Sharon Block

Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy, Harvard Law School

Cambridge, MA

@sharblock

Experience

  • White House (Biden and Obama administrations)
  • Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
  • Department of Labor
  • National Labor Relations Board

Expertise

  • Organized labor and strikes
  • Labor and employment law
  • Regulatory policy

Education

  • Georgetown University, J.D.
  • Columbia University, B.A.

Recent Coverage

MAY 21, 2024

Bloomberg Law | UAW Has Path to Reverse Mercedes Loss Under New Labor Standard

“It’s really hard to predict because we’re still at the beginning of the implementation of Cemex,” said Sharon Block, a former NLRB member and professor at Harvard Law School. “I would imagine UAW lawyers and leadership are figuring out whether they can make a strong argument.”

“At the very least, it is a serious question about whether Cemex would apply,” she said.


MAY 20, 2024

Axios | Why the UAW lost the vote in Alabama

Given defeat, now the question is “How much does this loss change the dynamic?” says Sharon Block, a professor at Harvard Law and former National Labor Relations Board official.


MAY 14, 2024

Axios | Mercedes-Benz asked Nick Saban to address Alabama workers after UAW launched organizing campaign

“In a big, high-profile organizing campaign like this on both sides there’s always some jockeying or theatrics,” Sharon Block, executive director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School, tells Axios.


MAY 13, 2024

CBS News | Volkswagen workers vote for union in Tennessee — a major win for organized labor

Despite the obstacles to organizing labor in the South, “The UAW showed last night we need to go and rethink all those negative statements that we’ve been telling workers that it can’t be done,” Sharon Block, professor and executive director the Center for Labor and a Just Economy, Harvard University Law School, said on Saturday in a call organized by the Economic Speakers Bureau.


APR 23, 2024

NPR | What the Starbucks case at the Supreme Court is all about. Hint: It’s not coffee

“To sort of stop the bleeding,” explains Sharon Block, a Harvard Law School professor and former NLRB board member.

That’s critical, Block says, because it can take months or even years for the NLRB to process cases. If the allegedly illegal behavior can’t be stopped while a case is under investigation, any remedy the labor board might issue as part of a final ruling could be meaningless.

“Life moves on,” Block says. “The organizing campaign may be dead by the time the board issues a decision, because everybody got freaked out by the lead union organizers getting fired.”


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About Sharon

Sharon Block is a Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School. Prior to returning to Harvard, she led the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Biden White House. She also served as a senior advisor to the Biden-Harris Transition team, providing advice to the OMB and Labor Agency Review teams on labor, worker empowerment and regulatory policy and participating in briefing and hearing preparation for nominees.

From 2017 to 2021, Block led the Labor and Worklife Program. During this time, she launched the Clean Slate for Worker Power project, which is a comprehensive policy initiative focused on fundamental redesign of labor law with the aspiration to enable all working people to create the collective economic and political power necessary to build an equitable economy and politics.

For twenty years, Block has held key labor policy positions across the legislative and executive branches of the federal government. In the Obama Administration, she was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor and Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Labor Tom Perez. In 2012, President Obama appointed her to serve as a member of the National Labor Relations Board. While serving in the Obama White House as Senior Public Engagement Advisor for Labor and Working Families, Block led the historic White House Summit on Worker Voice, which explored ways for workers to fully participate in their economic future. At the President’s direction, Block also conducted a series of regional worker voice summits across the country. Prior to the Obama Administration, she was senior counsel to the Senate HELP committee under Senator Edward Kennedy, playing a central role in the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act.

Block writes frequently on labor, employment and administrative law topics. She is a senior contributor to OnLabor.org and her opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Fortune, The American Prospect, The Hill, USA Today, Forbes, and Newsweek.