Monday, June 29, 2015
Istanbul police use teargas to break up Gay Pride parade
Freedom Flotilla III en route to Gaza; military plane spotted overhead
Freedom Flotilla III en route to Gaza; military plane spotted overhead
by aletho
From
left to right: Algerian MP Nasser Hamdaduche; Former US Army colonel
and retired State Department official Ann Wright; Moroccan MP Abouzaid
El Mokrie El Idrissi; and journalist Abdul Latif from Echorouk TV on one
of boats of the Freedom Flotilla III, sailing in international waters
towards Gaza By Celine Hagbard | IMEMC News | […]
Mass. Home Care Workers First To Win $15/Hour Starting Wage
Mass. Home Care Workers First To Win $15/Hour Starting Wage
By Anna Susman, www.popularresistance.org
June 27th, 2015
BOSTON, MA – Tears of joy streaked the faces of cheering home care workers assembled in their Dorchester union hall on Thursday afternoon as a decades-long struggle for recognition and a living wage culminated in a historic moment of celebration.
According to an agreement reached in contract negotiations between the 35,000 home care workers of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and the administration of recently elected Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (R), Massachusetts Personal Care Attendants (PCAs) are poised to become the first in the nation to achieve a statewide $15 per hour starting wage.
Upon reaching the agreement, workers called off the fifteen-hour picket they had planned to begin at the Massachusetts State House on the morning of Tuesday, June 30th. Instead, caregivers are planning a celebration of this milestone and nation-leading achievement of a $15 standard at 4:00 p.m. on the State House steps the afternoon of June 30th.
“This victory, winning $15 per hour, it means we are no longer invisible,” said Kindalay Cummings-Akers, a PCA from Springfield, MA. Cummings-Akers cares for a local senior and became a union activist at the onset of the campaign. She was also a member of the statewide PCA negotiating team that reached the agreement with the Baker administration. “This is a huge step forward not just for home care workers, but also toward ensuring the safety, dignity, and independence of seniors and people with disabilities,” she added. “We are a movement of home care workers united by the idea that dignity for caregivers and the people in our care is possible. Today, we showed the world that it is possible.”
“Massachusetts home care workers are helping to lead the Fight for $15 – and winning,” said 1199SEIU Executive Vice President Veronica Turner. “We applaud Governor Baker for helping to forge this pathway to dignity for PCAs and the tens of thousands of Massachusetts seniors and people with disabilities who rely on quality home care services to remain in the community or in the workforce. As the senior population grows, the demand for home care services is increasing. By helping to ensure a living wage for these vital caregivers, Governor Baker is taking a critical step with us toward reducing workforce turnover and ensuring that Massachusetts families can access the quality home care they need for their loved ones.”
“It is a moral imperative that all homecare and healthcare workers receive $15 per hour, and Massachusetts is now a leader in this effort,” said 1199SEIU President George Gresham. “Extreme income inequality is a threat to our economy, our bedrock American values and our very democracy. With a living wage, we can ensure more compassionate care for homecare clients, and better lives for homecare workers and their families. We applaud this bold step by Governor Baker towards a better future for our communities in Massachusetts and our country overall.”
The home care workers’ journey began in 2006 when they banded together with senior and disability advocates to pass legislation giving Personal Care Attendants the right to form a union – a right they previously had been denied because of an obscure technicality in state law.
After passing the Quality Home Care Workforce Act to win that right and introduce other improvements to the home care delivery system in 2007, the PCAs voted to join 1199SEIU in 2008 through the largest union election in the history of New England. 1199SEIU is the fastest-growing and most politically active union in Massachusetts.
Prior to the legislative and organizing campaigns, PCA wages had stagnated for years at $10.84 per hour. In a series of three contracts since forming their union and through several major mobilizations, rallies, and public campaigns, the PCAs achieved a wage of $13.38 on July 1st, 2014.
Last year, the Massachusetts home care workers also united with the burgeoning Fight for $15 movement and the local #WageAction coalition, helping to kick off the $15 wage effort in the Bay State with rallies in Boston, Springfield, and Worcester on June 12th, 2014.
Home care workers took to the streets again on April 14th, 2015 as part of a massive Fight for $15 mobilization that drew thousands to the streets of Boston. That Boston-based action served as the kickoff for similar coordinated protests in more than 200 cities and 50 countries across the globe.
Caregivers say they are excited that the picket action they had planned for their current contract expiration date of June 30th can now serve as a celebration of this achievement and the spirit of cooperation that made it possible.
“This is an inspiring moment for home care workers, but also for our children – and our children’s children,” said a beaming Rosario Cabrera, a home care worker from New Bedford, MA whose children Kendra, age 14, and Daniel, age 12, were with her at the negotiating session as workers cheered the new agreement with the Baker administration. “I am so proud that I can show my children and someday tell my grandchildren that I was part of this moment in history, that I was part of a movement for social justice. We want all home care workers to win $15 per hour – and to do it first in Massachusetts fills us with pride. It is evidence of what people can do when we organize and negotiate in good faith to reach common ground.”
“Not only is this going to help the PCAs, but this is going to help us as consumers because it’s going to be easier to hire an attendant now that they can receive a dignified living wage,” said Olivia Richard, age 31, a paraplegic consumer who lives in Brighton, MA. “In the past, consumer employers have had issues with getting PCAs simply because the wage wasn’t enough. This is going to make a huge difference in our lives, as well.”
In negotiations, workers and the Baker administration reached an agreement extending the current collective bargaining agreement and establishing a commitment that all PCAs statewide will receive a starting rate of at least $15 per hour by July 1, 2018. Workers will receive an immediate .30 cent raise effective July 1, 2015, a portion of which will be paid retroactively once the contract is ratified.
A new round of discussions will then begin no later than January 1, 2016 to solidify details on the series of wage increases that will elevate PCAs to the $15 mark by the agreed upon date of July 1, 2018. Meanwhile, PCAs across the state will vote by mail ballot on ratifying the contract extension and the terms therein, including the commitment to establish a statewide minimum $15 starting rate.
# # #
Representing more than 52,000 healthcare workers throughout Massachusetts and nearly 400,000 workers across the East Coast, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in America. Our mission is to achieve affordable, high quality healthcare for all. 1199SEIU is part of the 2.1 million member Service Employees International Union.
https://www.popularresistance.
By Anna Susman, www.popularresistance.org
June 27th, 2015
BOSTON, MA – Tears of joy streaked the faces of cheering home care workers assembled in their Dorchester union hall on Thursday afternoon as a decades-long struggle for recognition and a living wage culminated in a historic moment of celebration.
According to an agreement reached in contract negotiations between the 35,000 home care workers of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and the administration of recently elected Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (R), Massachusetts Personal Care Attendants (PCAs) are poised to become the first in the nation to achieve a statewide $15 per hour starting wage.
Upon reaching the agreement, workers called off the fifteen-hour picket they had planned to begin at the Massachusetts State House on the morning of Tuesday, June 30th. Instead, caregivers are planning a celebration of this milestone and nation-leading achievement of a $15 standard at 4:00 p.m. on the State House steps the afternoon of June 30th.
“This victory, winning $15 per hour, it means we are no longer invisible,” said Kindalay Cummings-Akers, a PCA from Springfield, MA. Cummings-Akers cares for a local senior and became a union activist at the onset of the campaign. She was also a member of the statewide PCA negotiating team that reached the agreement with the Baker administration. “This is a huge step forward not just for home care workers, but also toward ensuring the safety, dignity, and independence of seniors and people with disabilities,” she added. “We are a movement of home care workers united by the idea that dignity for caregivers and the people in our care is possible. Today, we showed the world that it is possible.”
“Massachusetts home care workers are helping to lead the Fight for $15 – and winning,” said 1199SEIU Executive Vice President Veronica Turner. “We applaud Governor Baker for helping to forge this pathway to dignity for PCAs and the tens of thousands of Massachusetts seniors and people with disabilities who rely on quality home care services to remain in the community or in the workforce. As the senior population grows, the demand for home care services is increasing. By helping to ensure a living wage for these vital caregivers, Governor Baker is taking a critical step with us toward reducing workforce turnover and ensuring that Massachusetts families can access the quality home care they need for their loved ones.”
“It is a moral imperative that all homecare and healthcare workers receive $15 per hour, and Massachusetts is now a leader in this effort,” said 1199SEIU President George Gresham. “Extreme income inequality is a threat to our economy, our bedrock American values and our very democracy. With a living wage, we can ensure more compassionate care for homecare clients, and better lives for homecare workers and their families. We applaud this bold step by Governor Baker towards a better future for our communities in Massachusetts and our country overall.”
The home care workers’ journey began in 2006 when they banded together with senior and disability advocates to pass legislation giving Personal Care Attendants the right to form a union – a right they previously had been denied because of an obscure technicality in state law.
After passing the Quality Home Care Workforce Act to win that right and introduce other improvements to the home care delivery system in 2007, the PCAs voted to join 1199SEIU in 2008 through the largest union election in the history of New England. 1199SEIU is the fastest-growing and most politically active union in Massachusetts.
Prior to the legislative and organizing campaigns, PCA wages had stagnated for years at $10.84 per hour. In a series of three contracts since forming their union and through several major mobilizations, rallies, and public campaigns, the PCAs achieved a wage of $13.38 on July 1st, 2014.
Last year, the Massachusetts home care workers also united with the burgeoning Fight for $15 movement and the local #WageAction coalition, helping to kick off the $15 wage effort in the Bay State with rallies in Boston, Springfield, and Worcester on June 12th, 2014.
Home care workers took to the streets again on April 14th, 2015 as part of a massive Fight for $15 mobilization that drew thousands to the streets of Boston. That Boston-based action served as the kickoff for similar coordinated protests in more than 200 cities and 50 countries across the globe.
Caregivers say they are excited that the picket action they had planned for their current contract expiration date of June 30th can now serve as a celebration of this achievement and the spirit of cooperation that made it possible.
“This is an inspiring moment for home care workers, but also for our children – and our children’s children,” said a beaming Rosario Cabrera, a home care worker from New Bedford, MA whose children Kendra, age 14, and Daniel, age 12, were with her at the negotiating session as workers cheered the new agreement with the Baker administration. “I am so proud that I can show my children and someday tell my grandchildren that I was part of this moment in history, that I was part of a movement for social justice. We want all home care workers to win $15 per hour – and to do it first in Massachusetts fills us with pride. It is evidence of what people can do when we organize and negotiate in good faith to reach common ground.”
“Not only is this going to help the PCAs, but this is going to help us as consumers because it’s going to be easier to hire an attendant now that they can receive a dignified living wage,” said Olivia Richard, age 31, a paraplegic consumer who lives in Brighton, MA. “In the past, consumer employers have had issues with getting PCAs simply because the wage wasn’t enough. This is going to make a huge difference in our lives, as well.”
In negotiations, workers and the Baker administration reached an agreement extending the current collective bargaining agreement and establishing a commitment that all PCAs statewide will receive a starting rate of at least $15 per hour by July 1, 2018. Workers will receive an immediate .30 cent raise effective July 1, 2015, a portion of which will be paid retroactively once the contract is ratified.
A new round of discussions will then begin no later than January 1, 2016 to solidify details on the series of wage increases that will elevate PCAs to the $15 mark by the agreed upon date of July 1, 2018. Meanwhile, PCAs across the state will vote by mail ballot on ratifying the contract extension and the terms therein, including the commitment to establish a statewide minimum $15 starting rate.
# # #
Representing more than 52,000 healthcare workers throughout Massachusetts and nearly 400,000 workers across the East Coast, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in America. Our mission is to achieve affordable, high quality healthcare for all. 1199SEIU is part of the 2.1 million member Service Employees International Union.
https://www.popularresistance.
Cops Refuse to Stop Chase Plowing Over Multiple Children, Killing Them During Neighborhood Pursuit
Cops Refuse to Stop Chase Plowing Over Multiple Children, Killing Them During Neighborhood Pursuit
by aletho
By
Eva Decesare | The Free Thought Project | June 27, 2015 “Officers must
place the protection of human life above all other considerations.”
Detroit, MI — Or so says the official policy of the Detroit Police
Department. Yet, on Wednesday, Detroit police continued a high-speed chase into a busy neighborhood, resulting in two small […]
Greece Will Close Banks [for a period of 6 days] to Stem Flood of Withdrawals
| Greece Will Close Banks to Stem Flood of Withdrawals, Banking Officials Say |
Sunday, June 28, 2015 1:56 PM EDT |
| Greece will keep its banks and stock market closed on Monday and place restrictions on the withdrawal and transfer of money, banking executives said Sunday night, as Athens tries to keep its financial crisis from growing worse. |
| The government’s decision to close banks temporarily and impose other so-called capital controls came hours after the European Central Bank said it would not expand an emergency loan program that has been propping up Greek banks in recent weeks while the government was trying to reach a new debt deal with international creditors. |
| The debt negotiations broke down over the weekend after Prime Minister Alexis Tsprias said he would let the Greek people decide whether to accept the creditors’ latest offer. That referendum vote is to be held next Sunday, after the current bailout program will have expired. |
| Read more » |
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Media Coverage of Europe’s Migrant Crisis Ignores Root Cause: NATO
Media Coverage of Europe’s Migrant Crisis Ignores Root Cause: NATO
by aletho
Danielle
Ryan | Russia Insider | June 23, 2015 The scale of the migrant crisis
Europe is facing today cannot be understated. It is truly unprecedented.
What is habitually understated, however — and in fact almost completely
ignored by mainstream media — are the real roots of the crisis. The
debate around migration into the EU […]
IOF arrests two children including 9-year-old, assaults others in Megiddo jail
|
IOF arrests two children including 9-year-old, assaults others in Megiddo jailby FalastinNews Staff |
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested on Sunday two Jerusalemite children after breaking into their homes.
Jerusalemite
Prisoners' Families Committee said in a statement that the IOF arrested
the 9-year-old minor Ahmad Shweiki and transferred him to Salah al-Din
Street police station in Jerusalem.
The
IOF also arrested the minor Yazan Ayoub, 14, after breaking into his
home in Beit Hanina town in northern Occupied Jerusalem.
In a related context, the IOF arrested on Sunday a Palestinian youth close to Ibrahimi Mosque in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil.
Local
sources said that the IOF soldiers positioned at a military checkpoint
set in the vicinity of the Ibrahimi Mosque held a Palestinian youth for
many hours then arrested and transferred him to an unknown destination.
In
another context, the Israeli Occupation Authorities released the
Jerusalemite prisoner Abdul-Rahim Khalil, 30, after serving his 3-month
administrative detention sentence.
Moreover, Israeli jailers
The 17-year-old boys Suhaib Afaneh and Amin
Hamid stated that a force of Israeli jailers cuffed and transferred them
to isolation cells then started beating them continuously during the
journey from Megiddo to Hasharon jails.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society revealed, in a statement on Sunday, that both minors were isolated for three days and were taken out of cells after prisoners protested.
They were returned back to solitary
confinement and assaulted again as they protested against the presence
of the Israeli jailers inside their section in which they were held.
The Society pointed out that the Israeli
Occupation Authority (IOA) brought the two detained minors to internal
trials which imposed penalties on them including isolation and
deprivation of canteen and family visit.
They also were forced to pay a fine estimated
at 220 shekels each. After their fellow prisoners had protested, by
returning back their meals, the isolation of both minors was ended and
they were transferred to Hasharon jail.
Second New York Prison Escapee Said to Be Shot by Trooper [1st shot with 3 bullets in the head]
| Second New York Prison Escapee Said to Be Shot by Trooper |
Sunday, June 28, 2015 3:51 PM EDT |
| David Sweat, the surviving prison escapee on the run in northern New York, was shot by a state trooper on Sunday, according to a person briefed on the matter. His condition was unknown, the person said. |
| The confrontation with Mr. Sweat, 35, near the town of Constable, N.Y., came two days after a federal agent shot and killed the other escaped prisoner from a maximum-security prison in New York, Richard W. Matt. The agent shot Mr. Matt three times in the head with a semiautomatic weapon, according to results from an autopsy released on Sunday. |
| Read more » |
Escaped inmate from New York captured; manhunt over
Escaped inmate from New York captured; manhunt over
Los Angeles Times | June 28, 2015 | 1:22 PM
Authorities captured escaped prisoner David Sweat today, bringing to a close a massive manhunt that spanned several weeks.Sweat, along with fellow prisoner Richard Matt escaped from an upstate New York prison June 6. Matt was shot and killed Friday.
Read more >>
The Amazing Story Of What Happened When One Tiny Country Decriminalized ALL Drugs
The Amazing Story Of What Happened When One Tiny Country Decriminalized ALL Drugs
By Sophie McAdam on Jun 27, 2015 03:29 pmPortugal is one of Europe’s smallest countries, but until 2001 it had a BIG drug problem. One in 100 Portuguese citizens were addicted to heroin, a shocking statistic that was met with brute...
Ted Cruz Thinks Today Is the Worst Day in American History
Ted Cruz Thinks Today Is the Worst Day in American History
Read more: http://bluenationreview.
In the last day, millions of people had their health care saved, marriage equality was made the law of the land, and President Obama sang Amazing Grace and made all of us cry.
Here are some days Ted Cruz thinks aren’t as bad as the last 24 hours:
- September 11, 2001.
- Pearl Harbor.
- Gettysburg.
- The Sandy Hook shooting. Or Charleston. Or Tucson. Or Aurora. Or Columbine. Or…
- The assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Abraham Lincoln.
- The Challenger disaster.
- The Oklahoma City bombing.
- The 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
- Hurricane Katrina.
- The day Fox canceled Firefly.
Read more: http://bluenationreview.
Saturday, June 27, 2015
[Israeli] Minister urges French Jews to move to Israel after factory attack
Minister urges French Jews to move to Israel after factory attack
by aletho
AFP - June 27, 2015 JERUSALEM - An Israeli minister on Friday
urged French Jews to move to Israel after a suspected Islamist attacked
a factory near Lyon and pinned a severed head to the gates. "I call on
the Jews of France – come home! Anti-Semitism is rising, terror is
increasing," immigration minister Zeev […]
Far-Right: Flee America Before God Destroys Us For Gay Marriage!
Rep. Louie Gohmert
Far-Right: Flee America Before God Destroys Us For Gay Marriage!
SUBMITTED BY Brian Tashman on Friday, 6/26/2015 2:15 pm
Religious Right activists have compared today’s gay marriage ruling to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and Pearl Harbor, warning of imminent divine judgment and civil war.
“No matter what, the Court’s ruling does not upend millenia of truth,” former Rep. Michele Bachmann said. “Many Americans will choose to follow God’s ways rather than this Court and they should suffer no penalty for doing so. The Court has flung open the gate to lawsuits from those pushing the gay agenda against those who disagree with same sex marriage.”
Rep. Louie Gohmert said God will withdraw his protection from America:
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, reacted with guns blzaing, calling the ruling a “civilization-changing decision that destroys our nation’s heritage of Biblical marriage. May God forgive our Supreme Court majority for its arrogance and its self-apotheosis.”
Invoking biblical history, he warned, “Both Moses and Jesus stated that it was God’s law that ‘a man will leave his father and mother and a woman will leave her home and the two will come together as one.’ That defined marriage … The Supreme Court ruling is heartbreaking for the turmoil it will mean for our nation’s future.”
Gohmert indicated two justices should have recused themselves, observing, “It is clear beyond any doubt that Justices Kagan and Ginsberg have held exceedingly strong opinions that same-sex marriages were constitutional by virtue of their having performed them.”
He further warned, “[I]f Moses, Jesus, and contributors to the Bible were correct, God’s hand of protection will be withdrawn as future actions from external and internal forces will soon make clear. I will do all I can to prevent such harm, but I am gravely fearful that the stage has now been set.”
On American Family Radio, Crane Durham said that America is now under “tyranny” as a result of the court’s decision.
One caller said that he is prepared to “abandon ship” and flee America for a nation like Costa Rica or the Philippines, while another caller said that God is about to punish all of the people, such as President Obama and Hillary Clinton, who are celebrating the court’s ruling.
Conservative author Carl Gallups told WorldNetDaily that the Supreme Court’s ruling invites God to wrath upon America:
“This is the most monumental ruling of any court, by any nation in the history of the world,” Gallups said. “The spiritual and world-reaching ramifications will be prolific and devastating.”
…
“This ruling may prove to be the final death-knell of divine judgment upon our once great nation. For God’s word clearly declares, ‘What God has joined together, let not man put asunder’ (Mark 10:9). Man (The U.S. Supreme Court) has now spit upon God’s word and ‘put asunder’ what God declared as the standard for marriage – one man and one woman joined before God for life.”
Though he has been preaching for 30 years that this day would soon be upon the nation, and received much ridicule and lambasting for doing so, Gallups said he is “deeply saddened that it is now here – among our children and grandchildren.”
“These are the beginnings of the very last days,” he added. “I know I will be further mocked for uttering these words, but I unapologetically come from a biblical world view. I know what the Word of God says — I know what Jesus Himself said.”
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/
--
Connecticut Requires Bosses Who Steal Wages To Pay Back Double
Connecticut Requires Bosses Who Steal Wages To Pay Back Double
https://www.popularresistance.
By Ava Tomasula Y Garcia, www.inthesetimes.com
June 26th, 2015
For many employers, wage theft makes good business sense. The probability of getting caught refusing to pay a worker overtime, shaving hours off their check or paying less than the minimum wage is low. And even in the small number of cases pursued by victims that see the inside of a courtroom, employees often only recover a fraction of what they’re owed. A new law in Connecticut, however, aims to change this.
This Wednesday, Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy signed into law Senate Bill 914, a measure that will allow victims of wage theft to collect double the amount due them. By making the cost of breaking the law outweigh the cost of following it, business owners will be deterred from committing the crime in the first place.
“This is going to mean the transfer of millions of dollars each year from cheating employers to low-wage workers,” says James Bhandary-Alexander, a lawyer for New Haven Legal Assistance who represents victims of wage theft.
And yet, as Bhandary-Alexander notes, SB-914 is only a “modest” step in providing workers fair compensation. Passed after years of effort by workers, immigrant rights advocates and myriad grassroots organizations, SB-914 paradoxically illustrates how large the holes are in existing labor laws across the country—and what an uphill struggle it will be to achieve what Bhandary-Alexander calls “major” progress: a $15 and hour minimum wage, fair scheduling legislation, the elimination of tip credit and other provisions.
“We can see now how big a battle it is,” he added.
Double down, triple to go
The new law is intended to alleviate a number of gaping holes in state law that allowed bosses to get away with stealing workers’ wages. Up until now, Connecticut employees had to prove “bad faith, arbitrariness or unreasonableness” on the employer’s part in addition to wage theft, making it extremely difficult for victims to collect. Courts regularly construed “bad faith” so narrowly that the majority of wage theft charges couldn’t pass muster.
In a 2010 case, for example, Ann Maratea was denied double damages because a Connecticut Superior Court held that her employer, Taylor Freezer, supposedly was “unaware” that it had to pay overtime for the entire 10-year period she worked there. According to the court, “although it was known to management personnel that Ann Maratea would arrive … well before the official 8 a.m. start of the work day,” failure to pay a single cent for the 10 extra hours Maratea put in every week for a decade didn’t amount to proof of employer “bad faith.” And so the judge ruled that Taylor Freezer didn’t have to pay Maratea the full amount she would seemingly be legally entitled to.
Now, in order to avoid paying double damages, employers who commit wage theft must demonstrate that they undertook specific investigation into how much constitutes a legal wage, and then somehow made a mistake. SB-914 lifts the burden of proof from the employee to the employer.
This is crucial because provisions under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act for double damages only apply to workers who are part of “interstate commerce” and those whose employers make over $500,000 a year. This means that, for millions of workers around the country, federal wage law simply doesn’t apply—making legislation at the state level, including SB-914, their only recourse.
Still, even advocates who pushed for the law say it’s far from ideal.
“To be honest,” said Megan Fountain, an organizer with Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA), a grassroots workers’ and immigrants’ rights organization whose members lobbied hard for the law, “SB-914 is nowhere close to the best wage theft laws in the country. Ten states make an employer liable for triple damages.”
But even among those states that provide for treble damages (Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska North Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia), few make the grade in wage theft prevention. According to one 2012 study which gave states a letter grade based on the strength of their wage theft prevention laws, the two highest-ranking states, New York and Massachusetts, only got a C+ and a C. Connecticut brought home a D—and 18 states scored effectively zero.
“I’d say wage theft is the biggest crime wave in the country,” Bhandary-Alexander added.
Organize, organize, organize
In 1938, Congress passed the nation’s first-ever wage law, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which made double damages a federal requirement. Yet nearly a century later, the gap between actual practice and national paper provisions is enormous.
In protests that continue to ripple across the country, workers have attested to the variety of ways by which they are deprived of their due pay: Employers regularly pay below minimum wage, withhold overtime pay or tips, misclassify their employees as independent contractors and engage in a whole host of other tactics to pay workers less than what they are legally owed. In many industries, wage theft is endemic.
National studies find that over 60 percent of workers in low-wage industries suffer wage violations each week, and that wage theft costs workers $50 billion a year. In 2013, the Connecticut Department of Labor recovered $6.5 million in unpaid wages. But many workers use civil suits instead of going through the DOL, and one can safely assume that many did not file complaints because of language barriers or fear of retaliation. The way the legal odds are stacked—and thanks to years of budget cuts that have reduced DOL Wage and Hour investigators to only about 20 percent their number in the 1970s—there are few incentives for an employer to not steal wages.
In her testimony in front of the Connecticut state senate in support of the new law, Karim Calle, a full-time student and worker from East Haven who said that in years past she had made as little as $30 a day waitressing, told the court what can happen to a worker trying to get back stolen wages. Calle spoke about two nail salons in Darien and New Canaan where manicurists were discriminated against, sexually harassed by their boss and paid neither minimum wage nor overtime. In addition, workers developed health problems because of the toxic chemicals they came into contact with daily.
In 2008, six of the women who worked in the salons filed a lawsuit for $370,000 in stolen wages. As the case wound its way through the courts, the employer’s three houses suddenly went into foreclosure, and he sold the two salons to his niece before disappearing. “Fraudulent employers use these practices frequently,” Calle said. Even though the court came to a judgment for $209,000, the employees had no way to collect it.
Calle is a member of ULA, and fought hard for SB-914 as part of a package of laws, including one that would have brought wage liens to Connecticut. Wage liens enable workers to put a legal hold on an employer’s property when filing a wage theft claim and ensure that an employer can’t “disappear” assets before being ordered to pay what they owe—as the nail salon owner did.
Liens have been used successfully in Wisconsin, Maryland, Alaska, Idaho and Washington, and are being fought for in states like New York, where it’s known as the SWEAT bill (Securing Wages Earned Against Theft). Yet SB-914 is the only bill of the group that made it through the Connecticut Congress thus far.
Yet perhaps the most important advance to come out of SB-914 was the high level of community and worker organization that coalesced around the law. Groups like ULA joined forces with Legal Services lawyers, union members, local students, activists from the Connecticut Immigrants’ Rights Alliance, the Fight for $15 campaign and others to secure the bill’s passage. According to Calle, this coalition is what made the bill’s passage successful.
“This isn’t just a legal problem,” said Bhandary-Alexander, “it’s a political problem and a cultural problem, too. We need to keep fighting the legal battles, yes, and keep increasing the cost of wage theft, but, on the bottom end, it’s organizing, organizing, organizing… SB-914 shows you both what you can do with not a ton of resources but a lot of patience and energy,” he concluded. “But the question is, how do we accomplish more?”
The law becomes effective October 1, 2015.
https://www.popularresistance.
By Ava Tomasula Y Garcia, www.inthesetimes.com
June 26th, 2015
For many employers, wage theft makes good business sense. The probability of getting caught refusing to pay a worker overtime, shaving hours off their check or paying less than the minimum wage is low. And even in the small number of cases pursued by victims that see the inside of a courtroom, employees often only recover a fraction of what they’re owed. A new law in Connecticut, however, aims to change this.
This Wednesday, Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy signed into law Senate Bill 914, a measure that will allow victims of wage theft to collect double the amount due them. By making the cost of breaking the law outweigh the cost of following it, business owners will be deterred from committing the crime in the first place.
“This is going to mean the transfer of millions of dollars each year from cheating employers to low-wage workers,” says James Bhandary-Alexander, a lawyer for New Haven Legal Assistance who represents victims of wage theft.
And yet, as Bhandary-Alexander notes, SB-914 is only a “modest” step in providing workers fair compensation. Passed after years of effort by workers, immigrant rights advocates and myriad grassroots organizations, SB-914 paradoxically illustrates how large the holes are in existing labor laws across the country—and what an uphill struggle it will be to achieve what Bhandary-Alexander calls “major” progress: a $15 and hour minimum wage, fair scheduling legislation, the elimination of tip credit and other provisions.
“We can see now how big a battle it is,” he added.
Double down, triple to go
The new law is intended to alleviate a number of gaping holes in state law that allowed bosses to get away with stealing workers’ wages. Up until now, Connecticut employees had to prove “bad faith, arbitrariness or unreasonableness” on the employer’s part in addition to wage theft, making it extremely difficult for victims to collect. Courts regularly construed “bad faith” so narrowly that the majority of wage theft charges couldn’t pass muster.
In a 2010 case, for example, Ann Maratea was denied double damages because a Connecticut Superior Court held that her employer, Taylor Freezer, supposedly was “unaware” that it had to pay overtime for the entire 10-year period she worked there. According to the court, “although it was known to management personnel that Ann Maratea would arrive … well before the official 8 a.m. start of the work day,” failure to pay a single cent for the 10 extra hours Maratea put in every week for a decade didn’t amount to proof of employer “bad faith.” And so the judge ruled that Taylor Freezer didn’t have to pay Maratea the full amount she would seemingly be legally entitled to.
Now, in order to avoid paying double damages, employers who commit wage theft must demonstrate that they undertook specific investigation into how much constitutes a legal wage, and then somehow made a mistake. SB-914 lifts the burden of proof from the employee to the employer.
This is crucial because provisions under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act for double damages only apply to workers who are part of “interstate commerce” and those whose employers make over $500,000 a year. This means that, for millions of workers around the country, federal wage law simply doesn’t apply—making legislation at the state level, including SB-914, their only recourse.
Still, even advocates who pushed for the law say it’s far from ideal.
“To be honest,” said Megan Fountain, an organizer with Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA), a grassroots workers’ and immigrants’ rights organization whose members lobbied hard for the law, “SB-914 is nowhere close to the best wage theft laws in the country. Ten states make an employer liable for triple damages.”
But even among those states that provide for treble damages (Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska North Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia), few make the grade in wage theft prevention. According to one 2012 study which gave states a letter grade based on the strength of their wage theft prevention laws, the two highest-ranking states, New York and Massachusetts, only got a C+ and a C. Connecticut brought home a D—and 18 states scored effectively zero.
“I’d say wage theft is the biggest crime wave in the country,” Bhandary-Alexander added.
Organize, organize, organize
In 1938, Congress passed the nation’s first-ever wage law, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which made double damages a federal requirement. Yet nearly a century later, the gap between actual practice and national paper provisions is enormous.
In protests that continue to ripple across the country, workers have attested to the variety of ways by which they are deprived of their due pay: Employers regularly pay below minimum wage, withhold overtime pay or tips, misclassify their employees as independent contractors and engage in a whole host of other tactics to pay workers less than what they are legally owed. In many industries, wage theft is endemic.
National studies find that over 60 percent of workers in low-wage industries suffer wage violations each week, and that wage theft costs workers $50 billion a year. In 2013, the Connecticut Department of Labor recovered $6.5 million in unpaid wages. But many workers use civil suits instead of going through the DOL, and one can safely assume that many did not file complaints because of language barriers or fear of retaliation. The way the legal odds are stacked—and thanks to years of budget cuts that have reduced DOL Wage and Hour investigators to only about 20 percent their number in the 1970s—there are few incentives for an employer to not steal wages.
In her testimony in front of the Connecticut state senate in support of the new law, Karim Calle, a full-time student and worker from East Haven who said that in years past she had made as little as $30 a day waitressing, told the court what can happen to a worker trying to get back stolen wages. Calle spoke about two nail salons in Darien and New Canaan where manicurists were discriminated against, sexually harassed by their boss and paid neither minimum wage nor overtime. In addition, workers developed health problems because of the toxic chemicals they came into contact with daily.
In 2008, six of the women who worked in the salons filed a lawsuit for $370,000 in stolen wages. As the case wound its way through the courts, the employer’s three houses suddenly went into foreclosure, and he sold the two salons to his niece before disappearing. “Fraudulent employers use these practices frequently,” Calle said. Even though the court came to a judgment for $209,000, the employees had no way to collect it.
Calle is a member of ULA, and fought hard for SB-914 as part of a package of laws, including one that would have brought wage liens to Connecticut. Wage liens enable workers to put a legal hold on an employer’s property when filing a wage theft claim and ensure that an employer can’t “disappear” assets before being ordered to pay what they owe—as the nail salon owner did.
Liens have been used successfully in Wisconsin, Maryland, Alaska, Idaho and Washington, and are being fought for in states like New York, where it’s known as the SWEAT bill (Securing Wages Earned Against Theft). Yet SB-914 is the only bill of the group that made it through the Connecticut Congress thus far.
Yet perhaps the most important advance to come out of SB-914 was the high level of community and worker organization that coalesced around the law. Groups like ULA joined forces with Legal Services lawyers, union members, local students, activists from the Connecticut Immigrants’ Rights Alliance, the Fight for $15 campaign and others to secure the bill’s passage. According to Calle, this coalition is what made the bill’s passage successful.
“This isn’t just a legal problem,” said Bhandary-Alexander, “it’s a political problem and a cultural problem, too. We need to keep fighting the legal battles, yes, and keep increasing the cost of wage theft, but, on the bottom end, it’s organizing, organizing, organizing… SB-914 shows you both what you can do with not a ton of resources but a lot of patience and energy,” he concluded. “But the question is, how do we accomplish more?”
The law becomes effective October 1, 2015.
NYPD Officer Waited 20 Minutes to Call for Help After “Accidentally” Shooting Akai Gurley
NYPD Officer Waited 20 Minutes to Call for Help After “Accidentally” Shooting Akai Gurley
by aletho
By
Cassandra Fairbanks | PINAC News | June 25, 2015 The rookie NYPD cop
who shot and killed Akai Gurley in a stairwell last year waited almost
20 minutes to report the shooting, refusing to call for or provide
medical assistance, as he bickered back and forth with his partner about
who should be the […]
Cleve Jones: Marriage Equality Is An Extraordinary Victory for Everybody
Cleve Jones:
Marriage Equality Is An Extraordinary Victory for Everybody
By Tara Siler
and Lindsey
Hoshaw
KQED/June
26, 2015
Cleve Jones
was on 18th Street in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood when
he heard the news.
For the
AIDS activist and co-founder of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation,
the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on gay
marriage brought him to tears.
“I began
the day by weeping,” said Jones.
The former
adviser to Harvey Milk, the pioneering
San Francisco supervisor killed in 1978, is known for creating
the enormous NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt,
which celebrated those who died of AIDS or AIDS-related causes.
At 54 tons, it’s the largest piece of community folk art in the
world.
KQED News
reporter Tara Siler asked Jones about the significance of today:
Cleve Jones: I got up at 7:02 a.m. and turned
on the computer and totally lost it. I’m 60 years old and I did
not think I would live to see this day. I’m so very grateful to be
alive, but I also remember all of my wonderful friends and
comrades who didn’t live long enough to see this day. So they’re
very much with me and my thoughts, and they’ll be with us tonight
as we party and dance on Castro Street.Tara Siler: Well, I thought of that. You conceived the AIDS quilt back in 1985 to commemorate the lives of those who died of AIDS … and there’s a lot of people represented on that quilt who did not live to see today.
Jones: Yes, we lost close to 25,000 gay men in this city alone, and most of them lived here in my neighborhood, so it’s a poignant day. But it is nonetheless an extraordinary victory not only for gay people but for everybody who cares about our democracy, who cares about human rights and fundamental justice.
Siler: You know, Cleve, you were fighting for gay rights back in the 1970s. Are there key moments you could point to from that time that you think helped set the stage for this moment today?
Jones: Well, of course, I can’t help but think about Harvey Milk. And the fight against the Briggs Initiative and Proposition 6, back in 1978, was the first time we really had to mobilize our grass-roots troops. And it was a victory, a statewide victory that would not be repeated for 34 years.
So what I’m really reflecting on is the reality that, those times when we have jumped forward have come when people took risks, took bold action. And I’m thinking in particular of 2004 when then-Mayor Gavin Newsom and City Attorney Dennis Herrera began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in San Francisco City Hall, and they were condemned vociferously by all of the national gay and lesbian organizations, by the Democratic Party.
But that set the stage for Prop. 8. And when Prop. 8 passed, that unleashed a new explosion of grass-roots energy that propelled us to this point. But even then, as late as the spring and summer of 2009, all of the national gay organizations and our Democratic Party allies were saying, “Don’t go to federal court, it’s too risky.” Fortunately, they were ignored and today we are celebrating the results of that.
Siler: Well, are you surprised that this issue — marriage equality — took hold and moved public opinion, frankly, and the Supreme Court?
Jones: Well, certainly back in the ’70s, I would have thought that marriage equality would have come after we achieved protection against discrimination in employment and housing and public accommodation. So I was startled by the speed with which the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was overturned and gay people were welcomed into the armed forces, that came much more quickly than I expected it.
But this focus on marriage equality, many young people think that this focus on marriage equality was imposed on the community by the big national groups in an effort to raise money and make this more respectable.
But in reality, they all opposed it. And the push for this, I believe, is rooted in our experience with the AIDS pandemic. After what we went through — the losses we endured — and all of the loving couples then who cared for partners as they died, sometimes for many years, and the millions of dollars we had to raise to care for our brothers and sisters, all of that, I think, left us with this feeling of: “How dare you say this isn’t a marriage? How dare you say this isn’t a family? This is what a marriage looks like, this is what families are.”
Malaysian Pressure Forces MH17 Investigation to UN
Malaysian Pressure Forces MH17 Investigation to UN
by aletho
By Eric Zuesse | RINF | June 27, 2015
Malaysia, frustrated by the refusal of the official international
investigation-team to produce any clear evidence yet of whom to blame
for the downing of the MH17 Malaysian airliner over the Ukrainian
civil-war zone on 17 July 2014, has finally forced the team to request
the UN […]
JFK Jr. Told The World Who Murdered His Father.. But Nobody Was Paying Attention
Posted: 26 Jun 2015 10:54 AM PDT
Palestinian killed at an Israeli checkpoint
A 24-year-old Palestinian young man was shot and killed Friday
by Israeli gunfire at Hamra checkpoint that links between Nablus and
Jordan Valley.
Israeli sources claimed that the Palestinian young man was wearing an explosive belt and was shot dead after he opened fire at Israeli soldiers, but if you see his picture, it shows clearly that he wear nothing, and he was killed in cold blood.
Shortly after the incident, Israeli forces stormed the victim’s home in Ojja town in the Jordan Valley which led to the outbreak of violent clashes. At least one citizen was injured during the clashes.
The victim’s family affirmed that their son was murdered in cold blood, denying the Israeli claims that he pulled a hidden weapon and opened fire on the soldiers.
He was directly and deliberately shot by several live bullets before
being left bleeding for a long period of time without medical help till
he died, the family clarified.
The victim was heading to Tubas as he works as a taxi driver, according to his family.
Israeli sources claimed that the Palestinian young man was wearing an explosive belt and was shot dead after he opened fire at Israeli soldiers, but if you see his picture, it shows clearly that he wear nothing, and he was killed in cold blood.
Shortly after the incident, Israeli forces stormed the victim’s home in Ojja town in the Jordan Valley which led to the outbreak of violent clashes. At least one citizen was injured during the clashes.
The victim’s family affirmed that their son was murdered in cold blood, denying the Israeli claims that he pulled a hidden weapon and opened fire on the soldiers.
The victim was heading to Tubas as he works as a taxi driver, according to his family.
Insecticide Still [widely] Used in U.S. Found to Cause Cancer
|
Insecticide Still Used in U.S. Found to Cause Cancer by WHOby aletho |
By
Noel Brinkerhoff and Danny Biederman | AllGov | June 26, 2015 The World
Health Organization (WHO) has announced that exposure to the
insecticide lindane, which is still used extensively in the United
States, can cause cancer. Formulated but no longer produced in the U.S.,
lindane is used for livestock, pet and seed treatment, in […]
Following the ruling, President Obama delivered a statement from the Rose Garden. Watch Here:
Following the ruling, President Obama delivered a statement from the Rose Garden. Watch Here:
Remarks by the President on the Supreme Court Decision on Marriage Equality
Rose Garden
11:14 A.M. EDT
THE
PRESIDENT: Good morning. Our nation was founded on a bedrock
principle that we are all created equal. The project of each generation
is to bridge the meaning of those founding words with the realities of
changing times -- a never-ending quest to ensure those words ring true
for every single American.
Progress on this journey often comes in small increments, sometimes two steps forward, one step back, propelled by the persistent effort of dedicated citizens. And then sometimes, there are days like this when that slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt.
This morning, the Supreme Court recognized that the Constitution guarantees marriage equality. In doing so, they’ve reaffirmed that all Americans are entitled to the equal protection of the law. That all people should be treated equally, regardless of who they are or who they love.
Progress on this journey often comes in small increments, sometimes two steps forward, one step back, propelled by the persistent effort of dedicated citizens. And then sometimes, there are days like this when that slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt.
This morning, the Supreme Court recognized that the Constitution guarantees marriage equality. In doing so, they’ve reaffirmed that all Americans are entitled to the equal protection of the law. That all people should be treated equally, regardless of who they are or who they love.
This
decision will end the patchwork system we currently have. It will end
the uncertainty hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples face from not
knowing whether their marriage, legitimate in the eyes of one state,
will remain if they decide to move [to] or even visit another. This
ruling will strengthen all of our communities by offering to all loving
same-sex couples the dignity of marriage across this great land.
In
my second inaugural address, I said that if we are truly created equal,
then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.
It is gratifying to see that principle enshrined into law by this
decision.
This
ruling is a victory for Jim Obergefell and the other plaintiffs in the
case. It's a victory for gay and lesbian couples who have fought so
long for their basic civil rights. It’s a victory for their children,
whose families will now be recognized as equal to any other. It’s a
victory for the allies and friends and supporters who spent years, even
decades, working and praying for change to come.
And
this ruling is a victory for America. This decision affirms what
millions of Americans already believe in their hearts: When all
Americans are treated as equal we are all more free.
My
administration has been guided by that idea. It’s why we stopped
defending the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, and why we were pleased
when the Court finally struck down a central provision of that
discriminatory law. It’s why we ended “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” From
extending full marital benefits to federal employees and their spouses,
to expanding hospital visitation rights for LGBT patients and their
loved ones, we’ve made real progress in advancing equality for LGBT
Americans in ways that were unimaginable not too long ago.
I
know change for many of our LGBT brothers and sisters must have seemed
so slow for so long. But compared to so many other issues, America’s
shift has been so quick. I know that Americans of goodwill continue to
hold a wide range of views on this issue. Opposition in some cases has
been based on sincere and deeply held beliefs. All of us who welcome
today’s news should be mindful of that fact; recognize different
viewpoints; revere our deep commitment to religious freedom.
But
today should also give us hope that on the many issues with which we
grapple, often painfully, real change is possible. Shifts in hearts and
minds is possible. And those who have come so far on their journey to
equality have a responsibility to reach back and help others join them.
Because for all our differences, we are one people, stronger together
than we could ever be alone. That’s always been our story.
We
are big and vast and diverse; a nation of people with different
backgrounds and beliefs, different experiences and stories, but bound by
our shared ideal that no matter who you are or what you look like, how
you started off, or how and who you love, America is a place where you
can write your own destiny.
We are a people who believe that every single child is entitled to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We are a people who believe that every single child is entitled to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
There’s
so much more work to be done to extend the full promise of America to
every American. But today, we can say in no uncertain terms that we’ve
made our union a little more perfect.
That’s
the consequence of a decision from the Supreme Court, but, more
importantly, it is a consequence of the countless small acts of courage
of millions of people across decades who stood up, who came out, who
talked to parents -- parents who loved their children no matter what.
Folks who were willing to endure bullying and taunts, and stayed strong,
and came to believe in themselves and who they were, and slowly made an
entire country realize that love is love.
What
an extraordinary achievement. What a vindication of the belief that
ordinary people can do extraordinary things. What a reminder of what
Bobby Kennedy once said about how small actions can be like pebbles
being thrown into a still lake, and ripples of hope cascade outwards and
change the world.
Those countless, often anonymous heroes -- they deserve our thanks. They should be very proud. America should be very proud.
Thank you. (Applause.)
END
11:22 A.M. EDT
11:22 A.M. EDT
Gay Marriage Supporters Win Supreme Court Victory
Gay Marriage Supporters Win Supreme Court Victory
By ADAM LIPTAK JUNE 26, 2015
WASHINGTON — In a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote on Friday that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.
“No longer may this liberty be denied,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in the historic decision. “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were.”
The decision, which was the culmination of decades of litigation and activism, set off jubilation and tearful embraces across the country, the first same-sex marriages in several states, and signs of resistance — or at least stalling — in others. It came against the backdrop of fast-moving changes in public opinion, with polls indicating that most Americans now approve of the unions.
The court’s four more liberal justices joined Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion. Each member of the court’s conservative wing filed a separate dissent, in tones ranging from resigned dismay to bitter scorn.
In dissent, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the Constitution had nothing to say on the subject of same-sex marriage...
Continue reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/
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