Tidbits - June 27, 2013

Portside
Walmart just Fired 10 Strikers; Reader Comments - Rosenberg Case; North Carolina 'Moral Monday' Protests; NSA Spying; FBI's License to Kill; Syria; James Gandolfini; Summer Reading - what we missed; Population Decline and Climate Change; Message from Berlin Demonstration for Bradley Manning; March on Washington 50th Anniversary - Unfinished March Symposium - Washington DC - July 22; 60th Anniversary of Rosenberg's Execution - Carry it Forward - event report

America Feeds the Rich

Leo Gerard Campaign for America's Future
The Farm Bill that is expected to pass the U.S. House this week explains income inequality in America.

labor

How Taxpayers Subsidize Union Avoidance by Wal-Mart and Nissan

Phil Mattera Dirt Diggers Digest
The study, which updates a 2004 report by the committee, reviews the hidden taxpayer costs stemming from the fact that many Wal-Mart workers have no choice but to use social safety net programs -- such as Medicaid, Section 8 Housing, food stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit -- that were designed for individuals not in the labor force or those working for small companies that failed to provide decent compensation, not a leviathan with $17 billion in annual profits.

Fast Food Workers Striking in Seattle - 7th City in 8 Weeks - and Show No Sign of Stopping

Kara Kostinich (KOMO), Josh Eidelson
Fast food workers strike in Seattle - 7th city in past 8 weeks. Workers say their wages are stagnant and want a living wage of $15, more opportunities to advance, and the right to organize without retaliation. "Personally I'm on food stamps, my hours have been cut back," Burger King worker Andrew Thomas said. "Being here for a year and half. I haven't gotten a raise."

Protesting Walmart: The New Freedom Riders

By Berry Craig LA Progressive
Called the “Ride for Respect,” the demonstration at Walmart corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, will be modeled on civil rights volunteers who rode buses into the South in the 1960s to protest Jim Crow racial injustice.

Retailers Key to Bangladesh Worker Safety

Mike Hall AFL-CIO
A coalition of faith organizations, investors and labor groups—including the AFL-CIO—is urging major U.S. retailers, including Walmart, Gap, Sears and others, to sign on to a binding workplace and fire safety plan to prevent tragedies such as the recent building collapse in Bangladesh that killed more than 1,100 garment workers and two 2012 fires that claimed the lives of more than 400 Bangladeshi clothing workers.

Inspired by Freedom Riders, Workers Plan Caravans to Walmart Convention

Josh Eidelson The Nation
Following a five-day organizing training and strategy summit in Birmingham, members of the labor group OUR Walmart, a non-union organization backed by the United Food & Commercial Workers union, will announce a plan to send civil rights movement–style caravans of workers from around country to converge at the retail giant’s June 7 annual shareholder meeting.

Inspired by Freedom Riders, Workers Plan Caravans to Walmart Convention

Josh Eidelson The Nation
Los Angeles Walmart worker Tsehai Almaz told The Nation that after visiting the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and meeting with local clergy, she and other OUR Walmart leaders were inspired to follow the example of the 1961 freedom riders. “I feel like we’re facing many of the same issues,” said Almaz, “even though it’s not necessarily about race—this time it’s about respect. And being able to feed our families, and having good working conditions.”

labor

Fast Food Walkout in Chicago

Josh Eidelson Salon
Breaking: 500 low-wage workers expected to stop working from a dozen chains on Wednesday morning
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