Entries by Paul Becker

Hands Across the Sea

Nike, the shoe and sneaker giant has been giving workers on two continents the boot. And workers in Asia and Oregon are now kicking back. During the pandemic a few years ago, the sportswear company decided to reduce or cancel orders and lay· off thousands of workers – mostly women – across its supply chains […]

Hands Across the Sea

Nike, the shoe and sneaker giant has been giving workers on two continents the boot. And workers in Asia and Oregon are now kicking back. During the pandemic a few years ago, the sportswear company decided to reduce or cancel orders and lay· off thousands of workers – mostly women – across its supply chains […]

CALIFORNIA HEALTH CARE WORKERS PLAN 2-DAY UC STRIKE

In what would be the biggest strike in the history of the University of California, some 80,000 nurses and other health care professionals are planning a two-day strike for Nov. 17-18 over the failure of talks on a new contract. In addition to AFSCME Local 3299 representing health care and custodial workers and CWA Local […]

INHUMAN CONDITIONS, ICE RAIDS PLAGUE GEORGIA HYUNDAI PLANT

The joint venture Hyundai and LG Energy plant, currently under construction in Georgia and employing Korean immigrant workers, had a notoriously bad safety record. Two workers, including one Korean, were killed in preventable accidents a few months ago. The company and its subcontractors get away with these conditions because immigrant workers are in a fragile […]

PITTSBURGH NURSES SAY ‘UNION, YES’

Nine hundred nurses at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Magee-Women’s Hospital have voted to unionize after several years of efforts, it as announced this week. The vote for the union was 402-305 and represents a breakthrough in the struggle to  unionize one of Pennsylvania’s largest employers. “My coworkers and I are absolutely overjoyed to […]

CALIFORNIA STRENGTHENS RULE PROTECTING WORKER TIPS

California Governor Gavin Newsom July 30 signed a law authorizing the State Labor Commissioner to investigate and issue a citation or file a civil action against any employer found guilty of withholding or taking their workers’ tips. Up until now, employees were only able to pursue lengthy civil court actions to recuperate stolen gratuities even though the […]

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COURT ALLOWS TRUMP TO END UNION BARGAINING FOR FEDERAL WORKERS

A federal appeals court Aug. 1 lifted a judge’s order blocking President Trump from stripping hundreds of thousands of federal workers of the ability to engage in union bargaining with U.S. agencies. A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put on hold pending a further appeal an injunction issued by […]