Labor

The West Virginia Option

March 12, 2018 Joe Burns, Portside.org Organize! Labor, Strikes, Teachers, Unions, West Virginia, Workers Rights and Jobs

The ongoing teachers’ strike in West Virginia is remarkable in many ways. Thousands of public workers are engaged in a grassroots rebellion, defying restrictions on their right to strike. They’ve forced the state’s Republican governor to grant concessions, carrying on despite an announced deal by union officials. They’ve inspired other workers to think anew about militant action, both in West Virginia and outside the state. All of this is fitting at a time when anti-union forces are trying to turn back the clock on collective bargaining rights. The modern public employee union movement was born of struggle — the product of a great strike wave in the 1960s and 1970s. The school personnel strike in West Virginia represents a return to those militant days.

From #MeToo To #WeStrike

March 10, 2018 By Liz Mason-Deese, Lithub.com Educate! Labor, Latin America, Sexism, Strikes, Women

A year before #MeToo erupted in the United States, women in Argentina were fighting against an epidemic of violence against women in which, on average, one woman is killed every 30 hours. The murders are often brutal, women are tortured, their bodies are mutilated and dumped in public places. But women in Argentina are not merely victims. At noon on October 19, 2016, thousands of women all over the country walked off their jobs, stopped doing unpaid housework, watching the kids, or preparing the meals; they stopped carrying out the emotional work required of political organizing; they stopped conforming to the social script of gender and its attendant divisions of labor that organizes the subordination of women. The strike was Argentinian women’s response to the growing number of femicides in the country, and specifically to the brutal murder of the young Lucía Pérez.

YMCA Childcare Workers Just Went On Strike. Here’s Why.

March 9, 2018 Rebecca Burns, Inthesetimes.com Resist! Labor, Strikes, Workers Rights and Jobs

When Vivian Clark got a job with a Chicago-area Head Start program 15 years ago, it seemed like the “stepping stone” her family had been waiting for. Her son, then aged 9, had already gone through the federally funded preschool program when Clark was offered a job as a part-time administrative assistant for a Head Start program administered by the YMCA. In addition to providing early education and social services for low-income children, many Head Start agencies have expanded their focus into providing education and job opportunities for parents, often as employees of the program. Though grateful for the opportunity, Clark had to live with a glaring contradiction: The anti-poverty program provided her with a job, but it barely paid her minimum wage. When she started the job, she says she made $7.50 an hour.

5 Reasons Mexican Workers Would Cheer The Demise Of NAFTA

March 9, 2018 By Manuel Perez-Rocha, Fpif.org Educate! Labor, Mexico, NAFTA, Workers Rights and Jobs

Mexicans have plenty not to like about Donald Trump: his racism, his wall, his tirades against immigrants. But if there’s a disruption provoked by Trump we should actually embrace, it’s the renegotiation of NAFTA—or even the trade pact’s possible end. Along with Mexico’s upcoming presidential elections on July 1—in which center-left candidate Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador (AMLO, as he is popularly known) is the clear front runner—the possible unraveling of NAFTA has the country’s business elite and political establishment freaking out. While AMLO sees the renegotiation of NAFTA as an opportunity for meaningful changes that would benefit the majority of Mexicans, Mexican negotiators from the ruling establishment party have been very busy trying to secure a deal before the vote, in order to keep the status quo as intact as possible.

U Of I Graduate Employee Strike Enters Second Week

March 9, 2018 Bryan Moline, Peoriapublicradio.org Resist! Higher Education, Labor, Strikes

The graduate workers’ strike on the University of Illinois Urbana campus enters its second week today, after talks with a federal mediator Sunday yielded no progress toward an agreement. Both the U of I and the Graduate Employees’ Organization, or GEO, released statements last night after the talks. Patrick Kimutis with the GEO’s bargaining team says the university did not propose anything different than in the last session, so the strike will continue. The university did not address the substance of the negotiations, only saying that they want to continue talks with the GEO. The main sticking point between the two sides continues to be tuition waivers.

Disney Unions’ Ballot Drive Seeks To Raise Wages Up To $18 An Hour For Hospitality Companies That Take Anaheim Subsidies

March 7, 2018 By Margot Roosevelt, Ocregister.com Resist! California, Labor, Unions, Wages

The Disneyland Resort and any large hospitality business benefiting from Anaheim city subsidies would be required to pay at least $15 an hour to their workers beginning in 2019 under a proposed ballot initiative sponsored by a coalition of unions. The city ballot initiative — announced to a boisterous, standing-room-only crowd of Disney’s largest unions Wednesday, Feb. 28 at the Anaheim Sheraton Park Hotel — would then raise the minimum wage at the affected companies in $1 increments annually until it reaches $18 an hour by Jan. 1, 2022. Beginning in 2023, the pay floor for those companies would be adjusted annually by at least 2 percent to reflect cost-of-living increases. “We are not attacking Disney,” said Christopher Duarte, president and chief executive of Workers United Local 50, the resort’s largest union with 6,700 members.

Florida Farmworkers Push For Fairness In The Fields

March 7, 2018 By Negin Owliaei, Inequality.org Organize! Class Struggle, Exploitation, Farm Workers, Florida, Labor

South Florida was known as a hotbed for modern-day slavery. Now, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers are using their innovative model to bring dignity to the tomato fields. Immokalee, Florida, is known for producing nearly all of the winter tomatoes in the United States. Up until recently, the town also had a reputation for being home to some of the worst labor exploitation in the country, with sexual violence, wage theft, and assault occurring regularly in the tomato fields. The working conditions were so bad that the town was considered “ground zero for modern slavery” in the United States. But one group has spent the last two decades transforming the conditions for Florida farmworkers. Through the use of boycotts, supply chain agreements, and an innovative monitoring program, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has made massive inroads in creating a safe workplace for one of labor’s most exploited communities.

The Robot, Unemployment, And Immigrants

March 5, 2018 By Roberto Savio, Transform-network.net Educate! Immigration, Labor, Robots, Technology, Unemployment

Going out, you swipe the card, which goes to your bank account or to a credit card, and that it is. No ques, no cashiers, fast and easy. The first shop, in Seattle, has a roaring success. Nobody is in charge with restocking the items. An automatic system does that. And soon two robots will replace the items on the shelves, now done by two employees. Even the cleaning of the floor is being done by a robot. The goal is to have a totally automatic shop, where no human can make mistakes, get ill, go on strike, take holidays, or bring into the work personal problems. The American petrol industry calculates that will reduce within three years the staff required at each well, from 20 to five. Small hotels within three years will have a fully automated reception. You will arrive, swipe your credit card, a key for your room will come out, and you are done.

The Radical Roots Of Janus

March 3, 2018 Joseph A. McCartin, Prospect.org Educate! Class Struggle, Labor, Supreme Court, Unions

The attorney whose arguments were heard in the Supreme Court yesterday—a decade after his death—actually wanted all unions outlawed. As the Supreme Court heard the pivotal union case, Janus v. AFSCME, on Monday, an unacknowledged presence haunted its chambers: that of Sylvester Petro, who conceived the argument on which the case turns. Although he died in 2007, this ideologically driven, anti-union law professor originated the legal strategy behind this case. His radical vision illuminates Janus’s profound implications. Petro was the first to contend that public-sector collective bargaining was simply a form of politics, and that therefore, any effort to require government workers to pay “agency fees” to a union in return for its representational work amounted to compelled political speech that infringed on their First Amendment rights—the argument that Illinois public employee Mark Janus embraced in this case.

West Virginia Strike Continues As Teachers Reject Unions’ Back-To-Work Order

March 2, 2018 Joseph Kishore, Wsws.org Resist! Class Struggle, Labor, Strikes, Teachers, Unions, West Virginia

The statewide strike by more than 30,000 West Virginia teachers and school employees is continuing today, with workers rejecting an agreement announced Tuesday by the trade unions and the state’s billionaire governor, Jim Justice. Thousands of teachers descended on the state capitol Wednesday—a day designated by the unions as a “cooling off” period—chanting “We got sold out,” “It’s not over,” “Where’s the union?” and “We’re not leaving.” Signs carried by teachers included, “I just won a chicken on Let’s Make a Deal” and “Cool down day is heating us up.” The continuation of the strike is a devastating repudiation of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia (AFT-WV) and the West Virginia Education Association (WVEA), which hailed the agreement with Justice as a major victory for teachers.

Billionaires Behind Supreme Court Case Poised To Dismantle Public Sector Unions

March 1, 2018 By Mary Bottari, Exposedbycmd.org Educate! Class Struggle, Labor, Ruling Class, Unions

The Roman god Janus was known for having two faces. It is a fitting name for the U.S. Supreme Court case scheduled for oral arguments February 26, Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, that could deal a devastating blow to public-sector unions and workers nationwide. In the past decade, a small group of people working for deep-pocketed corporate interests, conservative think tanks and right-wing foundations have bankrolled a series of lawsuits to end what they call “forced unionization.” They say they fight in the name of “free speech,” “worker rights” and “workplace freedom.” In briefs before the court, they present their public face: carefully selected and appealing plaintiffs like Illinois child-support worker Mark Janus and California schoolteacher Rebecca Friedrichs. The language they use is relentlessly pro-worker.

Global Capitalism Is New Colonialism For Workers, And They Are Resisting

February 27, 2018 Mark Karlin, Truth-out.org Educate! Capitalism, Class Struggle, Labor, Workers Rights and Jobs

The ravages of neoliberalism have not been subtle. And they have been truly global. Essential services have been privatized. Since the dawn of the 21st century, free public schools and health care, safe, drinkable water [and] publicly controlled power grids have disappeared around the world -- especially in poorer nations. And those who have fought for restoration have often been met with violence. We in the US have also seen public schools starved of funds and replaced by corporate-run charters, community clinics replaced by corporate for-profit medical facilities and natural water sources privatized for the commercial use of corporations. It is no longer so simple as to say that the worst labor abuses -- the worst predations of neoliberalism -- take place abroad while American workers have it better. We may have it better, but US workplaces are more dangerous than they have been in more than 70 years.

Italians March To Protest Fascism, Racism, Labor, Vaccines

February 26, 2018 Staff, AP.org Resist! Fascism, Italy, Labor, Protests, Racism

ROME (AP) — Students opposing a neo-fascist party have scuffled with police in Milan at one of at least a dozen rallies being held across Italy on the last weekend for political action before the March 4 national election. Thousands of police have been deployed for protests Saturday in Rome, Milan and other Italian cities, seeking to prevent clashes during an election campaign that has increasingly been marked by violence. One Rome march protested racism and neo-fascism, while another targeted the center-left government's labor reforms. A third rally in Rome was opposing mandatory vaccines, which has become a campaign issue.

West Virginia’s Public Schools Closed Due To Teacher Walk-Out Over Pay

February 23, 2018 Staff, Wtvr.com Resist! Labor, Protests, Schools, Teachers, West Virginia, Workers Rights and Jobs

Public schools across West Virginia are closed Thursday as teachers and other school employees hit the picket lines, demanding higher wages and better benefits. According to Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association, teachers in all of the state’s 55 counties are participating in the planned two-day walk-out, and a group will march Thursday morning to the capitol building in Charleston. Organizers expect thousands of teachers to participate. The work stoppage comes after Gov. Jim Justice signed legislation late Wednesday night granting teachers a 2% pay increase starting in July, followed by 1% pay increases over the next two years. But union officials have said that’s not a sufficient fix. Teachers are also requesting better healthcare and benefits packages. “We need to keep our kids and teachers in the classroom,” Justice said in a statement after signing the pay raise bill.

Workers VS The Environment: The Fraying Of The Blue-Green Alliance

February 21, 2018 Steve Early, Laprogressive.com Strategize! Environment, Labor, Workers, Workers Rights and Jobs

Nothing ignites a local environmental justice campaign more quickly, in California, than a refinery fire or explosion affecting down-wind neighbors. Three years ago, an Exxon-Mobil facility was rocked by a huge explosion in Torrance, a city of 145,000 just south of Los Angeles. According to a Justice Department lawsuit, the blast catapulted a 40-ton piece of equipment perilously close to a tank containing 50,000 pounds of hydrofluoric acid, a highly toxic and volatile chemical, used, with additives, in only two California refineries. If released in the air in large enough quantity, Modified Hydrofluoric Acid (MHF) can form a ground-hugging cloud, able to drift for miles. Anyone exposed to it would suffer choking, searing of the eyes and lungs, internal organ damage or possible death.

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