Oregon: the toughest heat protection law in the US (tags)
Heat waves are becoming more frequent and longer. Farm workers, people on construction sites, and even firefighters have been largely dependent on the goodwill of their employers during a heat wave. How long Oregon's heat protection law will remain in effect is unknown.
Top Economist: As Pandemic Recedes, a Chance to Rethink Unemployment (tags)
The Chamber of Commerce, for example, has pushed the U.S. to stop expanded unemployment insurance benefits so that people will be forced to return to low-wage jobs. Some Republican-dominated states have jumped on board with this idea.
Addendum: Benjamin Tucker American Mutualist: Tucker Did Not Advocate Voting in Businesses (tags)
This series is supposed to present the ideas of Tucker in an accurate fashion. So this article will focus on how Tucker himself intended businesses to be operated.
Pantarchy: Voluntary State and a New Catholic Church: Stephen Pearl Andrews (tags)
The Libertarian Socialism of Individualist Anarchist Stephen Pearl Andrews.
Benjamin Tucker: American Mutualist Part 1 (tags)
In an Individualist Mutualist market economy of Josiah Warren, Benjamin Tucker, or Stephen Pearl Andrews employers can indeed pay themselves more money than their employees for equal time worked however even though they can pay themselves more money than their employees for equal time worked they are still Mutualists and not Capitalists. Why is this?
Class War on the Waterfront: Longshore Workers Under Attack (tags)
ILWU Local 10 retired longshoreman Jack Heyman talks about technology and the danger of a proposed 8 year contract.
107 More Groups Oppose Neil Gorsuch (tags)
107 women's, labor, civil rights, abolition of death penalty, gay and other groups join the mass movement opposing Neil Gorsuch
Labor Laws Learned by Studying OUR Walmart #2 (tags)
I'm not a labor lawyer, so this article doesn't condone anything or give legal advice. You should double check everything here.
Milliman Medical Index on Obamacare (tags)
healthcare
Obama’s Shakedown of Medicare (tags)
In a political era of corporate dominance it was inevitable that doublespeak would become the official language of Washington, DC. Now “cuts” to social programs are referred to as “savings,” while the destruction of these programs is “reform.” This is the essence of President Obama’s doublespeakish “Race to the Top” public education “reform,” as well as his yet-to-be-announced deficit plan based on Medicare “savings.”
Longshore Struggle Brews on Both Coasts, Part 2 (tags)
In the Northwest, at the terminals on the Columbia River, Puget Sound, and Portland, Oregon, the membership of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) are on the defensive against the Northwest Grain Handlers Association (NWGHA). The conflict involves nearly 3,000 workers at terminals that handle a quarter of the nation’s grain exports.
Why We Defend the ILWU and All Workers (tags)
In recent weeks, a showdown has loomed on U.S. docks between the shipping bosses and port workers that has rattled the capitalist ruling class. On the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, the International Longshoreman's Association prepared to strike container shipping while the employers threatened to lock out 14,500 ILA members. On the West Coast, the grain shippers been demanding a giveback contract from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which would effectively bypass the union hiring hall, slash workers' vital safety protections and gut union power. Yet in the midst of the Northwest grain battle, an Occupy activist Peter Little publishes an article vociferously arguing against the call to defend the ILWU. While posing as ultra-left, this policy if actually carried out would aid the employers who are hell-bent on destroying ILWU union power on the waterfront. And blaming sellouts on the nature of unions lets the bureaucrats off the hook. We in the Internationalist Group say: all those who stand with the exploited and oppressed must come to the defense of the ILWU in this fight. And that defense includes forthrightly opposing the capitulations and betrayals by the labor bureaucracy which sells out vital union gains in the vain hope of an impossible "cooperation" with capital, endangering the workers organizations they preside over.
Money, Power, and Politics (tags)
There has been much talk recently about the impact of money on politics, especially in the wake of the Citizens United ruling that has ratcheted up the role of corporate money in political campaigns. Organized labor was quick to blame this ruling for its defeat in Wisconsin. And many have assumed that the relation of money to politics is like a law of nature: the more money one has, the more political power one can wield.
PHILIPPINES: Employers win again: P22 COLA too little, too late (tags)
?If the objective is to increase the capacity of workers and their families to weather economic woes, an increase of P22 a day at this point is simply too little, too late,? Akbayan Representative Walden Bello said on Tuesday morning following the announcement of a P22-increase in minimum wage earners? cost of living allowance (COLA).
Human Trafficking in Israel (tags)
exploitation
Green U.S. Senate Candidate Backs "Immediate Amnesty" For Millions of Undocumented Workers (tags)
"As a longtime defender of immigrant rights, I strongly back the idea of granting immediate amnesty for the millions of undocumented workers currently living within the United States. An overwhelming majority of them work incredibly hard, are law abiding, and make invaluable contributions to the wealth of this country."
We Can’t Defeat the Capitalist Offensive Without Changing Our Unions (tags)
The struggle against the concessionary policies of the Union hierarchy is harder than fighting the boss but we can’t defeat the boss without changing our Unions
Employers and Labor Leaders Pressure Muni Drivers to Reverse Vote (tags)
The collaboration between employers and the heads of organized Labor is forced more in to the open as the polarization between the classes grows. There is no room for pretense anymore.
Fighting Company Union Ideology (tags)
The evolution of the company union in the U.S. is a history of both labor’s progress and its missteps. It is a story that, at bottom, speaks to the battle of workers to find an independent, powerful presence on the job — and to push this clout into the community to help shape the broader public realm. Unions came into existence organically wherever capitalism developed. As soon as workers were brought together by a small number of employers and compelled to make profits for them, the employees naturally sought to defend themselves. A living wage and decent working conditions failed to emerge through the good will of the employers, unfortunately, so workers took matters into their own hands.
Unite/Here Members Rally in San Francisco (tags)
The turn out at the Unite/HERE rally was good but the rank and file were well contained and the same old tactics and methods that have failed us for so long are still there.
The Devastating Consequences of a Corporate Health Care Bill (tags)
Wading through the endless debate over health care has exhausted the patience of most Americans — the zigzags, obscure language, and long-winded discussion is inherently repulsive. But now the dust is starting to settle, and the Congressional vision for health care in the U.S. is emerging. Instead of being “progressive,” it will amount to a massive, corporate-inspired attack on American workers, the elderly, and the poor.
Poor Nations Offer Paid Sick Leave; Why Can’t U.S. Workers Receive It? (tags)
This great essay by Kelber says that almost every single country out there supports new mothers and sick workers, except the United States of America. Poor countries are doing better by their workers than our country is. This is PATHETIC.
The Bosses Have the Public Sector in Their Sights. (tags)
Years of collaboration and concessions by the heads of organized Labor have paved the way for the aggressive attacks and confidence the employers are displaying now. These concessionary policies have been a catastrophe for workers leading to much unnecessary suffering.
Sweatshop Conditions in US Cities (tags)
vicious labor exploitation
Betrayals Continue as Trumka Takes the Helm at the AFL-CIO (tags)
The partnership between the heads of organized Labor and the employers strengthens as Trumka dumps EFCA after spending millions of dollars of member's hard earned dues money getting our enemies elected in to office.
World Bankers Agree: The Recession is Over...Maybe (tags)
Few would consider the opinions of the world's central bankers to be unbiased or even accurate. These self-proclaimed wise men of international finance didn't see the recession coming until it blew up in their faces - a blast that destroyed their credibility. Nevertheless, it is interesting to hear them talk, not because they're fun to listen to, but because of "the messaging" that rich investors use religiously in placing their stock market bets, while the rest of us are given a calming sermon, so that the bankers' lackeys - the politicians - may continue ruining the country uncontested.
Labor Leaders Put All “Our” Eggs in the NLRB and EFCA Baskets (tags)
Worker’s relying on our own strength and not the courts will drive back the capitalist’s offensive.
Queer Democrats Hear from Labor on Employee Free Choice Act (tags)
The predominantly Queer San Diego Democratic Club heard from Carlos Marquez, chair of the local chapter of Pride @ Work, at its regular meeting April 23. He presented a campaign called http://www.SharedAgenda.org, aimed at building grassroots support for two proposed pieces of federal legislation: the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which will make it easier for workers to form unions; and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which will ban discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Unraveling The Card Check Debate (tags)
Sometimes in politics a particular issue strikes at the core of deeper social-economic forces. Card Check - properly named The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)- is such an issue. EFCA, if implemented as proposed, would allow workers at any work place to join a union simply by having the majority of employees sign union authorization cards. The current law mandates that there be a secret ballot election one month after the requisite number of signed cards are submitted. This one-month period allows employers to mount campaigns to discourage employees from voting for a union, often using conscious distortions and intimidation as tactics. EFCA would prohibit newly unionized workers from striking for two years to gain a first contract. Moreover, if a first contract has not been negotiated within the first three months, a Federal Mediator can step in and impose a contract. Currently, employers who are compelled to recognize a union do not have to concede to a negotiated contract at all; and if, after one year a contract has not been negotiated, the union can be subjected to a vote of decertification, which is often the case.
Employee Free Choice Act Compromise No Compromise at All (tags)
Employee Free Choice Act ( EFCA) The Real Truth is Employers Don't want a Compromise they Just WantTo STEP on Workers RIGHTS - NO Compromise on the Employee Free Choice Act!
U.S. Senate and House Introduce Employee Free Choice Act ( EFCA ). SPFPA at the Forefront (tags)
Today is one of those defining moments in history as we introduce legislation that puts power back into the hands of the people who are truly the backbone of this economy.
Can we rebuild the labor movement with the Employee Free Choice Act? (tags)
Much has been said in the United States labor movement around the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a bill many mainstream leaders tout as the solution to the decline of unions. With the recent election of Barrack Obama and the Democratic Party holding the majority of seats in both houses of the US Congress, these same leaders have their hearts set that their millions of dollars in campaign contributions will pay off with the passage of the bill.
The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace Continues to Spread More Lies about the EFCA (tags)
The 500-member Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) today released a letter it delivered to every member of the 111th Congress.
For Media, ‘Employee Free Choice Act' Promise Is One to Break (tags)
Corporate outlets suddenly discover ‘workers rights’ If corporate media really cared about workers rights, there probably would have been more than zero stories on those rights on the nightly broadcast news in the last year.And labor representatives would likely have provided more than the not quite 0.2 percent of nightly news sources found in a recent survey (Extra!, 5–6/02). Yet we are to believe that concern for workers rights drives some elite media to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
Beware of opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act Union Busting Tactics and Lies (tags)
In recent weeks, you may have seen ads on TV or news releases or letters to the editor in your local newspaper bashing “big labor” and the Employee Free Choice Act.
Watch out for employers' attorneys writing as guest columnists on the Employee Free Choice (tags)
January 14, 2009 By Stephanie Kraft There's no law to keep newspapers from grabbing whatever comes across an editor's desk and cramming it into a column with the discreet disclaimer "Viewpoint."
Myth vs. Reality: The REALITY is the Employee Free Choice Act Helps American Workers (tags)
As more and more working Americans struggle to make ends meet, the ability to form a union is key to the economic stability, health, and well-being of American families. Union workers’ median weekly earnings are 30 percent higher than those of non-union workers, union workers are 63 percent more likely to have employer-sponsored health insurance, and union workers are 77 percent more likely to have short-term disability benefits. According to a recent poll, nearly 60 percent of Americans would join a union if they could. (AFL-CIO, “The Union Difference: Union Advantage by the Numbers.”)
What's Going on at UGSOA? James D. Carney UGSOA President LOSES 710 members in one day. (tags)
Their is an uprising going on at UGSOA as 710 Security Police Professionals working for the State Department in Washington D.C., Virginia, Maryland, Colorado, Kentucky, New Orleans, Connecticut, California, South Carolina, Arizona and New York voted to DUMP UGSOA as their collective bargaining agent on 9/10/08. This was UGSOA's Largest Local Union.
Time to Question the ICE Raids (tags)
Mayor Villaraigosa acts as if immigration raids on workplaces can be used to enforce wage and hour laws. They can't. If anything, they make it harder for workers to fight for their rights.
What Works and What Doesn't In Building A New Workers’ Movement (tags)
There are thousands of activists of one type or another who want to change society and recognize that we need a movement to do that. many of these people are in organizations and groupings, many are in Unions. What is causing the delay in the building of a new movement to throw back the present capitalist offensive. One major factor is the heads of Organized Labor, but they are not the only factor.
Justice for Young Filipina Restaurant Worker Adriane Padilla! (tags)
Recent advances in the Justice for Adriane Campaign, the unpaid wages campaign for young Filipina restaurant worker Adriane Padilla, launched last December 14, 2007, are pointing to a victory for Adriane and all Filipino youth restaurant workers. This January, Padilla and her lawyers agreed to meet with her former employers to explore a possible case settlement. Ugnayan welcomes this development to resolve the case as this could lead to a greater unity in the Filipino community towards promoting the labor rights, respect and justice for all Filipino youth restaurant workers.
Arizona treats Mexicans like Nazi Germany treated Jews (tags)
Arizona treats Mexicans like Nazi Germany treated the Jews
Heath Insurance Bill Puts Poor at Risk (tags)
I got this in my email. The latest health care law is likely to pass, because progressive health care supporters are split on the issue. Unions are split on it. Political energy for real universal health care is being lost. This bill is similar to the one offered by the governor, but because it's sponsored by Speaker Nunez, the dealmakers have managed to get more liberal support for it. Working class and poor people need to organize to demand protections from the gaps in this bill.
Rumblings in the depths of the UAW (tags)
They still prevail but the contract rejections at Chrysler shook the UAW bureaucracy and the employers and are a glimpse of what is to come. And many of the new hires will likely be in the forefront of it.
The War on Working Americans - Part I (tags)
Working Americans are losing out in the war waged against them.
Unprecedented Sell-Out by Ugles & Co. in ILWU Local 19, Seattle (tags)
Five months before organized West Coast longshore workers are set to begin bargaining for a new contract with the employers association, union officers in one ILWU local are already starting to give away some key historic gains of waterfront workers
Labor Union - Labor Department to act on employee safety equipment (tags)
WASHINGTON (AP)Labor Union — The Labor Department has agreed to issue rules outlining an employer’s responsibility for the cost of workers’ safety equipment — two months after a lawsuit by the AFL-CIO and the United Food and Commercial Workers seeking such regulations. www.LABORUNIONRESOURCES.ORG
Filipinas in Lebanon treated like ’modern-day slaves’ (tags)
FINDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL MISSION TO LEBANON: Filipina overseas workers in Lebanon are being treated like “modern-day slaves,” this was the main finding of Filipinos who had just arrived from Lebanon as part of an international civil society and parliamentary delegation.
ACTION NEEDED: Defeat CA AB 2680 (tags)
Bill Goes After The Employers Who Hire Undocumented Workers
Discrimination not illegal immigrants fuels Black job crisis (tags)
Dumping the blame for the chronic job crisis of young, poor Black men on illegal immigration stokes the passions and hysteria of immigration reform opponents, but it also lets employers off the hook for discrimination. And it's easy to see how that could happen.
Wage war on poverty, not immigrants (tags)
"Si se puede!" Yes we can. They marched by the hundreds of thousands in Los Angeles, by the tens of thousands in Milwaukee, in Phoenix, in New York. Across the country, Hispanics dramatically entered what has been an increasingly ugly debate about immigration in this country.
February 2006 U.S. Immigrant News Alert! (tags)
No Immigrant Bashing! Support Immigrant Rights!
discrimination lawsuits
¡NO MAS! A Day of Anti-Minuteman Protest (tags)
On Saturday, counterprotestors, activists and day laborers, across Southern California coordinated efforts and shut down the Minutemen's attempt at a "secret" day of national anti-immigrant rallies.
Another Opportunity To Halt The Employers’ Offensive Arises (tags)
New York Transit workers take a step in the right direction but must broaden their demands and link with wider sections of the working class
The Employers Can Be Stopped Starting With Delphi (tags)
The capitalist's offensive against Delphi workers can be thrown back but not without returning to the methods of the thirties
The Real Problem with a Pandemic in the US (tags)
The collapse of public health care through decades of deliberate neglect in the U.S. makes the country as vulnerable to a flu pandemic as any bottom tier third world country, and it may be too late to do anything about that.
Lawmakers seek to crack down on illegal immigrants (tags)
See what your behavior has brought? And this is just the beginning.
Repressing the Class Struggle (tags)
As the employers' president said, capital and labor have long been reconciled among us. He said this while employers forced down wages with the help of politicians, cut pen-sion claims, reduced social benefits and extorted dependent persons.
If We Don’t Change The Union, The Union Will Change Us (tags)
The Bay Area grocery workers' contract continues to erode workers' living standards and strengthens the employers' resolve. Only a revolt in the ranks can reverse this trend.
Longer Tours Take Their Toll On Reservist, Guard Employers (tags)
A story about the extended duty of reservists and the affects on companies.
Northern California Grocery Contract/Another Setback For Labor (tags)
The tentative agreement between the grocery chains and the UFCW leadership will increase the sense of helplessness that many workers feel and strengthen their distrust of their unions
Dashing Mayor to the Rescue (tags)
San Francisco hotel workers strike heading in the wrong direction as millionaire mayor gets involved
San Francisco Union Leaders Plead With Corporate Politicians to Help Them Win Hotel Strike (tags)
Let's be honest. The hotel workers strike will not be successful unless the Union leaders change course.
With society awash in cash workers are expected to take cuts and be thankful
AFL-CIO Leadership are Responsible for Defeats (tags)
With no serious alternative to Schwarzenegger, and with their support of the Team Concept, California's labor leaders have nothing to say to their members as usual.
Andy Stern and SEIU Offer the Same Worn-Out Policies (tags)
To Many young activists, SEIU is considered the progressive Union. But, in the last analysis, the policies of SEIU's leadership are no different from those of any other AFL-CIO Union. They fail to take on the employers in a serious way and refuse to break politically with the Democratic Party.
Schwarzenegger and Democrats Gut Workers’ Compensation in California (tags)
Both parties have handed a gigantic victory to their corporate backers, especially the insurance industry, on the backs of injured workers.
Kerry catches tax cut mania (tags)
It is highly unlikely that tax breaks would spur much job-creating investment, since employers are reluctant to expand operations while facing overcapacity in almost every industry. Utilization of industrial capacity hit a 20-year low of 74 percent last year, and is barely higher today. Instead of adding jobs, employers are squeezing more from fewer workers, while allowing little or no wage growth.
AFL-CIO Leadership Give the Employers Another Victory (tags)
Defeat in southern California confirms the need for regime change atop the AFL-CIO
Immigration plan ‘chains workers’ (tags)
The “more compassionate” immigration system for undocumented workers proposed by President George W. Bush on Jan. 7 will grant corporations greater ability to pit U.S. workers against the global work force for domestic jobs, say labor and immigrant rights leaders.
The Labor leadership's handling of the grocery workers strike and continued reliance on "friendly" employers and the Democratic Party leaves many workers wondering what's next.
Updates on Los Angeles Supermarket Workers' Strike! (tags)
The Role of Women & Asian Pacific Islanders In This Important Labor Struggle By: Lee Siu Hin October 25, 2003 Photo: Diana Truong-Davis Picket capitan from Vons supermarket, with CA assembly women Judy Chu during the Ahmabra Von's Supermarket rally, organized by APALA and CA assembly women Judy Chu on Oct 23.
Racial Discrimination Is Still at Work in U.S. (tags)
The effect (and goal) of Prop 54 is to supress information like this. As Arianna Huffington put it, "It's racism without a paper trail."
Building Bridges Radio-Immigrant Day Laborers Under Attack (tags)
Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report presents a 27min 51 sec radio program about day laborers in the NYC area. TO LISTEN CLICK ON INDYMEDIA LINK
The ILWU From Bridges to Spinosa (tags)
Great article on the dockworkers
Strikers as Terrorists? (tags)
June 27, 2002 A CounterPunch Exclusive Strikers as Terrorists? Ridge Calls Longshoremen's Chief by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair
Homeland Security & Union Busting (tags)
In a CounterPunch exclusive, Alexander Cockburn shows how the Bush Administration's phony and fascist "War on Terrorism" is being waged against decent working people here at home.
Dan La Botz Teaches About Mexican Maquiladoras (tags)
G