US News items
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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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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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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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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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Wednesday, May 19, 2004
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Thursday, April 22, 2004
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Fremont tech firm learns lesson in offshoring. On the surface, the decision to "offshore" appeared to be simple, said CEO Gary Griffiths. Sending about 35 of its 85 positions to Costa Rica would cut the company's call center costs by 25 percent, the company said.
But soon after making the switch, Everdream began hearing complaints. Problems that should have taken five minutes to solve were taking an hour. Promises to call back customers went unfulfilled. Because of the language difference, customers could not always understand the call center agents. The occasional static on the line didn't help. Contra Costa Times Apr 20 2004 12:37PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
12:18:25 PM
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Coke plant workers strike in Philadelphia. About 450 employees of the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Co. hit the picket lines on Monday after rejecting the company's last contract offer by a 3-to-1 margin. Teamsters Local 830 rejected the company's offer late Sunday, saying the company had offered inadequate increases in wages and medical and pension benefits. Boston Globe Apr 20 2004 1:15AM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
12:18:06 PM
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Immigration's Riveting Question to Americans. Are you better off in 2004 than you were 70 million immigrants ago including their offspring in 1965? Are your schools in better shape as they cope with multiple languages, overcrowded classrooms, rising campus violence, teacher shortages, and a record setting student population of 53 million, heading for 97 million by the end of this century? Are your students better prepared to meet the challenges of a new century and a global marketplace? Washington Dispatch Apr 19 2004 4:10AM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
12:17:17 PM
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In Maine, A Shipyard That Endures. For 400 years, the pine-covered banks of the Kennebec have been home to one of the nation's most thriving shipbuilding cultures. And for more than a century, the BIW has constructed many of the keels, hulls, engines, and masts of America's commercial and Naval fleets - ships that rode the waves of industrialization, immigration, and some of the most brutal military conflicts in history... Yet as commercial ship building has all but disappeared from the US and military contracts have moved south, the future of this historic shipyard and the town that it supports are in doubt. Wed, 21 Apr 2004 13:00:19 PDT [PLANetizen: Front Page] [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
12:16:46 PM
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Arbitration Panel gives ex-Merrill Lynch broker $2.2 billion NEW YORK - An arbitration panel found that Merrill Lynch & Co. engaged in systematic discrimination against women in a decision that awarded $2.2 million to former female broker. The decision marks the first ruling against a Wall Street firm for systematic discrimination. Experts said the legal finding of a pattern at Merrill likely will pressure the firm to settle 39 other cases against it that stem from a class action suit filed against the company in 1997. [Miami Herald: Business] [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
12:16:16 PM
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Union Leader Criticizes Supervisors Over Possible Job Cuts. News that almost 1,400 jobs could be eliminated because of state funding cuts prompted a union leader to lash out at supervisors Tuesday. It was "pretty unusual" to learn about the possible job losses after the employees did, said Mary Grillo, executive director of the Service Employees International Union Local 2028, which represents many county employees. NBC San Diego Apr 21 2004 5:38AM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
12:15:03 PM
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Gap Inc. agrees to union factory
Retailer to help displaced workers at El Salvador plant
Jenny Strasburg, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
URL: sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/20/BUG7J67JFO1.DTL
Gap Inc., the same retailer that a few years ago was dubbed "the king of sweatshops," has joined the labor union that has been one of its oldest critics in an accord to help displaced Salvadoran factory workers.
San Francisco's Gap and the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees together announced their support on Monday for a unionized clothing factory that's about to open in El Salvador, a country known as a tough place for organized labor.
The factory will be small, employing about 150 workers at first. Gap said it plans to buy T-shirts from the plant, which is structured as a co-op partially owned by the workers.
What's also remarkable is that most of the workers are members of the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Industria Textil union -- making the factory, called Just Garments, the first clothing-export plant in El Salvador to operate under a fully independent union-labor agreement, according to Gap and UNITE.
The news signals big change for the workers. Most of them lost their jobs in 2002, when, following a successful labor-organizing drive, two factories where they worked were closed by their Taiwanese owners.
The closures prompted UNITE to lead protests around the United States. The union and anti-sweatshop activists accused U.S. retailers -- Gap in particular -- of turning their backs on workers in foreign contract factories, often earning substandard wages, vulnerable to abuse and unprotected by basic labor pacts.
That Gap and UNITE would now jointly celebrate the unionization of a factory in Soyapango, El Salvador, was hailed Monday as a breakthrough in the controversy over garment-factory conditions. No less remarkable is the meeting of minds between an apparel company and one of its harshest critics, both sides said.
The accord -- while more of a publicized handshake than a formal contract -- is seen as having potential ramifications for thousands, if not millions, more workers in both El Salvador and other countries.
"We're not saying here that now the Gap's perfect, but we really did want to say that we're now working together, and it's not going to be just at this factory," said UNITE spokesman Steven Weingarten.
"Since that season of protests targeting the Gap around sweatshop issues, we've worked with them to try to ... accomplish some real change for workers."
Gap said the announcement showed progress in efforts by the company, unions and others to improve the monitoring of all garment factories.
The $16 billion firm behind 3,022 Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic stores buys from about 3,000 factories in 50 countries.
Gap requires that plants maintain workers' right workers to organize, but it does not differentiate between union and non-union plants in contract negotiations, said spokesman Alan Marks.
"We're very clear that our position is protecting a worker's right to free association," Marks said.
Gap employs 90 full-time factory monitors around the world, most of them native to the regions they oversee, said Dan Henkle, vice president of global compliance.
Some critics argue that as a retail leader whose practices often set broader industry standards, Gap should favor unionized plants when it decides where to buy clothes and should even encourage organizing efforts as a supplement to plant-monitoring.
"Gap does have a responsibility to take sides regarding what's right and what's fair," said Jason Mark of Global Exchange, the San Francisco nonprofit that since 1999 has campaigned against what it calls substandard garment- factory conditions and for more transparency in Gap's sourcing policies.
"I think this is an encouraging step," Mark said of Monday's news.
Gap has had a factory-monitoring program since the mid-1990s, but acknowledged that protecting workers' rights in dozens of countries is a work in progress.
"From my perspective, this is an important development," said Henkle, the vice president for compliance. "As one of our critics, UNITE was probably the most vocal. What we've been consciously trying to do is really listen to what our critics have been saying. ... By working together, you're going to be a lot more effective than by working apart."
The factory in El Salvador is one of nine in that country where Gap does business. It was unclear whether the former operator, Tainan Enterprises of Taiwan, is involved as a corporate entity in the soon-to-reopen factory.
"All of these programs have evolved over time. They're all getting better. None of them is perfect," said Elliot Schrage, an adjunct senior fellow with the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations who has consulted with Gap on its factory-monitoring program, which he oversaw in 2000 and 2001. He no longer has a business relationship with the retailer.
Gap representatives said they could not readily say what workers are paid at Salvadoran factories where it has contracts, but they said workers earn at least the minimum wage of $5.06 per day.
E-mail Jenny Strasburg at jstrasburg@sfchronicle.com. [Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
12:13:49 PM
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12:12:38 PM
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Friday, April 16, 2004
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Illegal immigrants paying taxes as example of good citizenship. VISTA – The clusters of working families that spilled out from Marisela Ornelas' small office waited as patiently as any American filing income taxes at the last minute. Yet most did not belong to this country.
"They're all illegal," Ornelas said.
Lured by word-of-mouth and by Spanish-language ads in newspapers and on the radio, hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants across the nation have walked into tax preparers' offices to report their income.
SignOn San Diego Apr 15 2004 9:39AM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
9:45:21 AM
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Early To Bed, Early To Commute. "From 1990 to 2000, the census reported, 18 percent more Marylanders left their homes between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. to go to work...Transportation planners say longer commutes are partly a product of the continued migration from urban centers and nearby suburbs to outlying areas. Those far-flung places rarely have extensive mass transit and often have roads bursting beyond capacity. Jobs often follow people out of big cities, but many new office parks and suburban job centers can be reached only by car." Thu, 15 Apr 2004 01:00:00 PDT [PLANetizen: Front Page] [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
9:41:27 AM
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Yes, But When Can I Switch Off From Work?. Welcome to the modern "always on, always connected" work world. It's gotten to the point where Microsoft discovered, after handing out smart phones, tablet PCs and broadband connections to employees that they needed to give their employees special instructions on how to turn off work. This isn't a new problem, and it's certainly been discussed before. While some people can handle the work/life balance without a problem - it's not so easy for everyone else. Even for those who can switch off, it's made more difficult by their colleagues who can't - and who contact them at odd hours with work requests. This is going to become a bigger issue for modern companies to deal with. There are, obviously, some advantages, but people need to learn their limits. [Techdirt] [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
9:41:02 AM
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EEOC sues Apria for discrimination against local worker. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, alleges that Apria violated the Americans with Disabilities Act for firing its quality assurance coordinator with bipolar disorder rather than attempting to work out a reasonable accommodation that would have allowed her to keep working. St Louis Business Journal Apr 14 2004 9:07PM GMT [Janice Kimball's Radio Weblog]
9:40:45 AM
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Labor Study Is Alone Under Gov.'s Budget Ax
Schwarzenegger plan to eliminate institute sets off debate about the role taken on by colleges.
Los Angeles Times
By Evan Halper, Times Staff Writer
April 8, 2004
Sacramento - Of the hundreds of research institutes in California's public university system, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has targeted just one for elimination: a think tank dedicated to organized labor.
It is the scourge of conservatives and industry groups. They call it "Union U" and charge that the institute has been used to train union "thugs" to beat up political opponents.
But to founders, the Institute for Labor and Employment, based at UCLA and UC BERKELEY, is a place where union leaders and academics can come together to explore workforce issues and trends.
The fate of the small institute is taking a prominent role in a high-stakes budget battle in Sacramento and a national debate over the place of organized labor in university classrooms, fueled by charges that the programs are merely a training ground for union activists....
Former U.S. Secretary of Labor ROBERT REICH [CURRENTLY A VISITING SCHOLAR AT UC BERKELEY] says "the information they provide has been extremely useful. They look at the entire labor market and ask hard questions about why the labor market looks the way it does, how it is evolving and how it could evolve."...
Staff members at the institute say charges that they sponsored political events, much less beatings, are nonsense. But the groundswell of opposition caught them off guard.
PETER OLNEY, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE, points out the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 made "encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining" official government policy.
"Given the corporate offense against unions, some folks forget this is the law of the land," he said. "Is anyone talking about eliminating the business school for balance? They receive a lot more funding than we do."... [Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
9:39:18 AM
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LaborTech activists focus on labor, technology
By John See, Workday Minnesota webmaster ‹ April 4, 2004
http://www.workdayminnesota.org/view_article.php?id=98c02205a3f511e20eecc973ce31b3ea
PALO ALTO, California
Over 100 labor activists attended LaborTech 2004 www.labortech2004.org at Stanford University during the weekend of April 2-4 to participate in a wide assortment of 25 workshops about labor and technology in the United States, Germany, Brazil, Belgium and Korea.
Sessions included "How the Stream Labor's Video and Audio on the Internet," "Labor Radio," "Censorship and the Media Workplace," "Technology, Stress and Health & Safety," and "Labor and Research Tools," to name a few.
Featured speakers included Ken Hamidi of the Intel v. Hamidi e-mail case which Mr. Hamidi won in 2003, yet who is still prevented by the state of California from sending e-mails; Henry Norr, Newspaper Guild member and computer technical writer who was fired from the San Francisco Chronicle after participating in a labor rally on his day off; researcher Nancy Bupp from the Education Department, IAM, about researching companies, and spying and surveillance techniques used by some companies; and Steve Stallone, Communication Director for the ILWU during the ILWU lock-out on the docks in San Francisco and the experiences of the dockworkers dealing with the media and the Bush administration.
John See, Labor Education Service/Workday Minnesota, presented at three workshops, "Labor Education in the Schools and Using Technology," "Organizing Media/Tech Workers," and "Community Access Cable-How to Establish A Labor TV Show." He also shared his experiences with the Minnesota labor movement and its support of Workday Minnesota, and which remains a unique service in the United States. The web site generated numerous questions about how such a service might be started in other states.
The LaborTech Conferences began in 1990, and are held almost annually in different cities around the U.S. and Canada. It was held in Minneapolis in 1994, and there was a strong interest among this year's participants to bring the conference back to the Twin Cities in 2005. [Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
9:38:59 AM
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Prayers pit Safeway vs. union
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
By Jessica Guynn
Dozens of workers stopped bagging groceries and stocking shelves for several hours to attend Good Friday services held by clergy with strong ties to organized labor despite a warning from Safeway Inc. that the supermarket chain would hold their unions responsible for economic damages.
In a sharply worded letter to Bay Area grocery union leaders, Safeway accused the unions of using religion to play politics. The supermarket claims the interfaith services were thinly disguised labor rallies that did not meet the "scope and spirit" of a contract provision which allows grocery workers to take off three hours with pay on Good Friday for religious worship.
"It was not intended to provide a free day off as long as prayer was involved or to disrupt store operations," wrote Safeway's group vice president for labor relations Rich Cox, objecting to union representatives passing out flyers and encouraging workers to attend the services, which took place in seven cities from San Rafael to Santa Cruz on Friday…
… "Safeway is better served selling groceries than monitoring religious services," said UC Berkeley professor Harley Shaiken. "At the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, religious services were heavily focused on issues of social justice. What's the next logical step, to begin evaluating sermons?"
Source: UC Berkeley in the News
[Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
9:38:42 AM
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Letter to the Editor
Labor Think Tank Did Important Research
Los Angeles Times
April 13, 2004
Re "Labor Study Is Alone Under Gov.'s Budget Ax" (April 8), about the Institute for Labor and Employment at the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - the sole research institute that the governor has targeted for elimination:
When I was a member of the ILE's research committee for its initial two years, we distributed funds to researchers at all UC campuses. Topics ranged broadly, from understanding how to expand health insurance coverage to studying how human resource policies affect organizational productivity, from examining the lives of second-generation Mexican immigrants over the state's history to reducing injuries and turnover among home healthcare workers. A key focus of almost all the projects was to provide research that would help policymakers make informed decisions.
It is surprising for the governor to cut funding on the topic he claims to care the most about: jobs. Moreover, it is a dangerous precedent for the governor to choose what topics are or are not appropriate for study at the UC.
DAVID I. LEVINE
PROFESSOR, HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, UC BERKELEY
Source: UC Berkeley in the News
[Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
9:38:18 AM
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Dot-com bust isn't over for workers
USA Today
By Michelle Kessler, USA Today
April 12, 2004
San Francisco - Four years after the dot-com bust, some tech companies are still slashing staff and restructuring operations.
Last week, business computer maker Sun Microsystems announced the latest details of a major overhaul, which include 3,300 layoffs and a partnership with former rival Microsoft. PC makerGateway this month announced plans to close all its stores and lay off 2,500 workers.
Sun and Gateway have made cuts several times since the dot-com bust of 2000. Yet they say more changes are needed....
Tech spending is up 1.4% this year, says technology research firm Gartner. That's far below boom-era growth, says Gartner analyst Marcus Blosch. "It's going to be another tough year."
Tech companies today must adjust to everything from new security risks to the increase in outsourcing, says Northwestern University management professor Wally Scott. Major changes also "take awhile to work through," says UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY BUSINESS PROFESSOR DWIGHT JAFFEE....
Source: UC Berkeley in the News [Lincoln's IIR Library Weblog]
9:20:06 AM
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