Workers Rights and Jobs

A Century Ago, The Working Class Redefined Peace

November 10, 2017 Liz Payne, morningstaronline.co.uk Educate! History, Labor, Revolution, Soviet Union, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Liz Payne for Morning Star - TODAY marks a very special centenary within our celebrations marking the events of the great October socialist revolution in Russia in 1917, one which is of crucial significance in respect of our struggles against the devastation brought about by imperialism and its catastrophic interventions and wars in our own time. On November 8 1917, the day following the establishment of the workers’ and peasants’ government, the second All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies in Petrograd, which now had state power, issued its “Decree on Peace.” So fundamental was the ending of the inter-imperialist first world war to the future of the peoples of Russia and the peoples of all belligerent countries that it was articulated as a first priority of the first workers’ state in the first 24 hours of its existence. The issuing of the decree was supremely revolutionary and the initial act of internationalism of the workers’ government. For the first time in the history of the world, the will of workers, soldiers and peasants with state power in their hands was being expressed in respect of the resolution of conflict and the rights of peoples. By means of the decree, the true character of imperialist war and the nature of peace as defined by the working class were plainly set out, thus demonstrating the inherent link between the struggle for peace and that for socialism.

Privatization Is Spooky, Say DC Streetcar Workers

November 3, 2017 Faiz Siddiqui, washingtonpost.com Resist! Privatization, Washington DC, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Faiz Siddiqui for The Washington Post - The Save Our System campaign of the nonprofit Americans for Transit announced Tuesday it has formed a 35-member roundtable of business leaders who say urgent changes are needed, arguing the service cuts — and Metro’s lack of dedicated funding –are “harming the local economy.” “In an era of unprecedented economic growth in the D.C. region, it is unacceptable for our local businesses to be forced into a position where we must choose between laying off employees, reducing our offerings, or closing our doors simply because our transit infrastructure is not properly maintained or funded,” reads the letter. “Unfortunately, the budgeting decisions made by [Metro] this past June are doing just that.” Rail fares increased a dime and bus fares increased a quarter this summer. In addition, dozens of bus routes were slashed or modified, and train frequencies were reduced on five of six Metro lines. The system also closes earlier. “Parking is a challenge in the U Street neighborhood, therefore we encourage Metro ridership to our patrons,” Will Eastman, founder of U Street Music Hall said in a statement. “But that’s a difficult thing to do when the nearest Metrorail station is closing hours before we do.”

Sysco Racks Up 79 Violations Over Union Vote

November 1, 2017 Shandra Martinez, mlive.com Educate! Michigan, Unions, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Shandra Martinez for M Live - GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- George Brewster was making a delivery to a Northeast Side bar when he noticed his supervisor parked nearby, watching him. What Brewster didn't know was that his Sysco supervisor was apparently setting him up to lose his temper by hiding Brewster's truck keys under his seat while he was inside the restaurant. This provoked a profanity-laced outburst by Brewster, which led to his 2015 firing, according to court documents. The crux of this setup: Brewster had been identified by company management as a potential Teamsters union organizer. Brewster's firing is among 79 labor practice violations made by Sysco leading up to a failed 2015 union vote, concluded Michael Rosas, an administrative law judge with the National Labor Relations Board, following a hearing last year. Most of the violations involve the company threatening, intimidating and unlawfully punishing workers during an organizing campaign. The judge ordered the country's largest food distributor to reinstate Brewster, stop threatening employees and immediately begin negotiating a contract with the Grand Rapids-based Teamsters Local 406.

‘State Of The Co-op Economy’ Report Counts 40,000 Co-Ops

October 25, 2017 Elizabeth Lechleitner, www.ncba.coop Create! Cooperatives, New Economy, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Elizabeth Lechleitner for NCBA CLUSA - In recent years, NCBA CLUSA has estimated that there are about 40,000 cooperative businesses within the U.S. Now, new research from the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Center for Cooperatives (UWCC) has validated that number. In a presentation at this month’s Co-op IMPACT Conference and a companion pieceheadlining the Fall 2017 issue of the Cooperative Business Journal, Brent Hueth unpacks the center’s foundational work to develop the data infrastructure necessary to measure the cooperative economy in a way that enables ongoing reporting and analysis. While an economist’s perspective on cooperative impact doesn’t necessarily tell the complete co-op story, a national cooperative census is integral to communicating effectively about co-ops in the public policy space, said Hueth, who directs the Center for Cooperatives and is spearheading its work to measure the cooperative economy in partnership with NCBA CLUSA and its Council of Cooperative Economists. “Measuring the impact of cooperatives is much more than measuring their total employment, total revenue, or the total number of establishments and businesses, but it’s a first step,” Hueth said. “These baseline numbers are critical to communicating the general economic footprint of cooperatives.”

Ensuring Equality For All In The Workplace

October 24, 2017 Staff, www.nelp.org Create! California, Equality, Income inequality, New Economy, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Staff of NELP - It has been more than 50 years since the Civil Rights Movement and the passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a landmark federal law that prohibits racial discrimination in the workplace. Yet despite decades of struggle, Blacks and other minorities continue to face discrimination in the workplace, perpetuating cycles of inequities that make it difficult to attain success. Whether working full-time or part-time, Black workers earn only three-quarters of what white workers earn. The wage gap is even more pronounced for Black women.[1] Furthermore, almost two in ten Black workers with higher degrees are still earning low wages.[2] These trends may be exacerbated in the coming years, as the Trump administration has already proposed divesting significant financial resources from civil rights enforcement, making rigorous state-level protections all the more critical.[3] In California, the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibits discrimination in the workplace based on immutable factors such as race, age, and disability. However, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), the agency responsible for enforcing the law, is underfunded, understaffed, and overburdened by the difficult task of being the first line of defense against both housing and workplace discrimination.

Taxpayer-Subsidized DC Wharf Creates Low Wage Jobs

October 14, 2017 Staff, www.dcfpi.org Educate! Development, Taxes, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Staff of DC Fiscal Policy Institute - The District of Columbia’s economic development efforts – including the enormous Wharf project – too often support creation of low-wage jobs with minimal benefits, because they do not link large public subsidies with requirements to create high-quality jobs, according to a new analysis by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute. This means that DC is failing to use its substantial economic development investments to reduce the city’s large income gaps or to ensure that benefits of DC’s growing prosperity are shared widely. The redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront is one of the largest real estate development projects in the history of the District. It is transforming an historic area of the city’s waterfront, while creating new retail, dining, entertainment and housing options within walking distance of the Mall. Yet the project faces growing questions about the type of jobs it is actually creating, and who truly benefits from large taxpayer subsidies for such developments. The District approved $300 million in public subsidies for the Wharf project, including public land and cash subsidies through DC’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and PILOT economic development subsidy programs.

Left And Right Have Nothing In Common On NAFTA

October 11, 2017 Stephanie Basile, www.popularresistance.org Strategize! Capitalism, NAFTA, Trade, Unions, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Stephanie Basile for Popular Resistance. Washington, DC - Today, the fourth round of renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are taking place in Washington, DC. Protests are planned at multiple locations around DC, including a petition delivery of over 360,000 signatures to Congress demanding the elimination of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). United under the threat from continually expanding corporate power, the fight against NAFTA has brought together a cross-section of social movements, including unions, community groups, land reform movements, environmentalists, food safety groups, and internet rights organizations.

Federal Employees Ordered To Attend Anti-Leaking Classes

September 25, 2017 Michael Biesecker, www.lastrealindians.com Educate! EPA, Government, Police State, Workers, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Michael Biesecker for Mint Press News - WASHINGTON (AP) — Employees at the Environmental Protection Agency are attending mandatory training sessions this week to reinforce their compliance with laws and rules against leaking classified or sensitive government information. It is part of a broader Trump administration order for anti-leaks training at all executive branch agencies. The Associated Press obtained training materials from the hourlong class. Government employees who hold security clearances undergo background checks and extensive training in safeguarding classified information. Relatively few EPA employees deal with classified files, but the new training also reinforces requirements to keep “Controlled Unclassified Information” from unauthorized disclosure. The EPA occasionally creates, receives, handles and stores classified material because of its homeland security, emergency response and continuity missions. EPA employees also work closely with contractors and other federal agencies that more regularly handle classified information. President Donald Trump has expressed anger repeated leaks of potentially embarrassing information to media organizations in recent months. In a speech last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said those responsible for the “staggering number of leaks” coming out of the administration would be investigated and potentially prosecuted.

Victory For Immigrant Hunger Strikers

September 24, 2017 Mike Ludwig, www.truthout.org Resist! Hunger Strike, Immigrant Rights, Private Prisons, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Mike Ludwig for Truthout. For three years now, incarcerated immigrants have staged hunger strikes and work stoppages to protest conditions at the Northwest Detention Center, an immigration jail in Tacoma, Washington, run by a private prison company that pays detainees as little as $1 a day to work in the jail. "This week folks were offered chips or a soup for several nights of waxing the floors, so not even $1 [per] day," one person incarcerated in the jail recently reported to NWDC Resistance, an immigrant-led group fighting to end the deportation and detention of immigrants.

310,567 Signatures Block ‘Right To Work’ In Missouri

September 23, 2017 Judy Ancel, www.labornotes.org Organize! Labor, Missouri, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Judy Ancel for Labor Notes - The results astounded everyone who thought they knew the Missouri labor movement: more than 300,000 signatures to repeal “right to work.” Thousands of union members and allies marched through the streets of the state capital August 18 to deliver 163 boxes of petitions signed by 310,567 Missourians. The signers called for a referendum to repeal the right-to-work law passed by the legislature earlier this year. The signatures gathered were more than three times the number needed. Although signatures were needed in only six of the state’s eight Congressional districts, there were enough to qualify from all eight, and they came from all 114 Missouri counties. The state was forced to postpone the August 28 implementation of right to work till November 2018, when voters will determine its future. The petition drive was coordinated by We Are Missouri, a coalition of unions both in and out of the state AFL-CIO. Volunteers from Missouri Jobs with Justice and the Sierra Club stepped up, too. Most of the money for the campaign came from Missouri unions, with contributions as low as $100 and as high as $83,000. Much bigger donations came from labor PACs representing the state AFL-CIO, Teamsters, and Carpenters. As of August 31, the labor side had raised $1.36 million and spent almost half of it.

What America Would Look Like If It Guaranteed Everyone A Job

September 16, 2017 Dylan Matthews, www.vox.com Create! Employment, Labor, New Economy, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Dylan Matthews for Vox Magazine - Imagine if a well-paying job, with benefits and a high enough salary to pay for rent, transportation, and food, were a human right. Imagine the US federal government established a policy whereby anyone who didn’t have a job and wanted one could go into a local office for a government agency — call it the Works Progress Administration — and walk out with a regular government position paying a livable wage ($15 an hour, perhaps) and offering health, dental, and vision insurance, and retirement benefits, and child care for their kids. Different people would do different things: teaching or working for after-school programs or providing child care or building roads and mass transit or driving buses and so on. But everyone would be guaranteed a job, including during recessions. Involuntary unemployment would be a thing of the past. No one who works would be in poverty. That’s a truly radical policy idea. But it has deep roots in the Democratic Party’s past, from the New Deal’s emergency employment programs to the Humphrey-Hawkins Act, a 1970s proposal that, as originally written, would have given unemployed Americans the right to sue the government. Today, there are even some actual proposals on the table. In May, the Center for American Progress issued a report calling for a "large-scale, permanent program of public employment and infrastructure investment." But some labor economists, even left-leaning ones, are skeptical. None of the programs, they argue, have done enough work on the details.

After Generations In Coal, West Virginians Finding Jobs In Solar

September 14, 2017 www.blog.ucsusa.org Create! Coal, Jobs, New Economy, Solar Energy, West Virginia, Workers, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Jason Margolis for PRI - Nobody from his graduating class is working in coal, says Swiger. “[They’re] honestly working in fast food, or not working at all.” Not Swiger. He has a job installing rooftop solar panels. He says his family is delighted with it. "They’re excited that I’m actually doing something different,” says Swiger. “A lot of people ain’t doing this in West Virginia, a lot of people are against it actually. A lot of people want to go back to coal. “I ain’t against it, I love solar. It’s way better than coal, I think.” Solar panels can save people money on their electricity bills and cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, which fuel climate change. With battery storage, found in some home set-ups, solar can also allow people to continue to power their homes off the grid during power outages. Swiger is working as an apprentice with Solar Holler, which was founded four years ago by 32-year-old Dan Conant. Conant doesn’t see solar energy and coal at odds with each other. “The way I think about it, as a West Virginian, is that West Virginia has always been an energy state, and this is just the next step. It’s the next iteration,” says Conant. West Virginia’s economy has long been reliant on coal. Metallurgical coal, which is found in the state, is used in the steel-making process.

Tens Of Thousands March In France Against Anti-Worker Reforms

September 13, 2017 Jake Johnson, www.commondreams.org Resist! France, Labor, March, Reform, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Jake Johnson for Common Dream - Led by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), France's second largest trade union, demonstrators flooded Paris and other major cities chanting: "Macron you're screwed, the slackers are in the streets." The "slackers" label came from Macron himself, who in a recent speech vowed to not "give any ground [on his labor reforms], not to slackers, nor cynics, nor hardliners." Union leaders and France's left opposition seized upon Macron's comments and used them to rally workers ahead of Tuesday's planned actions, which included around 180 protests and 4,000 strikes—the first nationwide demonstrations of Macron's young presidency. In an interview on Monday, former Socialist Party presidential candidate Benoit Hamon slammed Macron's "slacker" remarks as "insulting" to French workers. "Lazy people are the independently wealthy, who don't need to work for a living," Hamon retorted. "And a lot of independently wealthy picked Emmanuel Macron as their champion."

Living Paycheck To Paycheck Is A Way Of Life For Majority Of U.S. Workers

August 26, 2017 Staff, www.press.careerbuilder.com Educate! New Economy, Wages, Workers, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Staff of Career Builder - Having a higher salary doesn't necessarily mean money woes are behind you, with nearly one in 10 workers making $100,000 or more (9 percent) saying they usually or always live paycheck-to-paycheck and 59 percent in that income bracket in debt. Twenty-eight percent of workers making $50,000-$99,999 usually or always live paycheck to paycheck, 70 percent are in debt; and 51 percent of those making less than $50,000 usually or always live paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet, 73 percent are in debt. "As an employer, your employees' financial problems become your financial problems," said Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer for CareerBuilder. "If workers are constantly thinking about their financial struggles, their quality of work can decrease, and it can take a hit on their morale and productivity. If you do what you can to help people keep their finances under control — by doing things such as matching 401(k) contributions or hosting financial planning seminars — you'll ease some of their financial worries and it will be less likely to have a negative impact on your business."

Chris Hedges Visits Indiana City To See Impact Of Job Flight

August 24, 2017 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Educate! Cars, Manufacturing, Workers, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Chris Hedges for Truth Dig - In a special edition of "On Contact," Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges visits Anderson, Ind., formerly a center of car production. He witnesses the economic and psychological impact on workers caused by the flight of General Motors jobs overseas. The city has changed dramatically since the 1970s when, at the peak of American automobile manufacturing, a third of Anderson's 70,000 residents worked at General Motors. Over the past 30 years, Anderson's population has decreased as thousands upon thousands of well-paid union jobs have been lost. Watch the video above in which Hedges interviews people in what used to be "big car country" and documents what's become of Anderson now.

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