 All News items (domestic and international)
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Tuesday, July 06, 2004
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Court upholds Berkeley 'living wage'
San Francisco Business Times
June 16, 2004
http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2004/06/14/daily28.html
The city of Berkeley was within its rights to insist that a restaurant operator at the city's marina pay its workers the city's "living wage," a three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.
In its 2-1 vote, the panel said the move did not violate the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on legislative interference with valid contracts.
A "living wage" requires certain employers, usually those which do business with a city or use city facilities for private business, to pay their employees wages approximating the real cost of living in the locality, which is often significantly higher than the applicable state or federal minimum wage. In California, living wage ordinances are in effect in Los Angeles, Ventura, and Marin counties, as well as a number of cities, including San Jose, Pasadena, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Oakland, and Berkeley.
Berkeley enacted a living wage law in 2000, after RUI One Corp., a subsidiary of Restaurants Unlimited, Inc., signed a lease with the city for its restaurant at the Berkeley Marina.
The crux of RUI's argument was that it was unfair to target only it and a small number of other businesses in the marina. RUI conceded the city's authority to regulate wages, and to enact the original living wage ordinance, but challenged the legislative decision that imposed the ordinance's terms on Marina businesses but not upon other similar businesses elsewhere in the city, the court noted.
"It is more than reasonable that the city should expect marina businesses, which receive so many benefits from the city in the form of improvements and lack of competition due to the development moratorium, and which operate on land held in the public trust, to contribute to the welfare of the surrounding community and not to exacerbate its problems," said the majority opinion, written by Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw. "Although RUI claims that any benefit it receives is offset by the rent it pays the city, it is certainly 'plausible' for the city legislators to believe that rent alone does not adequately discharge marina businesses' responsibilities to the public and city. Furthermore, it is certainly 'plausible' that certain members of the public might be deterred from patronizing the Berkeley Marina if they knew that the businesses there paid their employees less than a living wage.
In the dissenting opinion, Judge Jay Bybee said the city overstepped its authority.
"[T]he City effectively rewrote RUI's lease by ordinance," he writes. "Berkeley used its sovereign authority to achieve what it failed to negotiate in its proprietary capacity. The Contract Clause protects parties doing business with the government from such arbitrary exercises of sovereign authority."
Seattle-based Restaurants Unlimited, Inc. owns and operates 31 full-service restaurants in 19 markets, according to its Web site. A call to the company for comment was not immediately returned.
[Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
1:29:58 PM 
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Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District
925 Collection goes to Wayne State University
June 21, 2004
Wayne State University's Walter P. Reuther Library and the College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs are pleased to announce the opening of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 925 Collection. Comprising 15 linear feet and spanning the years 1973 to 2004, this collection is an invaluable resource for historians and other scholars seeking to understand the interplay between the women's movement and the labor movement in the last quarter of the twentieth century.
The collection is a significant addition to the Reuther Library's substantial holdings on women and work, including the papers of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, Mildred Jeffrey and the 20th Century Trade Union Woman oral histories.
For twenty years, until its restructuring and merger with other SEIU locals in 2001, District 925 successfully organized thousands of librarians, college and university support staff, day care, local government workers and other office, technical and professional employees. This organizing took place in hard-fought campaigns
primarily in Massachusetts, Ohio and Washington. Along with 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, it lobbied for equal pay, affirmative action, child care, office health and safety and against age discrimination and sexual harassment.
In launching District 925, SEIU signaled its recognition of the growing presence of women in the workforce and of clerical work as the single largest sector in that workforce. To meet the needs of both these constituencies, the International simultaneously announced the creation of its Clerical Division, later called the Office Worker Division.
The "SEIU District 925 Collection" documents the activities of this effort and is sure to attract scholars pursuing research on this SEIU affiliate and related subjects.
Kristen Chinery, Librarian
The Walter P. Reuther Library
College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48202
Phone: 313.577.8377
[Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
1:29:39 PM
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Nation's Largest Union Calls for End to U.S. Occupation of Iraq and Withdrawal of U.S. Troops
SEIU resolution, 6/22/2004
Nearly 4000 delegates of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation's largest with 1.6 million members, voted unanimously at the union's national convention in San Francisco today to end U.S. occupation of Iraq and to bring U.S. troops stationed there home.
The strongly worded resolution pointed to military intervention aboard and attacks on workers at home. The resolution charged the Bush administration (backed by a majority in Congress) with responsibility for declining wages and benefits, deunionization, cuts in public services, crumbling health care and educational systems, cuts in veterans benefits, escalating public debt, and eroding economic, social and personal security.
The union proclaimed, "We cannot solve these economic and social problems without addressing U.S. foreign policy and its consequences."
The full text of the resolution is available on the USLAW website at http://uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=5382
[Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
1:29:16 PM
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Recent NLRB ruling overturns Weingarten rights for non-union employees
IBM Corporation and Kenneth Paul Schult, Robert William Bannon, and Steven Parsley.
full text of June 9, 2004 decision at http://www.nlrb.gov/nlrb/shared_files/decisions/341/341-148.htm
(bold added):
"Our reexamination of Epilepsy Foundation leads us to conclude that the policy considerations supporting that decision do not warrant, particularly at this time, adherence to the holding in Epilepsy Foundation. In recent years, there have been many changes in the workplace environment, including ever-increasing requirements to conduct workplace investigations, as well as new security concerns raised by incidents of national and workplace violence.
Our consideration of these features of the contemporary workplace leads us to conclude that an employer must be allowed to conduct its required investigations in a thorough, sensitive, and confidential manner. This can best be accomplished by permitting an employer in a nonunion setting to investigate an employee without the presence of a coworker."
thanks to UCB Labor Center researcher Ken Jacobs for pointing out this item [Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
1:28:56 PM
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Thursday, May 27, 2004
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Report Documents $10 Billion Public Price Tag on Low-Wage Jobs:
Two Million California Working Families Rely on Safety Net Programs to Make Ends Meet
The Hidden Public Costs of Low-Wage Jobs in California
UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education
The report is available on line at: http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu
Contact:
Ken Jacobs, UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education (510) 643-2621, cell (415) 516-3135
Aimee Durfee, National Economic Development and Law Center (510) 251-2600 x127, cell (510) 851-1311
May 20, 2004, Berkeley, CA
For many California workers, according to a UC Berkeley study released today, a full-time low-wage paycheck is simply not enough to make ends meet. As a consequence, 2 million California families rely on publicly funded safety net programs even though one or more family members work at a public cost of over $10 billion a year.
California's new economy has produced an hourglass pattern of job distribution, fostering growth of high and low-wage jobs but little in between, explained report author Carol Zabin of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. Low-wage workers are relying on public assistance to make ends meet. Low-wage employers are essentially shifting their labor costs onto the public.
The researchers found that small improvements in wages could move many families off public programs, freeing up scarce resources for families currently on waiting lists. If all workers in the state earned a minimum of $8 an hour, program costs would be reduced by $2.7 billion. A movement to $14 per hour reduces expenditures by 5.6 billion dollars. Likewise, if jobs included health benefits, even at current wage levels, $2.1 billion in expenditures could be put to other uses.
The report, The Hidden Public Costs of Low-Wage Jobs in California was written by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education for the National Economic Development & Law Center. The report analyzed the participation of working families in the ten largest state-wide safety net programs in 2002, including Medi-Cal, CalWorks, the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, Food Stamps and Housing Vouchers. The report found:
· Half of all means tested public assistance dollars are going to families who are working. In 2002, almost half ($10.1 billion) of public assistance dollars in the state went to families where at least one person worked at least 45 weeks per year.
· Most workers on public assistance earn wage close to the minimum wage. Over $5 billion in support goes to families of workers earning below $8 an hour.
· Full-time employment at low-wages doesn t bring self-sufficiency. Over 75% of the benefits to working families went to families in which all earners worked full-time.
· More than one of four workers in working families receiving assistance works for a business with 1,000 or more employees.
· Public assistance to working families goes disproportionately to those working in a few industry sectors. Workers in the retail industry received about $2 billion in public assistance, over twice the amount received by those in any other sector. Other top sectors included business services and construction.
· Low-wages in these sectors are not due to international competition. The vast majority of workers receiving public assistance (71%) are employed in sectors of the economy that do not face significant international or out of state competition, including retail, transportation, business services (janitors, security guards), and construction.
· More than half of the working family members receiving assistance 1.1 million live in the Los Angeles Area.
The report was commissioned by NEDLC with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and is the second in a series of white papers informing policy solutions to working poverty in California.
[Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
11:13:10 AM
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Tuesday, May 25, 2004
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Can Blue-Collar Cities Make A Comeback?. Such a strategy is the best hope, it says, to hold and attract the young and creative people who've been fleeing the state. But will businesses be willing to locate in older cities that often have a reputation -- justified or not -- for neighborhood blight, crime and disorder, polluted brownfields, poor schools? Mon, 24 May 2004 10:00:00 PDT [PLANetizen: Front Page] [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
1:52:00 PM
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Preying On Human Cargo (Forbes.com). Forbes.com - Victor Zavala Sr. was in a panic. His sons and daughter-in-law had just been arrested by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's immigration division, part of a sweep last October of 250 illegals who held cleaning jobs at Wal-Mart stores in 21 states. Zavala waited on a call from Kenneth Clancy, who had put him and his family to work at the giant retailer in Old Bridge, Piscataway and Toms River, N.J., and would get them out of this horrendous scrape. Clancy did phone, says Zavala. But it was to tell him to put together a new crew to clean that evening. [Yahoo! News - Business] [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
1:50:10 PM
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Runoff needed to pick Chicago Teachers Union president. Chicago Teachers Union members will need a runoff election after none of the four got the 50 percent of the vote needed to win the union's presidential election, the union said Saturday. The top two finishers in Friday's election, current President Deborah Lynch and special-education teacher Marilyn Stewart, will square off June 11. Chicago Sun-Times May 23 2004 12:13PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
1:49:55 PM
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Boeing union recommends members reject offer, approve strike. The union of technical and professional workers at Boeing Co.'s Wichita plant urged its members Monday to reject the company's latest contract offer and authorize a strike. The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace -- which narrowly survived a decertification vote in February -- received what the company called its final offer Monday morning, just three hours before its members were scheduled to vote on whether to accept or reject it. San Francisco Chronicle May 24 2004 6:54PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
1:49:40 PM
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Jobs threat hits north-east England textile factory. More than 100 jobs are under threat at a Wearside textile factory. The news is another blow to the north-east of England's struggling clothing industry, which has seen a spate of job losses over the past year. Bosses at the Dewhirst factory in Sunderland are to begun consultation with unions over the future of about 120 posts. The company is blaming falling orders and cheap foreign competition for the situation. BBC May 22 2004 1:41PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
1:49:22 PM
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Thursday, May 20, 2004
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Detroit fights to save jobs. Marvin Washington cleans the interiors of city buses. The newlywed’s job — and that of his co-worker wife — is one of the targeted layoffs within the Detroit Department of Transportation. “We don’t have enough people working in that department, and they cut our overtime. We’re looking for other jobs now,” said Washington, 39, a coach service attendant. Detroit News May 19 2004 12:55PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
2:37:07 PM
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CWA union Gives SBC Final Strike Notice. The Communication Workers of America the union representing 102,000 employees of SBC Communications Inc. said Wednesday it would stage a four-day strike starting Friday because of a deadlock in contract negotiations with the nation’s second biggest local phone service provider.MSNBC May 19 2004 1:53PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
2:36:46 PM
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Clashes erupt as three Andean nations open free trade talks with U.S. Colombia, Ecuador and Peru opened negotiations for a free trade accord with the United States Tuesday as anti-riot police clashed with protesters who say the pact would lead to job losses in the South American nations. Some 2,000 people marched through the Caribbean port city of Cartagena toward the conference center where the talks took place, holding signs that read "Colombia is not for sale" and "No free trade deal." San Francisco Chronicle May 19 2004 4:25AM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
2:36:19 PM
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The brewery strike that is unnerving Norwegian beer drinkers. Norway's brewery workers have gone out on strike, and supplies may run out. With all production now at a halt, Norway cannot even import from neighbours Sweden or Denmark, because its truck drivers are also on strike. The 2,560 striking full-time brewery staff fear that a growth in temporary workers may undermine job security. BBC May 19 2004 4:06PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
2:36:00 PM
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Korean auto industry facing labors steep demands. Unions are demanding participation in company management and requesting that companies provide social welfare funds in addition to wage increases. Companies say they cannot accept such "infringements of managerial rights." The unions of four automobile companies under the Korea Metal Worker's Federation ¯ Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, GM Daewoo Auto & Technology and Ssangyong Motor ¯ made their demands at a joint press conference yesterday Joon Ang Ilbo May 19 2004 4:44PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
2:35:40 PM
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Immigrant Workers 'Helpful to UK Economy'. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said today that workers arriving in Britain from new member countries of the European Union were bringing useful skills and helping the UK. Mr Straw, speaking during a visit to Basildon, Essex, said that, provided immigrants from countries such as Poland paid taxes, they were not harming the British economy. PA News via The Scotsman Online May 19 2004 11:22AM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
2:35:28 PM
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S.F. nonprofit to shut down. The Management Center, the financially troubled San Francisco nonprofit that has advised tens of thousands of nonprofit groups over the past 27 years, plans to shut down today and sell its programs to other organizations. San Francisco Chronicle May 19 2004 12:41PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
2:34:55 PM
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Slovak unemployment dips to 15.25 % in April.
The unemployment rate in Slovakia fell to 15.25 % in April, down from 16 % in March and 15.44 % one year earlier, according to figures released by Slovakia's Center for Labor, Social Affairs and Family.
The result was slightly better than preliminary estimates, which put the April jobless rate at 15.4 %. The number of job seekers ready to start work immediately fell 4.73 % to 399,309 in April.
The data for the past two months represent a renewed downward trend in unemployment, according to the center's spokesman, Peter Zemanik. Forecasts suggest unemployment could fall to under 15 % in May, he adds.
The Bratislava region again registered the lowest unemployment level of under 4 %, while the highest levels of over 30 % were seen in the districts of Rimavska Sobota, Revuca, Velky Krtis and Roznava.
Interfax Information Agency May 19 2004 12:37PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
2:34:41 PM
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Wednesday, May 19, 2004
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Ghettos in Denmark
Despite the country's long-held ideals of social equity and cradle-to-grave welfare, Denmark is increasingly becoming a socioeconomically polarized society. While the upwardly mobile and well-to-do are settling in comfortable residential neighbourhoods or privately rented apartments, the socially marginalized are stranded in ghettos with high concentrations of immigrants.
The trend was outlined in a new report by the Economic Council of the Labour Movement (AE), which was aimed at mapping the emergence of ghettos in Denmark. In 1982, 1.9 percent of the Danish population resided in what could accurately be termed "social ghettos." By 2002, that figure had swelled to 4.8 percent, comprising more than one out of four public housing complexes.
Some 250,000 Danes currently live in social ghettos, more than 30 percent of whom are classified as socially disadvantaged Copenhagen Post May 14 2004 9:41AM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
10:50:49 AM
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Jobs flying faster from U.S.
Estimate for 2006 raised by 40% -- to 800,000
John Shinal, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
URL: sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/18/BUGQ26ND7B1.DTL
[Excerpt]
U.S. corporations are sending work overseas faster than previously thought, according to Forrester Research Inc., whose controversial report 18 months ago helped stoke the national controversy over offshoring American jobs.
In its latest study, Forrester predicts that by the end of next year, U.S. firms will offshore more than 800,000 service jobs, 40 percent more than the firm estimated previously. Forrester's overall estimate remains the same: The firm predicts that about 3.3 million jobs will go overseas by 2015.
The Cambridge, Mass., researcher said the largest U.S. employers are expanding the types of work they send overseas. Where telemarketers and software developers used to bear the brunt of the job loss, bank loan processors, insurance claims adjusters and even legal assistants now share the pain.
Critics of offshoring seized on the original Forrester report as evidence that shipping jobs overseas would devastate service-sector employment and the middle-class workers who fill those occupations. Yet the report itself was criticized by economists, company executives and others who have defended offshoring as a painful but necessary result of a global economy.
The issue has become a political hot button, with some in Congress calling for laws to limit the type of work that can besent abroad and privacy advocates saying the practice puts sensitive data into the hands of overseas firms.
Despite the criticism, the largest U.S. companies are accelerating their offshoring plans, and by 2008, more than half the Fortune 1000 will have overseas operations, according to the report. [Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
10:47:13 AM
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House approves changes to government's work-safety agency
LEIGH STROPE, AP Labor Writer
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
©2004 Associated Press
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/05/18/national1806EDT0740.DTL
[Excerpt]
The House voted Tuesday to make employer-friendly changes to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, including adding two members to a violations review commission, increasing its power, extending deadlines for companies to challenge citations and allowing more of them to recoup lawyers' fees.
Republicans said the four bills would enhance OSHA's oversight of employers and improve the regulatory process.
Democrats said the legislation was an election-year gift to big business, intended to weaken regulation that ultimately would hurt workers.
"Don't hamstring small businesses' ability to continue to hire new workers and compete in our economy," said GOP Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee. "That's why these bills are important."
Republicans argued the four bills make technical, easily understood changes that remove unnecessary red tape on employers by OSHA, a Labor Department agency.
"I would argue the bills enhance OSHA's ability to work with employers in a voluntary way to increase the health and safety of workers," Boehner said.
Democrats countered that the bills do nothing to improve job protections for workers, and Republicans are looking out only for their employer campaign contributors.
"You never get any bills from them seeking to protect workers," Rep. Major Owens, D-N.Y., said about the Republicans. [Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
10:46:48 AM
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In a 2-1 party line vote, the Bush National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decided an employer may explicitly inform workers who are about to vote on whether to form a union that workers in two other facilities lost their jobs after they formed a union.
The case involves security guards at a New York City hotel who were seeking to form a union with the Brotherhood of Security Personnel Officers and Guards Union. Eight days before the election, management circulated a memo saying security guards had been fired after voting for the union at two of the company's other hotels. The memo said, "So, in the final analysis, the majority who voted for this union (as well as the minority who voted against it) gained NOTHING, and LOST EVERYTHING! They lost all of their medical benefits, their 401K plans, and most importantly, they lost their jobs!"
The regional NLRB director ruled the memo "clearly implied" the union was responsible for the firings at the other two hotels and insinuated similar firings could happen if the workers voted for the union. The two Bush NLRB appointees overruled the regional director's decision and claimed the memo "did not exceed the bounds of permissible campaign statements."
In his dissent, the lone Democratic appointee said the memo "was a clear attempt to communicate the message that unionization at the other two hotels caused those employees to lose their jobs and benefits, and that unionization would likewise cause the employees to lose their jobs and benefits."
[Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
10:46:31 AM
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Jobs going offshore faster than estimated. New figures on offshore outsourcing suggest that American companies are sending even more white-collar jobs to low-wage countries such as India, China and Russia than researchers originally estimated. Roughly 830,000 U.S. service-sector jobs — ranging from telemarketers and accountants to software engineers and chief technology officers — will move abroad by the end of 2005, according to a report released Monday by Forrester Research Inc. The Cambridge, Mass.-based firm projected in 2002 that 588,000 jobs would move overseas by the end of next year. Pioneer Planet May 18 2004 2:10PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
10:45:43 AM
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Oakland's unemployment rate drops. OAKLAND -- The city's unemployment rate fell to 9 percent in April from 9.9 percent in March, the largest single monthly decline in at least 14 years. Oakland's jobless rate was 10.7 percent last April and peaked at 11.6 percent in July, according to the state Employment Development Department. Oakland Tribune May 18 2004 12:18PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
10:45:22 AM
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Car plant closure in Australia to cost company $220m. MITSUBISHI Motors Australia will have to pay about $50million in employee entitlements and another $170 million in superannuation if it quits its two Adelaide factories. The 3500 employees of the plants in the southern suburbs will discover their fate on Friday, with the parent company confirming yesterday it would be revealing its long-awaited business plan in Tokyo then. news.com.au May 18 2004 10:09PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
10:44:22 AM
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Monday, May 10, 2004
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"Politically correct upstart challenges Nike - No Sweat Apparel uses new sneakers to fight sweatshops"
Jenny Strasburg, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, May 7, 2004
full article at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/07/BUGAE6H1T91.DTL
Regardless of how sturdy his No Sweat-brand sneakers are, Adam Neiman faces a difficult uphill climb taking on Nike in his latest anti- sweatshop campaign.
Neiman -- a roofer by trade who runs his own company in Newton, Mass. - - is co-founder and chief executive of No Sweat Apparel. The privately held firm last year sold $150,000 worth of T-shirts, jeans and other clothing made by union workers in developing countries, he said.
Its latest product, out this week, has footwear-industry types on their toes. It's a $35 pair of black canvas, rubber-soled sneakers that look like low-rise Converse Chuck Taylors, but lack Converse's trademark star logo.
More remarkable is the one-page flyer that comes in every box.
No Sweat's "labor content disclosure form" offers a new twist in the long- running discussion about fair-labor standards in the globalized footwear industry. The flyer says that unionized workers in Jakarta, Indonesia, made the shoes while earning at least $90 a month -- about 20 percent higher than the minimum wage for the region -- with full medical coverage, meal allowances and other benefits.
The No Sweat website is http://nosweatapparel.com/ [Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
12:02:07 PM
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Czarnecki's Labor Education Newsletter
Ed Czarnecki has been cranking out this wonderfully useful list of resources and news for many years. He carefully annotates each one and makes sure the contact information is valid, so it's easy to use and find what you need. The current issue (Vol. XIII No. 3 May 10, 2004) contains these, among others:
WORKERS’ RIGHTS WATCH - EYE ON THE NLRB http://americanrightsatwork.org This monthly alert from American Rights at Work looks at how the NLRB affects organizing drives, either because of inadequacies of the law or because of decisions that do little to prevent employer abuses.
APRIL QUESTION OF THE MONTH (CATHERWOOD LIBRARY) What’s It Like to Work for a Labor Union?
Site provides occupational distribution of union jobs and rewards and
conditions of these jobs.
VIDEO: FTAA & THE MIAMI MODEL: FREE CAPITAL, FOUL REPRESSION
A 17 minute video from the Univ. of Minnesota Labor Education Service. Details what happened during the demonstrations against the Free Trade Area of the Americas, in Miami on November 2003. Call 612-624-5020 or contact Howard Kling hkling@csom.umn.edu
[Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
12:01:50 PM
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Korean Business Groups Reject Gov't Policies, Union Demands. The Executive deputy chiefs of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), the Korea Employers Federation (KEF), the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), and the Cooperative of Small-and-Medium Businesses Chosun Ilbo, Conservative daily of Seoul, South Korea fully rejected on Friday the government’s corporate policies that calls for limits on the share voting rights of financial service firms affiliated with conglomerates and the reintroduction of the right to track accounts by the Fair Trade Commission.
It also disapproved demands from the labor community, such as the union’s involvement in management and the transformation of irregular workers into regular workers, which will likely cause considerable conflict between management and the labor unions in future collective wage negotiations. [Breaking News Headlines from Around the World, Powered by Worldpress.org] [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
12:01:21 PM
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Berkeley Bowl must respond to labor suit. Grocer accused of threatening shutdown to quash union efforts. Berkeley Bowl, lauded as an eco-friendly and liberal grocer, is headed to trial following accusations of unfair labor practices in a complaint filed last week by attorneys for the National Labor Relations Board. The complaint alleges that during a seven-month labor showdown with store employees who tried to organize last year, Berkeley Bowl owners and managers ran a fervent anti-union campaign that included employee surveillance, interrogation and a threat to close the store if employees unionized. Oakland Tribune May 7 2004 2:42PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
11:57:25 AM
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Belgium set for massive pensions bill. BRUSSELS - In line with most of the rest of the developed world, Belgium is set to see spending on state pensions skyrocket over the next 30 years. Belgian Labour Minister Johan Vande Lanotte said on Friday that spending on pensions and care for the elderly would represent around 3.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) between 2003 and 2030. Expatica Belgium May 7 2004 3:28PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
11:57:05 AM
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Fiat Melfi: Unions Divided On Wages.
Melfi (Pz), May 7. - Second day of negotiations between Fiat and the Rsu at the Melfi factory, which were announced as preliminary. Yesterday the Lingotto delegation showed the company's offer to overcome the double night shift and the wage inequality in line with other factories. Regarding hours, there's substantial acceptance by union reps, the problem to solve is the pay increases, which Fiat would like to stagger and apply to financial improvements. This morning's meeting was due to start at 9.30am but the delegates still hadn't shown up. 750 workers were present at the factory (1300 for each shift) who also today will produce the Lancia Y and Punto. (AGI) - 071418 MAG 04 AGI Online May 7 2004 6:20PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
11:56:09 AM
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Will You Bring Your Own PC To Work?. People often have emotional attachments with their computers, even if that computer is supplied by their employers. Going one step beyond the concept of telecommuting and the so-called commoditization of IT, some are wondering if a few years from now, people will be expected to bring their own computers to work, the same way they're expected to drive their own cars to work. And, if that's the case, what will it mean for the traditional role of the IT staffer who used to have to get you set up with your computer and help you troubleshoot when things weren't working properly? The article suggests it may mean fewer IT jobs, since they won't have to manager purchasing new machines and applications. However, it could mean a shift of those jobs towards the new problem: making all of those different PC configurations work together properly. Of course, that seems like an opportunity as well. If things really do progress in this manner, there will be a greater need for automation tools that can help configure a machine to work within a specific corporate network environment. [Techdirt] [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
11:55:45 AM
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Small US towns, like Martinville Louisiana, look toward China to remedy job losses. After several trips with other officials to China, the town Mayor Eric Martin hopes to nab a Chinese auto parts manufacturer within the coming months. He also hopes the company, which he would not identify, will be just the first of other China-based companies to take up shop in the former Martin Mills plant. If all goes well, Martin expects as many as 500 jobs to be created, with thousands more possible in the future. Martin, like many other St. Martinville residents, blames the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for sweeping away 2,200 jobs at Martin Mills two years ago. But the mayor said he and other officials decided to look at NAFTA in a different way while seeking out recovery. [The Taipei Times: Business] [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
11:55:28 AM
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Irish laborers found an early grave in Penn. together. William Watson and John Ahtes, two professors at Immaculata University, are looking for a mass grave believed to contain the remains of approximately 57 workers who died of cholera in 1832 while building a section of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad in East Whiteland Township. Their efforts have been reported in various Philadelphia and Chester County media over the past few months. The Intelligencer May 7 2004 0:42AM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
11:55:03 AM
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Student activists urge Indiana University to disclose wages of workers producing apparel.
| Bloomington-AP) -- An anti-sweatshop group has asked Indiana University to force companies that make IU-licensed apparel to disclose the wages they pay workers. About 20 members of the student group No Sweat! met with Dean of Students Richard McKaig after a rally yesterday on the Bloomington campus. The I-U students believed university officials had been slow to send a letter supporting the wage-disclosure campaign to the Workers Rights Consortium. McKaig told students that he had forwarded the letter to I-U President Adam Herbert for his endorsement. The nonprofit Workers Rights Consortium is a group of schools, students and labor rights experts. The group monitors the labor practices of apparel producers, many of which have factories in developing countries where low wages and poor working conditions are common. | | | | [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
11:54:45 AM
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OECD economic indicator points up but shows signs of flagging. "Continued expansion lies ahead in the OECD area according to the latest composite leading indicators," the Paris-based organisation said in a statement Friday. "However, March data signal slightly weakening performance in the United States and the euro area but an improvement in Japan and Italy," it added. AFP via Yahoo! May 7 2004 3:40PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
11:54:21 AM
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Textile workers in Nigeria propose sector revival strategy. To revive the plummeting fortunes of the nation's textile industry, workers have called for a stakeholder's forum, to strategically map out measures, for improved business environment, on a sustainable basis. Indeed, officials of the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) lamented that the ailing textile industry in the country holds dim prospect for the nation's economic recovery. Nigeria Guardian May 7 2004 3:48AM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
11:53:57 AM
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Germany to create more apprenticeships in nanotechnology and biotechnology. German Minister for Education and Research, Edelgard Bulmahn, has launched her country's 'apprenticeship offensive 2004', saying that she sees particular potential for apprenticeships in the growth areas of microsystems technology, nanotechnology and biotechnology.
The government intends to target regions where the difference between the number of apprenticeships available and local demand is the highest, as well as those regions which have cut their number of apprenticeships by a higher than average number Cordis May 7 2004 2:01PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
11:53:42 AM
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Friday, April 23, 2004
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Debtor Nation No other major economy in the world accepts perennial trade deficits; some maintain huge surpluses. But American leaders and policy-makers are uniquely dedicated to a faith in "free market" globalization, and they have regularly promised Americans that despite the disruptions, this policy guarantees their long-term prosperity. [The Nation] [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
5:01:00 PM
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TVA lays off 106 employees; 550 leave. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Valley Authority issued layoff notices to 106 employees Thursday and said 550 employees have chosen to leave voluntarily. TVA also said it will eliminate 281 contractor positions in the coming months. AP via Seattle Post Intelligencer Apr 22 2004 8:04PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
4:59:49 PM
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'Me-toos' may help avoid a strike here Me-too agreements work like this: In situations where there are contracts covering multiple employers in the same industry expiring at roughly the same time, the union and some of those employers will negotiate a sort of contract in advance. That contract says that the union won't strike those employers should there be a walkout. In turn, those employers agree to offer to their workers whatever is the industrywide or regionwide settlement agreed to by the largest employers. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Business] [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
4:58:20 PM
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Nigeria: Airways Workers Chase Out MD, Others. Protesting workers of the ailing national carrier, Nigeria Airways yesterday added another twist to their recent activities when they chased out the airline's Managing Director, Mr. Jonathan Jiya and other top management staff out of office. The workers claimed their action was to force the management of the airline to source for their unpaid 12 months salary arrears and terminal benefits. AllAfrica.com Apr 22 2004 3:19PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
4:57:54 PM
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Labor Medal awarded to migrant worker. BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhuanet) -- The National Labor Medal, the highest honor for Chinese workers, has for the first time been awarded to the migrant worker before the International Labor Day. Bao Xianfeng, who came to work in the city from the countryside, has become the first migrant worker who won the medal for his outstanding contributions. He is now a group leader of a construction company in east China's Zhejiang Province. Xinhua News Agency Apr 22 2004 7:52AM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
4:56:30 PM
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Contractors and Mercenaries: the Rising Corporate Military Monster.
It is unclear exactly what law applies to the contractors, explains Peter W. Singer, author of Corporate Warriors (Cornell University Press, 2003) and a leading authority on private military contracting. They do not fall under international law on mercenaries, which is defined narrowly. Nor does the national law of the United States clearly apply to the contractors in Iraq -- especially because many of the contractors are not Americans.
Relatedly, many firms do not properly screen those they hire to patrol the streets in foreign nations. "Lives, soldiers' and civilians' welfare, human rights, are all at stake," says Singer. "But we have left it up to very raw market forces to figure out who can work for these firms, and who they can work for. "CounterPunch Apr 23 2004 4:40PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
4:56:13 PM
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Global Poverty Down By Half Since 1981 But Progress Uneven As Economic Growth Eludes Many Countries. The proportion of people living in extreme poverty (less than $1 a day) in developing countries dropped by almost half between 1981 and 2001, from 40 to 21 percent of global population, according to figures released today by the World Bank. But while rapid economic growth in East and South Asia has pulled over 500 million people out of poverty in those two regions alone, the proportion of poor has grown, or fallen only slightly, in many countries in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. World Bank Apr 23 2004 6:26PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
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