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State Terrorism and Education, the New Speculative Sector in the Stock Market

Renata Bessi and Santiago Navarro F. El Enemigo Común
(Orginally published in Spanish on SubVersiones, see links at the end.) If the national teachers movement in Mexico manages to bring down the educational reform, there will be a path to bringing down all the structural reforms that are occurring in the country’s strategic sectors, such as the energy sector. This is the assessment that teachers are making. This is precisely the fear of the federal government.

The Master/Servant Relationship: A Medieval Horror Romance

Peter Hall-Jones New Unionism
Why do we defer from 9 to 5? The “master-servant relationship” is a feudal phantom that still haunts today’s workplaces, thanks to English common law. Peter Hall-Jones argues that it’s time to exorcise the old ghoul. The workplace democracy movement aims to do just that, but where do unions fit in? The way they respond to this agenda might well determine their relevance in the workplace of the future.

Enforcement of Puerto Rico’s Colonial Debt Pushes Out Young Workers

José A. Laguarta Ramírez Dollars & Sense
As living conditions in Puerto Rico continue to deteriorate students and young workers from the island will continue to flood those places where family connections and job opportunities pull them. Not all will be targets of violence because of their multiple identities, as the Orlando victims were. Their fate, however, will continue to be a reminder of how invisible forces pattern seemingly random events in the lives of individuals and communities.

Pay Disparity is Stunning Between CEOs, Workers

Jon Talton The Seattle Times
It is no coincidence that CEO pay has reached astronomical levels at the same time that income inequality has widened to a level not seen since the eve of the Great Depression or even the Gilded Age of the late 19th century. A wide body of scholarship has linked the two. CEOs, who earn 335 times the pay of their average employee, make up a big chunk of the 1 percent. Some ideas to change that are kicking around.

Teachers Take On Student Discipline

Samantha Winslow Labor Notes
As education activists draw attention to high rates of suspensions, racial disparities, and the “school-to-prison pipeline,” the political winds are shifting.

Eliminating "Noncompete" Agreements

Kevin Johnson, James Bessen, Michael J. Meurer and Catherin On Labor
The campaign is led by EARN, the Employee Association to Renegotiate Noncompetes, which was formed this spring to combat the negative impacts of noncompetes. It sees Dell's impending acquisition of EMC as an opportune time for employees to press for reform prior to any transition.

Let’s Stop Downgrading Workers and Jobs in Supply Chains

Steve Cotton Equal Times
Downgrading workers and their jobs in the global supply chains must be stopped. Strong union organising, intelligent union strategies and collaborative working underpinned by robust international standards, is the way to do it.