Ryan Quinn

@ryanquinn

Assistant teaching professor of labor and employment law at @nusl.bsky.social. Co-founder, Organization of Workplace Lawyers (OWL). Former union organizer. America’s least-beloved singing cowboy in Salvation Alley String Band. he/him

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Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Jul 24

NLRB efiling is down for the weekend starting at 11. You have 55 hours this weekend to picket wherever you want.* *not legal advice, DO NOT do this

Screenshot of the National Labor Relations Board website with a header saying “The NLRB public website is scheduled to undergo routine maintenance from Friday, July 24, 2026, at 11:00 p.m. ET (8:00 p.m. PT) until Monday, July 27, 2026, at 6:00 a.m. ET. From Friday night at 11:00 p.m. ET through Saturday morning at about 9:00 a.m. ET, E-Filing will not be available. From Saturday through Monday morning, the E-Filing applications (E-Filing, Online Charge and Petition, and My Account Portal) may be periodically unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Jul 12

Fight like a professor.

Jeff Daniels portraying Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlin in the miniseries “Gettysburg.” Chamberlin, who in civilian life was a professor of oratory at Bowdoin, is yelling “bayonets!” and preparing the 20th Maine to charge down Little Round Top in a decisive battle on the second day of Gettysburg.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Jun 25

“Borat 2 tonight Queen?” meme, with “court packing” replacing “borat 2.” The text shows a series of text messages sent over the course of several days saying “court packing tonite 👀,” “court packing tonight queen??,” and court packing tonite 👀.”

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· May 17

No low-ballers. I know what I got.

Three five-quart containers of different grades of automotive oil, arrayed on a grey garage floor.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· May 6

The plan? First, get a bunch of NIMBY "pricks" to approve a multifamily zoning district on a golf course. Then, take the gold course by eminent domain to build housing.

Nathan Fielder of "Nathan for You," about to explain the plan.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· May 2

Pretty sure that wearing this shirt creates an unrebuttable presumption of a Title VII violation.

A photo of a red sweatshirt with white text saying “go ahead / call HR.” The sweatshirt has a price tag on it and in the background are other items being sold at an indoor flea market.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Apr 22

Ok, let's go

A screenshot of an email to "me" reading "Thank you for joining the AAUP" from AAUP Membership Services.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Mar 31

Edited December 29, 2020 tweet from @metalgearobama with screen name "Kafka, Esq." reading: "Reading SCOTUS decisions and shaking my head the whole time so the people on the bus know I disagree with it." The words "SCOTUS decisions" have been incompetently edited in to cover up text which had previously been in the tweet.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Mar 13

The logic here—that the EU “right to move” will be hindered by a member state denying a passport gender change—strikes me as a compelling explanation of (one reason) why Kansas revoking licenses was unconstitutional. It burdens the right to travel under US privileges and immunities clause.

38 The exercise of the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States, however, enshrined in Article 21 TFEU, is likely to be hindered by a Member State’s refusal to recognise a change of gender identity made pursuant to the procedures laid down for that purpose in the Member State in which the Union citizen concerned exercised that right, whether or not that change is linked to a change of family name or first name.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Mar 12

This seems like the key to understanding why the Senate would seek an advisory opinion rather than suing the AG: “su[ing] to block a ballot question from advancing…could give ballot question proponents more ammunition to paint Beacon Hill as an opaque fiefdom in need of outside reform.”

Then, there are intertwined concerns over politics and logistics. Officials are unsure if the Senate would need to hire outside counsel to represent it in court. It’s also not clear if either branch of the Legislature as a body has ever sued to block a ballot question from advancing, and doing so could give ballot question proponents more ammunition to paint Beacon Hill as an opaque fiefdom in need of outside reform.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Mar 9

My favorite recent entry in this genre (same town).

Photograph of police report in newspaper saying "Saturday, Feb. 21 at 3:44 p.m. -- Caller reported seeing a seemingly sick raccoon on the back deck of a building in the area of Grapevine Road, saying it was acting strange and sluggish and had not moved when shooed. The caller said the animal had remained in place for about half an hour by the time of the call. The Animal Control Officer was notified and said that the raccoon should move on its own eventually."

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Mar 7

When people say that technologies embody ideologies or power relationships, this is what they mean. ChatGPT seems like an incredibly useful tool for careless people who want to use it only to "smash[] up things and creatures and then retreat[] back into their money..." as F. Scott Fitzgerald put it.

Text reading "When the Trump administration went looking last spring for National Endowment for the Humanities grants to cut, it turned to a familiar scourge of professors: ChatGPT."

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Mar 3

I was walking through Brooklyn on a work trip this weekend, saw this, and thought: “I need to show this to the mutual I don’t actually know so he can tell his dog about it.” Normal stuff.

A wooden shelving unit built onto a black metal gate. The shelf is labeled “Stick Library” in red lettering with images of dog’s paw prints on either side of the text. On the shelves are branches, free for passing dogs to borrow.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Jan 9

A still from "The Godfather Part 2" depicting Hyman Roth's birthday in Havana, in late December, 1958. A cake with a decoration depicting Cuba is about to be cut, symbolizing Roth dividing up his Cuban holdings among various criminals.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Dec 18

The real One Big Beautiful Bill

A black and white picture of IWW cofounder "Big" Bill Haywood. Haywood is wearing a coat, tie, and vest, and a brimmed hat with a center crease.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Dec 14

Any GC will prioritize certain types of charges and Congress has provided that some allegations have a higher priority (§§ 10(l), (m)). But charges are up in part because GC Abruzzo had aggressive theories of how to use the law which people used to revitalize a dead statute. That is a good thing!

“In pursuing so many things all simultaneously, we overloaded our system,” he said. “We have a weird historic case intake, and as well as historic staffing lows. It’s so sort of high volume, low capacity. And so the combination of those two things put us into a situation where we had a serious backlog of cases, and it was taking significantly longer than is typical to process cases.”

He acknowledged the NLRB could use more staff, but likened the decisions he has made since taking charge of the agency to that of a family. “There is a reality … like any homeowner knows, or family knows … that you have a certain amount of money, and you can therefore do a certain amount of things, and you can’t always go to Disney World. You know with the resources you have.”

“Not that any of this is Disney World,” added Cowen. “It’s our challenge, as the managers of this agency, to be able to maintain operations with the resources we have.”

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Oct 29

They will also need to provide pay ranges for an incumbent employee's own position upon request. Repeated failure to do so can result in fines. Employees should report violations to the Attorney General's Office, which has added to its workplace complaint form: www.mass.gov/how-to/file-... 5/5

An image of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office Fair labor Division's workplace complaint form, which as of today includes a "Pay/Salary transparency" category and subsidiary violations of the law including the employer's failure to include pay range in a job posting, in an offer of promotion or transfer, in a response to a request for salary range information, or the employer's failure to file an EEO report with the state.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Oct 29

Today is the effective date of Massachusetts's new pay transparency law, which means your local labor law professor is on local news, talking about how pay transparency can be one method for moving toward pay equity. 1/ malegislature.gov/Laws/General...

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Oct 22

So we have an incoherent test for "wages" under the Massachusetts Wage Act which ignores the remedial purpose of the statute and which instead uses the legislature's past attempts to remedy narrow judicial interpretations to offer yet another narrow judicial interpretation. 9/

The retention bonus payments at issue in this case do not fall within any of the enumerated forms of benefits or compensation that the Legislature has included in "wages"; they are neither vacation or holiday payments, nor are they commissions.6 Indeed, the plaintiff does not contend otherwise. Nonetheless, the plaintiff asks that we deem the retention bonus payments to be "wages" because they are "a pledge or payment of usually monetary remuneration by an employer especially for labor or services."

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Oct 22

The Supreme Judicial Court (Wolohojian, J.) lays out a distinction between "ordinary payment[s]...in exchange for labor and services" and other types of compensation "not made solely in exchange for the [employee's] labor or services." This is not a theoretically clear distinction! 5/

Put otherwise, they were additional compensation that was contingent, or conditioned, on his continued employment to dates set by Syncsort to which the plaintiff agreed. They were also further conditioned on the plaintiff remaining in good performance standing with no reduction in his regular work schedule. The bonus payments were not made solely in exchange for the plaintiff's labor or services.

The Legislature has specified that the term "shall include any holiday or vacation payments due an employee under an oral or written agreement," and "so far as apt, . . . payment of commissions when the amount of such commissions, less allowable or authorized deductions, has been definitely determined and has become due and payable to such employee."5 G. L. c. 149, § 148. See Weems v. Citigroup Inc., 453 Mass. 147, 151 (2009). Beyond that, the act provides that wages shall be paid "weekly or biweekly," or monthly for certain employees, giving some indication that "wages" are akin to ordinary payment from an 8 employer to an employee in exchange for labor or services.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Oct 1

Deep cut. I made this in law school for when I had read the books/articles my profs had written and were teaching.

George C. Scott as General George S. Patton in the film Patton, calling out to Rommel “You magnificent bastard! I read your book!”

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Sep 12

What the NLRB GC is arguing is that federal labor law should preempt state labor law even if federal labor law is not being enforced. That even if the NLRB becomes a non-functioning shell of an agency, states cannot step in. Great news for violators of labor law, I suppose.

Two screenshots from the Simpsons. In both screenshots, Marge Simpson is surrounded by Chief Wiggum and two other police officers. In the top screenshot, Simpson says "I thought you said the law was powerless." In the bottom screenshot, Wiggum replies "Powerless to help you, not punish you."

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Sep 5

Two screens from the Wing. In captions, Amy Gardner, played by Mary-Louise Parker, says “Jimmy Fitzsimmons won the Boston Mayor’s Race by 51 points and believe it or not, did not beat the spread.” Josh Lyman, played by Bradley Whitfield, and C.J. Cregg, played by Allison Janney, react incredulously.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Aug 31

Imagining a world in which unions and the government didn’t kick out and blacklist unions’ most effective organizers.

Clip of the Simpsons’ character lawyer Lionel Hutz imagining a “world without lawyers” in which people from all over the world walk together holding hands against a backdrop of a smiling sun and a rainbow.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Aug 31

Unfortunately, “political freedom” does not extend to being a Wobbly or a member of the Communist Party (fuck the fascists, nazis, and bund, though—I agree 100% with those exclusions). Expelling members who join the Chamber of Commerce or National Association of Manufacturers is a good bit.

Text reading:

Any member accepting membership in the Industrial Workers of the World, the Working Class Union, the One Big Union, or any other dual organization, or membership in the National Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers or the Ku Klux Klan, or the Communist Party, or Fascist, Nazi or Bund organization, shall be expelled from District 50, United Mine Workers of America, and is permanently de-
42

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Aug 31

Great stuff in Articles 1 and 2. We’re protecting the religious and political freedom of members! We’re uniting into “one organization, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin,” all workers eligible for membership in industries we cover…

Text reading:

CONSTITUTION

ARTICLE 1
Name
This Organization shall be known as District 50, United Mine Workers of America. It shall be International in scope, and as an organization shall not be committed to or favor any particular religious creed; neither shall affiliation herewith interfere with the religious or political freedom of individual members.

ARTICLE 2
Objects
First. To unite in one organization, regardless of race, creed, color or national origin, all workers eligible for membership employed in such industries as may be designated and approved by the District Executive Board.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Aug 31

We love a union Committee on Naturalization (to assist those who want to naturalize)

Text reading:

NATURALIZATION OF MEMBERS
Under this order of business, the presiding officer will inquire, "Are there any members present who de- sire to become citizens of the United States?" If there are those present who wish to do so, their names should be referred to the Committee on Naturalization appointed by each Local Union whose duty it shall be to assist foreign-born members to be- come naturalized and to supply them with information regarding natural- ization laws, and to help them in every way possible to become citizens of the United States.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Aug 31

Today’s flea market find: the 1961 United Mine Workers District 50 Constitution. Lots of fascinating stuff in here (if you are also a labor nerd).

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Aug 23

ERISA mentioned!

A gaudy, flashing blue text reading “ERISA!” against a backdrop of fireworks.

Ryan Quinn@ryanquinn· Aug 15