' Role in the Fight for Worker Power” was just came out in BJELL! www.law.berkeley.edu/library/ir/b...
law.berkeley.edu
Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law
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Carolina Forward @carolinaforward.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Here's what the entire federal workforce actually looks like. It's mostly doctors, nurses and healthcare workers in VA hospitals, the military, and then everything else.
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Heidi Li Feldman @heidilifeldman.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Lawsuit filed today against Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to enjoin him from continuing to give Musk and his minions personal and financial information about millions of Americans. Complaint at www.courtlistener.com/docket/69607.... 1/
courtlistener.com
Complaint – #1 in ALLIANCE FOR RETIRED AMERICANS v. BESSENT (D.D.C., 1:25-cv-00313) – CourtListener.com
COMPLAINT against All Defendants ( Filing fee $ 405 receipt number ADCDC-11453107) filed by ALLIANCE FOR RETIRED AMERICANS, SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION AFL-CIO, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERN...
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T. Greg Doucette @gregdoucette.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
➡️ January 20: FAA director fired ➡️ January 21: Air Traffic Controller hiring frozen ➡️ January 22: Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded ➡️ January 28: Buyout/retirement demand sent to existing employees ➡️ January 29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years Making America Great Again!
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
I'm loving this thread! I wish I could contribute something more than a promise to share the results of my research on whether there is two tiered regulation of public sector bargaining across the country, one for police departments and one for everyone else. Spoiler alert: the answer is yes.
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
What does it mean?
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Charlotte Garden @charlottegarden.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
"Meritocracy is a precondition for efficiency" is nonsense, but is being used to mean "we're coming for public-sector collective bargaining & the civil service." ("Any other standard for success inherently has negative externalities" means "I think saying 'externalities' makes me sound smart")
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Prof Dynarski @dynarski.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Holy crap this is an astounding piece of historical research Will post ungated link later today unless someone beats me to it www.nber.org/system/files...
The G.I. Bill, Standardized Testing, and Socioeconomic Origins of the U.S. Educational Elite Over a Century
Ran Abramitzky, Jennifer K. Kowalski, Santiago Pérez, and Joseph Price
NBER Working Paper No. 33164
November 2024
JEL No. 123, 124, N32
ABSTRACT
We compile, transcribe, and standardize historical records for 2.5 million students at 65 elite (private and public) U.S. colleges. By combining these data with more recent survey and administrative data, we assemble the largest dataset on the socioeconomic backgrounds of students at American colleges spanning the last 100 years. We document the following: First, despite a large increase in the share of lower-income students in the overall college-going population, the representation of these students at elite private or public colleges has remained at similarly low levels throughout the last century. Second, the representation of upper-income students at elite colleges decreased after World War II, but this group has regained its high representation since the 1980s. Third, while there has been no increase in the economic diversity of elite private and public colleges, these colleges have become more racially and geographically diverse. Fourth, two major policy changes in the history of American higher education, namely the G.I. Bill after World War II and the introduction of standardized tests for admissions, had little success in increasing the representation of lower- and middle-income students at elite colleges.
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 10/11/2024
Grateful to Cornell's wonderful Gali Racabi and Yiran Zhang for organizing and hosting the first annual Worklaw Junior Scholars Workshop. I can't imagine a better way to move through this hard moment than to gather with thoughtful and dedicated scholars in a beautiful place. Thank you!
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 16/09/2024
Huge thank you to the organizers of #cosell2024. It was, as usual, wildly inspiring and so fun. And, the feedback was invaluable! The venue in San Diego was a glorious added bonus.
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Charlotte Garden @charlottegarden.bsky.social · 23/07/2024
Hey, does anyone have the briefs in the new Wisconsin Act 10 case, Abbotsford Educ Assn v. WERC?
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LPE Blog @lpeblog.bsky.social · 22/07/2024
Today, Brooke Coleman argues that federal judges are increasingly demonstrating a lack of respect for the very self-governing system of which they are a part. lpeproject.org/blog/the-jud...
lpeproject.org
The Judiciary, Self-Governance, and the Rule of Law
Earlier this year, in an effort to limit judge-shopping, the Judicial Conference adopted a policy requiring judges to be assigned through a district-wide random selection process.
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Robin Marty @robinmarty.com · 18/07/2024
I accidentally read this op ed and it brought up something I've been meaning to say for a while: If you want to understand - REALLY understand - what Project 2025 will do, take a look at Alabama. (Buckle in, this is going to take a few) www.al.com/politics/202...
al.com
Smith: Project 2025 is better than what we're currently doing
Conservatives putting forth conservative policy ideas isn’t a threat to America. It is a clear and vital challenge to progressive liberalism and the federal bureaucracy.
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Will Jones @willpjones.bsky.social · 08/07/2024
"So, read her books and take her trainings, but not to deify her — nothing could be further from her mission. Take them so that you can put into practice the same methods that Jane McAlevey spent a lifetime practicing, modelling, and instilling in others." - Ethan Earle
rosalux.de
Remembering Jane McAlevey (1964–2024) - Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung
The ground-breaking labour organizer and internationalist leaves behind a powerful legacy
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Matt Pearce @mattdpearce.com · 09/07/2024
My ode to one of the great ones, Jane McAlevey. mattdpearce.substack.com/p/fix-your-u...
mattdpearce.substack.com
Fix your union, fight for journalism, repair the world
RIP Jane Frances McAlevey, 1964-2024.
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Charlotte Garden @charlottegarden.bsky.social · 29/05/2024
This statement suggests Vox didn't bargain with Vox Media Union over its new openai partnership. Under the NLRA, Vox very likely has to bargain over the partnership's effects on unionized workers, and maybe the decision itself. x.com/vox_union/st...
x.com
x.com
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Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 20/04/2024
Volkswagen workers in Tennessee pass historic vote to unionize www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
washingtonpost.com
Volkswagen workers in Tennessee pass historic vote to unionize
VW workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., became the first big auto plant in the South to join the United Auto Workers in a victory for organized labor.
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Charlotte Garden @charlottegarden.bsky.social · 20/04/2024
UAW > southern governors
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Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 20/04/2024
This 👏 is 👏 what 👏 democracy 👏 looks 👏 like uaw.org/in-historic-...
uaw.org
In Historic Breakthrough, Volkswagen Workers Become First Southern Autoworkers to Win Their Union - UAW | United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America
In a historic victory, an overwhelming majority of Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have voted to join the UAW.
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Will Jones @willpjones.bsky.social · 20/04/2024
"We saw the big contract that UAW workers won at the Big Three and that got everybody talking,” said Zachary Costello, a trainer in VW’s proficiency room. . . "Once people see the difference a union makes, there’s no way to stop them.”
uaw.org
In Historic Breakthrough, Volkswagen Workers Become First Southern Autoworkers to Win Their Union - UAW | United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America
In a historic victory, an overwhelming majority of Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have voted to join the UAW.
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 16/04/2024
Congratulations, @willpjones.bsky.social! Amazing, essential, courageous work.
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Will Jones @willpjones.bsky.social · 15/04/2024
My report, "Police Collective Bargaining and Police Violence," which recommends reforms to collective bargaining policies that can increase accountability for police violence, is now available through Community Change. Check it out! communitychange.org/wp-content/u...
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 29/02/2024
Thank you, Berkeley Journal of Employment & Labor Law! I’m so excited to be included in upcoming Issue 46 with my article “Alt Legal Services: Revisioning Lawyers’ Role in the fight for Worker Power.”
papers.ssrn.com
Alt-Legal Services: Re-Visioning Lawyers’ Role in the Fight for Worker Power
Can litigation build worker power? This question is the subject of a long-running debate about lawyers’ roles in the labor movement as a whole, and particularly
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Will Jones @willpjones.bsky.social · 21/12/2023
@genderpolicyrpt.bsky.social
genderpolicyreport.umn.edu
Who Cares? The Value of Unpaid Carework in Minnesota - Gender Policy Report
Unpaid carework is essential to our families, society, and economy. So why don't we value it accordingly?
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 14/12/2023
I love this!
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 21/11/2023
Really well done, important video opinion piece in NYT. www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/o...
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 17/11/2023
Thank you Karl Klare, for so many things, but definitely for writing this. lpeproject.org/blog/what-no...
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 29/10/2023
(Trying this again with better formatting) Thrilled to spend time with and present "Alt Legal Services" to warm, kind, brilliant colleagues at COSELL in Minnesota. Thanks to @charlottegarden.bsky.social and @matthewtbodie.bsky.social and University Of Minnesota Law for organizing and hosting!
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 29/10/2023
Thrilled to spend time with and present "Alt Legal Services" to warm, kind, brilliant colleagues at @COSELLlabor in Minnesota. Thanks to @CharlotteGarden and @matthewtbodie and @UofMNLawSchool for organizing and hosting!
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Liz Ford @lizford.bsky.social · 18/10/2023
This is a beautiful article about an equally beautiful person. I'm glad for this to be my first post on this platform. www.newyorker.com/news/persons...
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