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Climate Change is Already Hurting Poor Workers

While world leaders look for ways to supply a promised $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer nations curb their emissions and adapt to climate change, “the poor are already paying the costs with their labour and their time,” said Atiq Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies. Two articles highlight serious negative impacts of climate change: on farmers and farmworkers who harvest coffee in Central America, and farmworkers in Nepal.

Climate Change is Already Hurting Poor Workers

While world leaders look for ways to supply a promised $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer nations curb their emissions and adapt to climate change, “the poor are already paying the costs with their labour and their time,” said Atiq Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies. Two articles highlight serious negative impacts of climate change: on farmers and farmworkers who harvest coffee in Central America, and farmworkers in Nepal.

Bankers Learn What Happens in Vegas Can Land Back in D.C.

Robert Schmidt Bloomberg
One detail Deutsche Bank didn’t account for when it opened The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas casino: a labor dispute that has reached from Nevada into the bank’s dealings with the Federal Reserve in Washington.

Three Interesting NLRB Decisions

Nation Labor Relations Board
In three recent cases the National Labor Relations Board ordered the re-opening of a facility it said was closed to avoid negotiating with a union; ordered a trucking company to re-hire workers and bargain with their union; and ordered the reinstatement of three non-union packing house workers who struck to protest working conditions.

May Day Around the World and Crisis in U.S. - Three Reports

(1) Workers around the world hold May Day protests and celebrations. (2) The strength of social democracy in Canada translates to an amazing contrast between the living standards of US workers and their compatriots to the north. (3) As voters in some major US cities choose left leadership, the rising tide of inequality presents major contradictions.

Londoners Battle Tube Strike, Businesses Lament Losses

Belinda Goldsmith Reuters
The walk-out, and a planned three-day strike next week, is over plans to close about 250 ticket offices and cut 950 jobs in a restructuring that Transport for London, which runs London's transportation network, says could save 50 million pounds a year.

Minimum Wage Battles

Odds remain low that Congress will raise the $7.25 federal minimum wage anytime soon.In the meantime, many states - and a few cities - have made moves to raise their own minimum wages over the next year.

Separate and Unequal: The Charter School Pedestal The Public Can’t Reach

Trymaine Lee MSNBC
Critics say that charter schools—publicly funded but run by private organizations—are being used as a means to privatize public education at the expense of the vast majority of students. They say the charter movement is a Trojan-horse riding under the guise of school choice, used as an instrument to break teachers unions.