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Strikes Win Staffing Protections at University of California

Liz Perlman and Seth Newton Patel Labor Notes
New leadership, a Membership Action Team organizing plan, and a 22 month contract campaign that included two strikes, produce a strong bargaining agreement covering 22,000 hospital and campus workers at the University of California. The new contract offers protections against subcontracting, limits on temporary workers, wage increases, and "strong benefits," among other items.

Fighting the Big Apple’s Big Inequality Problem

Sarah Jaffe In These Times
A new book profiles alternative models of labor organizing in New York City, including worker centers and innovative strategies to organize workers in one of the most unequal cities in the country. New Labor in New York, edited by Ruth Milkman and Ed Ott, is now available from Cornell University Press.

Los Angeles Airport Service Companies to Face Labor Peace Requirement

Dan Weikel Los Angeles Times
Andrew Gross Gaitan, director of the Service Employees International Union's airports division, which supports the measure, said unionized companies could develop labor peace agreements with the unions representing their workers or any other organization or employee committee. Non-unionized companies elsewhere have reached such agreements, he said. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who received $198,000 in contributions from SEIU in the last election, backs the proposal.

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.