Author(s):
Paul Abowd

Excerpt:
The months-long tug of war within UNITE HERE continued in March as UNITE leaders seceded from the union, embraced a partnership with SEIU, and signaled they would form a new union to compete for members in HERE’s hotel and gaming jurisdictions—while snatching as many members as possible on the way out. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Dan La Botz

Excerpt:
With the two economies firmly interlocked, the United States’ biggest export to Mexico nowadays is economic meltdown. Mexico’s largest sources of revenue are oil sales, factory exports, remittances, and tourism. All are hit hard by the crisis north of the border. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Mark Brenner

Excerpt:
Billionaire fraudster Bernie Madoff may be behind bars, but his business model is alive and well. How can we keep high-flying bankers from pulling the same kind of bait-and-switch with taxpayers? Experts — from Nobel Prize-winning economists to Alan Greenspan, the libertarian former Federal Reserve chairman — admit that some kind of nationalization for failing banks is the best way out of this mess. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Author(s):
Tiffany Ten Eyck

Excerpt:
Just as worker centers are reporting an increase in calls and drop-ins, and ripe potential among members, some are facing funding shortfalls that jeopardize their work. . . .

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Alex Caputo-Pearl

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Marsha Niemeijer

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Rachel Miller

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Labor Notes Staff

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Labor Notes Staff

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Jane Slaughter

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Kim Moody

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Elizabeth McCarthy

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Christopher Phelps

Available Online:
No

Author(s):
Carol Lambiase

Excerpt:
As town leaders in Wallingford, Connecticut, grudgingly lined up to approve health care benefits for the school district’s paraprofessionals, they complained they felt browbeaten into taking their toughest vote ever. . . .

Body:
Town leaders in Wallingford, Connecticut, complained that they felt browbeaten by these school district para professionals, who built an effective public campaign for health benefits. Photo: Carol Lambiase

As town leaders in Wallingford, Connecticut, grudgingly lined up to approve health care benefits for the school district’s paraprofessionals, they complained they felt browbeaten into taking their toughest vote ever.

Available Online:
Yes

Body:
Leaders of an independent union at the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Plantation and Industry Company were arrested by Iranian authorities in late February. The arrests come after the union’s successful protest of the election of the Islamic Labor Council at the plantation February 22. Only 30 of 5,000 workers voted. The government-controlled Councils are set up in every workplace in Iran, with employers’ help.

Reza Rakhshan was arrested at an intelligence office after being summoned by the government. His home was then raided and many of his personal and union possessions were confiscated. Two leaders had their homes raided and possessions seized; one, Rahim Boshagh, also was arrested earlier in the week. The officials are charged with acting against national security, the usual accusation leveled against social, political, and labor activists in the country. Their trials were hastily conducted and verdicts are pending.

Expiration Date:
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 9:59pm

Body:
The U.S. Department of Justice reports a new case of forced labor in Florida agriculture. This is the seventh confirmed case of forced labor in the last decade in the state.

The report describes poor working conditions as well as workers being chained to poles, beaten, robbed, and locked inside trucks. A 17-count federal indictment outlines how a dozen workers living on a farm were forced to sleep in trucks and shacks, went unpaid for their work, and had to pay for food and showers. The cases were reported at the Six L’s and Pacific Tomato Growers farms. Both the farms are certified by the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange Socially Accountable Farm Employers program, which is supposed to prevent labor abuses.

Expiration Date:
Thu, 04/30/2009 - 8:59pm