NewsTrust - Labor - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

New Evidence of Scott Walker Lying to Congress

Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By John Nichols - May. 27 (News Report) - there is new evidence to suggest that Walker’s testimony to Congress about when he began preparing his anti-labor legislation—which sparked mass demonstrations and a recall movement that will culminate with a June 5 vote on whether to recall the governor—was not truthful.

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Foxconn Workers Protest, Threaten To Jump Off Roof

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Apr. 27 (News Report) - Workers at a Chinese factory owned by Foxconn, Apple Inc's main manufacturer, threatened to jump off the roof of a building in a protest over wages just a month after the two firms announced a landmark agreement on improving working conditions. The protest happened in the central city of Wuhan at one of Foxconn's plants. The company employ some 1.2 million workers in China assembling iPhones and iPads, among other products. It involved some 200 workers, the Hong-Kong based activist group Information Centre for Human Rights said. A spokesman for Hon Hai Precision Industry, th

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Despite Praise & Permission, Detroit Teacher Fired for Helping Students’ Trayvon Martin Fundraiser

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 13 (Special Report) - An eighth grade charter school teacher in Michigan has been fired after helping her students organize a fundraiser for Trayvon Martin’s parents. Brooke Harris and her students at Pontiac Academy for Excellence drew up a plan to raise money by donating one dollar each to wear a hoodie to school, as Martin had worn when he was shot dead. She obtained permission for the fundraiser but her Superintendent opposed the plan. Harris was initially suspended and then later fired without explanation. "They did not want to walk out of class; they didn't want to wear the hoods over their head. They just wanted to pay a dollar to wear their regular clothes instead of uniform and donate that money to someone else who they saw needed it," Harris says. "I just wanted to know what I specifically did wrong, so I could learn from my alleged mistake and be sure never to do that again." [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Chinese Guest Workers Flee Living Hell in Jordan - Institute for Global Labour & Human Rights

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

globallabourrights.org - Mar. 31 (Investigative Report) - While young Chinese women guest workers are fleeing the grueling 93-hour workweek at the Rich Pine Factory, the Jordanian Ministry of Labor has rewarded Rich Pine its "Golden List" status, placing it among the very best export garment factories in Jordan.

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4 important truths about Mike Daisey’s lies & the way ‘This American Life’ told them

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Poynter Institute - By Craig Silverman - Mar. 19 (News Analysis) - Fact checking is a real process, but what “This America Life” did wasn’t fact checking. The press release about the retraction show referenced the “fact checking before the broadcast of Daisey’s story” and the original show included this from Glass: This

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Foxconn Hid Teen Workers Before Inspection (VIDEO)

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - Feb. 23 (News Report) - video

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Military Intervention vs. Maritime Union Power

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By Brian Tierney - Jan. 22 (News Report) - For the first time in 40 years, the US Armed Forces will be deployed to intervene in a labor dispute, facilitating a scab operation against union dockworkers at the Port of Longview in Washington.' Brian Tierney, Subterranean Dispatches

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300 Chinese Foxconn Workers 'Threaten Mass Suicide' At XBox Plant, Reports Claim

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

huffingtonpost.co.uk - By Michael Rundle - Jan. 11 (News Report) - Around 300 Chinese workers who manufacture XBox consoles took to a factory roof and threatened bosses with mass suicide over a dispute about pay, unconfirmed reports have claimed. The workers were employed at the Foxconn Technology Park in Wuhan in Hubei province. Foxconn is an independent, global manufacturing partner to companies including Apple, Microsoft and Sony.

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Laid-Off Steelworker: Mitt Romney and Bain Capital Profited by Shutting Down Kansas Steel Plant

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 10 (News Report) - As Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney comes under fire in New Hampshire for touting his business experience, we look at how his private equity firm, Bain Capital, drove a Kansas City steel plant into bankruptcy, leading to some 750 layoffs and a federal bailout. Bain still walked away with millions of dollars in profits. We speak with Reuters reporter Andy Sullivan, who covered the story, and with Joe Soptic, a steelworker who lost his job at Kansas City's Worldwide Grinding Systems steel mill after 28 years. "The first thing I noticed after the company was bought out ... they became very union non-friendly. They started looking for ways to eliminate jobs," says Soptic. "In my department, they actually offered to buy our jobs out from underneath us. They cut back on safety equipment." Regarding Romney's business acumen, Soptic adds, "If he runs the country the way he ran our business, I would not want him as president." [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

thisamericanlife.org - By Ira Glass - Jan. 10 (Special Report) - Mike Daisey performs an excerpt that was adapted for radio from his one-man show "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs." A lifelong Apple superfan, Daisey sees some photos online from the inside of a factory that makes iPhones, starts to wonder about the people working there, and flies to China to meet them.

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U.S. Manufacturing Competitiveness in Global Trade

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Jared Bernstein: - Dec. 28 (News Analysis) - we're toward the low end of the advanced economies in terms of compensation costs. Second, in dollar terms, manufacturing compensation costs have increased much faster elsewhere over the past decade

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Crippling the Right to Organize: GOP Inaction May Leave National Labor Relations Board Inoperable

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 20 (News Report) - The National Labor Relations Board -- the government body that oversees labor complaints -- is on the verge of being shut down. Under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from last year, the NLRB must have a quorum of at least three of five members in order to operate. But one member's term expires at month's end, and meanwhile, Republicans have refused to confirm President Obama's two replacement nominees. Unless a solution is found, the NLRB would be frozen come January. Without the NLRB, workers would lose their legal recourse to defend their right to organize and to protect themselves against anti-union activity by employers. We speak with Standford Law School Professor William Gould, former chair of the NLRB. [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Here comes everybuddy

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Harper's - By Andy Merrifield - Dec. 15 (News Analysis) - The crucial factor is not working in a factory, or with your hands; not is it necessarily anything to do with being poor. Rather, as Berman writes, it is the need "to sell your labor in order to live" -- "to look at yourself in the mirror and think, 'Now what have I got that I can sell?' " One virtue of this definition of the working class is its inclusiveness, its flexibility. By this reckoning, the working class is practically "here comes everybody."

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H-1B Workers’ Use of Social Security Numbers

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

SSA - Oct. 18 (Special Report) - Based on the results of our review, we estimate about 7,131 (18 percent) of the 38,546 H-1B workers to whom the Social Security Administration (SSA) assigned an SSN in 2007 may have used their SSNs for purposes other than to work for their approved employer. This estimate includes about 4,433 (11 percent) H-1B workers who had posted wages during our audit period from an employer other than their DHS-approved employer. This estimate also includes about 2,698 (7 percent) H-1B workers who had no posted wages from 2007 through 2009.

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House Approves Controversial Trade Deal

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Oct. 13 (News) - Congress voted to approve a free trade agreement with Panama, a country of less than 4 million that still carries economic weight because of the Panama Canal.

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Occupy Wall Street March Gets Massive Turnout; 28 Arrested in Police Crackdown

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Oct. 06 (News Report) - Labor unions and students joined the growing Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City on Wednesday in the largest march since the protest began 20 days ago. Tens of thousands marched from Foley Square to Zuccotti Park, renamed “Liberty Plaza,” the site of the protest encampment where hundreds have been sleeping since Sept. 17. The march was peaceful ,but police later beat a handful of protesters with batons after they toppled a police barricade in an attempt to march down Wall Street. Police say a total of 28 people were arrested. We hear from eyewitnesses to an altercation between police and protesters at Wall Street. [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Shock Doctrine at U.S. Postal Service: Is A Manufactured Crisis Behind Push Toward Privatization?

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Sep. 27 (News Analysis) - many postal workers say the much-touted crisis facing the U.S. Postal Service is not what it seems. They argue the greatest volume of mail handled in the 236-year history of the postal service was 2006. They also point to a 2006 law that forced the USPS to become the only agency required to fund 75 years of retiree health benefits over just a 10-year span, and say the law’s requirements account for 100 percent of the service’s $20 billion in losses over the previous four years, without which the service would have turned a profit.

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ALEC Exposed – Prison Labor

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

mainstreetinsider.org - Sep. 22 (Special Report) - Earlier this year, the Center for Media and Democracy released documents detailing some 800 model legislations crafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Included in those documents was the Prison Industries Act, legislation that had already been established in dozens of states across the country. Like much of the model legislation created by ALEC, this bill is designed to help private corporations increase profits. In this case, those profits come from the use of prison labor. As Mike Elk and Bob Sloan wrote in The Nation, “prison labor for the private sector was legally barred for years, to avoid unfair competition with private companies.”

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Massive Unemployment: Proof That Global Capitalism Doesn't Work

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Steve Fraser, Joshua B. Freeman, - Sep. 12 (News Analysis) - In the coming years, might we see the return of a basic American horror at the phenomenon of joblessness? And might it drive Americans to begin to ask deeper questions about the system that lives and feeds on it? After all, we now exist in an under-developing economy. What new jobs it is creating are poor paying, low skill, and often temporary, nor are there enough of them to significantly reduce the numbers of those out of work. The 99ers are stark evidence that we may be witnessing the birth of a new permanent class of the marginalized.

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Alleging Captive Labor, Foreign Students Walk Out of Work-Study Program at Hershey Plant

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez - Sep. 01 (Investigative Report) - We look at the story of 300 foreign students who came to the United States as part of a work-study program, and found themselves engaged in what they refer to as captive labor at a Hershey’s packing plant in Palmyra, Pennsylvania. The students — from Eastern Europe and Asia — went on strike two weeks ago, after they were reportedly required to lift heavy boxes, work eight-hour shifts beginning at 11 p.m., and stand for long periods of time while packing candy on a fast-moving production line. Federal agencies have launched four investigations into the alleged exploitation. The walkout apparently marks the first time that foreign students have engaged in a strike to protest their employment. The guest workers are demanding a return of the $3,000 to $6,000 each student paid for the cultural exchange program to work at Hershey; that Hershey end exploitation of J-1 student cultural exchange workers; and that the 400 jobs the guest workers filled instead be given to local workers paid a living wage.

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House Republicans Aim To Repeal Environmental, Labor Regulations

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jim Abrams - Aug. 29 (News Report) - The House Republican agenda this fall will focus on repealing environmental and labor regulations that GOP lawmakers say are driving up the cost of doing business and discouraging employers from hiring new workers. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., says in a memo to his fellow Republicans that as soon as Congress returns to Washington next week he will start bringing up bills to repeal or restrict federal regulations. He also said the House would also act on a small business tax deduction.

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The Verizon Labor Battle: As Strike Continues, Customers Report Delays and Disruptions To Service

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman - Aug. 19 (News Report) - As a strike by 45,000 Verizon workers approaches the two-week mark, the company’s customers are beginning to feel the impact on its services. Consumers are reporting significant delays in booking Verizon technicians to fix and install landline telephone, Internet and cable television services. The strike was called after Verizon pushed for the workers to accept far-reaching concessions, including a pension freeze and fewer sick days. The company also asked workers to contribute far more toward their health coverage. Meanwhile, Verizon made $22.5 billion in profits over the past four and a half years and has paid its top five CEOs $258 million in the past four years. We're joined by Steven Greenhouse, the labor reporter for the New York Times. [Transcript to come. Check back soon]

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Verizon Workers' Strike "Most Important Labor Battle Going on Today"

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez - Aug. 18 (News Report) - "We’re not talking here about a General Motors or a company that’s in financial trouble. But Verizon is literally swimming in cash. [...] And yet, even with such a profitable company, you have a situation where it is demanding unprecedented givebacks from its workers. If Verizon, such a profitable company, can insist that its workforce has to do all of these cuts in their living standards, what does it mean about any other company in America? [...] The workers are vowing to keep this up as long as possible, because a company that is so profitable right now should not be insisting that its workers give up even more of the hard-fought gains they’ve had over the years."

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Verizon Workers Strike Over "Full-Scale Attack" on Wages, Benefits at Telecom Giant

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Aug. 11 (News Report) - Some 45,000 workers at Verizon have entered their fifth day on strike after negotiations between Verizon and two unions representing the workers broke down when the company attempted to cut health and pension benefits for workers and make it easier to fire workers. The workers on strike are employed in Verizon’s fixed-line division covering landline phones, DSL internet, FiOS, cable TV and internet.

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The Hidden History of ALEC and Prison Labor

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Mike Elk, Bob Sloan - Aug. 01 (Investigative Report) - The breaded chicken patty your child bites into at school may have been made by a worker earning twenty cents an hour.

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