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Workers at N.Y.U.’s Abu Dhabi Site Faced Harsh Conditions

ARIEL KAMINER and SEAN O’DRISCOLL The New York Times
Inside squalid quarters, bedrooms are so crowded that men must sleep three to a stack — one on the upper bunk, one on the lower bunk and one below the lower bunk, separated from the floor by only a thin pad for a mattress. In the space between the beds, the men pile cauliflower, onions and sacks of Basmati rice to cook after working all day and washing the construction dirt from their clothes. Exposed wiring hangs from the ceiling, and cockroaches climb the walls.

Christie's Pension Payment Reduction Plan Sparks Lawsuit From CWA

Salvador Rizzo Star-Ledger
New Jersey Governor Christie is reducing pension payments worth $2.43 billion to cover a budget deficit thus threatening the stability of the pension fund. He is walking away from a pension overhaul he signed in his first term. He is being sued by the Communications Workers of America and the New Jersey Education Association.

Sharing Isn't Always Caring

Nathan Schneider Al Jazeera
The sharing economy is growing. AirBNB is now more valuable than Hyatt. But is this an economy built on social justice values and a more sustainable, lower consumption model? Or is it a new way for Big Business to creep further into our lives and exploit our relationships with one another? One professor says about crowdsourcing: "This is a total affront to what the labor movement has struggled for for centuries."

Temporary Jobs on Rise in Today's Shifting Economy

Tom Raum Times Union
"Workers increasingly serve businesses that do not officially 'employ' the worker — a distinction that hampers organizing, erodes labor standards and dilutes accountability," said Catherine Ruckelshaus, general counsel for the National Employment Law Project, which advocates on behalf of low-wage workers. A recent Federal Reserve study showed that nearly 7.5 million people who are working part time — contract workers included — would rather have full-time jobs.

Schooled

Dale Russakoff The New Yorker
Cory Booker, Chris Christie, and Mark Zuckerberg had a plan to reform Newark’s schools. They got an education.

Chiquita's Abandonment of Gulfport for New Orleans

Joseph B. Atkins Labor South
After receiving major bribes from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindall, Chiquita is abandoning Gulfport Miss. for New Orleans. This is another chapter in United Fruit/Chiquita's sorid anti-union history.

Global Strike Hits Fast Food Industry as Turkish Workers Demand Justice

Fast food workers from around the world participated in a strike against McDonalds and other low-wage employers in an ongoing struggle to demand a living wage. Meanwhile, strikes erupted in Turkey in reaction to government inaction and possible complicity in a disastrous coal mine explosion that has left hundreds of miners dead.

Teachers Vote For Change In Massachusetts

Amirah Santos-Goldberg Socialist Worker
Massachusetts Teachers Association delegate Barbara Madeloni elected next union president. She is known for refusing to participate in a standardized teacher-licensing program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She is part of a growing teachers insurgent movement being elected across the country.

Fast-Food Workers Set to Strike over Wages

Joe Garofoli SFGATE.com
Low-income workers from 150 U.S. cities and 33 countries in protests on Thursday to call attention to wealth inequality.The protest comes amid a national push to raise the minimum wage - and it could mark a significant moment in the campaign, according to John Logan, a professor of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University.

John Montgomery Ward, a New York Giant: A Labor History

Mark Lause Labor and Working-Class History Association
Historian Mark Lause discusses an intriguing slice of baseball history, including the Knights of Labor influenced fight for labor rights and against the color bar in baseball. Great even for those who don't associate spring with baseball!