Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Over 90% of Hong Kong industrial estate tenants facing eviction oppose redevelopment plan

Representatives for the estates in Kowloon Bay, Fo Tan and Cheung Sha Wan slammed the government for not responding to them.

by CANDICE CHAU

HKFP

08:10, 20 JULY 2021

An overwhelming majority of tenants at four government-run factory estates have said they are opposed to a clearance and redevelopment plan, urging the administration to halt plans immediately.

Around 93 per cent of 479 respondents from Yip On Factory Estate in Kowloon Bay, Sui Fai Factory Estate in Fo Tan, and Wang Cheong Factory Estate in Cheung Sha Wan said they objected to the demolition of the three sites, a survey published on Monday showed

Representatives from four factory estates facing demolition are joined by incumbent and former district councillors at a press conference on July 19. Photo: Candice Chau/HKFP.

The Housing Authority announced plans in May to redevelop the three factory estates and Kwai On Factory Estate in Kwai Chung for public housing. The proposal could provide over 4,000 flats in 2031.

Tenants were given 18-months notice and an option to bid for vacant units in Chun Shing Factory Estate in Kwai Chung, and Hoi Tai Factory Estate in Tuen Mun.

Representatives of the four industrial estates said that the government did not hold any consultation with the tenants before announcing the plans.

Incumbent and former district councillors from Sha Tin, Kwun Tong, and Sham Shui Po also said that the councils were not notified nor consulted by the Housing Department or the Housing Authority.

Justin Tsang, representative of Wang Cheong Factory Estate in a press conference on July 19, 2021 opposing the government’s clearance plan. Photo: Candice Chau/HKFP.

Justin Tsang, the tenant representative for Wang Cheong Factory Estate, said that it would be difficult for tenants to relocate due to the heavy machinery and moving costs.

Tsang said that many of the city’s industrial buildings were used for commercial purposes, and tenants of the four estates would not be able to move to the other buildings. He also raised concerns over other industrial buildings’ weight-bearing capacity.

Almost all dissatisfied

Close to 99 per cent of the respondents said they were dissatisfied with the government’s relocation plan, and the representative for Yip On Factory Estate Stephen Ma said that the option to bid for vacant units in two other estates was in vain.

“There are 60 [vacant] units open for closed bids by over 2,000 tenants – you can imagine that this relocation plan is in vain,” said Ma. “But I still admire their [the government’s] courage to spin.”

Vice Chairman of Kwun Tong District Council Mok Kin-shing. Photo: Candice Chau/HKFP.

Vice-chair of Kwun Tong District Council Mok Kin-shing – whose term ended on Tuesday – questioned the government’s plan to build more public housing in the district without considering other supporting facilities.

“Over the past five years, Kwun Tong – under the development of the Housing Department – saw the completion of ten projects,” said Mok. “It’s questionable whether building more public housing in such a small district is liveable.”
Government unresponsive

The representatives also complained about the government’s reluctance to reach out to them. Ma said that he met with an assistant manager from the Housing Department who said the government would give a response within a month’s time – but he has not been contacted by officials since their meeting on June 11.

Fanny Wong, representative of Sui Fai Factory Estate. Photo: Candice Chau/HKFP.

Fanny Wong, representative of the Sui Fai Factory Estate, said that the department only agreed to meet with her after she made an open appeal to the manager for New Territories West on Fathers’ Day last month.

Wong said that the department then contacted individual tenants using hidden phone numbers to gauge their attitude. The representative slammed the government for being “sneaky” and attempting to divide the tenants.

Tsang and Mr. Cheng, representative of Kwai On Factory Estate, said they contacted the government last month, but have yet to receive any response.

Update 19:03: A spokesperson for the Housing Authority (HA) said: “It is public information that HA has been conducting studies on the feasibility to redevelop its factory estates for public housing use, and that HA may redevelop individual factory estates subject to the study results,” adding that it was mentioned in last year’s Policy Address that some factory estate sites could be used for public housing development.

The authority said that they have “met the representatives of the four factory estates on various occasions to explain the detailed arrangements” and that the government will consult the district councils in the second half of this year.

ALSO ON HKFP

Hong Kong’s Carrie Lam seeks refuge from city’s anti-bribery laws behind blanket of national security

‘Hong Kong Tram Green’ now a recognised colour

Now News exec. resigns, cites ‘turbulent times’ for Hong Kong media – reports

China denies Microsoft hack, condemns US allies

Thai protesters clash with police as

Covid-19 cases continue to surge

Story by Reuters
Mon July 19, 2021

Police fire water cannon at protesters demanding the government be held accountable for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

(CNN)Police used tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse protesters trying to march on Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha's office on Sunday to demand he resign over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its economic impact.
Police said eight officers and at least one reporter were injured during the clashes, and 13 protesters were arrested.

Protest organizers called for the demonstration to end just after 6 p.m. but a stand-off between police and hundreds of protesters continued for several hours before officers dispersed the crowd just before the start of a 9 p.m. curfew in force in the Thai capital.
Police intervened with force after some protesters tried to dismantle barbed wire and metal barricades set up by the authorities to block roads from Democracy Monument to Government House where the Prime Minister works.

Deputy police spokesman Kissana Phathanacharoen said the protesters attacked police with "ping-pong bombs, sling shots and fire crackers". He added that the police actions followed laws and regulations and fully complied with international standards in controlling crowds.

Street protests against the Prime Minister have been held in recent weeks by several groups, including Prayuth's former political allies, as frustrations grow over the mounting coronavirus infections and the damage the pandemic has done to the economy.

Many protesters on Sunday carried mock body-bags to represent coronavirus deaths.
"The government has been poor at managing the situation and if we don't do anything there will be no change," protester Kanyaporn Veeratat, 34, told Reuters.

The protest marked one year since the first of a wave of large-scale street protests led by youth groups that attracted hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

On Monday, Thailand reported 11,784 new Covid-19 cases -- its fourth consecutive day of record infections -- and 81 related deaths, bringing total fatalities to 3,422 with 415,170 total cases registered.

Anarchists dedicate attack to Genoa G8 victim

Carlo Giuliani killed by Carabiniere in self-defence

(ANSA) - GENOA, JUL 19 - Genoese anarchists on Monday dedicated an arson attack on two power relay stations last night to Carlo Giuliani, a protester killed by a Carabiniere amid unrest at the Genoa G8 summit 20 years ago.
    Giuliani was shot dead by a Carabiniere he was attacking with a fire extinguisher a day before a night-time raid on a school used by protesters which earned Italy a condemnation for torture from a European court and which Amnesty International called the worst suspension of democracy in western Europe since WWII.
    Several police were punished for the police brutality at the July 2001 summit in the northwestern Italian city, which was marred by mayhem by extremists and, according to anti-globalists, agents provocateurs.
    But some of the officers in charge escaped punishment and were promoted. (ANSA).

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY #MIC

BITCOIN EMITS LESS THAN 2% OF THE WORLD’S MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX CARBON EMISSIONS

Published research shows Bitcoin mining produces a mere fraction of the carbon emissions coming from the world’s military-industrial complex.

HASS MCCOOK

JUN 15, 2021

INTRODUCTION

Firstly, thank you kindly for clicking on my click-bait title — it’s trench warfare out here on the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) front at the moment, and comparisons are being thrown around left, right and center.

Nobody hates comparisons more than I do, but as long as long bows are being drawn, I reserve the right to pull the “muh military!” card. But first, we must understand how the military-industrial complex (MIC) is inextricably related to the legacy financial system, via the mothers of all legacy industries, oil and the petrodollar.

The MIC is more essential to the financial system than you may think. Obviously, I had my suspicions and the basic facts, but this piece for Bitcoin Magazine by Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer of the Human Rights Foundation, really drove things home for me. Gladstein’s piece is a brief read, 6,500 words or so, and should be considered a mandatory minimum prerequisite reading for basically all Bitcoiners, certainly ones who are serious about getting into the ESG or human rights discussion.

If reading isn’t your thing, be sure to listen to the one hour deep-dive podcast. Even though I can’t summarize it for you, here’s the basic gestalt: The world financial system cannot exist without the petrodollar, which cannot exist without the backing of the United States government, and by extension, The United States Armed Forces, and by further extension, the rest of the world’s governments and armies. Therefore, if we wish to compare Bitcoin’s emissions to the “legacy financial system,” the military must be accounted for too, as well as its primary supporting industries. You could also argue that almost the entirety of public service (with the possible exception of healthcare) is also a mandatory cog in the financial machine, but that will be an article for another time.

This piece will aggregate the current literature on military emissions, as well as a summary of methodology and assumptions behind these numbers. I will then compare these numbers to Bitcoin. It is heavily reliant on the following four sources (I would recommend reading all of them if you’re interested in this topic):

Crawford, N. (November 2019), “Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change, And The Costs Of War,” Watson Institute Of International And Public Affairs, Brown University.

Parkinson, S. (March 2020), “The Carbon Boot-Print Of The Military,” Responsible Science Journal, No. Two.

Parkinson, S. (May 2020), “The Environmental Impacts Of The U.K. Military Sector,” Scientists For Global Responsibility.

Parkinson, S. and Cottrell, L. (February 2021), “Under The Radar: The Carbon Footprint Of Europe’s Military Sectors,” Scientists For Global Responsibility.

While solid data only exists for the U.S., Europe and the U.K., they make up a dominant enough share of the world’s military industry and expenditure that global conclusions can be drawn. Dr Stuart Parkinson of The Scientists For Global Responsibility, an author of three of the abovementioned reports, concludes in one of them:

“I estimate that the carbon emissions of the world’s armed forces and the industries that provide their equipment are in the region of 5% of the global total. But this does not include the carbon emissions of the impacts of war — this could be as high as 1%. So the total military carbon boot-print could be 6%.”

As at time of writing, The Cambridge University Centre For Alternative Finance estimates Bitcoin’s energy use to be 97.9 terawatt-hours (TWh), with total emissions of 44.1 million tons of carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide equivalents (MtCO2e), a measly approximate 0.09% of world’s 50,000 MtCO2e emissions, and over 55- to 65-times less than the MIC.

SCOPE DEFINITION

While I was both positively surprised and alarmed by the level of detail that the U.S., U.K. and some EU governments voluntarily disclose to the UN Framework Convention On Climate Change, the data divulged is a little light on scope. The below table shows the different levels of scope to consider when it comes to assessing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and is used as the basis of scope definition in the reference texts listed above.

Although great disaggregated data exists on scopes one and two items, this article will also consider the scope three items, which tend to account for the lion’s share of total emissions. For example, while scopes one and two account for the general operation of an aircraft carrier, they do not account for the design, construction and eventual disposal of said aircraft carrier that scope three calls for.

The only explicit items excluded from the numbers are the knock-on social and environmental impacts of war itself, but some qualitative comments will be made on these in the conclusion of the piece.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD’S LARGEST ARMIES?

U.S.

“Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change, And The Costs Of War” by Professor Neta Crawford presents available public data on the U.S. military’s emissions, and goes further by calculating the carbon footprint of the U.S. MIC. Although these are older, 2017 financial year figures, the latest 2019 figures only show some slight improvements.

In terms of the scopes one and two items transparently reported by The U.S. Department of Energy, the carbon footprint of the U.S. military was about 56.9 MtCO2e, down from 59 MtCO2e in 2017. 20.7 MtCO2e stem from the “standard” emissions of all of the military’s 560,000 buildings across 500 sites nationally and internationally. Another 35.7 MtCO2e come from the fuel use of it’s 50,000-plus land vehicles and tanks, 13,000-plus aircraft and almost 500 naval vessels. Another half megaton of biogenic emissions were also produced.

To quote Professor Crawford:

“[A] complete accounting of the total emissions related to war and preparation for it, would include the GHG emissions of military industry. Military industry directly employs about 14.7% of all people in the U.S. manufacturing sector. Assuming that the relative size of direct employment in the domestic U.S. military industry is an indicator for the portion of the military industry in the U.S. industrial economy, the share of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from U.S.-based military industry is estimated to be about 15% of total U.S. industrial greenhouse gas emissions.”

She notes that the 15% number does not even allow for “indirect military jobs, and therefore indirect military related emissions.”

I’ll go easy on The TroopsTM and we’ll just call it 15%. This results in an additional 280 MtCO2e, of which more than half is directly attributed to an active war effort, on top of the 56.9 MtCO2e covered under scopes one and two. This brings total U.S. military emissions to 336.9 MtCO2e, almost seven times Bitcoin’s impact.

Dr. Stuart Parkinson is the author of all of the research papers looked at in the following three sections on the U.K., EU and rest-of-the-world armies, respectively. His methodology is very similar to that of Professor Crawford, but goes into more granular detail on the military industrial complex of several nations. The highlights are as follows.
U.K.

Similarly to Crawford’s work, “The Environmental Impacts Of The U.K. Military Sector” takes publicly reported U.K. Ministry of Defence (MOD) data from its report “Sustainable MOD,” and includes an estimate of scope three impacts, namely, MOD U.K.-based suppliers, U.K.-based arms exporters and indirect employment due to MOD spending or arms exports.

In terms of the scopes one and two items, while far humbler than the U.S., the carbon footprint of the U.K. MIC was about 11 MtCO2e. 1.22 MtCO2e stems from the “standard” emissions of all of the MOD’s estate, which covers 1.5% of the U.K. landmass (excluding foreign installations). Another 1.81 MtCO2e come from the fuel use of it’s 5,000-plus land vehicles and tanks, 700-plus aircraft and almost 100 naval vessels. Based on the aggregated GHG reporting of the largest 25 military suppliers and exporters based in the U.K., which employ 85,000 of the 110,000 jobs resulting from MOD spending, 3.23 MtCO2e was produced. Indirect employment accounted for 1.67 MtCO2e, and non-U.K.-based operations account for the remainder. In all, it’s roughly 1.4% of the U.K.’s total emissions.

EU

In “Under The Radar: The Carbon Footprint Of Europe’s Military Sectors,” Parkinson uses the same methodology from his UK. .analysis, but using European data from sources such as NATO, individual nations and reported data from the largest military contractors in Europe. Summary data is below. A total of 24.83 MtCO2e was spewed by The EU27 militaries.

REST OF THE WORLD

In “The Carbon Boot-Print Of The Military,” Parkinson goes over his U.S., U.K. and EU data, but quickly concedes that precise figures for large military spenders like China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and India are much less transparent. As you can read in the introduction, he concluded that emissions as a result of global military spending results in 5% of global emissions in a “quiet” year, and 6% or more during a year with active conflict. With 50,000 MtCO2e being produced globally, this results in between 2,500 to 3,000 MtCO2e/yr, depending on what your definition of “quiet” is.
CONCLUSION

The numbers, as always, speak for themselves. Bitcoin, in the scheme of things, emits nothing compared with the positive value it provides, and compared to its legacy counterparts. While the legacy MIC runs around desperately changing all of its lightbulbs to LEDs to slightly offset the emissions of their bomber fleets, Bitcoin miners and sovereign nations are literally piping into volcanos for zero-emission mining. Many Bitcoin miners currently run on negative-emissions energy by mining using waste flared methane. For Satoshi’s sake! There are actual serious people alive today who believe it is possible to stop Bitcoin. I repeat, The El Salvadoran government is literally figuring out how to pipe into a volcano in order to produce 95 megawatts of lava-powered, clean and cheap energy to mine bitcoin — this would account for just under 1% of all energy currently consumed by the network.

The MIC will NEVER improve from an environmental point of view, let alone the social and economic disaster and ruin it brings in its wake. Bitcoin plugs into the wall (or a methane vent, or a volcano). That’s it. Nobody has to die. I have little doubt that by 2025, 25% of Bitcoin’s energy will come from stranded energy sources, and by the end of the decade, Bitcoin will have negative emissions, due to the amount of methane emissions it will offset. This will not be because Bitcoin miners are environmentalists, but because it’s the most profitable thing to do.

BY HASS MCCOOK

CUPE NB eyes September strike vote after little progress in negotiations

By Silas Brown Global News
Posted July 19, 2021

More than 20,000 public sector employees in New Brunswick are getting closer to a strike vote. Fifty days have passed since CUPE issued an ultimatum to the Higgs government, and the union says there’s been little movement since. Silas Brown reports.

The New Brunswick wing of the Canadian Union of Public Unions says over 20,000 workers could participate in a September strike vote if several bargaining units remain without contracts come Labour Day.

Fifty days have elapsed in the 100-day ultimatum issued by the union. It calls on the province to enter into good faith negotiations with locals needing contracts or face a potential fall strike that would impact large parts of the public service.

CUPE NB president Stephen Drost says little progress has been made, even after a recent meeting with the premier.

“The premier didn’t really seem to take us seriously,” Drost said during a virtual press conference held by CUPE NB.

“There was a lot of very light talk. He said maybe sometime in the future we could have a marathon of bargaining. There were no specifics given around what that would mean. We did let him know that these groups are more than willing to sit down and negotiate.”

READ MORE: CUPE accuses New Brunswick provincial government of forcing strike action

About half a dozen locals are in a deadlock position with the province, some of whom have been without a contract for two to three years. The locals in question represent workers from a number of sectors, among them provincial correctional officers, human service councillors, laundry workers, custodians, hospital support staff, education assistants and school administrative assistants.

The deadlock in negotiations has been coming since Premier Blaine Higgs announced that the province would pursue a wage freeze mandate in negotiations with public sector unions. In recognition of declining revenues and rising expenses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Higgs pitched a four-year contract that would feature one year with no raise followed by a modest one-per-cent raise in the other three.

Since the wage freeze mandate was put in place, only two bargaining units have signed new deals. Last week the province reached a tentative agreement with two of three bargaining units represented by the New Brunswick Nurses Union, but the details have yet to be released.

CUPE has not reacted to the wage freeze mandate positively, saying wages have already slipped over the previous 15 years.

“We bring it back down to choices,” Drost said.

“The government is choosing very deliberately to take on the public sector workers and not treat them fairly.”

Higgs was not made available for an interview.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the department of finance and treasury board says the province is willing to negotiate.

READ MORE: N.B. government wage-freeze pitch ‘a slap in the face’: unions

Premier Higgs has suggested the province and the various CUPE locals meet in late July or early August, which is a sign that the provincial government is open to further talks with CUPE, Mélanie Sivret said in an email.

“The province is facing significant challenges, which have been amplified by the ongoing economic and fiscal impact of COVID-19. The province must ensure all collective agreements across government are fair for the employees and New Brunswick taxpayers.”

Drost says a deal could be reached immediately if the political will to bargain in good faith was present, but says the union will continue preparing for a September strike vote in the meantime.

Should the relevant locals vote to strike, they’ll have the support of their provincial counterparts in Ontario.

“When our CUPE Ontario executive board learned of the mobilization happening here we were so inspired that we voted unanimously to enter into a solidarity pact,” said CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn.

The first part of that pact is $50,000 to support CUPE NB members, a gift in solidarity from the 280,000 members of CUPE Ontario.

Drost said the union is well-positioned to provide $300 a week in strike pay. The CUPE national strike fund is stocked with about $130 million.

“If, in fact, they exercise their right to strike after they take their strike vote, it will basically shut the province down,” Drost said.

But the government says the health and safety of the public will be protected should a strike happen.

“In the event of a strike, there are workers that are designated as essential in all CUPE units to ensure the health and safety of the public,” Sivret said.

WTF!!!

Air India's engineers launch nationwide protest against 45% salary cut

A protest was carried out on July 19 in Mumbai where the AIESL CEO of the company addressed the employees.

JULY 20, 2021 /

V Hejmadi and Chief of Finance, Kapil Aseri for fraud and breach of trust. The workers' demands include immediate restoration of full salaries (20 per cent on gross as well as 40 per cent on allowances) and an immediate sacking of the Chief of Finance.

The employees of Aircraft Maintenance Engineers/Service Engineers of AI Engineering Services Limited (AIESL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India limited, have launched a nationwide protest over the salary cut of engineers, news wire ANI reported.

According to the report, the recent salary cut is exclusively for the engineers while the rest of the staff has been spared. The recent 20 percent cut on gross salary is on account of failure by the company to timely deposit the statutory dues like provident fund and income tax.

These dues were deposited by all the employees every month but the company failed to pay them on time. Earlier a 25 percent cut on gross salaries was already made taking the total cut to 45 percent.

A protest was carried out on July 19 in Mumbai where the CEO of the company addressed the employees. Such protests were also held in Bengaluru, Delhi and Kolkata, where these Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (AMEs) wore black badges and shouted slogans of "Workers Unity Zindabad".

The report added the engineers have also filed complaints with the police against Director Finance, V Hejmadi and Chief of Finance, Kapil Aseri for fraud and breach of trust.

The workers' demands include immediate restoration of full salaries (20 percent on gross as well as 40 per cent on allowances) and an immediate sacking of the Chief of Finance.

UK FIRE REHIRE

Rolls-Royce Barnoldswick: Fresh strike action amid job cut fears

Rolls Royce Trent Engine blades are made at the site in Barnoldswick

A group of specialist engineers at a Rolls-Royce factory are going on strike after fears for the long-term future of the site resurfaced.

Members of the Unite union in previously took action before Christmas over plans to scale back production at the factory in Barnoldswick.

Unite said a deal was agreed guaranteeing the future of the factory, but fresh fears have emerged.

Rolls-Royce said it was "extremely disappointed".

Unite said as part of the deal it was agreed that Barnoldswick would continue with a minimum headcount of 350 workers and a centre of excellence would be built to train workers.

But following a meeting in May Unite said that figure would not be reached and had been left with no option but to take strike action.

Seventeen engineers will strike from Monday until Friday with further action scheduled for 9 August.

Unite regional officer Ross Quinn said: "Our members have been forced to take strike action as the long-term viability of Barnoldswick is once again under threat.

"Our members at Barnoldswick are rightly concerned for their futures. They did not take part in nine weeks of strike action for the employer to go back to their original plan in two years' time.

"All Unite is seeking is strict guarantees that the January agreement is fully honoured by Rolls-Royce."

A spokesman for Rolls-Royce said: "The action comes at a time when everyone at Barnoldswick needs to focus on supporting a plan - agreed between management and trade union representatives - to secure the site and attract new work to preserve jobs.

"We are already identifying new work for the facility and making no compulsory redundancies.

"We are continuing to make good progress, with around 270 roles and 80 training roles identified to date, which is why we are extremely disappointed that industrial action is taking place."

Alarm grows over migrants’ hunger strike in Brussels

Belgian government under pressure to offer residence permits to hundreds of migrants on hunger strike

**Hundreds of undocumented migrants have been on hunger strike in Brussels’ Béguinage church.**

Steelworkers still sparring with ATI as employees return after months-long strike

NATASHA LINDSTROM | Monday, July 19, 2021 6

JOYCE HANZ | TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Allegheny Technologies Inc. continues to spar against the United Steelworkers union less than a week after an agreement was inked to end a strike by 1,300 employees across nine of the specialty steelmaker’s facilities, including in Vandergrift (shown above in this Tribune-Review file photo), Harrison, Derry Township and Washington.

Lingering grievances are flaring up between the United Steelworkers and Allegheny Technologies Inc., despite the two parties inking an agreement last week to end a months-long strike by 1,300 employees.

The union declared that members voted last Tuesday to ratify a four-year contract after months of stalled talks with ATI over benefits, wages, job protection and other issues. It aimed to halt the strike that began March 30 by workers at nine of the specialty steelmaker’s facilities, including in Harrison, Vandergrift, Derry Township and Washington.

On Monday, however, USW leaders said that “since the announcement was made, ATI management has done nothing to end the dispute,” citing persisting concerns over safety, “relentless mismanagement” and disagreement over when ATI should disburse a $4,000 lump sum payment negotiated as part of the new contract. The union accused ATI of not caring “about the represented employees, our safety and health, our families or ending the divide between management and the workers.”

ATI: Majority of employees back at work this week this week

The majority of unionized employees who went on strike are returning to work this week, ATI spokeswoman Natalie Gillespie said. Depending on their positions, some will be focused on training this week and resuming regular duties next week.

“We are eager to have our employees back to work after the USW’s three-month-long strike and are moving swiftly to safely return them to their jobs,” Gillespie said Monday afternoon by email. “We’re disappointed in the USW’s decision to perpetuate divisions, rather than joining us in focusing on the path forward

“We look forward to completing the transition phase and operating with our full team focused on transforming for the long-term success of our business.”

Union officials said they’ve clashed with ATI officials over safety matters that have yet to be resolved.

“Since the contract was ratified, we have had to fight ATI on safety issues before we return to work,” USW’s national negotiating team told union members in an update published on the union’s blog and shared via a text message alert. “We have had to fight about inspecting the plants and even had to threaten to invoke the safety dispute process..”

USW officials could not immediately be reached to elaborate on the safety issues and other remaining concerns.

ATI deems safety “the absolute focus of our robust return-to-work process,” Gillespie said.

“In fact, although the return-to-work agreement does not require us to do so, we invited all local groups on a safety tour before restarting with our USW-represented workforce,” Gillespie said. “Every employee is required to participate in extensive training as part of the return process.”

The strike marked the first such employee-driven work stoppage at the company in nearly 30 years.

“It was not our decision to strike, and we thank the salaried and temporary replacement workers who protected this business and the jobs of our represented employees during it,” Gillespie said. “As we’ve said all along, we are happy to have our hardworking employees back — and we welcome them back, under the terms of the agreement that we negotiated.”

Dispute over when to pay out $4K bonus

The union further expressed concerns that those who do not immediately return to work because of safety issues won’t immediately get their lump sum payments nor have health care coverage reinstated. The tentative contract, as ratified last week, is retroactive to March 1 and runs through Feb. 28, 2025.

“Management told us that they will deny the $4,000 lump sum payments to those of us that do not return to work, and they will not restart health care coverage for members and their families until they are recalled,” the USW national statement said. “These positions are blatantly contrary to our agreement.”

It’s unclear how many workers might be hesitating to return to work because of safety concerns.

”We will process grievances in accordance with the time limits,” the USW statement said, “and, if the grievances are not resolved, we’ll get them to arbitration as soon as possible.”

The new contract cited a $4,000 signing bonus within 30 days, followed by two lump-sum payments of $1,500 on Feb. 1 in 2024 and 2025.

“Our employees can be assured: We are implementing all aspects of the agreement in good faith,” Gillespie said. “This includes paying the year one lump sum in a manner that is consistent with the clear language of the agreement they ratified.”

Also under the contract, employees are set to get 3% wage increases on March 1 in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The union agreed to eliminate a profit-sharing program it called complicated in favor of other considerations.

Increases in the company’s medical and prescription drug costs are capped at 3.5% each year. A joint union-company committee will be formed to keep costs down or find affordable alternatives to premiums.

The USW said the contract protects union jobs against outside contractors, safeguards shutdown pensions and makes other improvements. ATI and the USW announced they had reached a tentative agreement on July 2. The union released a summary of the proposed contract on July 6.

RELATED: United Steelworkers ratify new, 4-year contract with ATI, ending strike

Natasha Lindstrom is a Tribune-Review staff writer.

Frito-Lay Workers Are on Strike for Their Lives

Hundreds of workers are on strike at the Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas. Many of them are working 12-hour days, seven days a week, and some haven’t had a day off in five months — conditions that are literally killing them.

At the Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas, production has only increased during the pandemic. (Justice for Frito Lay)

BY ALEX N. PRESS

JACOBIN

19/78/2021

At the Frito-Lay production plant in Topeka, Kansas, workers are subjected to something called “suicides,” shifts in which they come in for eight hours, are forced to work four more hours, and then are called in four hours early, leaving them only eight hours off between shifts. This is how the company forces overtime to the point that many of those workers say they work twelve hours a day, seven days a week, with some not having had a day off in five months, weekends included.

“The company recently sent us a letter saying those shifts are called ‘squeeze shifts,’ but none of us has heard that term before,” says Samuel Huntsman, who has worked at the plant for three years. “I think they’re just trying to make it sound better.”

What prompted the letter was workers’ willingness to speak out about the anxiety that pervades their shop, one of the reasons that they are now on a strike that is entering its third week. The plant employs some 850 people, and workers have spoken of the deleterious effects of such inhumane working conditions.

As Mark McCarter, a fifty-nine-year-old palletizer and union steward at the plant who has worked there for thirty-seven years, told Vice, “It seems like I go to one funeral a year for someone who’s had a heart attack at work or someone who went home to their barn and shot themselves in the head or hung themselves.”

“Forced overtime interferes with your health and your household,” explains Huntsman. It leads to fights on the shop floor, too, he adds, with workers “getting in arguments because they are so cranky and mad and tired.” Others at the plant have spoken of divorces caused by the schedules, in addition to the suicides. Workers say they have urged Frito-Lay to hire new workers to lighten the load, but that the company hasn’t budged.

And workers’ mental health isn’t their only concern. “When a coworker collapsed and died, you had us move the body and put in another coworker to keep the line going,” writes Cherie Renfro, one of the striking workers, in an open letter to Frito-Lay. The company says it “wholly rejects” that allegation, but Renfro is not the only one who has raised it. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is currently investigating an incident that took place in May at the facility, and has previously fined the plant for cases involving amputation and vehicular accidents. No wonder workers set up a skeleton on the picket line with a sign that reads, “Working us to the bone.”

At the Topeka plant, production has only increased during the pandemic; whereas people were used to working overtime around holidays, they say they are now being pushed to their limits year-round as people across the United States upped their intake of the products made, packaged, and shipped out of Topeka: Lay’s potato chips, Tostitos, Cheetos, SunChips, Fritos, Doritos. The result for the workers was misery; for the company, it was more than $4.2 billion in sales, partially responsible for a 14 percent spike in revenue for its parent company, PepsiCo, a Fortune 500 company with a rising stock.

Despite such good fortune, the company continues to treat workers with less care than it treats its machines — there is no concern for upkeep, only for wringing every last bit of labor from their bodies, even if it kills them. To be worked to death to produce potato chips — it is hard to imagine something so insulting and cruel.

(Justice for Frito Lay)

The company’s latest proposed contract offers a mere 2 percent wage increase this year and caps the number of hours someone can be forced to work at sixty per week. It is not nearly enough. Many of the workers make under $20 an hour and haven’t seen a raise in a decade — the company prefers small bonuses that keep the pay scale from rising. Among the growing number of manufacturing facilities and warehouses in the area — Home Depot and Target distribution centers, a Goodyear tire plant, a Mars chocolate facility, and a Bimbo bread bakery among them — pay at the Frito-Lay plant is low, and turnover is high. As Mark Benaka, business manager for Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 218, which represents some six hundred of the Topeka workers, tells Labor Notes, “Between all those industries, Frito-Lay sits at the bottom of the ladder as far as wage scales.” This is why the workers are demanding a minimum of $1 to $2-an-hour raises.

Recent matters have only intensified the problems at the plant. For instance, while management could stay home during the pandemic, workers could not. Some say they received no hazard pay or bonuses, while others speak of receiving a meager extra $100 a week, but only for a few weeks. Now, during a particularly hot summer, the plant lacks air-conditioning. According to McCarter, “At 7 a.m., our warehouse is 100 degrees. We don’t have air conditioning. We have cooks in the kitchen on the fryers that are 130 or 140 degrees, making chips and sweating like pigs. Meanwhile, the managers have AC.”

These conditions are what led workers, after holding informational pickets and voting down previous contract offers, to withdraw their labor. In late June, workers voted 353 to 30 in favor of authorizing a strike. The work stoppage began at midnight on July 5.

Mandatory overtime is an issue at other shops represented by BCGTM, which has some seventy-thousand members; workers elsewhere say they, too, are being forced to work every day, and over sixty hours a week. While some workers want to work more hours to make an overtime rate, mandatory hours of this sort are unconscionable. It is always hard to organize in a right-to-work state, but it is shameful that a union shop has reached this state, and a situation that suggests, at best, internal tensions within BCGTM over how to win on this issue.

In a statement on the strike, BCGTM president Anthony Shelton, who took over the position after the previous president, David Durkee, passed away last year, said that workers at the Frito-Lay plant “do not have enough time to see their family, do chores around the house, run errands, or even get a healthy night’s sleep. This strike is about working people having a voice in their futures and taking a stand for their families.” “The union has repeatedly asked the company to hire more workers, and yet despite record profits, Frito-Lay management has refused this request,” he added.

As the strike enters its third week, workers say it has strong support, both in the community and, as it gains attention, nationally — but most importantly, among the shop’s workforce. Around half the workforce is out on strike — around six hundred of the workers in the right-to-work state are Local 218 members — a number Huntsman says is growing by the day. Although the company says production continues, some workers say that is a ruse.

“It’s psychological warfare — they’re trying to demoralize and dispirit the men and women of the union in the hopes we’ll come groveling back for whatever crumbs they offer us,” Monk Drapeaux-Stewart, a box-drop technician at the plant, tells Labor Notes. “There’s been no smoke, no steam, no nothing, no sign of production at all” coming from the plant either, he adds. Huntsman estimates the company began getting enough scab labor — out-of-town workers, workers from other Frito-Lay plants, and bosses from the company — late last week to start running one or two of the plant’s kitchens at reduced hours, but he believes production remains far below the usual level.

While the local hasn’t issued a formal call for a boycott, some workers at the Topeka plant are calling for exactly that. Per McCarter, the palletizer: “We would rather nobody buy any Frito-Lay products — Fritos, Doritos, Tostitos, Funyuns, Cheetos, all those — while we’re on strike. We make all of those in Topeka, Kansas. We also would rather nobody buys PepsiCo products while we’re on the line. PepsiCo is the owner of Frito-Lay.” With support for such a call present on the picket line, anyone concerned with the ability of their fellow human being to survive should abide by that request; these workers are fighting for their lives, and they need all the support they can get. Workers are also asking the public to call PepsiCo’s board of directors to urge them to bargain a fair and reasonable contract. A local magazine, 785, has also set up a fund to help pay strikers’ water-utility bills.

Negotiations resumed today, the first bargaining session since the strike began two weeks ago. Workers are hopeful but firm about what they need. Aside from their demands for a significant raise, caps on forced overtime, and a change in disciplinary procedures, Huntsman hopes the workers can win paid paternity leave. While Frito-Lay offers paid leave to workers at its nonunion shops, it does not do so at the Topeka plant. As for why that is, the reason is obvious.

“They’re punishing us because they want the union gone,” says Huntsman. In other words, the company wants to convince workers that only without a union can they win maternity and paternity leave, an insidious strategy for undermining collective power used by employers to push workers to decertify their union and, in doing so, give up their seat at the table.

But with support for the strike growing, the workers in Topeka are undaunted. As Reyna Corpus, one of the striking Frito-Lay workers, explains in displaying her sign on the picket line, which shows a black boot looming over people: “The boot represents Frito-Lay, and under the boot is the people standing, which is us, the workers, the union.” “We can stop the boot,” she says, “with the help of the community, with all the people in the union — yeah, we can do it, we can stop the boot.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alex N. Press is a staff writer at Jacobin. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Vox, the Nation, and n+1, among other places.

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