Labor Rights News Thread

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caltrek
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Apple Investigates Indian iPhone Plant After Workers Strike Following Mass Food Poisoning
by James Vincent
December 31, 2021

https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/31/228 ... -poisoning

Introduction:
(The Verge) Apple is sending independent auditors to investigate an iPhone assembly facility in India, after poor working and living conditions at the plant prompted workers to go on strike.

The facility in southern India is operated by longtime Apple partner Foxconn. An investigation by Reuters found that women working at the plant were laboring in extremely difficult conditions, forced to sleep on the floor in crowded dorms and sharing toilets without running water. Recently, an outbreak of food poisoning left 150 individuals hospitalized, prompting workers to strike and shut down the plant on December 18th.

In response, Apple says it’s put the plant on “probation” (though the company hasn’t said what this means for Foxconn or the workers who assemble its iPhones). The plant employs some 17,000 people, and is located around 25 miles (40km) west of Chennai.

A spokesperson for Apple told BBC News: “Following recent concerns about food safety and accommodation conditions at Foxconn Sriperumbudur, we dispatched independent auditors. We found that some of the remote dormitory accommodations and dining rooms being used for employees do not meet our requirements, and we are working with the supplier to ensure a comprehensive set of corrective actions are rapidly implemented.”

Foxconn apologized for poor conditions, and, as reported by the state government of Tamil Nadu, has agreed to upgrade its facilities — expanding living spaces, improving bathrooms, and providing drinking water. The company says it will resume work at the plant soon.
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caltrek
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Chicago Public Schools Cancels Classes After Union Votes to Go Remote
by Monica Eng
December 5, 2022

https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/202 ... -go-remote

Introduction:
(Axios) Officials at Chicago Public Schools have canceled classes today after 73% of Chicago Teachers Union members voted to suspend in-person teaching to protest COVID safety conditions in schools.

The official word came down to CPS families at 11:28 pm last night.
Why it matters: The move affects the lives of about 360,000 students and staffers along with their families and the businesses that rely on them.

CPS view: District officials call the move "an illegal work stoppage" and a "walkout."
Last edited by caltrek on Sun Jan 09, 2022 12:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Agriculture Workers in Washington Now Eligible for Overtime Pay After 55 Hours
by Angela Kerndl
December 2, 2022

https://kimatv.com/news/local/agricultu ... phasing-in

Introduction:
(KIMA TV) YAKIMA -- The start of the new year means local agricultural workers now have access to overtime pay when they work more than 55 hours.

Governor Inslee signed the overtime bill into law in May.

The overtime rule will be phased in over the next three years. In Jan. 2023, overtime will be due after 48 hours By 2024, time and a half will be due after 40 hours.

"It further recognizes the hard work and the long hours in the hot and cold and the dust to make sure that we have food for our families," says Gov. Inslee.

It's been over 60 years since the Fair Labor Standards Act was put into law guaranteeing overtime protections for nearly all workers, except farm workers.
Don't mourn, organize.

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Maine governor vetoes bill to allow farm workers to unionize
Source: WHDH TV 7 News/AP
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine’s Democratic governor has vetoed a bill that would have given farm workers in the state the right to unionize, citing the possibility of heaping new costs on an already struggling agriculture sector.

The Maine Legislature passed the proposal, which called for people working in agriculture to be able to organize for the purposes of collectively bargaining for wages, hours, working conditions and benefits.

But Gov. Janet Mills vetoed the proposal Friday with a message that said she could not “subject our farmers to a complicated new set of laws that would require them to hire lawyers just to understand.”

Maine is the country’s sole producer of wild blueberries, as well as a major producer of potatoes and maple syrup. The largely rural state also has a significant dairy industry and small and midsize farms dedicated to livestock and specialty crops.
Read more: https://whdh.com/news/maine-governor-ve ... -unionize/
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Maine governor vetoes bill to allow farm workers to unionize
Very disappointing and in marked contrast to California, where Democratic governors like Jerry Brown were very supportive of farm worker rights to organize. I am beginning to think that one problem with the national Democratic party is that it is not as progressive and open minded as that Democratic party here in California. Another example is the cooperative and mutually respectful relations with the Green party, which stands in marked contrast to Pennsylvania where the Democrats apparently acted to keep the Green party off the ballot. Politicians in California were smart enough to dream of fusion politics and to take steps in that direction. They would never dream of pulling a stunt like keeping Greens off the ballot. At least not the ones I knew up close and personal, and I am talking based on behind-the-scenes discussions and strategizing, not just carefully considered statements meant purely for public consumption.
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caltrek
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Chicago Fight with Teachers Union Stretches into Second Week
January 10, 2022

https://www.live5news.com/2022/01/10/ch ... -2nd-week/

Introduction:
CHICAGO (AP) — The leader of the Chicago Teachers Union on Monday blamed the city’s mayor for the continued standoff over COVID-19 protocols as classes for hundreds of thousands of students were canceled for a fourth day.

CTU President Jesse Sharkey said union and district representatives negotiated until 10 p.m. Sunday but “remain apart on a number of key features” that teachers want before returning to classrooms, including a testing program and triggers to close a school for in-person instruction due to an outbreak.

Sharkey accused Mayor Lori Lightfoot of refusing to compromise on teachers’ main priorities and said union leadership can’t go back to members with what the mayor’s team has offered so far.

“The mayor is being relentless but she’s being relentlessly stupid, she’s being relentlessly stubborn,” he said during a Monday news conference. “She’s relentlessly refusing to seek accommodation and we’re trying to find a way to get people back in school.”

Sharkey’s comments came a day after Lightfoot said many teachers had abandoned their students by refusing to teach in-person.
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caltrek
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Maine governor vetoes bill to allow farm workers to unionize
Here is another article on that topic: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/ ... s-unionize

Extract:
(Common Dreams) The Maine AFL-CIO, however, stressed that the bill would have empowered farmworkers to push back against abuses including sexual harassment and wage theft—a rampant problem nationwide, especially in industries where a large proportion of workers are vulnerable immigrants.

"We are greatly dismayed that Gov. Mills vetoed legislation to grant farmworkers the fundamental human right to join together and form unions for fair treatment and a better life," Matt Schlobohm, executive director of the Maine AFL-CIO, said in a statement.

"Farmworkers provide the most essential service to our communities by growing, picking, and processing the food we eat every day," he added. "They perform back-breaking labor and are among the most exploited workers in our nation."

While the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 guarantees the majority of private-sector workers in the U.S. the right to form unions and collectively bargain without fear of termination, agricultural and domestic workers, independent contractors, and public-sector employees have been excluded from basic protections afforded by federal labor law.

As historian Touré F. Reed has shown, agrarian proprietors lobbied to deprive millions of—disproportionately but not exclusively Black—farmworkers of benefits provided by the New Deal not only because "most southern farm owners in the 1930s were racist," but also in an effort "to keep their labor costs down and retain control over the operation of their farms."
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Facebook Contractors Threaten to Stop Work Over Missing Paychecks
by Russell Brandom
January 11, 2022

https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/11/2287 ... g-paycheck

Introduction:
(The Verge) Facebook moderators at an Accenture site in Austin are facing a payroll disaster that has left many without their holiday paychecks. Workers at the site handle moderation, customer service, and other tasks for Facebook and WhatsApp — and a work stoppage has already been threatened if the situation is not resolved.

The problems began as early as January 4th, when some workers noticed errors in the system that tracks paid time off (PTO), a clerical confusion that was attributed to a recent change in payroll providers at the site. Things got more serious when the January 6th round of paychecks failed to arrive. Internal pay stub systems showed many paychecks as zeroed out, and workers were left with no idea of when they might get their money.

In an open letter to the CEOs of Facebook and Accenture, posted on an internal message board, a group of workers pledged to halt work at the site until the paychecks were issued in full.

“If these issues are not resolved immediately a work stoppage will be enacted,” the letter promised. “The work stoppage will begin on January 7th, 2022 if nothing is resolved.”

Several lump-sum payments were issued to affected workers shortly after the letter posted, and Accenture says the company has not seen any indication of coordinated work stoppage at the site in the days since.
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Google Can’t Cloak Documents Showing an ‘Antiunion Campaign,’ NLRB Judge Rules
by Kim Lyons
January 11, 2022

https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/11/2287 ... paign-nlrb

Introduction:
(The Verge) A judge appointed by the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Google must turn over some 180 documents related to an internal campaign to fight union organizing efforts by employees. Dubbed Project Vivian, a Google attorney described the ongoing effort between 2018 and 2020 as a way to “engage employees more positively and convince them that unions suck,” according to one of the documents.

The documents are part of a case the NLRB brought against Google in December 2020, which alleged the internet giant violated US labor law by spying on and firing employees who were organizing protests and trying to unionize. Former Google employee Laurence Berland, fired in 2019, was organizing against the company’s hiring of IRI Consultants, a firm known for its union-busting efforts. He said he was fired for looking at other employees’ calendars, breaking a Google policy which the NLRB found to be unlawful. And former Google employee Kathryn Spiers said she was fired after she created a pop-up for Google employees who visited the IRI Consultants website. The company claimed Spiers had violated security policies, but the NLRB found that her firing was also unlawful.

Google tried to claim attorney-client privilege to shield some of the documents that were subpoenaed in the case. But administrative law Judge Paul Bogas said Google’s “broad assertion, is, to put it charitably, an overreach,” according to a January 7th order The Verge received following a Freedom of Information Act request. Bogas wrote in his ruling that IRI provided Google with “antiunion messaging and message amplification strategies” that were tailored to Google’s workforce, but IRI didn’t give Google legal advice that would be protected by attorney-client privilege.

He added that Google had CC’d its legal counsel on documents that would not be considered privileged otherwise, in what appeared to be an effort to try to keep the documents private. He said Google “cannot spin the mere fact of a nascent organizing effort among employees into ‘litigation’ — like straw spun into gold — that entitles it to cloak in privilege every aspect of its antiunion campaign.”
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How the Concerns of Teachers Have Been Misrepresented in Omicron Reporting
by Ari Paul
January 12, 2022

https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/01/12 ... reporting/

Introduction:
(Counterpunch) The return to in-person K-12 education after holiday breaks hasn’t been smooth as some had hoped, as cases of Covid-19, made worse by the Omicron variant, have skyrocketed, and teacher groups have called for delays in reopening (Boston Globe, 12/31/21).

In-person return plans were disrupted at schools in Milwaukee (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 1/2/22) and Atlanta (WXIA, 1/3/22). Chicago canceled school after the Chicago Teachers Union “approved a labor action to work remotely due to safety concerns as Covid-19 and its Omicron variant surge in the city” (WTTW, 1/4/22).

The Chicago labor dispute has drawn the most eyeballs, as it is the third-largest US city, but teacher unionists nationwide are indicating that the Omicron surge is pushing school systems to their breaking points. In San Francisco, the system saw as many as 600 educators out of work, with the union blasting the district for its severe deficit in Covid-19 testing kits (Mission Local, 1/6/22). The left caucus of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers reported 10,000 student absences and 2,000 staff absences, criticizing the mayor for inadequate “baseline testing” (Twitter, 1/6/22), while dozens of New York state and city lawmakers have demanded a remote option for the city’s schools (Twitter, 1/6/22).

Media have responded with dismay to teacher objections, backing political leaders who insist that schools must remain open. Prominent outlets argue that children’s education is of tantamount importance and that the health risks of the pandemic are simply overstated. This stance oversimplifies both the risks involved and what teachers are demanding.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board (1/5/22) declared, “The political scandal of the year so far is unfolding in plain sight in Chicago, where the teachers union has effectively shut down the public schools.” That an economically conservative editorial board would be against the Chicago Teachers Union isn’t a surprise; however, that position is also supported by the Biden administration (Politico, 1/5/22).
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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