[Educationforall] spam con huevos labor news, views and concerns, 1.21.12-III

Mon Jan 23 19:49:22 UTC 2012

Hawaii Teachers Reject Sellout Young Workers Want to Hear from YOU Cooper Tire Does not Want to hear from youBusted: Monsanto Abusing Illegal Workers in 'Slave-Like' ConditionsMore Lockouts as Companies Battle Unions Line of Scrimmage Forms Over Union Bill Apple's [MAC] Foreign Suppliers Scamming & Abuse Employees‏Demand Amnesty for SDSU UAW Member‏ Working and Poor in the USA TransCanada: No More Than 6,000 Pipeline Workers on the Job "on Any Given Day" 
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Hawaii Teachers Reject Sellout Public school teachers have voted overwhelmingly against a six-year contract that proposed the
transition to performance-based raises starting in July 2013. 
Sixty-seven percent of teachers voted against the contract, the Hawaii
State Teachers Association announced tonight.  
 http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/137739018.html
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Jan. 23, 2012
Workers and Their Allies are fighting a spate of anti-collective bargaining bills in New Hampshire, where, Some lawmakers question whether Taxpayers are Public Employees.The AFL-CIO Young Worker Advisory Council wants to hear from you on how the AFL-CIO Should best meet the Needs of Young Workers. Click here to find out more.
Got comments? Post Them atblog.aflcio.org . New Hampshire Lawmakers: Public Workers Are not Taxpayers In Online Townhall, Mich. Gov. Opposed Snyder RTW Maybe Cures Cancer Child Labor, Too? Grant Application for Non-Profits Open and Unions That Serve Women American Workers in the Age of austerityRead more important news of the day on the issues Working Families care about.Follow the AFL-CIO:
            Take the next step. Become a mobile activist 
by joining the AFL-CIO Rapid Action Team Text. 
Text NEWS to AFL-CIO (235 246) to Receive action alerts and more.
(Message and data rates apply May.)
To find out more about the AFL-CIO, please visit our website at www.aflcio.org .Click here to unsubscribe@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Seven hours. Cooper Tire blocked our emails just seven hours we Began After Protesting STI lockout!Well, Cooper May Have Had Enough, But Have not we. We'll make sure home and Written message to Cooper Tire is Personally Delivered to the company.More than 12.000 Activists Have Already Told Cooper to end the lockout, But That's Not Enough to Ensure the company knows we're not backing down and the public is Against Them. Help us reach our goal of 20.000 supporters Against the lockout - COOPER WRITE TODAY !It's clear now That Thinks It Can Cooper get away with Workers Ignoring STI and STI customers, so we've got to keep up the pressure on the company. There are 1.050 Workers in Findlay, Ohio, Who Have not been allowed to work since November 28. And they're counting on us to help Them get back on the job.The Ongoing Lockout Has Been Devastating to Workers Who Explains like Shane Hanley: "It's tough. It's a hardship. Especially When you've got bills to pay." 1 Teresa Brown, Who've Worked at the plant for more Than 12 years Along With her husband, agree, "We have a kid in college, and I do not know how I am going to pay for college - All Because They Want to be greedy. They are Just Trying to bully us." 2Around the country, people are fighting corporate greed and back Against standing up for the 99%. Will you stand up and fight for Cooper's Workers too?Thanks for All That You do for Workers in Ohio and everywhere.-HilaryFight Back Against Cooper Tire's flat-out greed!Tell Cooper to end the lockout!Dear Carlos,Another classic tale of corporate greed is unfolding in Ohio, and we need your help to put a stop to it.In 2008, when to Cooper Tire & Rubber Company WAS losing money, Workers At Its Findlay, Ohio, plant Gave up $ 31 million in pay and Benefits to help the company stay afloat.Thanks to the Workers' sacrifice and Productivity, Cooper have made more than $ 300 million in Profits since 2009. Cooper paid millions of dollars STI executives in bonuses and new corporate Bought a jet. What did STI Employees get? Locked out on Thanksgiving weekend.Despite soaring Profits, Cooper push to new contract On Its Employees with Higher healthcare premiums and wage undisclosed terms. Do you think CEOs Would accept a contract if They Did not Know If They Were getting a raise or a pay cut? Not a chance.Still, Cooper's Employees Were more willing to keep working Than Through Negotiations to reach a fair deal expired after-Their contract last fall. But Refuse to budge Cooper - 1.050 Workers leaving the cold out in since November 28.The Workers in Findlay, Ohio, are counting on you! Cooper Tire Email NOW!Cooper Can Easily straight AFFORD to September Things turn a profit and still. Cooper CEO Roy Armes Received $ 4.7 million in compensation in 2010. 3 And the company have a plant in Serbia Purchased for $ 17.3 million! 4Cooper wants to cry broke, But greed - not need - is driving this lockout. As Chico Ramirez, who's logged 25 years With The Company, Explains, "The Thing That Bothers us is That We Gave Them Concessions to Help Them Get Back On Their feet, and are paying out bonuses They INSTEAD of paying back the backbone of the company. "Around the country, people are fighting corporate greed and back Against standing up for the 99%. Will you stand up and fight for Cooper's Workers too?Cooper Tire STI Tell bullying and greed That Must end now.Thanks for all you do for Workers That everywhere.Hilary, Liz, Susan, Zoe, Michael, Bryan, and the American Rights at Work Team 
www.AmericanRightsatWork.org1. http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2012/01/02/U-S-senator-drops-in-to-cheer-up-locked-out-Findlay-tire-workers.html 2. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204319004577084441182793280.html 3. http://people.forbes.com/profile/roy-v-armes/22977 4. http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2012/01/19/Cooper-closes-on-deal-to-buy-Serbia-tire-plant.html Sent this message to WAS cgpelayo at hotmail.com. To unsubscribe from American Rights at Work action alerts, click here .@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Busted: Monsanto Abusing Illegal Workers in 'Slave-Like' Conditions
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/01/busted-monsanto-abusing-illegal-workers.html

Friday, January 20, 2012Busted: Monsanto Abusing Illegal Workers in 'Slave-Like' ConditionsAnthony Gucciardi Activist Post Monsanto's disregard for human health is evidences by Their  Hazardous GMO crops and herbicides , But A shocking new report have Revealed the company's  illegal 'slave-like' Working Conditions . Forcing Slave Workers to work the cornfields for 14 hours per day and buy Their food (most likely  GMO ) at  highly-inflated prices from the company store , Monsanto Has Been  running These slave rings  for an unknown number of years. What's more, is the company not only 'Hired' all of the Workers illegally, But  Them preventer from the farm premises and leaving Their salaries withheld .

The information Came to light Following a raid by Argentina's tax agency AFIP Known as, Where It Was Revealed That the farmhands Were Being Forced to work twice as long as Almost Legally Given permissible and no compensation. Amazingly,  AFIP says  Monsanto That It Will hold responsible for the slave-like conditions. Unsurprisingly, Monsanto failed to respond to the story. Monsanto: A History of Inhumane Abuse Corrupt This is not the first time you've abused Monsanto Workers, Farmers dedicated or Even to the company's using GM seeds. In Fact, Monsanto's previous Crimes Against the human race are arguably even more despicable. In 2008 It Was Revealed That  Were Thousands of Farmers Committing Suicide  After using GMO crops. Due to failing Harvests and inflated prices bankrupt That the Poor Farmers, Books they began to kill Themselves, oftentimes drinking the very same insecticide That Monsanto Supplied Them with. Monsanto conned Into The Farmers buying GM seeds, Which Were Performed heavily overpriced and traditional Far Worse Than seeds. Struggling Farmers Monsanto charged the £ 10 for 100 grams of GM seed, They Could Have Purchased while 1.000 times more traditional seeds for the Same amount. The result career-ending WAS That led to mass Harvests suicide.

'We are ruined now,' said the dead man's 38-year-old wife. 'We Bought 100 grams of BT Cotton. Our crop failed twice. My husband HAD Become depressed. He Went out to historical field, lay down in the cotton and Swallow insecticide. 'After Village village, Families Were crushed tainted by Monsanto's seeds. Perhaps even more is the Fact That Concerning GMO crops are now These across the globe despite Consumed a  review of 19 studies  announcing That  Consumption of GMO corn or soybeans May lead to significant organ in rats and mice Disruptions  - particularly in the liver and Kidneys. Of course GMO crops not only destroy human health, devastate But the environment.

Thanks to Monsanto's best-selling herbicide Roundup, farms across the world are experiencing the Emergence of herbicide-resistant superweeds. The heavily weeds resistant to glyphosate Have an immunity, an herbicide Roundup That contains. These resistant weeds cover over 4.5 million Currently hectares in the United States alone, though Experts estimate the world-wide land coverage to  Have Reached at  least 120 million hectares  by 2010. The appearance of These superweeds is Being Documented increasingly in Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Europe and South Africa, and are now creeping across Canada . Following current trends,  Genetically modified  food products Majority Will the makeup of the future food supply if a change is not made. Statistics show how GMO crops and ingredients Have skyrocketed in the past FEW Even years.

Take a Stand Nations

France, Hungary, and Peru are a FEW of the Countries That Have Decided to  take a Stand Against Monsanto . Hungary as far as Actually Went to  destroy 1000 acres  of maize found to Have Been Genetically modified seeds grown with, According To Hungary deputy secretary of the state Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar. Also have you taken to Peru stand for health freedom, passing a monumental  10-year ban on Genetically Modified foods .Amazingly, Peru's Plenary Session of the Congress made the decision despite previous Governmental GM pushes for legalization. The Known and Unknown Dangers of GMO crops seem to supersede Even executive-level Governmental directives.
Through speaking out and spreading information About Monsanto's crimes against humanity, real Can change occur. Even small Amounts of activism Can result in major geopolitical change.@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
More Lockouts as Companies Battle UnionsBy STEVEN GREENHOUSEMany Americans know about the highly publicized lockouts in professional sports. But they are increasingly imposed in less visible industries as well.• NYTimes.com Home Page »@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Line of Scrimmage Forms Over Union BillBy MONICA DAVEYThe Super Bowl, in Indianapolis this year, is bringing national attention to a debate over state "right to work" legislation.@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Apple's Foreign Suppliers Demonstrate Widespread Scamming and Horrific Abuse of EmployeesBy William K. Black, New Economic PerspectivesPosted on January 20, 2012, Printed on January 22, 2012http://www.alternet.org/story/153824/apple%27s_foreign_suppliers_demonstrate_widespread_scamming_and_horrific_abuse_of_employeesApple has released a report on working conditions in its suppliers’ factories, highlighting a form of control fraud (fraud in which the head of a company subverts it for personal gain) that criminology has identified but rarely discussed.  I write overwhelmingly about accounting control fraud because it drives our recurrent, intensifying financial crises.  The primary intended victims of accounting control frauds are the shareholders and the creditors.  Other private sector control frauds target customers (e.g., George Akerlof’s 1970 article on “lemons”), and the public (e.g., the unlawful disposal of toxic waste, illegal logging, and tax fraud).Anti-employee control frauds most commonly fall into four broad, but not mutually exclusive, categories – illegal work conditions due to violation of safety rules, violation of child labor laws, failure to pay employees’ wages and benefits, and frauds based on goods and loans provided by the employer to the employee that lock the employee into quasi-slavery.  Apple has just released a report on its suppliers that shows that anti-employee control fraud is the norm.  Remember, fraud is hidden and is often not discovered and Apple did not have an incentive to make an exhaustive investigation.  Apple calls its inquiries “audits” and it is apparent that most of its information comes from reviewing written and electronic records at its suppliers.  That is exceptionally revealing.  The suppliers know that they can defraud their employees with such impunity that they don’t even bother to get rid of records that prove their frauds.  Apple has resisted making public its suppliers and the report refused to identify which suppliers committed which violations – often for years despite repeated, false promises to end their anti-employee control frauds.  Two other facts are evident (but not reported).  First, Apple rarely terminates suppliers for defrauding their employees – even when the frauds endanger the lives and health of the workers and the community – and even where Apple knows that the supplier repeatedly lies to Apple about these fraudulent and lethal practices.  Second, it appears unlikely in the extreme that Apple makes criminal referrals on its suppliers even when they commit anti-employee control frauds as a routine practice, even when the frauds endanger the worker’s and the public’s health, and even when the supplier repeatedly lies to Apple about the frauds.  Apple’s report, therefore, understates substantially the actual incidence of fraud by the 156 suppliers (accounting for 97% of its payments to suppliers). From the New York Times:The company said audits revealed that 93 supplier facilities had records indicating that more than half of their workers exceed a 60-hour weekly working limit. Apple said 108 facilities did not pay proper overtime as required by law. In 15 facilities, Apple found foreign contract workers who had paid excessive recruitment fees to labor agencies.And though Apple said it mandated changes at those suppliers, and some facilities showed improvements, in aggregate, many types of lapses remained at levels that have persisted for years.The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post articles on the Apple report are all lengthy, but none of them has any input from a criminologist and each of the articles misses most of the significance of the report. The most fundamental flaws have to do with why anti-employee control fraud is the norm at Apple’s suppliers and why the suppliers typically don’t even take the inexpensive efforts necessary to avoid holding a paper trail that makes the frauds obvious even to a not terribly vigorous audit that they know is coming.If there is one single thing that drives us white-collar criminologists around the bend it is the implicit assumption that fraud cannot be common. There is, of course, no logical (or experiential) reason for this belief. Nevertheless, it is a common belief and among economists it is a virtually universal dogma. Economists have a tribal taboo against even using the word “fraud” to describe individual frauds. The surest way to be considered an un-serious economist is to use the “f” word to describe frauds by elite economic actors. Economists’ taboo is particularly bizarre because it is economic theory, developed by a Nobel Laureate that explains why fraud can become endemic. George Akerlof, in his famous article on markets for “lemons” (largely describing anti-customer control fraud), explained the perverse “Gresham’s” dynamic in 1970: "[D]ishonest dealings tend to drive honest dealings out of the market. The cost of dishonesty, therefore, lies not only in the amount by which the purchaser is cheated; the cost also must include the loss incurred from driving legitimate business out of existence.”Anti-employee control fraud creates real economic profits for the firm and can massively increase the controlling officers’ wealth. Honest firm normally cannot compete with anti-employee control frauds, so bad ethics drives good ethics out of the markets. Companies like Apple and its counterparts create this criminogenic environment by selecting least-cost – criminal – suppliers who offer components at prices that honest firms cannot match. Effectively, they hang out a sign – only the fraudulent need apply to be suppliers. But the sign is, of course, invisible and cannot be introduced in court so Apple and its peers also get deniability. They are shocked, shocked that its suppliers are frauds that cheat their employees and put them and the public’s health at risk in order to make a few extra yuan or dong for the senior officers.Fraudulent suppliers, therefore, have compelling incentives to locate in nations and regions in which they can commit fraud with impunity. The best way to evaluate the fraudulent CEOs’ view as to the risk of prosecution for their frauds is to observe whether they take cheap means of hiding their frauds. When the CEOs do not even bother to avoid creating a paper trail documenting their frauds one knows that they view the risk of prosecution as trivial. Nations that are corrupt, have weak rule of law, weak or non-existent unions, poor protections for workers, a reserve army of the impoverished, and have few resources devoted to prosecuting elite white-collar crime provide an ideal criminogenic environment for firms engaged in anti-employee control fraud. The ubiquitous nature of anti-employee control fraud (and tax fraud) in many nations explains why U.S. industries have been so eager to “outsource” U.S. jobs to fraud-friendly nations. Companies like Apple also discovered long ago that Americans often made poor senior managers in these nations because they objected to defrauding workers. Not a problem – there are plenty of managers from other nations that have no such ethical restraints. Foreign suppliers run by Asian managers are increasingly dominant.The endemic nature of anti-employee control fraud also demonstrates an important technical point. The wages reported in the most fraud-friendly nations are substantially overstated because workers work far longer hours without receiving the compensation to which they are entitled. Their hourly rate is much lower than reported, which means that the wage gap between U.S. and the most fraud-friendly nations is significantly greater than reported. U.S. firms that have foreign suppliers in these nations are well aware of this data bias and make their outsourcing decisions based on the real (much larger) wage gap.The Harm to Employee and Consumer Health is GraveThe NYT article notes that it was bad publicity in the U.S. that finally forced Apple to make greater disclosures about its suppliers’ frauds: The calls for Apple to disclose suppliers became particularly acute after a series of deaths and accidents in recent years. In the last two years at firms supplying services to Apple, 137 employees were seriously injured after cleaning iPad screens with n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause nerve damage and paralysis; over a dozen workers have committed suicide or fell or jumped from buildings in a manner that suggests a suicide attempt; and in two separate blasts caused by dust from polishing iPad cases, four were killed and 77 injured.The Washington Post article noted:Apple found that 62 percent of the 229 facilities it inspected were not in compliance with the company’s maximum 60-hour work policy; 13 percent did not have adequate protections for juvenile workers; and 32 percent had problems with the management of hazardous waste.One supplier was caught dumping wastewater at a nearby farm. Another had a total lack of safety measures, creating “unsafe working conditions,” the report found. Five facilities employed underage workers.The company in the past had refused to divulge its full supplier list even as it became standard practice for multinational corporations to do so after the public outcry in the 1990s over labor problems at Nike factories in developing countries.Apple’s change of heart follows a highly publicized string of factory worker suicides in 2010 and deadly explosions in two Chinese factories in 2011.The WSJ emphasized this chilling finding:The report also found 24 facilities conducted pregnancy tests and 56 didn't have procedures to prevent discrimination against pregnant workers. Apple said that at its direction, the suppliers have stopped discriminatory screenings for medical conditions or pregnancy.
The article does not make this point explicitly, but these firms conduct these tests in order to unlawfully coerce their pregnant employees to have undesired abortions in order to obtain and keep their jobs.Foreign Anti-employee Control Fraud harms U.S. WorkersThese frauds take place abroad, but they harm employees at home. Mitt Romney explains that Bain had to slash wages and pensions to save firms located in the U.S. who had to meet competition from foreign anti-employee control frauds. The damage from foreign anti-employee control frauds drives the domestic attack on U.S. manufacturing wages. Bad ethics increasingly drive good ethics out of the markets and manufacturing jobs out of the U.S. and into more fraud-friendly nations.A final caution is in order because each of the major articles on the Apple report failed to mention it. CEOs who are willing to routinely defraud their workers and expose them to grave threats to their health are exceptionally likely to commit other forms of control fraud. 
 Bill Black is an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC). He is a white-collar criminologist, and he was the Executive Director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention from 2005-2007.
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Demand Amnesty for SDSU UAW Member
On November 16, 2011, SDSU Teaching Associate and United Auto Workers 4123 Member Ashley Wardle joined hundreds of other CSU students at the Chancellor's Office in Long Beach to protest proposed tuition increases and to demand that Chancellor Reed and the CSU Trustees join a campaign to insist the rich pay their fair share to fully fund high quality, public higher education.
Ashley, along with three other students, was arrested on Nov. 16 and released the same day. No charges have ever been brought against Ashley.
On December 20, Ashley participated in an informal conference at the SDSU Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities (CSRR). The purpose of the conference was to investigate Ashley's alleged violation of the SDSU Student Code of Conduct, including obstruction of a peace officer and failure to follow peace officers' directives.
On January 6, Ashley was presented with a stark choice: accept a 2 year suspension, or face a formal hearing. Of course, a formal hearing could result in a longer suspension, or even expulsion.
CFA encourages supporters to join with UAW and call San Diego State President Elliot Hirschman at 619-594-5201 and Chancellor Reed at 562-951-4700 and demand amnesty for Ashley Wardle.
Bo Elder <belder76 at gmail.com>@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Working and Poor in the USABill Quigley, The Center for Constitutional Rights: "A study by Northeastern University found that in the poorest families, unemployment is nearly 31 percent. Underemployment is also much more of a problem in poor homes, with over 20 percent of those workers reporting they are working part-time but seeking full-time work. Our nation can do so much more. We say our country values work. It is time to do something about it." Read the Article 
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TransCanada: No More Than 6,000 Pipeline Workers on the Job "on Any Given Day"Lisa Song, InsideClimate News: "Twenty thousand jobs is the number used by TransCanada, the Alberta-based company that wants to build the pipeline.... Opponents of the pipeline say TransCanada has inflated the number of construction jobs by ignoring two facts: That most of the jobs would be temporary, and that there's a big difference between hiring people for varying periods of time and creating jobs."Read the Article 
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