Supreme Court backs OSHA scofflaw employers
A recent Supreme Court decision has given employers a free hand in excluding workers who may have a preexisting health condition. In this case the preexisting health condition would be one which might become worse given the chemicals that the employing company may be exposing workers to.
Janitors win with picket
ST. LOUIS – The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 50 recently won another victory against Mitch Murch Maintenance Management (4M), a member of the Contract Cleaners Association (CCA). Local 50 has been in contract negotiations with CCA, an association of eight cleaning companies, since November 2001, and has targeted 4M because they are one of the largest janitorial employers in St. Louis. Local 50 represents 3,000
Laundry workers demand justice from BBJ
CHICAGO – “What’s disgusting? Union Busting! What’s outrageous? Sweatshop wages!” chanted 100 BBJ Linen workers and their supporters. The protesters were picketing at the main gate of the Lincoln Park Zoo July 12, while wealthy patrons in their finest sheepishly slipped from stretch limousines to attend the Annual Gala Ball.
International notes
Ecuador: Banana workers fight for union/Vietnam: Gov’t sets 2003 social & economic agenda/Burkina Faso: Thousands march vs. privatization/New Zealand: Unions say overwork hurts families/Cuba: Education a continuing priority
Wo-Chi-Ca book offers glimpse of camp
There have been a number of books published in recent years that have surveyed the role of the “Left” in the pre- and post-war periods – some in critical, anti-communist tones, and others, like Red Diapers, the collective memoir of children of Communists, in a more positive and rounded view.
FARC responds to terrorist designation
In a July 18 statement, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) expressed great appreciation for the European Union’s role in the now-interrupted peace process between the FARC and the Colombian government, as well as profound regret that the EU has now excluded itself from the process through its recent listing of the FARC as a “terrorist” organization.
A specter haunting The New York Times
A specter may be haunting the august New York Times – the specter of communism.
World condemns Israeli attack
Governments and organizations from around the world have condemned the July 23 Israeli attack on five apartment buildings in a highly populated area of Gaza City. The F-16 fighter jet bombing killed 15 Palestinian civilians, including nine children, and wounded 150 people, and occurred at a time when seven of eight cities in the West Bank have been occupied for over one month.
Foreign policy: Shaping global affairs
American national politics has recently become driven and dominated by foreign and military policy. At a time when the global economy so directly shapes the national economy, and when global issues such as climate change are changing the ways Americans think about their relationship to the rest of the world, it is only fitting that national politics be framed by global politics. The common wisdom of citizen activists – global is local, local is global – has, it seems, finally seeped into the national political arena.
AFSCME puts political action at top of agenda
American workers are under attack by an anti-worker president who didn’t even win the election for the office he holds.
