#NOOLYMPICS2020
Tokyo Games need 500 nurses; nurses say needs are elsewhere


TOKYO — Some nurses in Japan are incensed at a request from Tokyo Olympic organizers to have 500 of them dispatched to help out with the games. They say they’re already near the breaking point dealing with the coronavirus pandemic

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

Olympic officials have said they will need 10,000 medical workers to staff the games, and the request for more nurses comes amid a new spike in the virus with Tokyo and Osaka under a state of emergency.

“Beyond feeling anger, I was stunned at the insensitivity," Mikito Ikeda, a nurse in Nagoya in central Japan, told the Associated Press. “It shows how human life is being taken lightly.”

The appeal for more nurses is typical of the impromptu changes coming almost daily as organizers and the International Olympic Committee try to pull off the games in the midst of a pandemic.

The Olympics are set to open in just under three months, entailing the entry into Japan — where international borders have been virtually sealed for a year — of 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes and thousands of other officials, judges, sponsors, media and broadcasters.

In a statement from the Japan Federation of Medical Workers' Unions, secretary general Susumu Morita said the focus should be on the pandemic, not the Olympics.

“We must definitely stop the proposal to send as Olympic volunteers those nurses, tasked with protecting the fight against the serious coronavirus pandemic," Morita said.

“I am extremely infuriated by the insistence of pursuing the Olympics despite the risk to patients' and nurses' health and lives.”

A protest message saying that nurses were opposed to holding the Olympics went viral on Japanese Twitter recently, being retweeted hundreds of thousands of times.

Even before the pandemic, Japanese nurses were overworked and poorly paid compared with their counterparts in the United States or Britain.

Nursing is not only physically taxing but also emotionally draining, said Ikeda, who has been a nurse for 10 years. He said many nurses worry about getting infected themselves, with vaccination rates in Japan reported at only 1-2%.

“It’s hard for any hospital to go without even one nurse, and they want 500,” Ikeda said. “Why do they think that’s even possible?”

Deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Japan have just passed 10,000.

The British Medical Journal last month said that Japan should “reconsider” holding the Olympics, arguing that “international mass gathering events ... are still neither safe nor secure.”

Haruo Ozaki, chairman of the Tokyo Medical Association, has said it will be “extremely difficult” to hold the Olympics because of the new variants that are spreading.

He also explained that Japan’s medical community has been stretched while treating coronavirus patients and also doing the vaccine rollout.

“We have heard enough of the spiritual argument about wanting the games,” he said. "It is extremely difficult to hold the games without increasing infections, both within and outside Japan.”

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga suggested that nurses who have quit their jobs could help with the Olympics, although some resignations are tied to the stressful work dealing with coronavirus patients.

“I hear many are taking time off, and so it should be possible,” Suga said last week, in a widely criticized remark.

Athletes will operate in a “bubble” at the Olympics, housed in the Athletes' Village on Tokyo Bay and moved around in designated buses to venues and training areas. Hundreds of rooms are also reportedly being set up outside the village to take in those who fall ill.

Organizers will require daily testing for athletes and other participants, a momentous task for medical staff. It also contrasts with how little testing is being done for the Japanese public.

Public opinion surveys show up to 80% of the Japanese want the Olympics cancelled or postponed again. Much of the bill for holding the Olympics, estimated officially at $15.4 billion, falls on Japanese taxpayers.

“The situation is extremely serious," opposition lawmaker Tomoko Tamura said recently. "Nurses don’t know how they can possibly take care of this situation. It is physically impossible.”

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More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Yuri Kageyama And Stephen Wade, The Associated Press

What History Can Tell Us About Working as an Immigrant Nurse in Canada

By Johna Baylon,

 Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

New Canadian Media

Mon., May 3, 2021

Editor’s note: This story was first published on April 28. This version corrects the acronym OIIQ to OIIAQ.

Like many internationally educated nurses (IENs) in Canada, Jeff Kua came to the country through the Live-in Caregiver Program.

It was 2010. His grandmother in Ontario had suffered a stroke, so his uncle suggested that Kua come to Toronto as her caregiver.

With his experience as an operating room nurse in the Philippines, however, Kua knew he’d eventually return to the profession he once served and trained for.

He started preparing for his nursing registration a year after he arrived. Back then, the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) considered work experience as a registered nurse (RN) within the last five years as valid. This means that by the time Kua could pursue working as an RN—after completing his two-year caregiving work requirement for permanent residency, and applying for an open work permit—his clinical experience would still count.

But things had changed by the time he received his assessment from the CNO, sometime between 2013 and 2014.

“They said I had to go back to school because they changed their policy—instead of accepting nursing experience in the last five years, they [changed] it to three years,” says the 37-year-old.

“So in the time they took to assess my documents, I basically ran out of experience. So I needed to go back to school.”

Kua took the Academic Pathway for Internationally Educated Nurses Program, a graduate certificate program at George Brown College, in 2015.

Still, it wasn’t enough.

After completing the program in 2017, Kua was told he now needed university-equivalent credentials.

This requirement wasn’t mentioned in his earlier assessment letter, which outlined the ‘gaps’ in his nursing experience and provided a list of colleges that offered programs to cover those gaps.

“After I finished the two-year program at George Brown, they sent my transcript to the CNO. The response I got back was that I didn’t meet the education requirements,” says Kua. “They updated my ‘gaps’, and added more requirements.”

Kua’s experiences are not uncommon. Many IENs come to Canada through the caregiver pathway and later find it difficult to practice as RNs.

This is due to many factors, including the time and financial resources it takes to complete bridging programs and language proficiency requirements that come with expiry dates, particularly the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), where results are valid for two years. Delays in paperwork, such as PR backlogs and document retrievals from educational and professional institutions overseas, make the process more time-consuming and expensive.

This hasn’t always been the case, however.

According to Valerie Damasco, a lecturer and researcher at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, interviews with nurses and historical documents reveal Canada’s recruitment of nurses from the Philippines in the early 1960s—among whom was her aunt.

“I’m not sure if the correct word to use here is ‘easy,’ but certainly [Filipino] nurses fit the criteria [of nurses] they needed here,” Damasco says, referring to the ease with which IENs from the Philippines were then able to work as RNs in Canada.

Damasco is currently completing a book based on her doctoral thesis, which explores the migration of Filipino nurses to Canada from 1957 to 1969. She found that Filipino nurses arrived through direct recruitment from hospitals in the Philippines, or through the U.S., where nurses who completed an exchange program would migrate northward instead of returning to Asia.

With the shortage of nurses in Canada, it wasn’t difficult for Filipino IENs to start working in Canadian hospitals right away, says Damasco. It also helped that the nurses who were educated in the Philippines went through an American curriculum, and eventually worked in hospitals with an Americanized setup.

“If you were to ask these nurses what they did as soon as they arrived in Canada, they said they didn’t have an orientation. They started working the next day. They already knew how to manage the floors, without having to receive additional training from the hospital. They knew what they were doing,” says Damasco.

“So these were candidates that [Canadian hospitals] really wanted, who fit the criteria that they were looking for.”

Ontario air ambulance paramedics vote in favour of strike

Duration: 02:10

 

The union representing air ambulance paramedics in Ontario says its members voted 94 per cent in favour of striking, but describes the move as a 'last resort

 cbc.ca

IN THE EU BANKS ARE UNIONIZED
Commerzbank nears deal on job cuts in talks with labour reps - sources


FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Commerzbank is nearing a deal with labour representatives on its restructuring plan that includes 10,000 job cuts globally, people close to the matter said

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© Reuters/Ralph Orlowski FILE PHOTO:

 A Commerzbank logo is pictured before the bank's annual news conference in Frankfurt

Management of Germany's second-biggest listed lender and the bank's works council have already reached an agreement in principle, they said, adding that the deal could be officially signed by the end of the week.

Spokespeople for Commerzbank and the works council declined to comment.

Commerzbank Chief Executive Manfred Knof said earlier this year that the turnaround plan would do without forced redundancies in Germany. The restructuring is instead focussing on early retirement programs.

As part of its restructuring, Commerzbank is shuttering 350 of its 800 branches in Germany and retreating from several countries.

Commerzbank hopes the revamp will revive its fortunes, as it struggles to restore profits after management reshuffles and strategy flip-flops. It has never fully recovered after a state bailout during the last financial crisis more than a decade ago and lost 2.9 billion euros ($3.5 billion) in 2020.

($1 = 0.8306 euros)
(Reporting by Patricia Uhlig; Writing by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Maria Sheahan)

André Leon Talley Discusses Wage Disparity At Vogue While Appearing On ‘Tamron Hall’

Sarah Curran 
ET CANADA
MAY 3,2021

© Photo: Getty Images Andre Leon Talley

André Leon Talley is opening up on the "double standards" he experienced during his time working as an editor at Vogue.

The fashion journalist spoke about salary disparities at the iconic publication while joining "Tamron Hall" on Monday, May 3.

RELATED: André Leon Talley Opens Up About Being Sexually Abused As A Child: ‘I Still Don’t Know Who To Trust’

“I just found out two weeks ago from someone of authority that women at Vogue, high, high rate fashion editors made close to a million dollars," he said. "I never made that much in a year. I made almost $300,000, but people on the same level, maybe they were doing more work than the fashion photoshoots, were making $900,000 a year."

Talley continued, "They don't make that anymore, but this is, this what comes when you live in
 America, when you're a Black person, you have to wake up and you know there’s a double standard.”

The comments come in the wake of Talley's recent rift with Vogue Editor-In-Chief, Anna Wintour, following her statement amid last year's Black Lives Matter protests.

On the current status of his relationship with Wintour, Talley shared, "We are friendly, and we care about each other."

RELATED: André Leon Talley Gives Update On His Friendship With Anna Wintour, Admits Parts Of His New Book Are ‘Probably Very Painful For Her To Read’

He went on, "In this complicated friendship, in this passive aggressive friendship, you know we sail by each other's port of call, we sometimes miss each other's port of call, but sometimes we navigate back around, and I'm looking forward to the day when Anna Wintour calls me and says, ‘Come to my house in Bellport for the weekend.’”

Talley also spoke about whether or not he would ever attend the Met Gala again.

“I have since been in communication with Anna Wintour since she made her announcement about her lack of diversity in Vogue and she has certainly accelerated the inclusivity of diversity in Vogue - on the covers and in the content," he added.

RELATED: André Leon Talley Slams Anna Wintour’s Black Lives Matter Statement

"So we have been in communications by emails strictly, on birthdays and holidays, and she thanked me for that support. And I would absolutely, if she sent me an invitation, I would go to the Met Ball, I said in the book I would never go back. But if she sent me an invitation I would go to the Met Ball."

ET Canada has reached out to Vogue for comment.

"Tamron Hall" airs weekdays on Global.

Uber, Lyft have a California playbook to fight proposed U.S. rules on workers

© Reuters/Mike Blake FILE PHOTO: A sign marks a rendezvous location for Lyft and Uber users at San Diego State University in San Diego

By Tina Bellon

(Reuters) -Uber, Lyft and other gig-economy companies face a new challenge from the Biden administration to their use of contract workers, but as they gear up for a fight in Washington they could turn to a lobbying playbook that helped them score a decisive win against California regulators last year.

U.S. President Joe Biden campaigned on the promise of providing legal protections and benefits to gig workers, who as independent contractors generally have no access to unemployment insurance, sick pay and health insurance. U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said last week: "A lot of gig workers should be classified as employees."

In Congress, Democratic lawmakers are pushing a union-supported labor bill, the PRO Act, that in part is modeled after a California law called AB5 that reclassified most gig workers as employees.

AB5, however, is no longer the law in California for ride-hail and food delivery workers, while it remains in effect for other freelancers. Uber Technologies Inc, Lyft Inc, DoorDash Inc and Instacart, whose business model relies on low-cost flexible labor, mounted a $205 million campaign that overturned the law for the industry last November.

Among the tactics honed in the California fight, the gig-work companies used their apps to reach out to voters and drivers through messages, emails, mailed leaflets, billboards, radio and online ads. They also urged workers on their platforms to speak out against AB5.

The companies threatened an end to ubiquitous food-delivery and ride-hail services many consumers have gotten used to during the pandemic if drivers were classified employees.

The looming fight over the status of gig-economy workers comes amid a wider debate over business regulation. The federal government exercised a light hand in regulating Uber, DoorDash and other digital-economy companies as they redefined traditional definitions of work, communications or retailing. Now, Democrats and Republicans in Washington, for different reasons, are calling for the government to exercise more control over one-time startups that dominate significant sectors of the economy.

Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart so far this year have spent a combined $1.3 million to lobby the Biden administration and members of the U.S. House and Senate, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. In 2020 they spent some $5.7 million, more than half of which came from Uber.

LOBBYING PUSH

Less than two weeks after Biden won the White House in November, companies banded together to form the App-Based Work Alliance, a Washington-based advocacy group. The group is now promoting statements of drivers and food-delivery workers saying they want to remain independent contractors, and do not want the PRO Act because they fear it would deprive them of opportunities to earn money on their own schedule for a few hours a week.

The companies cite surveys to argue the majority of their mostly part-time workers do not want to be classified as employees.

While the surveys show massive support for remaining independent contractors, they also follow years of threats by the companies of eliminating work opportunities if workers become employees. Some of the surveys are co-written by researchers with company ties, sponsored by the companies or completed with unscientific methodologies by a blogger who sent out emails and social media posts.

For example, one study by the National Bureau of Economic Research listed Uber's chief economist, Jonathan Hall, as a co-author, and a 2020 survey of 1,000 drivers by Benenson Strategy Group and GS Strategy Group was paid for by Uber. Uber said that while it paid for the poll, the survey was conducted by reputable research groups.

In California, the gig companies did not simply oppose any changes to their employment practices. Instead, they campaigned for compromise, advocating changes to labor laws to allow workers to remain contractors while also receiving more modest benefits than required for employees.

DoorDash said its workers on average work just four hours a week, while Uber said 37% of its U.S. drivers and 58% of its delivery people averaged fewer than 10 hours per week in the last quarter of 2020. The companies say those part-time gigs would become impossible under an employment model.

But Uber data from the fourth quarter of 2019, before the pandemic, also showed that California drivers working 25 hours and more per week completed more than 60% of all trips in the state, suggesting that full-time drivers complete the bulk of the work.

DRIVER ADVOCACY

Gig Workers Rising, a group of workers that advocates for greater benefits and says it does not receive financial support from labor groups, in a statement dismissed the companies' compromise proposal.

"(The proposal) is not a blueprint for workers' rights, it's a game plan for gig corporations and investors looking to maximize their profits," the group said in a statement.

The defeat of AB5 for app-based gig workers in California was a blow to organized labor groups, California's Democrats and even Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who had urged the state's voters to reject the gig industry's proposal.

Though AB5 is gone, gig workers in California now have access to some benefits, including healthcare subsidies, accident insurance and minimum pay while passengers are in their car. Those benefits are significantly less costly to the companies than employee benefits and labor groups say drivers do not know how to access them.

As the fight over gig-worker rights heats up on the national level, the companies could deploy similar measures.

"Right now there's no call for action, but if that became the case, for example if a real piece of legislation or ballot measure was put forward, we'd certainly activate our driver base," a Lyft spokeswoman said.

Uber and DoorDash said they had no specific plans for an outreach campaign as of now. Uber in August sent an email to all its drivers nationwide, outlining its proposal for a change in law to combine independent contractor status with some benefits.

(Reporting by Tina Bellon in Austin, TexasEditing by Matthew Lewis)

(Corrects to reflect that AB5 is no longer the law in California for ride-hail and food-delivery workers, instead of that AB5 is no longer the law in California for anyone, paragraph 5; also corrects paragraph 20 to reflect that AB5 was defeated "for app-based gig workers.")

Uber and Lyft will outperform despite US Labor Secretary's comments that gig workers should be treated as employees, Wedbush says

wdaniel@businessinsider.com (Will Daniel)

'

© Provided by Business Insider The future of Uber and Lyft drivers - and the companies - will likely hinge on a hugely important vote in California this November. Brian Snyder/Reuters

Wedbush's Dan Ives maintained his "outperform" ratings for Lyft and Uber in a note to clients on Sunday.

The managing director of equity research said the rideshare giants are ideal reopening stocks.

Based on checks with industry legal experts, Ives believes federal involvement in gig workers' status is "highly unlikely."

Wedbush Securities' Dan Ives maintained his "outperform" ratings on shares of Uber and Lyft in a note to clients on Sunday.

The managing director of equity research said he expects the rideshare services to take advantage of a "massive rebound in demand" and show a "healthy profitability trajectory" in their upcoming first-quarter earnings reports.

Ives holds a $76 price target for shares of Uber and an $85 price target for shares of Lyft.

Ives' Uber price target represents a potential 39% jump in share prices from Friday's closing price while his price target for Lyft represents a potential 52% surge

Shares of Uber and Lyft fell last week after US Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said "in a lot of cases gig workers should be classified as employees" in an interview with Reuters.

Uber and Lyft rely on labor from "gig economy" workers to run their businesses. A changing classification of gig workers to employees would mean increased costs for the rideshare companies.

Ives said that despite a sell-off after the news broke, based on discussions with experts on labor law issues, he believes "federal involvement in this issue would be very complex and highly unlikely without legislation changes, which at minimum would take significant time to play out."

The managing director added that Uber and Lyft have been proactive in pushing the gig economy model and he believes they will ultimately find a "middle ground approach" over the coming years.

Ives also noted Lyft's recent sale of its Level 5 autonomous vehicle unit to Toyota for $550 million will help accelerate its path to profitability and Uber's new delivery and mobility upgrades should bolster its revenues during the beginning of another "roaring 20's."

Overall, Ives appears unfazed by the recent comments from the US Labor Secretary and remains very bullish on the two rideshare giants, calling them a "pure bounce-back demand" play for investors.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Rights activists skeptical as Canadian fashion brands carefully deny using China forced labour

Tom Blackwell 

NATIONAL POST

MAY 3,2021

It’s been a tough few months for some of the world’s top apparel brands.

© Provided by National Post People rally outside the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., February 19, 2021.

After repudiating cotton allegedly produced with forced labour from China’s Uyghur minority, firms like Nike, Adidas and H&M have faced a sharp backlash in the country, imperilling their access to the lucrative market.

Canada’s leading clothing brands, on the other hand, are not exactly sticking their necks out on the issue.

Some told the National Post recently they do not source or have taken steps to avoid sourcing cotton made with forced labour in the Xinjiang region, but only one has joined an international association of manufacturers addressing the issue. None have signed a human-rights consortium ‘s pledge to take verifiable action in the area.

Companies surveyed by the Post offered broad statements of principle on the topic, but few details about their supply chains in China, or criticism of the country for allegedly coercing Uyghurs into textile work.

One Canadian firm with a growing presence in the China market, Vancouver-based Lululemon Athletica, did not respond to repeated queries about where ingredients for its products originate.

Mehmet Tohti, a Uyghur-Canadian activist, said he takes Canadian manufacturers’ assurances about the issue with a grain of salt.

“Many companies are deeply afraid to talk openly,” said Tohti, citing the recent blacklisting of Western brands in China. “Secondly, there is a huge benefit from forced labour for a company, because you can get the products cheap.”

No Canadian manufacturer has signed a “call to action” developed by the Coalition to End Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region, noted Lori Waller of Above Ground, an Ottawa-based labour-rights group. The manifesto requires brands to eschew any products made in Xinjiang or other workplaces that exploit Uyghur workers.

“It’s really not enough to simply ask suppliers to sign statements that none of their products contain this,” she said. “You need to do some work to verify.”

Meanwhile, little action appears to have flowed from a new set of federal rules designed to counter the use of forced labour in Xinjiang and elsewhere, federal officials indicate.

Human rights groups, the United Nations, journalists and others have documented a broad campaign of repression against the Muslim Uyghurs, including a network of re-education camps believed to hold a million or more people.

Amid reports of forced sterilization and rape in the camps, Canada’s House of Commons, the U.S. and other nations have labeled the actions genocide.

There is also growing evidence that Uyghurs are being compelled to work for meagre pay in factories and in the Xinjiang fields and mills that produce 20 per cent of the world’s cotton. One in five clothing items sold in the West includes such textile, the Uyghur forced-labour coalition estimates.

Canada joins U.S. and U.K. in imposing sanctions on China over treatment of Uyghur Muslims

New report argues China clearly committing genocide against Uyghur people

The Post asked six of Canada’s best-known clothing brands if they had investigated whether their supply chains involved forced labour in China, whether they had concerns on that front and if they were removing any suppliers involved in such work in Xinjiang.

Most cited codes of conduct and other policies that insist on fair labour practices from their suppliers. Few answered the questions directly; one not at all.

The media-relations office at Lululemon, which already has 50 yoga-wear stores in China and has said it wants to expand there, failed to respond to five emailed requests for comment.

Others were somewhat more forthcoming.

Canada Goose, whose CEO recently said China is an “increasingly crucial” market for the parka manufacturer, requires all of its suppliers, “no matter where they are in the world,” to sign a supplier code of conduct barring use of forced labour, the firm said through an outside public-relations firm. The statement did not mention Xinjiang.

Roots, which has 26 “partner-operated” stores in China and two in Hong Kong, said it does not source “any product directly from the Xinjiang” and requires direct suppliers to certify an absence of forced labour, said spokeswoman Kristen Davies . Meanwhile, it continues to “actively review” its supply chain.

Joe Fresh, the cheap-chic fashion line owned by Loblaws, “reached out to vendors for a commitment that they will not use cotton from the Xinjiang region,” said Loblaws spokeswoman Catherine Thomas.

Aritzia “does not manufacture in China’s Xinjiang region and is in full compliance with all trade regulations,” said vice president Renee Smith-Valade. It is also the only one of the companies that belongs to the Better Cotton Initiative , a non-profit that has spoken out about forced-labour in Xinjiang.

Hudson’s Bay, which has several private-label clothing brands, “does not use factories in, or source cotton from, Xinjiang,” stated spokeswoman Tiffany Bourre.

But Penelope Kyritsis of the Washington, D.C.-based Workers Rights Consortium said statements like those of the Canadian companies are little more than rhetoric until they sign on to something like the call to action and vigorously verify their commitments.

“So I couldn’t tell you with satisfaction that their supply chains are free of Uyghur forced labour,” she said.

The new federal regulations implemented last July bar imports of products made wholly or in part from forced labour. They require companies that do business in Xinjiang and get help from the government’s Trade Commissioner to sign a Xinjiang integrity declaration. And they ban exports that could be used in human rights abuses, like Beijing’s omnipresent surveillance of Uyghurs.

Asked repeatedly if any imports have so far been banned, officials from Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said only that the government is working on the issue.

CBSA is responsible for intervening based on research conducted by Employment and Social Development Canada, but it’s not an easy task, said agency spokeswoman Jacquie Callin.

“There is no visual clue for a Border Services officer to understand the labour standards by which a particular import was produced,” she said. “It takes research, coordination and diligence amongst all stakeholders to establish reliable and actionable sources of information.”

But Waller said there is much that Canada could do now, primarily by making use of work already done by the United States: It has barred numerous Chinese products from entering the U.S. because of suspected involvement of forced labour, including a blanket ban on cotton and tomatoes from Xinjiang.

“From everything that we’re hearing so far, it’s still very much in the stage of figuring out how to enforce it,” said Waller about Ottawa’s efforts.

Unless Canada quickly follows the American lead, it risks being used as a “backdoor” by China for getting banned forced-labour products into the U.S., warned Tohti.

One Canadian company has signed the Xinjiang integrity declaration and others are “conducting their due diligence” before signing, though none can be identified for commercial-confidentiality reasons, said a GAC spokesman.

As for rejecting export permits for products that could be used in rights abuses, department officials said only that aggregate information on various types of permit denials is contained in the annual report on Export of Military Goods to be tabled May 31.

But that document offers almost no information on why permits are denied, and none on the export product itself.

In Mexico autos town, labor rights falter despite U.S. trade deal

By Daina Beth Solomon 

© Reuters/Henry Romero FILE PHOTO: Mexican labor lawyer Susana Prieto leads a demonstration with supporters and workers outside an office of the Chihuahua state government in Mexico City

MATAMOROS, Mexico (Reuters) - After successfully staging a wildcat strike for higher wages in 2019, many workers at the Tridonex auto-parts plant in the Mexican city of Matamoros, across the border from Texas, set their sights higher: replacing the union that they say failed to fight for them.


Six workers at the factory, which refits second-hand car parts for sale in the United States and Canada, told Reuters they felt let down that their union, SITPME, did not back their demands for better pay. About 400 Tridonex workers protested outside a Matamoros labor court last year to be allowed to switch unions.

When the first protests broke out in 2019, many of the plant's roughly 4,000 workers earned just above the then-minimum wage of 176.72 pesos ($8.82) a day.

The Tridonex workers and thousands more at other Matamoros factories walked off the job demanding a 20% raise and 32,000-peso bonus, many without union backing. In nearly all cases, the companies conceded.

"This showed us what we were capable of," said Edgar Salazar, then a Tridonex employee. "We know we have rights, but the union just wants to cash in. It doesn't support us at all."

Jesus Mendoza, SITPME's long-time leader, said his union generated jobs and delivered perks to its members while maintaining harmonious relationships with employers.

However, Salazar and many of his Tridonex colleagues wanted to throw their support behind a new organization led by activist and attorney Susana Prieto.

But their efforts are failing, labor experts acknowledge.

Dismantling the power of Mexico's entrenched unions is proving a tough challenge, some labor activists say, with few signs that reforms promised under a new North American trade deal are yet charting an easier course.

Amid resistance from SITPME, the Tridonex workers' request to be represented by Prieto's union has still not been put to a vote. Legal challenges by attorney Prieto to replace unions at 45 other factories in the area have also stalled.

When Prieto urged strikes in January to again demand higher pay, just a few hundred people protested across a handful of companies.

"They're scared, because they don't have anyone to defend them," Prieto said. According to Prieto, about 600 of her supporters at Tridonex -- including Salazar -- were fired between April and October 2020. Reuters could not independently confirm this.

Cardone Industries, Tridonex's Philadelphia-based parent, did not respond to a question about allegations of retaliation.

It says layoffs were made due to reduced demand following pandemic lockdowns but did not provide further details. Cardone is controlled by Canadian company Brookfield Asset Management.

SLOW PROGRESS

Leftist President Manuel Andres Lopez Obrador passed a law in 2019 guaranteeing workers the right to independent unions. Though strong on paper, it does not come fully into effect until 2023.  AMLO IS A NEOLIBERAL

"The law in general is very good. But that doesn't mean we're going to get any change in Mexico anytime soon," said Kimberly Nolan, a labor scholar at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences research institute.

Some of the Matamoros workers are now looking to the United States for backing.

A new free trade deal between Mexico, the United States and Canada (USMCA) implemented last year enshrined workers' rights to choose which union administers their collective contract.

With Democrat Joe Biden now president, Mexico may come under close scrutiny to uphold the USMCA's pro-worker provisions, which were partly designed to prevent low labor costs from leeching more U.S. jobs.

Under the treaty, companies failing to ensure freedom of association for workers in Mexico could be sanctioned with tariffs and other penalties.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which runs U.S. trade policy, did not respond to a question of how the Biden administration would treat violations of the trade pact's labor measures.

But Katherine Tai, head of the agency, said last week she was "not afraid" to use the enforcement provisions of the USMCA, without specifying which issues could come under review.

The powerful U.S. union federation, the AFL-CIO, told Reuters in April it was drafting cases against companies in Mexico under USMCA, and would make details public in May.

Matamoros is one of a string of Mexican border cities which American firms were lured to by cheap labor in recent decades. Its factories supply parts for General Motors Co, Toyota Motor Corp, Stellantis and other automakers.

Booming trade with the United States has brought jobs to areas of northern Mexico but labor rights lag.

Companies in Mexico have commonly fired workers, among other tactics, rather than allow them to agitate for new unions, say activists, scholars and government officials.

"They fire them; they suppress them. They stop giving extra hours. They don't give bonuses. They change them to night shift," said Alfredo Dominguez, head of the Federal Center of Conciliation and Labor Registration, created under the labor reform to ensure collective contracts are legitimate.

One of the labor ministry's priorities is to eliminate so-called "protection contracts," signed between unions and employers without workers' prior consultation or knowledge, which Dominguez said make up at least 80% of all collective contracts in Mexico.

The labor reform, once implemented, will also do away with local panels blamed by labor activists for long delays in the process of establishing new unions like Prieto's. The boards will be replaced with tribunals reporting to the judicial branch.

NEW TACTICS

Frustrated by delays in setting up a new union, hundreds of Tridonex workers early in 2020 opted for a new tactic: declaring they no longer wanted to pay dues to the established union, SITPME. After several tense protests, Tridonex consented.

Then firings began, four workers told Reuters.

In March 2020, Efren Ruiz, who cleaned and assembled brake parts for Tridonex and was a vocal advocate of Prieto's union, was dismissed.

"This is reprisal," Ruiz remembered telling a supervisor, before security guards escorted him out, he said.

Three other workers also said they believed their union activism led to their dismissals. A government record seen by Reuters, dated October 30, 2020, shows Tridonex dismissed 717 people from April to October last year.

Reuters was unable to determine if any have been hired back since. Mexico's Social Security Institute, which tracks employment, said it could not comment on individual companies.

Prieto said the firings were retaliation by the company to protect SITPME and prevent more strikes for better pay.

SITPME leader Mendoza described complaints of retaliation as "lies." Cardone said in a statement the staff reduction was due to a drop in demand and was "managed through transparent and constructive discussions with employees and relevant trade unions."

SITPME - which extols membership perks such as medical and legal aid - said it lured back at least 3,000 people from different companies who had supported Prieto's breakaway group. Reuters could not independently confirm this.

Mendoza noted that he strives for dialogue with companies, not strikes: "What we do well is guarantee labor peace and efficiency in the workforce."

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; additional reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit and David Lawder in Washington; Editing by Christian Plumb, Daniel Flynn and Alistair Bell)

NO TIME
Amazon is polling drivers about their bathroom breaks after apologizing for denying that workers pee in bottles. Drivers say the survey is missing a key answer.

ndailey@businessinsider.com (Natasha Dailey,Avery Hartmans) 

© Patrick Fallon/Getty Images 

Amazon asked its drivers in a survey if they're "able to find restrooms" on their routes.

The drivers said the question missed the point of their problem - that they don't have time to.

"They're giving us monster routes," one driver told Insider.

Amazon asked its drivers in a recent survey if they were "able to find restrooms" while making deliveries, but workers said the question was missing their main problem - that they don't have enough time.

Several Amazon delivery drivers shared a screenshot of the survey with Insider on Monday. It asked, "Are you able to find open restrooms for use while making deliveries?" And had four options for answers

.

Courtesy of Amazon delivery driver Amazon driver survey on May 3, 2021. 

"The funny part about this screenshot is that they don't provide an option for 'Do not have time to use the restroom,' which is the main problem," one Amazon driver told Insider. He asked to remain anonymous for fear of job repercussions for speaking publicly.

Insider has previously documented how Amazon drivers often pee in bottles, as well as poop in bags and change menstrual pads while driving, due to the time constraints of the job.

The company previously denied that its workers peed in bottles on Twitter, but then later apologized for the tweet. Calling the issue an industry-wide trend, it attributed the problem to rural routes, pandemic-closed restrooms, and traffic, and said it was working to come up with solutions.

Insider spoke with four drivers about the survey, three of whom asked for anonymity to protect their jobs. Amazon did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on the survey.

One driver said he selected the top choice, which read, "No I am not being allowed access to open restrooms," because drivers "frankly aren't given enough time to search for restrooms."

"They're giving us monster routes," he said. "If we so much as fall 10 minutes behind, Amazon will ask the dispatchers why we are behind," he said.

Read more: Jeff Bezos responds to employee question about his resignation as CEO, says Amazon can 'out-survive any individual in the company, including, of course, myself'

Amazon driver Robert Lupia said he receives surveys almost every morning. He told Insider he is expected to deliver 350 to 400 packages per day, and he's required to clock out for lunch breaks but doesn't have time to take the break.

"Yes we pee in bottles daily; it's part of the job," he said. "Places don't allow non-customers to use their bathrooms."

A driver based near Lansing, Michigan, said the "I don't know how to find a restroom" option was "a little condescending." But, he said, acknowledging the restroom issue "is at least a step in the right direction."
Read the original article on Business Insider

TORY LIBERAL CONTRACTING OUT FAIL
CRA rules against civil service union push to make Phoenix damages non-taxable

OTTAWA — Canada's biggest civil service union says it is considering taking legal action after the Canada Revenue Agency ruled that damages paid to federal employees in connection with the troubled Phoenix pay system are taxable.© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Public Service Alliance of Canada says it has received notice from CRA that the agency won't review the taxability of the payments.

The payments were part of a contract settlement dealing with the financial, mental and emotional harm caused to government employees who were overpaid, underpaid or not paid at all through the Phoenix system.

Payments of up to $2,500 each were issued in March to civil servants affected by the damages agreement, minus applicable income taxes and other deductions.

In a letter sent to the union, dated April 27, the tax agency turned down the union's request to review the taxation issue.

In part, CRA said the government agency responsible for paying civil servants didn't cooperate with its review.

"After numerous requests for Treasury Board’s cooperation, and direct appeals to (Treasury Board President Jean-Yves) Duclos, they have refused any and all cooperation on the matter," a portion of the letter provided to the union stated.

The review was contingent on both the union and Treasury Board Secretariat providing an agreed statement of facts.

The union accused the government of shortchanging the 140,000 federal employees it represents by deducting tax from the payments, arguing that damages settlements are not normally taxed.

The union and government reached a deal last summer to compensate PSAC members affected by failures in the Phoenix system.

The Treasury Board chose not to co-operate with the review out of spite, PSAC national president Chris Aylward said in a statement.

"It's clear they're still angry that PSAC forced them to deliver a better deal for our members," Aylward said.

"They're frustrated that they have to honour the top-up clauses signed with the other unions to match our general damages agreement, and now they're taking it out on PSAC members by sabotaging attempts to get a positive tax ruling."

Treasury Board officials were not immediately available to respond to a request for comment.

But a spokesman said in February that Treasury Board was not blocking a review of the CRA's initial decision on the matter by refusing to issue a joint statement of facts with PSAC, adding that the government had always intended that the damages payments would be subject to "applicable deductions."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2021.

Terry Pedwell, The Canadian Press