Thursday, February 28, 2013

February 28 News Update


Each Monday-Friday, by 9AM Central, we’ll post links to news stories and analytical articles of interest to working people. Sometimes they will be accompanied by editorial commentary. Stories from the New York Times will be followed with a *. The Times pay wall policy allows free access to only about ten articles a month.

Cambodian Workers Camp Out, Hunger Strike Against Walmart and H&M - See more at: http://www.labornotes.org/#sthash.YOn2c1sR.dpuf
United Grain Corp. accuses ILWU of sabotage, locks out workers
Twin Cities security officers on strike against six employer
The Corporations Have Two Parties, Now What?
Too Much Toxic Trash in American Water
Wealth Gap in US Between Blacks and Whites Tripled Since Reagan
Why labor should oppose the pipeline
IBT Backs Plan to Allow Some Pension Cuts
Greek pharmacies running short
Japan to Begin Restarting Idled Nuclear Plants *
Clashes Over Land Seizures Batter the Police in Burma *
AFL-CIO Backs Keystone Oil Pipeline, if Indirectly *

Cambodian Workers Camp Out, Hunger Strike Against Walmart and H&M - See more at: http://www.labornotes.org/#sthash.YOn2c1sR.dpuf
Cambodian Workers Camp Out, Hunger Strike Against Walmart and H&M - See more at: http://www.labornotes.org/#sthash.YOn2c1sR.dpuf

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

February 27 News Update


Each Monday-Friday, by 9AM Central, we’ll post links to news stories and analytical articles of interest to working people. Sometimes they will be accompanied by editorial commentary. Stories from the New York Times will be followed with a *. The Times pay wall policy allows free access to only about ten articles a month.

Cambodian Workers Camp Out, Hunger Strike Against Walmart and H&M - See more at: http://www.labornotes.org/#sthash.YOn2c1sR.dpuf
Cambodian Workers Camp Out, Hunger Strike Against Walmart and H&M
Union Musicians Score at Academy Awards
CWA, AT&T Reach Tentative Agreements
Peabody Protests Continue as Report Concludes Patriot Was 'Designed to Fail'
Growth of Income Inequality Blocks Recovery
Legislation would provide bargaining rights to child care providers
Locked-out sugar workers take aim at Target
Montreal student protest results in 10 arrests
Alberta teachers reject 'unacceptable' offer
Austerity Kills Government Jobs as Cuts to Budgets Loom *
Post-Fukushima, Arguments for Nuclear Safety Bog Down *
Justices Turn Back Challenge to Broader U.S. Eavesdropping *

Cambodian Workers Camp Out, Hunger Strike Against Walmart and H&M - See more at: http://www.labornotes.org/#sthash.YOn2c1sR.dpuf
Cambodian Workers Camp Out, Hunger Strike Against Walmart and H&M - See more at: http://www.labornotes.org/#sthash.YOn2c1sR.dpuf

Monday, February 25, 2013

February 25 Week In Review

Week In Review
February 25 2013
by Bill Onasch

Stupid Is....
Mike Hall exclaims on the AFL-CIO Blog,

“[House Speaker] Boehner’s sequester could cost more than 750,000 private- and public-sector workers their jobs this year alone, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).”

Erskine Bowles, President Clinton’s Chief-of-Staff, and co-chair of President Obama’s bipartisan deficit commission, characterized the coming “sequestration” slashing across all government programs great and small as “stupid, stupid, stupid!” It’s an assertion that can’t be refuted. It ranks right up there with Lunch Box Joe Biden’s advice to nervous women home alone to start blasting away with a shotgun in the vicinity of unseen suspected prowlers.

But Washington Post veteran Bob Woodward, who has been exposing White House deceit since the days of Watergate, reminds us the sequester deal originated with the current administration--to get an interim deal, the Budget Control Act of 2011. Woodward has a lot of documentation compiled while producing his book The Price of Politics. He writes in Saturday’s Post,

“Obama personally approved of the plan for Lew and Nabors to propose the sequester to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). They did so at 2:30 p.m. July 27, 2011, according to interviews with two senior White House aides who were directly involved. Nabors has told others that they checked with the president before going to see Reid. A mandatory sequester was the only action-forcing mechanism they could devise.”

They undoubtedly thought this plan would be “action-forcing” because even Congress could not be so stupid as to actually carry out random sequestration. But they may have underestimated the lack of intelligent design guiding their Capitol Hill adversaries. We now sit as petrified backseat passengers, without even seat belts or air-bags, watching headlights closing rapidly in a game of chicken.

February 25 News Update


Each Monday-Friday, by 9AM Central, we’ll post links to news stories and analytical articles of interest to working people. Sometimes they will be accompanied by editorial commentary. Stories from the New York Times will be followed with a *. The Times pay wall policy allows free access to only about ten articles a month.

Thousands rally against federal government's EI reform
Manning supporters stage UK events
Scientists count cost of BP oil spill
1.5C rise in temperature enough to start permafrost melt, scientists warn
Radioactive waste leaking from tanks at Washington state nuclear site
Unions seek to cut furlough pain for million-plus
Obama's sequester deal-changer
Immigrants, advocates impatient with Obama
In Paid Family Leave, U.S. Trails Most of the Globe *
Thin Snowpack in West Signals Summer of Drought *
Anti-Communist Oaths Persist Despite Court Rulings *
Only 60 per cent of Hamilton and GTA workers have secure jobs
U.S. Coast Guard finds 16 violations on Shell Arctic drill ship
German poor 'should eat horsemeat'
Pinochet Tried Defying Defeat, Papers Show *
Emory University’s Leader Reopens Its Racial Wounds *
Strikers Get Jobs Back at Law-Breaking Nursing Home Chain

Friday, February 22, 2013

February 22 News Update


Each Monday-Friday, by 9AM Central, we’ll post links to news stories and analytical articles of interest to working people. Sometimes they will be accompanied by editorial commentary. Stories from the New York Times will be followed with a *. The Times pay wall policy allows free access to only about ten articles a month.

Boeing’s ‘Angry Nerds’ Reject Contract as Dreamliner Crisis Continues
AFL-CIO, Chamber of Commerce Announce Shared Immigration Reform Principles
UPS Contract Rallies Draw a Crowd
Germany's Homemade Nuclear Waste Disaster
3 injured in explosion at Fort Saskatchewan construction site
Brooklyn Construction Company Shortchanged Workers *
Sign of a Comeback: U.S. Carmakers Are Hiring *

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

February 19 Week In Review

Week In Review
February 19 2013
by Bill Onasch

At the OK Corral With A Pocket Knife
That’s how the 9,000 New York City school bus drivers and matrons represented by ATU Local 1181 must have felt during their five-week strike. They not only had to contend with private bus company bosses looking to slash labor costs during a new competitive bidding process for city contracts. City Hall also condemned the strike and even supported an unsuccessful effort to get the NLRB to rule it an unfair labor practice. And then there was the mass media with its daily barrage against what they characterized as a futile, if not illegal work stoppage bringing great hardship to special needs kids and their parents. When thousands of strikers and supporters marched across the Brooklyn Bridge as the city was still digging out from a major storm the New York Times judged this to be news unfit to print.

There’s a lot of malarkey these days about putting kids first. But this example of austerity targets those entrusted with the safe, caring transportation of kids who can’t walk to school or use the regular mass transit. These experienced, dedicated workers are now subject to the same business model that prevails in fast food. The shared goal of the City and private employers is to reduce wages to about a third of present levels–currently 42,500 a year for bus drivers, 26,000 for matrons. These are hardly princely sums in New York City. Slashing these to the 17,000 -25,000 range would push the ATU workers in to the ranks of the working poor.

February 19 News Update


Each Monday-Friday, by 9AM Central, we’ll post links to news stories and analytical articles of interest to working people. Sometimes they will be accompanied by editorial commentary. Stories from the New York Times will be followed with a *. The Times pay wall policy allows free access to only about ten articles a month.

Keystone XL protesters pressure Obama on climate change promise
Thousands at climate rally call on Obama to reject Keystone pipeline
Crowd marches to voice opposition to Keystone pipeline
Obama Faces Risks in Pipeline Decision *

School Bus Drivers End Strike, in Win for New York Mayor *
NYC School Bus Strike Ends After a Month *

Enbridge offers Quebec towns money for emergency services
De Beers wants Attawapiskat blockade injunction
Shale gas rules in New Brunswick among 'strictest'
Irish PM meeting UK Magdalene women
Eight hundred at rally over Wales hospital closure plan
Amazon to Investigate Claims of Worker Intimidation at Distributor in Germany *
As Fisheries Struggle, Debate Heats Up Over How to Help *
Incomes Flat in Recovery, but Not for the 1% *
Farmer’s Supreme Court Challenge Puts Monsanto Patents at Risk *
Sea ice loss in Arctic causing ecosystem changes: study
Most Americans will retire worse off than parents
Market Forces Took Horsemeat from Farm to Fork
Iberia workers begin five-day strike
Some Employers Could Opt Out of Insurance Market, Raising Others’ Costs *
Obama’s Plan Sees 8-Year Wait for Illegal Immigrants *
Veterans waiting longer for help with disability claims

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

February 13 News Update


Each Monday-Friday, by 9AM Central, we’ll post links to news stories and analytical articles of interest to working people. Sometimes they will be accompanied by editorial commentary. Stories from the New York Times will be followed with a *. The Times pay wall policy allows free access to only about ten articles a month.

Harvard Library Workers Resist Top-Down Restructuring and Austerity
Campus Fightbacks in the Age of Austerity
Rich Are Getting Richer and It's Hurting Social Security's Finances
UPS Targets Health Benefits
RCMP accused of frequent abuse of B.C. aboriginals
French approve gay marriage bill
Brazil's hydroelectric dam boom is bringing tensions as well as energy
New York Governor Puts Off Decision on Drilling *

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Sunday, February 10, 2013

February 10 Week In Review

Week In Review
February 10 2013
by Bill Onasch

Perma-Temps In a Post-Post Office
On Wednesday, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe defied law and custom by unilaterally declaring an end to Saturday mail delivery. Unless he is called to order by Congress or the President, first class home delivery will go on a five day week in August. 22,500 more full-time letter carrier jobs will be eliminated. No regular temporary workers will be affected–Donahoe feels sorry for them because they are “mostly so young.”

The cut is projected to save two billion dollars a year. The move comes in the midst of the axing of tens of thousands of jobs at mail processing centers being shut down around the country. It is the most ruthless of the austerity measures yet taken by the Obama administration and perhaps the least justified of all.

Friday, February 8, 2013

February 8 News Update


Each Monday-Friday, by 9AM Central, we’ll post links to news stories and analytical articles of interest to working people. Sometimes they will be accompanied by editorial commentary. Stories from the New York Times will be followed with a *. The Times pay wall policy allows free access to only about ten articles a month.

Tunisia: Labor leaders call for general strike protest of death of Chokri Belaid
Crowds await funeral of slain Tunisian opposition leader

Plan to end Saturday mail delivery draws strong opposition
Will Congress force the USPS to deliver mail on Saturdays?

Can business and labor agree on a guest-worker program?
Labor Leaders Announce Campaign for Immigration Reform
The Dignity Campaign's Alternative Vision for Immigration Reform
Business and Labor Unite to Try to Alter Immigration Laws *

Imagining a ‘Just Recovery’ from Superstorm Sandy
Rights Group’s Probe Concludes Palermo’s Illegally Fired Workers
North Carolina Ramps Up Attacks on the Unemployed
Workers Expose Dirty Secrets of Recycling Industry
Silica Dust Delay Deadly for Workers
Global Unions Urge Release of Imprisoned Russian Trade Unionist
Austerity and 'Bowles-Simpson' Are Bad Policies for Working Families
On Our Own or All Together?
Talks between St. FX union, administration break down
Green-friendly Europe’s dirty secret: It’s consuming a lot more coal
Hewlett Directs Its Suppliers in China to Limit Student Labor *

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

February 6 News Update


Each Monday-Friday, by 9AM Central, we’ll post links to news stories and analytical articles of interest to working people. Sometimes they will be accompanied by editorial commentary. Stories from the New York Times will be followed with a *. The Times pay wall policy allows free access to only about ten articles a month.

Nation's Largest Nurses Union: 'No Keystone XL'
Warming bringing big changes to forest
Gridlock at the NLRB
Union-Made Valentine's Day Shopping List
Employers told they must accommodate staff's child-care requests
Protestors block road to De Beers Victor Mine
White House seeks deal on guest workers
Restaurant Loses Effort to Have Ex-Delivery Workers’ Suit Dismissed *

Monday, February 4, 2013

February 4 Week In Review

Week In Review
February 4 2013
by Bill Onasch

The Real Next Big Thing
The President opened his second term focusing on the trending, emotionally-charged issue of gun-control. He sought to balance his rhetoric for restrictions on magazine capacity and background checks by confessing to a reporter that, far from being anti-gun, his guilty pleasures include shooting a skeet now and then. When some raised doubts about this previously undisclosed penchant for slaughtering clay pigeons the White House released photographic proof , showing POTUS absorbing the recoil of a smoking shotgun. They even managed to include a clear image of the Nike® sign of the swoosh on his sleeve.

Whether this unexpected revelation will serve him as well as photos of Teddy Roosevelt accompanying the future German Kaiser on an African safari, or Saddam Hussein brandishing a long barrel birthday gift from the Iraqi parliament, remains to be seen. There’s always the risk that reaction might be more like the ridicule that fell upon presidential candidate Michael Dukakis when he was shown with a helmeted head protruding from the turret of a tank.

In any case, the present gun-control dust-up is likely episodic. It is not, borrowing the market vernacular of the raging smart phone wars, the Next Big Thing in Washington.

Presidents, with an eye on history books/downloads as they guide the ship of state to destinations determined by the ruling class, require more time for their Big Things than Apple or Samsung. In his first term, President Obama’s main domestic accomplishment was won only after nearly two years of take-no-prisoners combat in and with Congress– the Orwellian Affordable Care Act. Each day brings some new revelation about this “reform” that falls far short of promised universal care while making health costs less affordable than ever. Everything points to immigration “reform” as the Next Big Thing.

February 4 News Update


Each Monday-Friday, by 9AM Central, we’ll post links to news stories and analytical articles of interest to working people. Sometimes they will be accompanied by editorial commentary. Stories from the New York Times will be followed with a *. The Times pay wall policy allows free access to only about ten articles a month.

Rebuking Austerity, Americans Say: Strengthen Social Security
'Just the Beginning': US Drought Kills Hundreds of Thousands of Trees
CAW reaches deal with Sudbury's Xstrata
Unions say quality of health care jeopardized by job cuts
Obama compromises on birth control
Blaze at historic anarchist bookshop is investigated by police
US carbon emissions fall to lowest levels since 1994
In Burma, officials seize land from the poor
Labor Board Refuses to Halt Strike by School Bus Drivers *
Postal Service Considers Sale of Bronx General Post Office *
Job Growth Steady, but Unemployment Rises to 7.9% *
Ottawa gives nod to west-to-east oil pipeline
2nd body found after Quebec quarry landslide
Spanish protests after PM speech
Md. school district proposes copyrighting all student work
Older Isn’t Better ... It’s Brutal *
Colorado Communities Take On Fight Against Energy Land Leases *
Tentative Deal Averts a Port Strike *
Canada falling behind on poverty, inequality, says report
Vast Oil Reserve May Now Be Within Reach, and Battle Heats Up *