Author name: max cyril

Striking Alabama Miners Call Out NYC Hedge Funds for Bringing in Scabs

You take a six-dollar pay cut and what do you get? Five years older and no respect for the sacrifices you made to get your employer out of bankruptcy, say the striking Alabama coal miners who protested outside the Manhattan offices of three hedge funds on June 22. “They told us, since we bailed them …

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NEW REPORT PROPOSES CRITICAL UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE POLICY REFORMS

NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION BEING HELD IN WASHINGTON D.C. AND SIX OTHER CITIES As 25 states cut pandemic unemployment benefits prematurely, a new report from a coalition of advocacy groups and think tanks, in partnership with workers who have experienced unemployment during COVID-19, proposes a stronger federal role in the unemployment insurance (UI) system and a slate …

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OVER 218,000 GEORGIANS TO LOSE ALL UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE WITHIN DAYS

NEW ESTIMATE OF GEORGIA PEUC RECIPIENTS SHOWS OVER 114,000 LONG-TERM JOBLESS FACING COMPLETE AID CUTOFF JUNE 26 An estimated 218,434 Georgians will abruptly lose all unemployment assistance at the end of this week, according to a new analysis released today by the National Employment Law Project (NELP). That figure comprises 114,820 long-term unemployed workers currently receiving extended weeks of …

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‘We Took Care of Each Other’: A Maritime Union’s Hidden History of Gay-Straight and Interracial Solidarity

Decades before the modern LGBTQ+ movement, a small but militant union of maritime workers on the West Coast with openly gay members and leaders coined a slogan linking discrimination against gay men, racial discrimination, and red-baiting. For the better part of two decades, the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union fought discrimination on the ships where …

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For Farmworkers, the Fight for the 8-Hour Day Isn’t Over

Federal labor laws exclude farmworkers from overtime pay and other protections. After years of advocacy by farm labor groups, lawmakers in Oregon, Washington and Colorado are working to change that. Oregon state Rep. Ricki Ruiz grew up the son of two farmworkers, and he remembers his family’s struggles vividly. “We almost faced eviction five times because …

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One Way to Boost Workers and the Labor Movement? Give Unions Power Over Unemployment Insurance.

A reform from Belgium in the early 1900s would both increase unemployment insurance benefits and decrease the cost of labor organizing. It’s time for the U.S. to embrace it. Despite keeping tens of millions of Americans afloat during the pandemic, expanded unemployment insurance (UI) only reached 41% of unemployed workers according to Professor Eliza Forsythe of the …

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Chicago Nurses Are Going on Strike—And Management Is Bringing in Scabs Through a Text Blast

Nurses and support staff in the Chicago area are joining other militant healthcare workers across the country by walking off the job, despite attempts by their bosses to hire strikebreakers. On Thursday, over 2,700 Chicago-area nurses and support staff at Cook County Health (CCH) are planning to go on strike, the latest example of rising worker militancy in the …

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Dispersed but Undaunted, Chicago Amazon Workers Help Win Megacycle Pay Nationwide

Chicago Amazon warehouse workers were put in a tough spot, and made the best of it. In January, the company hit workers in Chicago’s DCH1 delivery station with a devastating one-two punch. First, Amazon was shutting down their workplace, so they would have to transfer to other facilities across the city. Second, workers at delivery …

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A Charter School Named For the Author of “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” Is Union Busting

At Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School in Massachusetts, teachers say a hostile administration is trying to crush their union. In 1968, Paulo Freire, a famous Brazilian philosopher, authored the book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, a Marxist argument for using education to empower the downtrodden. In 2013, a charter school named in his honor was founded: the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter …

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Juneteenth Jumble

Juneteenth officially became a federal holiday last Thursday after Biden signed the legislation recognizing it — but what that actually meant for workers in the immediate aftermath has varied greatly. Some nonessential government offices, federal courts and school districts shut down on Friday, NPR’s Camila Domonoske reports. And “a small number of businesses acted swiftly to observe …

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Madeline Messa

Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.