May 15, 2018
This Week in Labor 2018–05–15
“”The time is now!”
The cries rang out at the Capitol on Tuesday, as dozens of farm workers gathered on the steps of the Million Dollar Staircase to push for legislation that would grant them a day off every week, overtime pay, the opportunity to bargain collectively and other labor rights.
Politicians and representatives from the New York Civil Liberties Union, New York State United Teachers, the Hispanic Federation and other organizations spoke at the rally in support of the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act. The legislation — referred to the state Senate’s Agriculture Committee in February — would also ensure farm workers can’t work more than eight hours in a day or 40 hours a week and require supervisors to report injuries to employers, provide forms for workers’ compensation claims and ensure that labor camps meet certain standards.
“We need dignity and justice for farmworkers,” said Sen. Marisol Alcantara, D-Manhattan, the bill’s sponsor. “We came here to work and we want justice.””
“The Brooklyn Bar Association hosted a continuing legal education seminar on Monday with Justice Katherine A. Levine, of the Kings County Supreme Court, during which she and a group of attorneys discussed labor law and domestic workers.
“I am sitting in the city part of Kings County Supreme and I’m honored to be sitting there because I get a lot of labor law cases,” said Levine, who worked in Brooklyn Civil Court for nine years before her election in 2016 to the Supreme Court. “That’s good for me because that’s the area that I was born and bred with.”
The seminar was titled “Labor Law Protections for Low Wage and Domestic Workers: Do They Still Exist?” In addition to Levine, it also featured Rachel Demarest Gold, Antonia Kousoulas, Brigette Renaud, Joan Lenihan and Rebecca Nathanson.
“We live in a tumultuous time where things appear turned over their head as if they were in Alice in Wonderland,” Levine said. “The election of President Trump has caused vast changes to the way labor law and employment law have been interpreted.”
“ ST Unitas’ irresponsible approach to a worker’s suicide is igniting a labor rights movement, civic groups said Monday.
The bereaved family of the deceased, surnamed Chang, who committed suicide in January after suffering depression from overwork, demanded an immediate apology and countermeasures to stop the company’s exploitative labor practices, but ST Unitas has yet to respond.
Civic groups have since staged a one-person relay protest at the company’s head office in Seoul. Activists from various groups, including the People’s Solidarity for Social Progress, Youth Union and Research Institute for Alternative Worker’s Movements, have joined the protest on a daily basis.
“ST Unitas should stop violating labor laws,” said an activist with People’s Solidarity for Social Progress during her one-person protest in front of the ST Unitas head office in Seoul, Friday.
“The company has yet to apologize to the bereaved family. It should immediately come up with a disciplinary measure against those who are responsible for Chang’s death.””
Source: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2018/05/694_248949.html.
“The Saudi Supreme Judicial Council has approved the establishment of seven labor courts, and 96 labor chambers spread across main cities in the country, in a move towards empowering labor force within the kingdom.
The Secretary General of the council, Salman Al Nashwan, revealed that this is the first phase of a long-term plan.
The seven courts are in the main cities, namely Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Buraidah, Dammam, Abha, and Jeddah; while the labor chambers are spread in general courts and appellate courts across the country.
The location selection of the 96 labor chambers has been identified based on statistics provided by the ministry of labor and social development on the number of labor disputes based on regions over the past few years.
The plan comes as the country prepares to launch a labor judiciary and start its duties sometime around September 2018.”
“Workers from the Hepco industrial complex in the central city of Arak blocked and disrupted the Iran North-South railway for several hours on May 14, demanding overdue wages and protesting conditions at their factory.
Hundreds of Hepco workers have not been paid for three months, state-run news agencies ILNA and IRNA reported.
However, in an interview with pro-reformist website Etemad Online, Arak city councilor Morteza Souraneh said, “The workers’ overdue wages are not considerable, but they are worried since the factory’s production unit has been shut down and its production line has been halted.”
Following protests last year, the government-affiliated Privatization Organization sacked and replaced Hepco’s manager. But, according to the head of the semiofficial union Workers House, Davoud Mirza’ei, “A number of the workers have opposed the newly appointed director and argue that he might also be incapable of managing the industrial complex.””
Source: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/29227517.html.
“THE rights and welfare of workers were a primary focus of the Communist Party of China after its founding in 1921, and that campaign was initially based in Shanghai, where the Party held its first congress.
The site of the National Labor Union Secretariat, an iconic shikumen residential building, is on Chengdu Road N. near Xinzha Road and stands as a memorial to the strife of the early labor movement.
In those days, the Party had to operate in secret, and those who organized or supported strikes were subject to arrest by the concession administration. Indeed, the labor organization was forced to shut its Shanghai headquarters after only a year and had to relocate to Beijing.
In 1919, there were an estimated 2 million factory workers in China, triple the number just six years prior. About of a quarter of them worked in Shanghai, mostly in foreign-owned factories that paid menial wages.”
Source: https://www.shine.cn/news/metro/1805164669/.
(Updated September 28, 2016)
Scott Douglas Jacobsen founded In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal and In-Sight Publishing. He authored/co-authored some e-books, free or low-cost. If you want to contact Scott: Scott.D.Jacobsen@Gmail.com, Scott.Jacobsen@TrustedClothes.Com, Scott@ConatusNews.Com, scott.jacobsen@probc.ca, Scott@Karmik.Ca, or SJacobsen@AlmasJiwaniFoundation.Org.
He is a Moral Courage Webmaster and Outreach Specialist (Fall, 2016) at the UCI Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality (Ethics Center), Interview Columnist for Conatus News, Writer and Executive Administrator for Trusted Clothes, Interview Columnist for Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), Chair of Social Media for the Almas Jiwani Foundation, Councillor for the Athabasca University Student Union, Member of the Learning Analytics Research Group, writer for The Voice Magazine, Your Political Party of BC, ProBC, Marijuana Party of Canada, Fresh Start Recovery Centre, Harvest House Ministries, and Little Footprints Big Steps International Development Organization, Editor and Proofreader for Alfred Yi Zhang Photography, Community Journalist/Blogger for Gordon Neighbourhood House, Member-at-Large, Member of the Outreach Committee, the Finance & Fundraising Committee, and the Special Projects & Political Advocacy Committee, and Writer for Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Member of the Lifespan Cognition Psychology Lab and IMAGe Psychology Lab, Collaborator with Dr. Farhad Dastur in creation of the CriticalThinkingWiki, Board Member, and Foundation Volunteer Committee Member for the Fraser Valley Health Care Foundation, and Independent Landscaper.
He was a Francisco Ayala Scholar at the UCI Ethics Center, Member of the Psychometric Society Graduate Student Committee, Special Advisor and Writer for ECOSOC at NWMUN, Writer for TransplantFirstAcademy and ProActive Path, Member of AT-CURA Psychology Lab, Contributor for a student policy review, Vice President of Outreach for the Almas Jiwani Foundation, worked with Manahel Thabet on numerous initiatives, Student Member of the Ad–Hoc Executive Compensation Review Committee for the Athabasca University Student Union, Volunteer and Writer for British Columbia Psychological Association, Community Member of the KPU Choir (even performed with them alongside the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra), Delegate at Harvard World MUN, NWMUN, UBC MUN, and Long Beach Intercollegiate MUN, and Writer and Member of the Communications Committee for The PIPE UP Network.
He published in American Enterprise Institute, Annaborgia, Conatus News, Earth Skin & Eden, Fresh Start Recovery Centre, Gordon Neighbourhood House, Huffington Post, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, Jolly Dragons, Kwantlen Polytechnic University Psychology Department, La Petite Mort, Learning Analytics Research Group, Lifespan Cognition Psychology Lab, Lost in Samara, Marijuana Party of Canada, MomMandy, Noesis: The Journal of the Mega Society, Piece of Mind, Production Mode, Synapse, TeenFinancial, The Peak, The Ubyssey, The Voice Magazine, Transformative Dialogues, Treasure Box Kids, Trusted Clothes.
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