According to a study released on Friday by the Washington, D.C.-based research group Good Jobs First, the citizens of Mississippi—which ranks dead last among U.S. states in median household income—are bestowing an estimated $1.33 billion in subsidies on Nissan over a 30-year period for the privilege of hosting the factory. 

“This is a clear message that we’re sending to Centerplate and the Giants,” says Billie Feliciano, a long-time worker at the park. “We’re serious."

The Giants have home games scheduled on May 24, May 25, May 26, May 29 and May 30.

Vanegas is one of 100,000 low-wage workers in the Washington, DC area, according to Good Jobs Nation, many of whom are employed by federal contractors or in federally owned buildings like Union Station, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and the Ronald Reagan Building. He and about 100 of his colleagues went on a one-day strike yesterday in order to draw attention to their low pay. Despite provisions in the federal Service Contract Act stating that federal contract workers like Antonio Vanegas should make at least the local prevailing wage, up until a few weeks ago Vanegas was making $6.50 an hour–less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 and well below the D.C. minimum wage of $8.25. Additionally, Vanegas works 60 hours a week, but claims he receives no overtime pay for hours he works past 40, in violation of the Federal Labor Standards Act.

“There are many workers in the food court who are like me, who don’t make enough to pay the rent, put food on our tables and take care of our families,” said Vanegas in his testimony. “That’s why I’m here and why so many workers like me are on strike today. We want the federal government to be a good landlord and rent prime retail space to employers who follow the law. We want the government to lead by example and guarantee that all workers who do work on behalf of the federal government earn a legal and living wage.”

The House of Representatives and Senate have proposed the United States “tighten our belts” by slashing billions of dollars from poor people’s food budgets. The main mechanism for shrinking the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding is the removal of “categorical eligibility.” Basically, most states have used this policy to streamline enrollment: Families are made eligible for food stamps based on their receipt of other benefits, such as housing or childcare subsidies. That often means broadening eligibility for working-poor families or those with overall household income or savings that exceeds regular, stricter thresholds for qualifying for food stamps.

By dramatizing a farm scene amid the bustle of Greenwich Village, Chelsea and the surrounding neighborhoods, the activists of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers highlighted the connection between farmworkers’ daily struggles and the villain of the drama: Wendy’s restaurants, which are the primary target of the group’s Fair Food campaign for decent labor standards in an industry built on modern-day serfdom.

The Union Square rally–featuring a brass band adorned with Wendy’s trademark red pigtails and tomato-shaped placards proclaiming “Justice" and "Derechos" for farmworkers–was part of a nationwide series of Fair Food demonstrations that are helping bridge the conceptual gap between food consumerism and farm labor, a sector replete with poverty wages and brutally exploitative conditions in the fields. The Coalition has been campaigning for months to push Wendy’s and the Florida supermarket giant Publix to sign a Fair Food agreement like the agreements brands like Chipotle and Trader Joe’s have already signed.

Daniel Horowitz of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board said, “This is the worst amount of damage to a community the Chemical Safety Board has ever seen. We simply can’t have explosions like this happen again."

Although the stand-off has been simmering for years, it takes on special urgency now because failure by the Senate to confirm new nominees for the board would paralyze the panel in August, said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair of Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. That’s because the current NLRB chair’s term of office will expire then, leaving the board without the three-person quorum legally required to conduct any further business.

Harris, who has been the interim head of the Department of Labor since Hilda Solis's resignation in January, has taken the agency on the road in favor of a wage raise. He traveled to Baltimore this week to meet with low-wage workers and promote President Barack Obama’s State of the Union proposal to lift the federal minimum from $7.25 to $9.00 an hour. The president's plan would also automatically link future increases to inflation, as a way of preventing the gradual erosion of purchasing power that has plagued low-wage workers since the 1980s, Harris says.

The labor department’s promotional tour has hit some 23 cities since the February 12 State of the Union address, with more to come. The effort has been largely overshadowed, however, by the March 18 nomination of Thomas Perez as the new secretary of labor and a confirmation fight that is still underway in the U.S. Senate. Nevertheless, Harris says he is pressing forward because “there is a lot of hunger out there” to see the wage increased.

But although the company announced its push for union democracy in February, a subsequent study by academics in Hong Kong and mainland China reveals that many workers don’t even know whether they’re in a union, and many others don’t have a clear idea of what their union does or how it works. And that actually makes perfect sense, since China’s unions are ill-defined, bureaucratized institutions—politically ineffective by design.

But United Maintenance may not be non-union for long. On Tuesday, current workers and union staff announced that 70 percent of the roughly 300 new employees at United Maintenance have signed cards in favor of joiningSEIU Local 1--the same union that represented the laid-off janitors. Now, organizers are demanding the company recognize the workers’ choice.

In 2010, Hedger worked as a veteran printing pressman at Fort Dearborn Company, a large commercial printer in the Chicago suburbs. He also served his local union as shop steward and a member of the bargaining committee. When the union members voted down a contract that the company had tried to push through quickly, a Fort Dearborn vice-president said he was “sick of this union circus” and threatened to fire Hedger.

The wealth generated at the port, though, hasn't trickled down. While Wal-Mart and other retailers are doing just fine, the products they sell are transported by port truck drivers who still make low wages—a nationwide average of about $12 an hour. Since the industry was deregulated in the late 1970s, port truck drivers have been classified by their employers as “independent contractors,” meaning that they're paid by the load, not by the hour, and the bosses don't shell out for taxes or benefits.

For instance, four years before a tragic explosion in West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine as a result of coal dust build-up, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board issued a report recommending that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) write a rule to prevent the accumulation of combustible dust. But it was not until 2009 that OSHA began the process of gathering information to write a rule. Then in 2010, OSHA downgraded the rule to a “long term action,” delaying the draft rule's required approval by a Small Business Advocacy Review Panel (SBARP). On April 5, 2010, the coal dust at Upper Big Branch sparked, and the resulting explosion killed 29 miners.

Yet the combustible-dust rule is still awaiting SBARP pre-approval. 

There’s plenty of shame to go around—and not just for the building owner and factory operators who ignored clear warnings of danger. High on the dishonor roll are the multinational apparel companies who subcontract work to thousands of local Bangladeshi factories crammed into similar deathtraps. The government of Bangladesh, dominated by representatives of the nation’s largest industry, textiles, shares blame for its fecklessness and corruption.

U.S. government officials and members of Congress are also at fault. They have failed to insist on safe standards for production of goods in Bangladesh (four-fifths of whose garment output goes to the U.S. and the European Union) and continued to grant it trade preferences.

But in a glimmer of hope, the outcry over the scale of the carnage in Rana Plaza has begun to spur some long-overdue reforms.

But despite the lack of any legal requirement, experts say, most businesses carry liability coverage because a partner or industry practice calls for it. West Fertilizer, for instance, had a policy. But it was worth only $1 million, an attorney for its insurance company told The News last week. If the plant were found negligent, its policy would pay only a fraction of the $100 million in property losses estimated by the Insurance Council of Texas, an industry association. West Fertilizer and its insurer, United States Fire Insurance Co., could not yet discuss how the plant came to carry only $1 million in liability insurance, their spokesman said.

Meanwhile, a newly released video from the Chemical Safety Board shows the severity of the damage caused by the West Texas Chemical and Fertilizer explosion.

Orestes Martinez, a construction worker in Houston, was killed on the job. Martinez and two other workers were moving a two-ton lead door by hand because no lift devices were available. The door fell and crushed Martinez.

OSHA found that Martinez’s employer, J.T. Vaughn Enterprises, Inc., had committed two serious safety violations that led to Orestes Martinez’s death. But OSHA fined the company only $10,000. On appeal, an administrative judge dismissed one of the violations and reduced the fine to $3,500.

Such small fines are all too common, according to a new report released by the non-profit National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH), entitled 2013: Preventable Deaths: The Tragedy of Workplace Fatalities. The report shows that the average fine for serious safety violations under federal OSHA law is a mere $1,680 dollars. After factoring in OSHA’s severely limited resources--under its current budget OSHA would need 129 years to inspect every workplace in the country--many employers are willing to take the risk that they may have to pay small fines, as in the case of Orestes Martinez’s death.

Union leaders are surveying the rank and file about a possible strike, and early results show 80 to 90 percent support, according to Vallera.

Like other adjuncts around the country, P-fac members complain that the college is taking advantage of their labor without treating them with respect or compensating them fairly based on their experience and dedication. Adjuncts say it is difficult to make a living even working full-time, since they have no benefits and little job security, with scheduled class assignments often canceled at the last minute.

“Undignified treatment of our most senior faculty who have made Columbia what it is today is the most egregious” problem, said Vallera, along with what she describes as the administration’s “unwillingness to work collaboratively with the union that represents the majority of the faculty," its "union busting tactics" and "the overvaluation of money above people and students ” 

Now, the body often referred to as “the second most important court in the land, after the Supreme Court,” has held that the NLRB cannot require employers to post notices informing employees of their labor rights. The decision, which comes less than three weeks after lack of regulatory enforcement led to a fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas that killed 14 and left about 200 injured, opens the door for businesses to challenge requirements that workers workers be informed of their health, safety and employment rights.

The unions feel torpedoed by an obscure budget provision that would shift financial control of U.S. humanitarian food aid away from federal government agencies and place it in the hands of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Oxfam America and Catholic Relief Services. Union advocates say the reform, touted as a way to benefit undernourished countries, would idle U.S. shipping and force crewmembers into long-term unemployment.

If you think being jobless is tough, try applying for unemployment benefits. In Florida, simply filling out the form requires considerable talent and endurance. According to a recent ruling by the federal Department of Labor, the state’s new online application process is so fraught with arbitrary obstacles that it violates federal civil rights protections.

Diana and two other workers have been “on strike” since last April 15, when they confronted the restaurant’s owner, Jack Yoo, with a similar statement listing their grievances. The May Day document included the names of four other employees who are still working but signed on in support. (Fat Salmon workers are not unionized, but the National Labor Relations Act protects any worker, union or not, who “engage in…concerted activities for the purpose of… mutual aid or protection.”)

In 2009, Bucyrus emerged as a major manufacturer of gigantic shovels used for mining all over the world. Centered at a South Milwaukee plant, Bucyrus had weathered mergers and bankruptcies over eight decades to build a steady market share and a fine reputation. Its concentration on skilled machinery and a worldwide boom in the demand for ore caused annual sales to soar from $289 million in 2000 to $3.65 billion by 2010. Bucyrus CEO Tim Sullivan was widely praised for his business acumen and community commitment.

What made the biggest headlines, though, was Sullivan’s analysis of why his company had become so successful. After evaluating the world market in sophisticated ore excavation, he announced he was keeping the plant unionized and expanding operations in the United States, because his workers were more productive and efficient than lower-paid workers in other states or countries. Sullivan said he preferred the experienced United Steelworkers (USW) teams for financial reasons—and he said it so often that even militant workers conditioned to doubt management were happy to be respected so loudly, enthusiastically agreeing to be the public face for the company.

The silicosis epidemic, which affects miners worldwide, exacerbates a serious existing problem in South Africa: Miners suffer tuberculosis—including drug-resistant forms—at rates exponentially higher than the general population. The debilitating disease spreads like wildfire in underground mines and in the cramped, unsanitary camps—known as “single sex hostels”—where many miners live. Miners and ex-miners are extremely susceptible to tuberculosis thanks to a combination of silicosis's effects on the lungs and high HIV infection rates, which leave their immune systems compromised.

As the court cases play out, South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is pursuing parallel strategies to improve health and working conditions. Peter Bailey, NUM's health and safety national chairperson, visited London in mid-April to question executives at Anglo American's annual shareholder meeting. He also met with members of British Parliament and mining watchdog activists from around the world.

When Hostess went bankrupt in November, prompting headlines like "Who Killed the Twinkie?", management blamed labor for the snack cake's demise, while unions predicted that the company would be chopped up and sold at a profit to speculators who would speedily put the lucrative Twinkie brand back on the shelves. That's just what has happened.

One section of the bill sums up the political calculus underlying the legislation: In the plan to overhaul the guestworker system on U.S. farms—the seedbed of the oldest and roughest forms of migrant labor—we can see the strained balance between the interests of profit and the interests of people in determining who gets to become "American."

As expected, Unity, which has been in power since the union's founding in 1960 and counts American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten among its alumnae, cruised to an easy victory with some 84 percent of the vote. Mulgrew, a former high school teacher, said in a victory statement, “I’m honored that thousands of UFT members have supported my re-election. I look forward to working with them for the next three years as we continue to fight for the best for our students, their families, and the schools.”

The re-election of Mulgrew itself wasn't surprising. But given that the Chicago teachers strike made major headlines this fall, and was led by a reform caucus that upset the union leadership in 2010 elections (the Caucus of Rank and File Educators, or CORE), many eyes were on the UFT election to see if its dissident caucus, modeled on CORE, would seize control in New York.

As of this writing, the body count at Rana Plaza is about 300 and rising, with hundreds more workers still unaccounted for, and the 72-hour emergency window for recovering trapped people alive almost gone.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of enraged workers in the area have gone on strike and rallied to demand justice for the victims. 

Obama’s remarks in West come three years to the day after he gave a similar speech eulogizing the 29 miners who died in 2010’s Upper Big Branch mine explosion. But in that speech, Obama used the memorial to make the case for workplace safety.

Louis Moore, 58, was working overnight on subway tracks in Astoria, New York City when he fell from a catwalk onto the tracks and was killed by an incoming train.  

The MTA is launching an investigation into the death of the signal maintenance worker just before 3:30am on Wednesday morning. It’s not yet clear what, if any, larger factors contributed to Moore’s death. The New York Times reported that it appeared an equipment bag he was carrying became caught and caused him to fall on to the tracks.

An outsider can only speculate whether more precautions could have prevented the incident: was the catwalk inherently risky, should there be more cautious policies about carrying bags, was Moore tired from long stretches on the overnight shift? Perhaps it was basically a freak accident in an inherently dangerous industry. That seemed to be the view conveyed by Transit Workers Union Local 100 leader John Samuelson in remarks to the press.

But railroad workers and lawyers who spoke with In These Times for the recent story "Blood on the Tracks" said that, in their view, railroad companies ranging from metropolitan transit agencies to major national freight companies cut corners on safety precautions in order to reduce costs.

But it’s not just the media that focus on terrorism over workplace safety; it’s also the government. 

Although Americans were 270 times more likely to die a workplace accident than a terrorist attack in 2011, the Department of Homeland Security’s budget that year was $47 billion, while OSHA’s budget was only $558 million. And while the Senate has grilled top intelligence officials about possible information-sharing failures in the lead-up to the Boston bombing, lawmakers have not looked at similar evidence that information-sharing problems may have played a role in the Texas explosion. A press release from Rep. Bennie Thompson, (D-MS), ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said only that the plant "was willfully off the grid.”

Although she was the only worker at her McDonald’s to walk off the job today, she joined other workers on strike from other Chicago fast food and retail outlets. They delivered a pointed chant, “We can’t survive on $8.25.” As they moved through Chicago’s central shopping districts, the crowd of strikers and supporters swelled to more than 500 people.

The study, “Overwork and the Persistence of Gender Segregation in Occupations,” published in the journal Gender & Society, found that “[T]he norm of overwork in male-dominated workplaces and the gender beliefs operating in the family combine to reinforce gender segregation of the labor market.”

Examining data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a national household survey carried out by the U.S. Census Bureau/National Bureau of Economic Research, Cha found that 6.8 percent of the mothers surveyed who worked 50 hours a week or more in male-dominated fields ended up exiting those jobs within four months, compared to 4.3 percent of women without children. (The percentage of men leaving those professions was just slightly over 2 percent, whether they had children or not.) Having children, the report notes, increases the odds of a woman leaving a male-dominated field where she is expected to work 50 hours or more by 52 percent.

At a press conference on Monday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel met the visit with derision. "I hope when he comes he remembers all three of his reasons," joked the mayor, referencing Perry's 2012 debate gaffe, in which the governor couldn't list the three government departments he was planning to axe.

Indeed, the efforts by Perry, best known for his wildly unsuccessful 2012 presidential run, are easy to mock. An ad in Crain’s Chicago Business bankrolled by Perry's office portrays Texas as an emergency exit door for Illinois businesses. An accompanying letter from Perry solemnly warns Illinois companies that “your situation is not unlike a burning building on the verge of collapse.”

On Nov. 22, 2008, he was finishing his shift at Tres Hermanos Dairy in Veguita, south of Albuquerque, when a recalcitrant bull refused to return to its pen. When Griego turned to ask a co-worker to help, the bull took advantage.

“They say bulls are cowards,” he says. “They’ll attack when your back is turned.” The bull hit Griego at least three times, with the final blow stuffing him into the lower gap in a pipe fence.

“I heard all my bones break,” he says. “I thought I was gone.”

The attack knocked out several of his teeth and left him with eight broken ribs, a fractured back, lung contusions and a dislocated shoulder. He spent about 10 days in the hospital and hasn’t been able to work since. He says the dairy’s owner gave him “like two paychecks” then said he couldn’t pay him any more. “I told him, ‘You do what you gotta do, and I’ll do what I gotta do,’” he says.

The explosion of the West Fertilizer Company plant on April 17 in West, Texas, killed 14 people, injured more than 160 and destroyed dozens of buildings. Yet unlike its fellow tragedy in Boston, the Texas plant explosion began to vanish from cable TV less than 36 hours after it occurred. Marquee correspondents like Anderson Cooper were pulled out of West and sent back to Boston, and little airtime was spared for updates from Texas, even as many nearby residents remained unaccounted for. The networks seemed to decide covering two big stories was covering one too many, as if we journalists can’t chew gum and walk at the same time. The media’s neglect has greatly increased the danger that the explosion will quickly be forgotten, to the detriment of U.S. workers.

Read the rest at the Washington Post.

UNITE HERE and several other unions say they are very close to an agreement with Caesars Entertainment Corp. to smooth the way for the casino's permanent staff to be unionized. The event follows a separate “Project Labor Agreement” deal with construction unions finalized April 2 that specifies that most of the building work will be done by union-contracted firms.