Rumors are swirling that the Koch Brothers may be making moves to purchase the LA Times and that possibility has progressive activists concerned about the editorial future of the paper. Last week protests were held outside of the LA headquarters of Tribune’s largest shareholder, Oaktree Capital Management. Glen Arnodo is staff director with LA County Labor Federation:   [Arnodo]: If you believe that a city needs a newspaper that has some basic journalistic standards and that’s essential toward democracy than everyone should care if the Koch brothers want to own a paper in their town. In recent years the Koch Brothers have become the face of the conservatism in the United States with their active role in backing conservative causes and funding of American for Prosperity. As the owners of energy conglomerate Koch Industries the brothers have produced studies intended to debunk climate change. [Arnodo2]: One of their studies concluded that smog protects you from skin cancer and out speaker said ‘boy, it would be interesting to see the science coverage in the LA Times if the Koch brothers own the paper.” A spokesperson for the Kochs has dismissed the talk as rumors, but also asserts that they respect journalistic ... homearchives

A California bill intends to extend protections for workers who take advantage of that state’s paid family leave insurance program. Under the current law employees are allowed to take up to six weeks with partial pay. The law is intended to provide workers a way to take time to take care of a newborn or attend to an ill family member. While on the leave the worker will receive 55 percent of wages. A study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that 37 percent of workers who needed and qualified for the program chose not to use it. Some of the reason noted by the organization included concerns that employers would retaliate by denying promotions or firing the worker. The new legislation would prohibit employers from taking such measures. homearchives

The world’s largest retailer has once again rejected a safety plan intended to help improve working conditions in Bangladesh. The announcement that Wal-Mart would be rejecting the proposal comes only days after H&M, Marks & Spencer, and Benetton said they’d embrace the proposal. The safety plan has also been accepted by the world’s second largest retailer, Carrefour. Under the proposal the companies agree to inspect plants producing their products and to assist in covering some of the cost of necessary safety upgrades. The plan was first drafted after a factory fire in November took the lives of 112 factory workers. At that time companies had rejected the plan, but last month’s factory collapse in the country that took more than 1,000 worker lives has brought new attention to the proposal. Wal-Mart had denied that any of their clothing contractors operated out of the factory that collapsed, but documents provided to the New York Times by the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity say otherwise. The company pointed out that the documents showed a Wal-Mart contractor operating out of the country a year ago, but didn’t have a relationship with the factory when the tragedy struck. On Tuesday Wal-Mart said it would ... homearchives

Fast food workers have been staging one-day walkouts throughout the country. One of the most recent strikes was in St. Louis where more than 100 workers walked out at a variety of established fast food restaurants. Workers taking part in the actions represent Subway, Arby’s, Whole Foods, McDonald’s, and many other. In St. Louis the movement is called “Can’t Survive on $7.35”. Martin Rafanan is director of the organization: [Rafanan]: Here we have a minimum wage that is $7.35 an hour and of course that’s not going to be enough to support a family or take care of the basics, necessities of people’s lives. Workers coming together here is very, very important so we can start moving forward the economy of St. Louis. The movement isn’t exclusive to fast food. Milwaukee saw a rally and a march on Wednesday calling for a $15 minimum wage that also included other retailers. Jennifer Epps-Addison is with Citizen Action: [Epps-Addison]: We have workers from McDonald’s and Pizza Hut and Foot Action and Simply Fashions and lots of different low wage worker sites. Epps-Addison explained why Milwaukee workers took to the streets yesterday: [Epps-Addison2]: Many of them are working two or three jobs. Most ... homearchives

Department of Defense employees are preparing for furloughs triggered due to federal budget cuts brought on by sequestration. As many as 650,000 Defense Department employees will be required to take as many as 11 unpaid furlough days between now and September 30. The cuts have also had a significant impact on companies that have contracts with the government. According to the Washington Post contracts decreased by 52 percent in April.   homearchives

By Doug Cunningham The United Mine Workers of America is fighting hard against an effort by Peabody Coal to destroy pension and health care for retired miners and their families. The UMWA says Peabody spun off a company called Patriot Coal and set it up to fail so bankruptcy could be filed, allowing the company to shed $1.6 billion in promised pension and health care for retired miners. UMWA President Cecil Roberts. [Cecil Roberts]: “This may be legally correct. It’s morally corrupt. And we’re gonna find out if the United States government, state governments, the court systems believe it’s all right for corporations to be morally corrupt and to do their workers and their retirees and their widows like this.” Taken from a UMWA video, here are union miners, relatives and UMWA leaders talking about the fight for fairness at Patriot Coal. [UMWA Audio]: “These men worked and my husband worked so that you could have a company and you could make your millions of dollars. Why just discard them and throw them away? And that’s exactly what you’re doin’. It’s like you’re opening up a trash can and dumpin’ them in the trash. And I can’t see doing people ... homearchives

Five University of California medical centers could be impacted by a two-day strike next week. Last week 13,000 technical workers for the centers voted overwhelmingly in favor of giving the AFSCME bargaining committee the authority to call a strike. According to the union negotiations have reached a stalemate over unsafe working conditions – including staffing ratios. The University has said that the main issue hanging up negotiations is reforming the $24 billion unfunded pension liability. The union has countered that the university continues to provide executives with high salaries and pensions while asking for the workers to sacrifice and accept economic concessions. The union released a study that shows an increase to executive payroll of $100 million since 2009. According to the union the cuts to staffing impacts patient safety as it means less training for technicians and increased stress on employees. If the strike moves forward the university could see staff walking the picket lines at all five medical centers and at student health centers at all 10 campuses across the state. homearchives

Concession workers at AT&T Park in San Francisco have authorized their union to call a strike. The workers are represented by UNITE-Here Local 2 and have been without a contract for three-years. The park is home to the San Francisco Giants baseball team. homearchives

One thousand one hundred twenty seven. That’s the final death toll due to the collapse of a garment factory building in Bangladesh. The number of dead and injured makes the tragedy the worst disaster in the history of the garment industry. A global focus has been turned on Bangladesh and worker safety in the country since the incident three weeks ago and reforms are already starting to take place. On Monday the Bangladesh government announced workers would be allowed to form unions without prior permission from factory owners. Previously, workers could only form a union if a factory owner agreed to the request. The government is also making plans to raise the country’s minimum wage for the garment industry. Since the collapse, 22 garment factories have been temporarily shuttered for safety and labor violations homearchives

The University of Wisconsin and business near the UW campus in Madison are continuing to feel pressure from activists boycotting Palermo pizza. After workers at the Milwaukee pizza plant collected enough petitions to trigger a union election the company required employees to verify their immigration status. Palermo’s fired 75 workers saying they’re status could not be verified. Since June 1 2012 workers have been on strike. Last week workers and activists held a rally outside of Fresh Madison Market, a grocery store near campus, calling on the store to join a Palermo’s boycott. David Williams is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and he helped organize the rally: [Williams]: Most of the customers here are UW students. We feel that our struggle here is closely linked to the Student Labor Action Coalition and the TAA on campus. Student activist groups have been protesting at the University due to a $600,000 agreement with the company signed after the workers were fired. Those groups have been calling on the school to cut ties with the company going as far as briefly taking over the chancellor’s office in late-April. Maxwell Love was among those removed from the premises by police. ... homearchives

[Rich Trumka]: “The labor movement has no higher priority in 2013 than building a workable immigration system to allow 11 million aspiring Americans to become citizens. You may have heard about our agreement of a new kind of visa program, which benefits not just business but all workers. But that’s only a small part of our campaign to build a commonsense immigration system.” AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka. Trumka joined prominent faith leaders urging the U.S. Senate to protect and promote family-focused immigration reform. Trumka says he’s passionate about making sure that family re-unification is central to immigration reform because of what happened to his own family. After arriving on Ellis Island Trumka’s grandfather went straight to the coal mines in Pennsylvania. It took him two years of saving on poverty wages to re-unite his family. [Rich Trumka2]: “And he saved everything he could save and it took him over two years before he could send for my grandmother and my mother and her sisters. And that separation of over two years – that’s something that shouldn’t be allowed to happen to any family. And yet some are proposing to separate families today – here in America – in the 21st ... homearchives

By Doug Cunningham The right-wing billionaire Koch brothers are in the running to buy eight Tribune Company newspapers as the company emerges from a four-year bankruptcy. Nearly half the editorial staff of the Los Angeles Times have indicated they would quit if their newspaper became Koch-owned. In Chicago, protesters rallied in front of The Chicago Tribune building in an effort to stop the sale of the paper to the Kochs. Stand Up Chicago says the Kochs have funded right-wing think tanks and political campaigns and now want to buy daily newspapers to further their libertarian anti-government, anti-union agenda. The Tribune company owns the L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel and Hartford Currant among others. LA City Councilman Bill Rosendahl has introduced a motion to withdraw city pension money from the investment firms that own the LA Times if they sell the paper to buyers who “do not support "professional and objective journalism.” Bids for the newspapers are expected this month. The Koch brothers are expected to be the highest bidders and the only one wanting to buy all eight newspapers as a package deal.  homearchives

By Doug Cunningham AFSCME represented University of California patient care technical workers have authorized a strike. AFSCME 3299, representing 13,000 workers at five UC Medical Centers and at ten student centers, says the strike authorization vote got 97 percent support. AFSCME 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger says the workers and their union are concerned about UC’s “chronic understaffing, reckless cost-cutting, skyrocketing management payroll, and exorbitant seven figure pensions for top executives”. Lybarger says the workers are united behind safe staffing and basic fairness.  homearchives

Wisconsin’s proposed budget includes a measure that could continue a trend of the state eroding local control for municipalities. Jesse Russell reports. The new budget proposed by Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker includes a measure that would prevent local governments from placing residency requirements on local employees. Mayors and town managers protested the decision out of concern that first responders need to be close-by. Many also expressed that town employees have a “shared destiny” with the residents of their communities. Larry Arft is City Manager in Beloit, Wis. [Arft]: “Don’t forget, public works employees are also first responders. Winter storm events, summer rain storms, wind storms, we have people on call for our utilities. 24/7 somebody has to be on call and they need to be there in a few minutes.” This wouldn’t be the first time in recent years that the state of Wisconsin has taken decision making tool s out of the hands of local governments. In 2011, the GOP-controlled legislature passed a law that prevents cities and towns from passing family and medical leave ordinances. In 2005, then Democratic Governor Jim Doyle made a deal with the GOP-controlled legislature to ban local governments from enacting minimum wage ... homearchives

Last week Hawaii granted new workplace protections to domestic workers and today Oregon is on the path to do the same. Jesse Russell reports:   A bill narrowly passed the state’s House that could expand protections for Oregon’s domestic workers. Some of the items in the bill include paying workers overtime for working more than 40 hours per week or 44 hours per week if they live in the home of their employer. It expands protections against sexual harassment and while guaranteeing workers eight hours of sleep and at least 24 hours of consecutive rest. Employers will also be required to provide three personal days for domestic employees after they’ve worked at the home for one year. The bill additionally prevents employers from holding a workers passport.  homearchives

In a class-action lawsuit against Integrity Staffing Solutions, Amazon.com warehouse workers are seeking compensation for showing the company they aren’t thieves. At the end of each work day Amazon workers must pass through a security checkpoint where they are searched for stolen goods. The workers claim that the security checkpoints take place after they’ve already clocked out for the day and can take as much as 25 minutes. The employees are seeking compensation for the unpaid time spent in the checkpoint. homearchives

The Louisana Supreme Court has found the state’s funding for its school voucher program is unconstitutional. The suit was brought by the Louisana Federation of Teachers. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten says the decision is “a stinging rebuke of Governor Bobby Jindahl’s agenda to strip Louisiana public schools of the resources they desperately need.” homearchives

By Doug Cunningham   The people’s movement to counteract the corporate agenda is growing increasingly energized and active in Chicago. Amisha Patel is with the Grassroots Collaborative, a coalition of labor and community groups. One of the group’s campaigns is justice for working people facing foreclosure. Action this week focused on Bank of America. She says the corporate agenda is behind issues like massive schools closings and the foreclosure crisis. And Patel says working people have to come together, as communities, to fight against the damage that agenda is doing to working people.   [Amisha Patel]: “Instead of calling them Bank of America we prefer to call them Bankruptor of America, because that’s more of the role that they’re playing. In some ways we’re Ground Zero in some of the fights. And I think our mayor is a key part of why that’s true. But I also think that we are the birthplace of some serious organizing. And there has been years and years of folks working together in coalition. We have spent so many years working together that we actually more ready than ever for these fights. And we’re not just reacting but we really are trying to put ... homearchives

A gateway for state workers with same-sex partners in Michigan to share health insurance will remain open. Jesse Russell reports: Michigan will continue to provide health insurance for same sex partners after Michigan Supreme Court rejected a request to hear an appeal. In 2011, the Civil Service Commission voted to include non-family members who live with state workers for more than a year on the state’s health insurance plan. Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has opposed that decision arguing that it conflicts with the state’s gay marriage ban. An Ingham County judge disagreed upheld the Commission decision. That ruling was similarly upheld by an appeals court. Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette sought to have the Supreme Court overturn the decision, but the court refused. According to the Associated Press there are currently 124 state employees with live-in partners covered by the insurance plan. Michigan voters banned gay marriage in the state in 2004. homearchives

By Doug Cunningham   In New York City Tuesday hundreds of members of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) protested damaging sequestration budget cuts. The IRS employees protested unpaid furlough days in a rally at Federal Plaza in New York. Sequestration is causing IRS to shut down all public operations on five days between May 24 and August 30. An additional two days of unpaid furloughs could occur in August or September. NTEU workers say the unprecedented closings will result in an inability to assist taxpayers seeking help. homearchives