Catherwood LibraryILR School

In an update regarding National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil, it appears that the DOJ, which originally sided with the workers involved in the lawsuit, has now taken on Murphy Oil’s point of view, given the switch from the Obama to the Trump administration in the past year as the case is taken on by the Supreme Court. In 2010, four workers at Murphy Oil filed a complaint with their employer citing unpaid overtime wages as their main grievance only to be shut down by management, which argued that they signed away their right to file complaints as a group when they were hired and that they could only file individually. The case was picked up by the NLRB which zealously supported the four women until the case reached the Supreme Court in January. Following the appointment of Trump’s DOJ, the U.S. government has rescinded its support of the NLRB and the workers, leaving them with less resources and significantly less hope for the outcome of the case, which could have far-reaching repercussions for all workers’ rights to collective bargaining and grievance-filing.