Labor Rights News Thread

weatheriscool
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Indiana lawmakers advance controversial "union-busting" bill denounced by Hoosier teachers
Indiana lawmakers are one step closer to advancing a contentious bill to the governor’s desk that has been decried by the state’s teachers unions as “unnecessary” and “union-busting.”

The House voted 63-36 Monday — with seven GOP legislators opposed — to send the proposal back to the opposite chamber for final approval. The bill barely passed the Senate earlier this session after facing bipartisan opposition.

Educators and union leaders maintain that Senate Bill 486 would “silence teachers” by stripping their rights to discuss concerns over student learning with school administrators.

Specifically, the bill would no longer require school administrators to discuss topics like class sizes, curriculum and student discipline with teachers and their union.
https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/202 ... -teachers/
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IA: Senate moves child labor bill after all-night debate
Senators passed changes to Iowa’s child labor laws early Tuesday to allow 14- to 17-year-olds to work longer hours and in restricted fields with parental permission.

Senate File 542 passed the Senate on a 32-17 vote shortly before 5 a.m. Tuesday after significant delays. The bill allows 14- to 17-year-olds to work in industries currently prohibited for minors such as roofing, demolition and manufacturing as a part of an employer or school training program.

The bill also allows minors to work until 9 p.m. during the school year and until 11 p.m. during the summer — both two hours later than current law — and lets teens work up to six hours a day, up from the four hours currently allowed.

The legislation gained national attention as one of many bills passing through state legislatures offering expanded options for minor employment amid worker shortages. Sen. Adrian Dickey, R-Packwood, said he found the portrayal of the legislation as a child “slave labor” bill insulting.

“We do know slavery existed in the past, but one place it doesn’t exist, that’s in this bill,” Dickey said. “Throwing around such terms loosely and callously for shock value in the news, on social media, even within the walls of this great building, is irresponsible and wrong.”

https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2023/04 ... ht-debate/
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Ben & Jerry’s Employees Move to Unionize Flagship Vermont Store
by Dasha Afanasieva
April 17 , 2023

Introduction:
(Bloomberg) -- Workers at the flagship Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop in Burlington, Vermont, have launched a bid to unionize, saying that they lack a voice in workplace decisions.

The group formed a union organizing committee and petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to hold a vote on unionization. The workers are organizing with Workers United, the same union that launched the Starbucks Corp. organizing campaign.

The workers, known as scoopers, said they are looking for greater input on staffing, pay, health and safety issues. Workers currently aren’t represented on the Ben & Jerry’s independent board, and this would be the first union for retail Ben & Jerry’s workers, said Jaz Brisack, organizing director with Workers United Upstate New York and Vermont.

Read more here: Ben & Jerry’s Employees Move to Unioni ... (msn.com)
Don't mourn, organize.

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caltrek
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Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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The movement to strip child labor law protections can be traced to one group
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... bying-fga/
https://archive.ph/zxH16
April 23, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
When Iowa lawmakers voted last week to roll back certain child labor protections, they blended into a growing movement driven largely by a conservative advocacy group.

At 4:52 a.m., Tuesday, the state’s Senate approved a bill to allow children as young as 14 to work night shifts and 15 year-olds on assembly lines. The measure, which still must pass the Iowa House, is among several the Foundation for Government Accountability is maneuvering through state legislatures.

The Florida-based think tank and its lobbying arm, the Opportunity Solutions Project, have found remarkable success among Republicans to relax regulations that prevent children from working long hours in dangerous conditions. And they are gaining traction at a time the Biden administration is scrambling to enforce existing labor protections for children.

The FGA achieved its biggest victory in March, playing a central role in designing a new Arkansas law to eliminate work permits and age verification for workers younger than 16. Its sponsor, state Rep. Rebecca Burkes (R), said in a hearing that the legislation “came to me from the Foundation [for] Government Accountability.”
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'Historic Victory': Amazon Contractor Delivery Drivers Join Teamsters
by Jessica Corbett
April 24, 2023

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) In what the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Monday called a "historic victory," 84 drivers and dispatchers in Palmdale, California have joined the union and reached a tentative deal with an Amazon "delivery service partner" that may be losing its contract with the online retail giant.

The contractor, Battle-Tested Strategies (BTS), voluntarily recognized the union, meaning workers can skip an election. However, the employees still need to vote on the agreement negotiated by Teamsters Local 396 and Joint Council 42, which includes pay increases, health and safety provisions, and a grievance procedure.

"Amazon workers are joining the Teamsters to demand more from this company, including good wages, safe working conditions, and respect," explained Randy Korgan, Teamsters Amazon division director and Joint Council 42 director of organizing.

"The Teamsters," Korgan continued, "are coordinating nationwide with Amazon workers, allies committed to holding this corporation accountable, and our union's 1.2 million members to make sure Amazon provides the benefits and protections that working people deserve."

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/amaz ... alifornia
Don't mourn, organize.

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The Child Workers Who May Be Feeding You
by Teresa Cotsirilos
April 18, 2023

Introduction:
(Food & Environment reporting Network) If you’ve eaten a burger and fries recently, there’s a chance that the potatoes were picked by middle schoolers, working through the school day in a field in Idaho. The steer that became the beef patty may well have been killed at a slaughterhouse where teenagers work, and the bone saws used to process the meat could easily have been cleaned by a 13-year-old, wearing a bulky hard hat and oversized gloves. It’s also quite possible that the burger was grilled, flipped and assembled by a child working at McDonald’s on a school night, far later than federal law allows.

This sort of child labor—culled from thousands of examples in U.S. Department of Labor investigations—has been mostly illegal in the U.S. since the 1930s, but that hasn’t stopped a surprising number of companies from engaging in it. In February, the department announced that the nation is experiencing a sharp rise in child labor violations across all industries; since 2018, the agency has documented a 69-percent increase in children who were employed illegally.

The vast majority of employers committing this wave of violations have something in common: they grow, package, deliver, cook, sell and serve the nation’s food.

A FERN analysis of investigation data released by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD)—which is tasked with enforcing federal child labor laws—found that more than 75 percent of recent violations were committed by employers in the food industry. The agency uncovered more than 12,000 child labor violations in the nation’s food system—out of 16,000 total violations across all industries—between Jan. 1, 2018 and Nov. 23, 2022, the most recent date for which data were publicly available. Investigators found minors working illegally at vegetable farms in Texas and Florida, at dairy farms in Minnesota and New Hampshire and at poultry plants in Alabama and Mississippi. Children are involved in every step of the food supply chain, working illegally from farm to table.

Restaurants were by far the worst offenders. More than 64 percent of all the violations were committed by food service employers.

Read more here: https://thefern.org/2023/04/the-child- ... feed-you/
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In Largest May Day Turnout Since Pandemic, Workers Around the World March for Better Conditions
by Olivia Rosane
May 1, 2023

Introduction:
(Courthouse News) Workers from Japan to France took to the street on Monday for the largest May Day demonstrations since Covid-19 restrictions pushed people inside three years ago.

Marchers expressed frustration with both their nations' policies—such as French President Emmanuel Macron's raising of the retirement age in March—and global issues like the rising cost of living and the climate crisis.

"The price of everything has increased except for our wages. Increase our minimum wages!" one activist speaking in Seoul told the crowd, as TheAssociated Press reported. "Reduce our working hours!"

South Korea's protests were the largest in the nation since the pandemic, with organizers predicting 30,000 people each would attend the two biggest rallies planned for the nation's capital alone, Al Jazeera reported.

Activists there criticized right-wing President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has targeted some unions under the guise of reforming what he claims are irregularities. His government had also considered a plan to extend a cap on working hours to 69 a week, before backlash from younger Koreans forced it to reconsider in March, as CNN explained at the time. Already, scores of people die of overworking every year, so much so that there's a special word for it: "gwarosa." Some marchers called for the president to resign, Dr. Simone Chun tweeted.

Read more of the Common Dreams article here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/larg ... -pandemic

The Associated Press reported: https://apnews.com/article/may-day-cel ... 9c9e97d18

Al Jazeera reported: https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023 ... the-world

CNN explained: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/18/asia/so ... ndex.html
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Ron DeSantis Signs Bill Aimed At Weakening Public Sector Unions
Florida unions have blasted the legislation as a naked power grab meant to hurt the governor’s political enemies.
Dave Jamieson
May 9, 2023, 11:55 AM EDT
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Tuesday that he signed a major piece of legislation aimed at weakening public sector unions by making it harder for them to collect dues from members.

Senate Bill 256 forbids most unions representing government employees from having dues deducted directly from workers’ paychecks. It also requires that affected unions maintain at least 60% membership in their bargaining units, or else they could face decertification and lose their contracts.

The new law will force public sector unions to develop new ways of getting dues from members — such as setting up electronic bank transfers — and will also imperil the existence of those unions that don’t meet the 60% threshold.

Although DeSantis and other Republicans have cast the bill as “paycheck protection” for workers, they excluded unions representing police, firefighters and corrections officers — i.e., the unions that are typically more likely to support Republicans. The unions that are subject to the law tend to represent teachers, sanitation workers and other government employees.

snip//

“The goal of the bill is to eliminate collective bargaining for public-sector workers who the governor doesn’t like,” Rich Templin, the director of politics and public policy at the Florida AFL-CIO labor federation, told HuffPost last month. “Nobody that’s directly involved has asked for this. This is another in a very long line of policies being advanced solely for the governor’s run for the White House.”

more...
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ron-desa ... ef83023a52
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