Stalled Contract Jeopardizes Relations Between New Disney Governing Body and Firefighters June 18 , 2023
Introduction:
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP via Courthouse News) — After appointees of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took over Walt Disney World's governing district earlier this year, its firefighters were among the few employees who publicly welcomed them with open arms.
But that warm relationship is in jeopardy as a new district administrator has reopened negotiations on a contract that was approved last month by the unionized firefighters, promising pay raises and more manpower.
A vote on the contract originally was targeted for last month during a meeting of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board of supervisors. But it was never brought up, and it did not appear on an agenda released ahead of the next meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
Under the three-year contract proposal overwhelmingly approved by 200 firefighters and first responders, annual starting pay for firefighters would increase to $65,000, up from $55,000. It also promised hiring up to three dozen firefighters and paramedics.
At several meetings since the DeSantis-appointed supervisors took their seats this spring, Jon Shirey, who leads the firefighters' union, praised them for visiting firefighters at their stations around the 39 square-mile (101 square-kilometer) Disney World property.
Why Strikes Might Disrupt Your Summer Eurotrip by Jen Kirby
June 25, 2023
Introduction:
(Vox) In April, Germany’s Berlin Brandenburg Airport canceled all departing flights because of a work stoppage among security workers. At the end of May, rail workers in the United Kingdom launched the first of three strikes to protest wages, forcing cuts in train service. France’s union for air traffic controllers went on strike in June, joining months of nationwide action against the country’s proposed retirement age increase.
This is only a sliver of the strike action across Europe and the United Kingdom in recent months, and of the walkouts expected across the continent. Many of these stoppages are happening in the transport and travel sectors — pilots and baggage handlers and train and public transit workers. That’s also why they’re getting a lot of attention: because these actions are disrupting some of those great post-pandemic Eurotrips this summer.
But these strikes are bigger than whether your flight to Malaga takes off as scheduled. Stubborn inflation in Europe and the United Kingdom is squeezing workforces, and those workers are demanding better wages and improved working conditions. This movement is not limited to transport-related unions. Frustrations are being felt across sectors, as evidenced by the strikes led by doctors and nurses and teachers in the United Kingdom.
“Workers still feel that they are losing out, because if inflation is higher than your wage increase, then you have a wage cut,” said Roland Erne, professor of European integration and employment relations at the University College Dublin School of Business. “And so the strikes that we have across Europe, most of them are about renewal of wage agreements, of collective bargaining agreements.”
Last summer also saw strikes and stoppages, and some European countries tend to see these kinds of walkouts more frequently. Plus, workers around the world, and across industries, are making demands for better wages and employment terms amid inflation and shifting economies; after all, screenwriters in the US have been striking for more than a month, and a potentially massive UPS strike also looms.
In Japan, Sogo & Seibu Workers to Vote on Waging Strike to Protect Jobs by Takehiko Sawaji
July 3, 2023
Introduction:
(The Asahi Shimbun) Seeking to protect thousands of jobs, a labor union of Sogo & Seibu department store is preparing to go on strike over plans to sell the company to a U.S. investment manager.
The Sogo & Seibu Labor Union, which counts almost all 4,000 employees of the department store as members, is demanding that owner Seven & i Holdings Co. protect their jobs and continue the department store business.
The union says it has not received a clear reply from management of the leading retail group.
Seven & i Holdings announced last autumn that it will sell the department store to Fortress Investment Group of the United States.
The U.S. investment manager has allied with major electronics and appliance retailer Yodobashi Holdings Co. in the plan to buy Sogo & Seibu.
Teen dies in sawmill accident as US states aim to roll back child labor laws
Source: Guardian
Investigation underway after police were called to find unresponsive teenager last week at Florence Hardwoods sawmill
Maya Yang
Thu 6 Jul 2023 11.48 EDT
A 16-year-old boy has died following an industrial accident at a sawmill in Wisconsin.
Police received an early-morning call last Thursday regarding an unresponsive teenager at Florence Hardwoods, a sawmill in northern Wisconsin, according to the Florence county sheriff’s office. Deputies and paramedics transported the teenager to a local hospital before transferring him to Milwaukee children’s hospital.
The boy, whom authorities have not identified by name, died from his injuries on Saturday. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been notified about the incident and an investigation is taking place.
. . .
Fourteen states across the country – including Wisconsin – have introduced proposals to roll back child labor protections.
“The trend reflects a coordinated multi-industry push to expand employer access to low-wage labor and weaken state child labor laws in ways that contradict federal protections,” according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Plague of Child Labor Lives Again by Steve Fraser
July 7, 2023
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) An aged Native-American chieftain was visiting New York City for the first time in 1906. He was curious about the city and the city was curious about him. A magazine reporter asked the chief what most surprised him in his travels around town. “Little children working,” the visitor replied.
Child labor might have shocked that outsider, but it was all too commonplace then across urban, industrial America (and on farms where it had been customary for centuries). In more recent times, however, it’s become a far rarer sight. Law and custom, most of us assume, drove it to near extinction. And our reaction to seeing it reappear might resemble that chief’s—shock, disbelief.
But we better get used to it, since child labor is making a comeback with a vengeance. A striking number of lawmakers are undertaking concerted efforts to weaken or repeal statutes that have long prevented (or at least seriously inhibited) the possibility of exploiting children.
Take a breath and consider this: The number of kids at work in the U.S. increased by 37% between 2015 and 2022. During the last two years, 14 states have either introduced or enacted legislation rolling back regulations that governed the number of hours children can be employed, lowered the restrictions on dangerous work, and legalized subminimum wages for youths.
Iowa now allows those as young as 14 to work in industrial laundries. At age 16, they can take jobs in roofing, construction, excavation, and demolition and can operate power-driven machinery. Fourteen-year-olds can now even work night shifts and once they hit 15 can join assembly lines. All of this was, of course, prohibited not so long ago.
'You Make $27,000,000 Per Year!' Disney CEO Vilified for Calling Writers’ Strike 'Unrealistic' and 'Damaging' by Brandon Gage
July 13, 2023
Introduction:
(Alternet) Bob Iger, the chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company, came under heavy fire on Thursday after he told CNBC host David Fabe from the uber-rich Sun Valley Conference that striking Hollywood writers are being "unrealistic" with their demands, Variety's Ellise Shafer reported.
"It's very disturbing to me. We've talked about disruptive forces on this business and all the challenges we're facing, the recovery from COVID which is ongoing, it's not completely back. This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption," Iger said of the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, which the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted to join.
"About 160,000 television and movie actors are going on strike at midnight, joining screenwriters who walked off the job in May and setting off Hollywood’s first industrywide shutdown in 63 years," per The New York Times. "The leaders of the union, SAG-AFTRA, approved a strike on Thursday, hours after contract talks with a group of studios broke down. Actors will be on the picket line starting on Friday."
Nonetheless, Iger — who according to a November 2022 analysis by Variety's Brent Lang "earned a total compensation of $45.9 million in 2021, up from the $21 million he earned in 2020 — exuded very limited sympathy.
"I understand any labor organization's desire to work on behalf of its members to get the most compensation and be compensated fairly based on the value that they deliver," Iger continued. "We managed, as an industry, to negotiate a very good deal with the directors guild that reflects the value that the directors contribute to this great business. We wanted to do the same thing with the writers, and we'd like to do the same thing with the actors. There's a level of expectation that they have, that is just not realistic. And they are adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive."
UPS to train nonunion employees as talks with union for 340,000 workers stalls and deadline nears
Source: AP
By MICHELLE CHAPMAN
Published 12:01 PM CDT, July 14, 2023
A little more than a week after contract talks between UPS and the union representing 340,000 of its workers broke down, UPS said it will begin training nonunion employees in the U.S. to step in should there be a strike, which the union has vowed to do if no agreement is reached by the end of this month.
UPS said Friday that the training is a temporary plan that has no impact on current operations.
“While we have made great progress and are close to reaching an agreement, we have a responsibility as an essential service provider to take steps to help ensure we can deliver our customers’ packages if the Teamsters choose to strike,” UPS said.
Last week both sides blamed the other for walking away from talks, which now appear to be at a stalemate with a July 31 deadline approaching fast.
The Truth About the Los Angeles Hotel Workers’ Strike by Mark Kreidler
July 11, 2023
Introduction:
(Capital & Main) The recently announced agreement on a new contract for hotel workers at the downtown Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles was only one deal, but it mattered. It has raised hopes among union members for favorable outcomes with the nearly 60 other area hotels where they work — and where they have authorized summer strikes, including the new wave of walkouts that began in the early hours of July 10.
The Bonaventure, after all, is the biggest hotel in L.A., and its deal with UNITE HERE Local 11 covers more than 600 room attendants, cooks, servers, front desk agents and more. Its agreement to significantly raise wages and benefits proves that “the industry can do this,” the union said in a news release. “Now it is time for other corporations to follow suit.”
But there is a larger reality at play in both Los Angeles and Orange County. The truth is that the cost of housing in the area has soared so far beyond the reach of most lower wage workers that only aggressive, sustained increases will enable them to live anywhere near where they work. And that sets the union on a crash course with hotel ownership groups for repeated, grinding negotiations.
According to UNITE HERE, most of its hotel workers earn $20 to $25 per hour. The union is seeking an immediate $5 per hour raise, plus increases of $3 per hour each year over the next three years — a $14 per hour increase over four years. A coalition negotiating for 44 of the hotels says it has offered a $2.50 per hour immediate raise, and a $6.25 per hour increase over four years. (Disclosure: UNITE HERE is a financial supporter of Capital & Main.)
The Everyday Workers of Hollywood’s Historic Double Strike Need You to Know Some Things by Ariana Coghill
July 19, 2023
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) For the first time in 63 years, writers and actors are on strike, grinding Hollywood to a halt with a historic double strike.
You’ve probably recognized some of the celebrities at the picket line. Jason Sudeikis, Hillary Duff, Kevin Bacon, Bill Nye. These actors, similar to writers on strike, are demanding increased pay and protections from artificial intelligence. But the vast majority of striking members are far from household names, actors who are all but certain to survive the major economic consequences of both strikes as they drag on for weeks or even months. Instead, they’re working-class individuals forced to live “paycheck to paycheck,” according to SAG LA’s Vice President Michelle Hurd—and they want the world to know a few facts.
“These are blue-collar workers fighting for the basic necessities in life,” SAG member of seven years, Billy Peck, told me. Peck, who has worked on shows such as Law and Order: Organized Crime and Gotham, said that it took several years to create a sustainable career in television, and he considers himself one of the fortunate ones.
“Even those of us who have been lucky enough to make a little bit of a better living are forced to work paycheck to paycheck and cut back financially,” said Peck. “It just further reinforces that not all of us are A-listers.”
Conclusion:
“There are hundreds of people that are tasked with assisting the background alone,” said Peck. “So if you no longer have any background on set, because we’re replacing them digitally, you get rid of all the costumers that are tasked with dressing the background, the hair and makeup artists that are tasked with getting the background ready to be on camera, additional directors.”
