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Wages

The Inflation Reality And The Attack On Wages

May 23, 2023 Arthur MacEwan, Dollars & Sense. , , , , ,
Inflation was slow throughout the second half of 2022. Yet you wouldn’t know this from newspaper headlines, statements from “experts,” or the statements and actions of the Federal Reserve. It was only in January of 2023, when the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for December 2022 was released showing an actual (very small) decline in prices for the month, that there began to be a general recognition that the relatively high rate of inflation of late 2021 and the first half of 2022 had abated. The December 2022 decline of one-tenth of 1% was later revised upward to an increase of one-tenth of 1%, but this tiny increase still brought attention to the easing of inflation.

Europe Pays More For Banned Russian Oil, Resold By India

May 1, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , , , , , ,
The European Union heavily sanctioned Russia and pledged to boycott its oil, yet continues to buy it, and at an even higher price, albeit indirectly. India is importing record levels of discounted Russian crude, purchasing it in currencies other than the dollar. India then refines the Russian oil and exports fuel to Europe at a profit. Meanwhile, increasing energy costs in Europe have stoked inflation, causing workers’ wages to significantly decline. The real wages of workers in the Eurozone fell by 6.5% between 2020 and 2022. As of April, Bloomberg reported, European imports of refined fuel from India are approaching 360,000 barrels per day.

Agitation By Teachers Forces Latvian Government To Increase Wages

May 1, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
An intense three-day strike by educators in Latvia, led by the Latvian Education and Science Workers’ Trade Union (LIZDA), forced the coalition government headed by Krisjanis Karins to increase their wages. LIZDA organized a major protest march in the Latvian capital of Riga on April 24 and went on a three-day strike until April 27. Subsequently, in a meeting with the union leadership on April 25, government authorities in principle agreed to increase teachers’ pay, with additional funding of EUR 4.168 million (USD 4.59 million). On April 26, an emergency meeting of the cabinet approved the agreement for additional funds for the wage hike.

Why 340,000 UPS Workers Are Preparing To Strike In The US

April 29, 2023 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , ,
United Parcel Service (UPS) workers are gearing up for a potential strike as they hold contract negotiations with the company. Talks between the company and the union representing UPS workers, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, opened on April 17. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien says that workers are ready to walk off the job if UPS fails to reach a deal on a strong contract before the current one expires on July 31. Workers are demanding better pay, more full-time work, better job security, and an end to the two-tier “22.4” job classification. The deeply unpopular “22.4” provision creates a lower-paid tier of workers who essentially performing the same work as senior drivers, but for lower pay

Western Hegemony Declining, Admits European Central Bank

April 21, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. , , ,
The president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, gave a speech acknowledging that “the tectonic plates of geopolitics are shifting faster” and “we may see the world becoming more multipolar”, with the decline of US dollar hegemony, war in Ukraine, and rise of China. “We could see more multipolarity as geopolitical tensions continue to mount”, Lagarde added. Geopolitical Economy Report editor-in-chief Ben Norton analyzed Lagarde’s speech with Radhika Desai, professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba and director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group.

Baltimore Marriott Hotel Workers Say Managers Pocket Half Their Tips

April 13, 2023 Jaisal Noor, The Real News Network. , , , ,
Baltimore, Maryland - Despite the cold weather, dozens of workers and their supporters picketed outside the Marriott Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore in February, as they had been doing—and have continued to do—for months. The workers are demanding better wages and working conditions, which they say they are owed on principle—but also because of the heavy public subsidies their employer receives. Andre Eldridge Jr., who has worked at the Marriott Waterfront since 2017, said that many of his colleagues live paycheck to paycheck and have to take on second jobs to make ends meet. “That’s just crazy,” he told The Real News.

A Four-Day Workweek Trojan Horse

March 31, 2023 Adam Barrington, Labor Notes. , , ,
It’s never a bad idea to be suspicious of your boss, especially when they act like they’re doing you a favor. For workers at FrontLine Service, a Cleveland non-profit that serves the unsheltered, distrust of our employer is one of the critical sentiments that binds us. FrontLine workers, members of Service Employees Local 1199, provide crucial services to some of the most marginalized and neglected people in Northeast Ohio. Every day, we assist folks struggling with mental health crises, substance abuse, lack of housing, and other hardships. The work is arduous and the pay is low, but we do what we can to serve the communities in which we live and work.

Where The Starbucks Union Stands After Rallies, Proposed Audit

March 27, 2023 Lizz Giordano, Crosscut. , , , ,
Four security guards blocked the entrance to Starbucks headquarters as demonstrators approached Wednesday. Workers peeked out of windows above, watching and filming the crowd. Some ventured out to order lunch from the food trucks in the parking lot and take a closer look. Gwen Williamson, a former shift supervisor for a cafe in Bellingham, addressed the crowd: “We won our election in December and immediately after that, shift supervisor hours were cut, putting our eligibility for Starbucks health education benefits at risk.” Williamson told those who had gathered that she had been unjustly terminated after she led the union charge at her store and called off several shifts at the last minute due to flood damage that left her apartment unlivable.

German Workers Across Sectors Protest Fall In Real Wages

February 12, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
On Thursday, February 9, public service workers from sectors, including health care, day-care, city administration, public transport, water distribution, universities, and municipal waste management, went on a warning strike protesting low wages and poor working conditions. The protest took place in the States of Berlin, North Rhine Westphalia (NRW), and Hesse, among others, Over 3,500 people, including professionals from the state-owned Vivantes Hospitals, Charite-Berlin University of Medicine, Berlin Waste Management (BSR), and other public sector enterprises demonstrated at Oranienplatz in Berlin on Thursday to protest the fall in real wages.

Inequality In Annual Earnings Worsens In 2021

January 2, 2023 Elise Gould and Jori Kandra, Economic Policy Institute. , , ,
Rising wage inequality and slow and uneven growth in real (inflation-adjusted) hourly wages for the vast majority of workers have been defining features of the U.S. labor market for most of the last 40 or so years. In only about 10 years since 1979 did most workers see any consistent positive wage growth: in the tight labor market of the late 1990s and in the five years leading up to the pre-pandemic labor market peak in 2019 (Gould 2020). Some low-wage workers have experienced disproportionate wage gains in the current business cycle—gains that even beat out high inflation (Gould and Kandra 2022). However, the latest data on annual earnings from the Social Security Administration (SSA 2022a) show that the very top continues to pull away and amass a larger share of the earnings pie, while the bottom 90% continues to fall further behind.

The Tories Are Causing A Potential ‘Exodus’ Of Public Sector Workers

October 31, 2022 Steve Topple, The Canary. , , ,
Nearly two million public sector workers are thinking about quitting their jobs, with nearly half saying it’s because of pay. These are the results of new research from the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which says the Tories are causing a “mass exodus” of workers from the public sector. And it’s the NHS which will be the biggest casualty of over a decade of Tory-led pay cuts. However, public sector workers aren’t taking the Tories’ pay assault lying down. As we’ve seen in recent months, strike action in the private sector has taken off. Now, in the public sector, the Royal Colleges of Nurses and Midwives, the National Education Union (NEU) and Unison have been balloting members on strike action.

‘We’ve Incentivized Corporations To Go After This Price-Gouging Strategy’

September 27, 2022 Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. , , ,
Janine Jackson: In a section labeled “Core of the matter,” the Economist declared: “Despite rosier figures, America still has an inflation problem. Is higher unemployment the only cure?” I guess we’re meant to find solace in the idea that the magazine thinks there might conceivably be other responses, in addition to what we are to understand is the proven one: purposely throwing people out of work, with all of the life-changing harms that come with that. CNBC‘s story, “Inflation Fears Spur Shoppers to Get an Early Jump on the Year-End Holidays,” encouraged us to think that “inflation is a Scrooge.” So—an abstraction that is somehow stealing Christmas, to which the healthy response is to make more people jobless while corporate profits soar. It makes sense to corporate media, but if it doesn’t make sense to you, you are far from alone.

Workers At Big South Florida Hotel Boost Minimum Pay To $20

September 16, 2022 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. , , , ,
Hollywood, Florida - Weeks after a big strike vote, 450 hotel workers at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Florida, have reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract that boosts minimum hourly pay to $20, halts subcontracting, and restores daily housekeeping. “This is an incredible victory for workers in South Florida,” said Wendi Walsh, secretary-treasurer of UNITE HERE Local 355, in a statement. “This was possible because workers decided to fight back, willing to risk it all. Hospitality workers are the backbone of South Florida’s economy and finally the value of their contribution is being recognized with wages they can live on.” Like their counterparts across the country, hotel workers in Florida have been on high alert as management has tried to clobber their union in a cost-cutting bonanza while raking in record profits.

Analysis Shows ‘Quiet Fleecing’ Of US Workers Is The Real Problem

September 15, 2022 Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams. , ,
"Quiet quitting"—an allegedly new trend characterized by workers performing only their required job duties and no more—has been getting a lot of attention in recent weeks, but the defining trend of the past 40 years of U.S. economic history is "quiet fleecing," and we should be talking much more about it. That's the argument put forth Friday by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a progressive think tank with a long track record of popularizing research on wage suppression and runaway inequality. "Everyone's obsessed with a post-pandemic phenomenon called 'quiet quitting,'" EPI wrote in an email. "It's basically defined as workers just doing the basic requirements of their jobs and not going 'above and beyond.'"

State AGs Are Celebrating Labor Day By Trying To Cut Workers’ Wages

September 4, 2022 Megan Uzzell and Joann Kintz, In These Times. , , ,
In recent media appearances and press releases, Republican Attorneys General have been talking a big game about inflation and kitchen table pocketbook issues. Over the coming weekend, these same officials will likely be wishing their constituents a happy Labor Day and boasting about their commitment to working families on social media.  Meanwhile, more than a dozen GOP AGs are actively seeking to use the courts to cut workers’ federal minimum wages and wage protections. This hypocrisy should be called out for what it is: an attack on working people. These workers should not be collateral damage in political games to score points against the Biden administration.
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