Labor Rights News Thread

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caltrek
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Why Business Lobbyists Want to Stop Labor Secretary Nominee Julie Su
by Jessica Goodheart
May 8, 2023

Introduction:
(Capital & Main) Business groups are vigorously opposing Julie Su, President Joe Biden’s nominee for labor secretary, and they are counting on a handful of votes from swing senators to defeat her confirmation.

Leading the charge are trade groups representing companies like McDonald’s and Uber that currently are not the employers of record for workers in fast-food franchises or drivers who are treated as independent contractors. Because of that arm’s length relationship, those corporations are often shielded from responsibility for labor law violations. They fear Su would more aggressively enforce labor laws that could expose them to penalties for infractions.

Those fears stem from Su’s record. She rose to prominence in the 1990s for representing Thai seamstresses who were enslaved in a sweatshop in El Monte, California. She brought a suit on their behalf that held retailers and manufacturers liable for using slave labor that resulted in $4 million in restitution for the garment workers.

She served as the state’s top labor-law enforcer under Gov. Jerry Brown, launching a “Wage Theft Is a Crime” campaign and aggressively pursuing claims on behalf of restaurant, car wash and garment workers. As California’s labor secretary under Gov. Gavin Newsom, she steered the department’s expanded unemployment system for those thrown out of work by the pandemic. Her opponents are also attacking her for the fraud that emerged in that program, although such fraud was common nationwide. Now serving as acting secretary of labor, she has the support of organized labor, some business leaders and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

Read more here: https://capitalandmain.com/why-busines ... -julie-su
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Kids could fill labor shortages, even in bars, if these lawmakers succeed
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Lawmakers in several states are embracing legislation to let children work in more hazardous occupations, longer hours on school nights and in expanded roles including serving alcohol in bars and restaurants as young as 14.

The efforts to significantly roll back labor rules are largely led by Republican lawmakers to address worker shortages and in some cases run afoul of federal regulations.

Child welfare advocates worry the measures represent a coordinated push to scale back hard-won protections for minors.

“The consequences are potentially disastrous,” said Reid Maki, director of the Child Labor Coalition, which advocates against exploitative labor policies. “You can’t balance a perceived labor shortage on the backs of teen workers.”
https://apnews.com/article/child-labor- ... 88619c6205
weatheriscool
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Supreme Court sides with cement mixing company over striking workers in latest blow to unions
Source: CNN
The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a cement mixing company that seeks to bypass federal labor law and sue a union in state court for the destruction of property caused by striking workers.

The court said the dispute could continue in state court for now, a move that could chill workers’ decisions to strike for fear that unions would now have to face potentially costly litigation in state court for misconduct during federally protected strikes.

The union argued that the case should be handled by an independent federal agency that investigates allegations of wrongdoing, and that the union should not have to face costly state litigation.

The case had been closely watched by supporters of unions who have witnessed the conservative majority in recent years chip away their power.
Read more: https://amp-cnn-com.cdn.ampproject.org/ ... index.html
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Workers and Activists Force Dollar General to Address Workplace Safety Issues
by Eric Gardner
May 31 , 2023

Introduction:
(More Perfect Union) Shareholders at Dollar General, America’s fastest-growing retailer, voted to require the company to independently audit the working conditions at its stores. The results come just one week after the Department of Labor levied a $3.4 million fine against the retailer for maintaining an unsafe workplace. “The company has expanded so fast and so recklessly,” said David Williams, an employee and member of advocacy group Step Up Louisiana who presented the proposal to shareholders, “that on any given day, I might have to deal with a rat infestation, a door they won’t lock or someone pointing a gun at me with no security to protect me.”

The audit, proposed by Domini Impact Investments, requires the Board of Directors to commission a third party to survey workers and evaluate how the company’s business practices impact employee “safety and well-being.” Once assessed, the board of directors must develop an action plan to address the problems.

Since 2017, the federal government has fined the Tennessee-based retailer more than $21 million for repeated health and safety violations. During that time, investigators at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have repeatedly found emergency exits and fire extinguishers blocked by merchandise and unsafely stacked items.

In October, the company was added to OSHA’s “Severe Violator Enforcement Program” due to excessive workplace health and safety violations. “It’s a program for the worst safety violators in the nation,” Debbie Berkowitz, a former senior policy advisor at OSHA, told CNBC. Other program members include an Illinois-based manufacturer cited for 12 safety violations after a preventable workplace explosion killed four workers.

Just two months after the designation, six workers in North Dakota were exposed to toxic vapors, requiring medical care and an additional citation for not providing adequate training and protection from hazardous chemicals. “As one of the nation’s largest retailers,” OSHA’s Doug Parker said in a statement, “the company must focus its attention on resolving these issues and making corporate-wide changes to protect the safety and well-being of the people they employ.”

Read more here: https://perfectunion.us/
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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caltrek
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Below is what I think is an interesting article concerning labor rights and working conditions in India.

Labour in ‘Amrit Kaal’
by Annavajhula J. C. Bose
June 4, 2023

Introduction:
(Janata Weekly) Good things are expected to happen or materialise, like manna falling from heaven, during ‘Amrit Kaal’—from India@75 to India@100. In that vein, what could be in store for labour – the working class?

You are concerned because you are academically aware that in “developing countries, labour markets play a central role in determining economic and social progress, since employment status is one of the key determinants of exiting poverty and promoting inclusion. Yet the reality in most developing countries is that the labour market fails to create the jobs in the formal economy that would help individuals and their families prosper” (Cazes and Verick, 2013).

As a student of economics, you had found me babbling like a baboon and unable to explain, using the economics texts, how labour is used to make things in the real world. Assume, therefore, that you had gone to do your own ethnographic research – Kafkaesque “investigations of a dog” – at Samsung Electronics India – a huge state-of-the-art manufacturing complex in Noida Phase II, which makes washing machines, televisions, refrigerators and mobile phones. These are the findings (Pratap, 2013) you have replicated and shared with me.

Read more here: https://janataweekly.org/labour-in-amrit-kaal/
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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weatheriscool
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weatheriscool
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weatheriscool
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In Scorching-Hot Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott Just Took Away Construction Workers’ Right to a Rest Break
https://publichealthwatch.org/2023/06/1 ... est-break/



by Hannah Levitan/Investigative Reporting Workshop June 16, 2023

Austin construction workers dig on a hot day in August 2021. Earlier this week, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill that overturns local ordinances in Austin and Dallas that mandate regular rest breaks for such workers. Credit: Blaine Young

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Because he works in Dallas, a local ordinance gives him the right to at least a 10-minute rest break every four hours. But this is the last summer he’ll get to claim it.

On Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 2127 — the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act — which bars cities and counties from passing regulations that are stricter than state ones. It also overturns local rules such as ordinances in Austin and Dallas that mandate rest breaks for construction workers.

Three years before Dallas implemented its rest-break ordinance in 2015, Ontiveros lost feeling in his arm after painting high school stadium stairs for more than 10 hours in 112-degree heat, he told Public Health Watch through a translator..................................


............Surveys of Dallas construction workers before the city’s ordinance was adopted found that 33% said they didn’t receive rest breaks and 66% said they didn’t receive water. At least 53 Texas workers died from heat-related illnesses between 2010 and 2020, according to a 2021 investigation by NPR, The Texas Newsroom, The California Newsroom, Public Health Watch and Columbia Journalism Investigations. ...................
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