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Pay Disparity is Stunning Between CEOs, Workers

Jon Talton 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.

NYC: The Power and Politics of Norman Seabrook's Correction Officers' Benevolent Association

Will Bredderman and Jillian Jorgensen Observer
Politicians are eager to distance themselves after correction officers' union leader Norman Seabrook became the best-connected figure to fall in a corruption investigation by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. Seabrook was arrested on fraud charges, accused of accepting a $60,000 bribe—reportedly delivered by Jona Rechnitz, a donor of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio at the center of a gift-for-favors scandal —in exchange for investing union money into a risky hedge fund.

U.S. Appeals Court Upholds 'Quickie' Union Election Rules

Daniel Wiessner Reuters
The Texas-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims by Associated Builders and Contractors Inc and a Texas chapter that the so-called "quickie" election rules violated employers' free speech rights and would lead to union harassment of workers.

"We Will Not Sit on the Sidelines": John Legend’s Proposal for Ending Mass Incarceration

John Legend Vox
In the past, unions sometimes shied away from knocking down systematic injustices, especially with regard to race. Not anymore. This is not the labor movement from last century. We will not sit on the sidelines. #FREEAMERICA is committed to joining others who are on the ground, doing the work to fix our broken criminal justice system. We are committed to standing with workers who are already in our schools standing between young people and the criminal justice system.