Posted on September 8, 2010 by dsalaborblogmoderator
Human Rights Watch
Many European companies that publicly embrace workers’ rights under global labor standards nevertheless undermine workers’ rights in their US operations, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued on September 2.
Companies cited include Germany-based Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA and Deutsche Post’s DHL, UK-based Tesco’s Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets and G4S Wackenhut security, France-based Sodexo food services and Saint-Gobain industrial equipment, Norway-based Kongsberg Automotive, and the Dutch firm Gamma Holding.
“The behavior of these companies casts serious doubt on the value of voluntary commitments to human rights,” said Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “Companies need to be held accountable, to their own stated commitments and to strong legal standards.”
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 created or saved between 1.5 million and 2 million jobs. The “Local Jobs for America Act” proposed by U.S. Representative George Miller (D-CA) would create or save as many as 1 million jobs, including providing the funds to avoid some 300,000 impending fall teacher layoffs.
In April the U.S economy created 290,000 new jobs, in May 431,000, while the private sector created 31,000 new jobs in June and 71,000 in July, although there was a net job loss because of census employee layoffs.
Is the jobs crisis over? Before you answer the question, let’s consider the extent of the devastation in the U.S. labor market.
Workers are more concerned about safety on the job than any other issue, according to a new study from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. The report, Public Attitudes Toward and Experiences With Workplace Safety – which draws on dozens of surveys and polls – found that 85 percent of workers rank workplace safety first in importance among labor standards, even ahead of family and maternity leave, minimum wage, paid sick days, overtime pay and the right to join a union.
Every year, thousands of workers are injured on the job due to unsafe working conditions, few of which are ever reported. Early this year, Interfaith Worker Justice, with the support of the Public Welfare Foundation, zeroed in on this crisis by targeting seven key cities throughout the country and assisting local worker centers in those cities to develop education and awareness programs around health and safety protections on the job and the recourses available for workers when they’re injured.
This year, Labor Day falls during the same week as Rosh Hashana. While Labor Day may be considered by many to be the summer’s last hurrah, or another shopping day, its original purpose was to honor the contribution that the labor movement has made to American society. Just as in the first week of the Jewish “Days of Awe” – from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur, when we strive to make amends for interpersonal sins, and hope that we can do better in the year to come – we can and should see Labor Day as a time to reflect, and to become better, by respecting and honoring those who labor.
The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated back in 1882 in New York City, and soon spread to communities across the country. Twelve years later, in the aftermath of the bloody 1894 Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland made it a priority to secure legislation making Labor Day a national holiday. It was indeed passed, unanimously, in Congress and signed into law six days after the end of the strike. For more than a century, all 50 states have made Labor Day a state holiday, originally devoted to “the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations” of the community. Read more »
On the occasion of Labour Day, which is also celebrated today in Canada, I have reports on a second exemplary organizing effort in Canada from which American union activists might draw lessons.
The Greater Toronto Workers Assembly (GTWA), which has been emerging into existence step-by-step over the last year, has begun to establish itself as a genuine political movement in Canada’s largest city. Its goal is to “establish a network of activists that is anti-capitalist, democratic, non-sectarian, and dedicated to
building, through coordinated campaign work and political education, a broad multi-racial working class movement that is militant and effective.” Read more »
On the occasion of Labor Day, which is celebrated today both in the USA and in Canada, I have reports on two exemplary organizing efforts in Canada from which American union activists might learn.
The Canadian branch of the United Food & Commericial Workers Union (UFCW Canada) has committed itself to a sustained effort to improve conditions for migrant agricultural workers in Canada. Every year Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW) program imports tens of thousands of agricultural laborers from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South Asia. UFCW Canada national president Wayne Hanley describes the TFW as “the federal government’s Exploitation Express that delivers migrant workers to Canada as a vulnerable and disposable work force. The collusion between the farm lobby and the governments is not only appalling, but an assault on the fights and safety of precarious workers who are fired and shipped out if they voice any concerns.” Read more »
Every Labor Day, we hear about the landmark achievements of working people and their unions. Advocates of the past successfully worked to prohibit child labor and to create the 40-hour workweek. They closed sweatshops and ended systems of industrial homework, in which factory employees were made to do labor-intensive tasks for businesses late at night and in their own homes.
These achievements were indeed historic. At the same time, one wonders if these hard-fought rights are still meaningful for American workers today. In our global economy, many of us bring our work home with us, few enjoy an eight-hour workday, and everyone is forced to compete with sweatshops and child labor in far corners of the world.
This year, when so many Americans are struggling just to get by—rather than working to make a decent living—we must rethink what type of labor institutions are needed to restore and protect workers rights and make work pay again.
Posted on September 4, 2010 by dsalaborblogmoderator
Some people love Twitter, some hate it, some use it constantly, some use it intelligently. One of the smartest uses of Twitter is talking place this Labor Day Weekend. American Rights at Work is organizing a Labor Day weekend tweetathon using #unionmember. By the way, Talking Union is on Twitter here.
The # or hashtag is a way for twitter users to search topics.
What do rock stars, baseball players, and news reporters have in common?
They belong to unions.
This Labor Day, people who work in the sports, entertainment and news media industries—baseball players, actors, recording artists, Broadway performers, broadcasters and more—are coming together on Twitter to celebrate unions They all know that it’s a tough climb to make it to the top. Fortunately, they have unions to thank for the healthcare, fair wages, and other union advantages they received along the way.
So this weekend, union members from across the spectrum are uniting on Twitter with a common purpose: to talk about the advantages of being a #unionmember … in 140 characters or less.
Posted on September 2, 2010 by dsalaborblogmoderator
CEOs of the 50 firms that have laid off the most workers since the onset of the economic crisis took home 42 percent more pay in 2009 than their peers at S&P 500 firms, according to CEO Pay and the Great Recession, the 17th in a series of annual Executive Excess reports from the Institute for Policy Studies.
“Our findings illustrate the great unfairness of the Great Recession,” says Sarah Anderson, lead author on the Institute study. “CEOs are squeezing workers to boost short-term profits and fatten their own paychecks.”
Many European companies that publicly embrace workers’ rights under global labor standards nevertheless undermine workers’ rights in their US operations, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued on September 2.
