N.L. budget forecasts $351M deficit, drop in oil revenues

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press

An iceberg is seen just outside of the Narrows of St. John's Harbour on Friday, June 13, 2014. , The Canadian Press

Newfoundland and Labrador forecast a $351-million deficit in its budget tabled on Thursday, projecting a significant drop in oil royalties for the 2022-23 fiscal year at a time when oil prices are skyrocketing.

Provincial net debt is to hit $17.1 billion, which works out to about $32,700 per person in the province of about 522,500 people.

The budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year shows the province has steadily slashed its deficit over the past two years. The shortfall for the previous fiscal year was $400 million, down from a projected $826 million last spring. The deficit for 2020-21 was $1.5 billion.

Called “Change is in the air,” this year's $9.42-billion budget unveils a commitment to amalgamate the province’s four regional health authorities and increase spending in health and education. 

Finance Minister Siobhan Coady summed up the budget with one word: “Balance.” 

With no increase in taxes and a 50 per cent cut to vehicle registration costs, the budget strikes an even keel between hammering down the provincial debt and helping residents weather the increasing cost of living, Coady told reporters.

“We don’t want to have austerity budgets," she said during a news conference in St. John’s. "We want to get to a place where Newfoundland and Labrador is sustainable."

The province has long struggled with staggering debts and deficits, but Coady said Thursday her government is on track to hit a surplus in the 2026-27 fiscal year. That forecast “will only get better,” she said, as the province works out a benefits agreement for a controversial new oil project approved by Ottawa.

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault green-lit Equinor’s Bay du Nord offshore development project on Wednesday evening, despite vehement opposition from climate scientists and environmentalists.

Meanwhile, the budget projects some of the lowest oil revenues the province has seen in years. Oil royalties — at about $866 million — will account for just 10 per cent of the province’s revenues in the 2022-23 fiscal year, down from $1.14 billion last fiscal year. By comparison, in a peak year like 2011-12, oil accounted for 32 per cent of the province’s income, budget documents say.

The dip in oil revenue is the result of a drop in production, which Energy Minister Andrew Parsons largely attributed to planned maintenance and shutdowns in the province’s four oilfields.

Health Minister John Haggie said the decision to fold the four provincial health authorities into one was driven largely by a desire for efficiency and better care.

“This is about enhancing front-line services and spending our money wisely,” Haggie told reporters. He couldn't put a figure on how much money the province might save from the amalgamation, which he said was likely to happen within the next 18 months.

The budget earmarks $14 million for efforts to recruit and retain nurses and doctors, and it includes $10 million to overhaul the emergency room at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John’s. The Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association has said around 90,000 people in the province are without a family doctor.

The province is seeing an increase in K-12 students for the first time in decades, with an expected jump in enrolment of about 1,000 children. The budget allotted an extra $11.6 million for teaching services to meet that demand.

Coady said the population has jumped by about 2,800 people — a big number in a province used to residents moving away for better jobs and deaths outpacing births. Pandemic-related remote work options have allowed some of those people to move home, she said. 

With $1 million in the budget for “immediate supports” for Ukrainian refugees who choose to settle in Newfoundland and Labrador, she said the government hopes the province's population will continue to rise.

Tony Wakeham, finance critic for the Progressive Conservatives, said he would have liked to see more spending on efforts to ease the cost of living for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, even if it means taking a smaller bite out of the deficit.

The NDP, meanwhile, says the province needs to start addressing the root causes of poverty and take the idea of a basic income program more seriously.

"Maybe there's a way we can deal with this long term, instead of coming up with these piecemeal measures," New Democrat Leader Jim Dinn said in an interview Thursday.

THE STATE HATES COMPETITION

US prosecutors say alleged yakuza boss planned to sell missiles to Myanmar rebels

Story by Reuters - 
CNN
© US Department of Justice


US authorities have arrested the alleged leader of a Japanese crime syndicate on charges of plotting to distribute drugs in the United States and purchase weapons including US-made surface-to-air missiles, according to prosecutors on Thursday.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Takeshi Ebisawa, who they described as a leader in a network of Japanese crime families known as yakuza, and a co-conspirator agreed to buy the missiles for rebel groups in Myanmar during conversations with an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

The weapons were intended to protect drug shipments, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday. Ebisawa planned to distribute heroin and methamphetamine in the US, prosecutors said.

"The drugs were destined for New York streets, and the weapons shipments were meant for factions in unstable nations," Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. "Members of this international crime syndicate can no longer put lives in danger."

Ebisawa, 57, and three alleged co-conspirators were detained in Manhattan this week on charges including narcotics importation conspiracy and conspiracy to possess firearms, according to prosecutors. A lawyer for Ebisawa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Each of the four alleged co-conspirators face maximum sentences of life imprisonment.

 CAPITALI$M 101

Suncor shares go from first to worst in oil-sands boom

Geoffrey Morgan, Bloomberg News

Suncor Energy Inc., once Canada’s most valuable oil producer, is now seeing rivals outrun it in the stock market on the heels of the oil-price boom.

Over the past year, Suncor shares have risen 56 per cent. That’s less than half the gain for competitor Cenovus Energy Inc., which is up 125 per cent, and about half the 103 per cent advance for Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. Suncor is also the only Canadian oil-sands producer to underperform the rise in West Texas Intermediate crude prices during that time.

Analysts say the stock is being weighed down by a checkered operational track record compared with its rivals, including a fire that resulted in an injury at a refinery last month and fatal accidents in the last two years. Suncor also cut its production guidance at its Fort Hills oil sands mine in 2021 after finding slopes in the mine were not stable.

Rafi Tahmazian, a senior portfolio manager with Calgary-based Canoe Financial, said the stock was hurt by the company’s decision to slash its dividend during the pandemic, though it has since raised the payout back to 2019 levels.

“The market is looking for proverbial leadership” from Suncor, Tahmazian said.

Suncor has lagged even smaller oil sands names like MEG Energy Corp., which is up more than 270 per cent since the beginning of 2021. “You’re being compared against all ships rising,” Tahmazian said.

In an effort to boost performance, Calgary-based Suncor said Monday it would divest its wind and solar assets to focus on its oil-sands business as well as its hydrogen and renewable-fuels ventures -- the latest in a series of announcements that signal a sharper focus on core operations.

The company also replaced its executive vice-president of mining and upgrading, Mike MacSween, with former LNG Canada CEO Peter Zebedee in the middle of March. But investors say the stock’s performance won’t improve until the market has confidence it has ironed out its problems.

“It does take a while for operational improvements to show up,” said Brompton Group Chief Investment Officer Laura Lau.

She said Suncor is “benchmarked” against Canadian Natural, which has doubled its dividend since 2019 and has not experienced the same operational challenges as Suncor. Canadian Natural overtook Suncor to become the most valuable oil and gas producer in Canada last year.

“Why would I own Suncor when I can own Cenovus?” said Eric Nuttall, a senior portfolio manager at Ninepoint Partners, adding that a string of safety issues need to be addressed before the stock’s performance improves.

THE RICH ARE TAX CHEATS

Sunak’s Super-Rich Wife Exploits Tax Break to Cut U.K. Payments

WHICH IS THE HOW AND WHY OF THEIR WEALTH

Alex Morales, Bloomberg News

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 09: Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murthy attend a reception to celebrate the British Asian Trust at The British Museum on February 09, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images) , Photographer: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images Europe

(Bloomberg) --

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murthy, holds non-domiciled status in the U.K., meaning she doesn’t pay British taxes on her foreign earnings. 

The tax status, first revealed by the Independent and confirmed in a statement by a spokesperson for Murthy, could potentially save Murthy millions of pounds over many years in U.K. tax payments. Murthy is the daughter of Indian billionaire, Infosys Ltd. co-founder Narayana Murthy, and she owns 0.93% of the company’s shares, according to Bloomberg data. That’s valued at almost $1 billion at current prices.

Murthy “is a citizen of India, the country of her birth and parent’s home,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “India does not allow its citizens to hold the citizenship of another country simultaneously. So, according to British law, Ms Murthy is treated as non-domiciled for U.K. tax purposes. She has always and will continue to pay U.K. taxes on all her U.K. income.”

While there is no suggestion the chancellor or his wife have broken any laws, the revelation will add to the perception that Sunak is out of touch with the struggles of ordinary Britons. The chancellor has been losing support of both the general public and within his own Conservative Party in recent weeks, after delivering a mini-budget in March that critics said doesn’t do enough to tackle a growing cost-of-living crisis.

Sunak declared Murthy’s tax status to the Cabinet Office when he first became a minister in 2018, and the Treasury was also made aware in order to manage any potential conflicts. Murthy has lived in the U.K. for nine years, and after 15 years in the country will automatically be deemed domiciled in Britain for tax purposes. She pays tax abroad on her foreign income.

Recent missteps by the chancellor seized upon by the British media include wearing an expensive pair of sneakers and filling a small car that wasn’t his own for a photo-opportunity to publicize a cut in fuel duty. In 2020, he was photographed with a 180-pound ($236) coffee cup as he finalized plans to prevent mass unemployment at the height of the pandemic. 

On Wednesday, a YouGov poll found that Sunak’s net favorability is down 24 points in the two weeks since he delivered his Spring Statement. His current score of minus 29 is the lowest he’s ever recorded. That came after a separate survey earlier in the week showed his popularity has slumped among Conservative Party members. 

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

 #BANHYPERSONICWEAPONS

To avoid tensions with Russia;

US secretly test-fires hypersonic missile in mid-March

TEHRAN, Apr. 05 (MNA) – The United States carried out a test-fire of a hypersonic missile in mid-March, but kept it secret in order to avoid tensions with Russia.

According to CNN, "The US successfully tested a hypersonic missile in mid-March but kept it quiet for two weeks to avoid escalating tensions with Russia as President Joe Biden was about to travel to Europe," where he was scheduled to participate in the extraordinary session of NATO as well as in the G7 summit.

The US-based television network reported referring to its anonymous defense official familiar with the matter that "the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) was launched from a B-52 bomber off the west coast…, in the first successful test of the Lockheed Martin version of the system. A booster engine accelerated the missile to high speed, at which point the air-breathing scramjet engine ignited and propelled the missile at hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 and above."

The defense official refused to give further details, according to CNN, and the agency only added that "the missile flew above 65,000 feet [over 19.8 kilometers] and for more than 300 miles [almost 483 kilometers]. But even at the lower end of the hypersonic range — about 3,800 miles per hour -, a flight of 300 miles is less than 5 minutes".

The US test is the second test of a HAWC missile, and it is the first of the Lockheed Martin version of the weapon. Last September, the Air Force tested the Raytheon HAWC, powered by a Northrop Grumman scramjet engine.

HINDUTVA/HINDU NATIONALISM IS NOT HINDUISM

 Islamophobia in India;

Notorious Indian priest urges Hindus to take up arms against Muslims

INDIA IS A SECULAR STATE

April 5, 2022 - 10:52 AM News Code : 1244905 Source : GeoLink: 

Yati Narsinghanand, the head priest of the Dasna Devi temple in Uttar Pradesh of India, claimed that 50% of Hindus would convert to Islam if a Muslim were to become the Prime Minister of India, Zee News reported.

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Yati Narsinghanand, the head priest of the Dasna Devi temple in Uttar Pradesh of India, claimed that 50% of Hindus would convert to Islam if a Muslim were to become the Prime Minister of India, Zee News reported.

In a recent 'Hindu Mahapanchayat' attended by many Hindu supremacists, he also encouraged Hindus to hold arms to fight for themselves.

"If you want to change the future, become a man, man is the one who has arms in hand," Yati is heard saying in the video.

The priest warned the Hindu listeners against Muslim leadership in India in the future saying that Muslims in India had not come from "Arab" but from among them.

Journalist Mahmodul Hassan published a part of Narsinghanand's speech on Twitter.

The police said that the Delhi administration had not granted permission for the event.

Narsinghanand is notorious for making controversial and extremist comments against Muslims.

He was taken into custody earlier in the Haridwar hate speech case for which he got released on bail.

The group that organised this Mahapanchayat, Save India Foundation, has previously orchestrated events such as Jantar Mantar where anti-Muslim slogans were raised.

Preet Singh of Save India Foundation was even arrested by Delhi Police for hate speech.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HINDUISM IS FASCISM 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2006/10/hinduism-is-fascism.html

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for DALIT 

Proposed Animal Protection Legislation Ignores Rights of LocalCommunities to Practice their Approach to Conservation

By Leslé Jansen

During the last couple of decades, the mountain gorilla population in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park has steadily increased to more than 400. 

Credit: UNEP / Kibuuka Mukisa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Apr 5 2022 (IPS) - On the battleground that has become African wildlife conservation, rural communities find themselves in the middle of a tug-of-war that is bound to the past on one side, and their future, on the other.

And judging from political developments in former colonial power, Britain, these communities – the custodians of wildlife in several southern African countries – are holding fast in their fight to secure a future in which the power to use their natural resources for their own good, rest firmly in their hands.

The UK government intends passing anti-hunting legislation containing a ban on British hunters bringing their trophies home. For African communities that rely on so-called trophy hunting as a major source of income, such bans not only undermine their right to sustainably use and manage their wildlife, which includes hunting, to their benefit but also threaten their livelihoods.

And there’s evidence, as in the case of Kenya, that they harm conservation as well.

According to reports, the government no longer intends to introduce its Animals Abroad Bill in the current parliamentary session, citing a lack of parliamentary time. Similar planned legislative restrictions in the United States, intended to undermine hunting tourism in Africa, have also failed to materialise. There also now appears to be legislation proposals with a similar objective in the making in Italy and Belgium.

The hunting trophy import ban represents a conflict between two distinct schools of thought on conservation. One is an approach supported by African governments’ policies and international conservation authorities, which holds up the sustainable use of natural resources practices by hundreds of communities across several African countries.

The other, which has become increasingly popular in western nations and urban areas where people no longer have a direct link to the natural environment, holds animal rights and welfare as paramount, even to the detriment of the rights and welfare of the people responsible for the conservation of that wildlife.

While the legislative attempts in the UK, US and possibly now Europe as well, aimed at curbing so-called trophy hunting in Africa might reflect current Western notions of animal rights, they are way out of touch with current African thinking, international conservation bodies and treaties.

This broader view takes cognisance of the key role that indigenous people and local communities play in conserving their environment, and how ignoring their rights and customs has contributed to our current environmental crisis.

Rights that have been won the hard way are not easily relinquished. Current African governments that have successfully overturned colonial laws in favour of their citizens can therefore be expected to strongly resist all attempts to undermine these policies.

In the field of conservation, these policies include recognising the rights of rural African communities to use their wildlife sustainably. Sustainable use includes developing wildlife-based industries – including hunting and photographic tourism – that links these communities with global, high-value markets for African wildlife.

Colonialism decimated traditional systems, which existed for centuries, in which African communities lived with wildlife and used it in sustainable ways. These people suddenly became poachers of animals that overnight were no longer their property to use freely anymore.

Restoring the rights of rural communities to their natural resources is by no means straightforward. Many communities have been displaced from their former territories and in some cases need to rebuild their social and cultural norms and learn to work within modern policy frameworks.

Traditional relationships with nature have been disrupted as a consequence of historical upheavals and modern urbanisation trends. Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is therefore a journey that communities and southern African governments have embarked upon in post-colonial era, towards the future of African conservation. Given the complexities of modern-day Africa, this journey will not be short or easy.

These devolution of rights efforts were given a recent boost from the African Union’s human rights agency, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in the form of Resolution 489, which calls on African states and non-state actors to both recognise and support the rights of local communities to manage and use their resources sustainably.

This resolution was taken within the context of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights that affirms the rights of all peoples to “freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources” (Article 21) and their right to “economic, social and cultural development with due regard to their freedom and identity” (Article 22).

This hand of support comes at a time when this concept is being threatened on many fronts. The Namibian CBNRM programme, as the most advanced of its kind on the continent, has become a special target for those who seem to prefer the former colonial methods of animal protection that were imposed on Africans.

Similarly, the proposed anti-hunting legislation in the UK and the US focused on animal protection, while ignoring the rights of local communities to practice their approach to conservation.

The over-emphasis on hunting caused by this ideological battle detracts from the real issues that need to be urgently addressed if conservation in Africa is to succeed. As expressed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global authority on the status of the natural world and measures needed to safeguard it, world authority and the African Commission, local communities are in desperate need of support from all stakeholders, especially in the wake of COVID-19.

Rather than poking holes in community conservation efforts or trying to impose romanticised ideas about animals on people living with wildlife, time and money would be far better spent on finding solutions to the many challenges faced by rural people.

Ultimately, the future of African wildlife will be determined by African people – especially those living in rural areas. These communities have faced human rights abuses and marginalisation for decades, so it behoves all state and non-state actors to provide the kind of support they need to fully exercise their rights.

Further, none of these supporting stakeholders should dictate how these rights should be exercised, but rather create an enabling environment that allows for democratic, informed decision-making at the lowest possible levels of governance.

Rather than opposing African nations that have active hunting industries, global North could become true partners in African conservation by supporting community conservation efforts. While African states must heed the call of Resolution 489 by enacting and implementing their own community conservation policies, this would be easier if the UK, the US and other governments supported them in these endeavours.

Given the current environmental crisis and the history of colonialism in Africa, creating barriers to community-based conservation is both counter-productive and unjust. Despite its many detractors, African community conservation is here to stay.

The only question that external stakeholders must answer is: Are you willing to put aside ideology in order to support African communities conserve their wildlife for the good of us all?

Leslé Jansen is CEO of Resource Africa Southern Africa, an NGO that supports rural African community efforts to secure their rights to access and sustainably use their natural resources in order to sustain their livelihoods.

IPS UN Bureau

UK

Unions furious as government intends to ditch promised new workers’ rights laws again


Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Kwasi Kwarteng


MORNINGSTAR 
MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2022

UNIONS reacted with fury yesterday to reports that the government intends to ditch promised new workers’ rights laws.

Ministers are reportedly planning to drop the long-awaited employment Bill from next month’s Queen’s Speech.

Downing Street is understood to have overruled the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which had been pushing for the legislation.

If the Bill is not announced it will be the second year in succession that ministers would have shelved their promise to introduce legislation to enhance workplace protections.

And it comes in the wake of the scandal over 800 workers being sacked without notice by P&O Ferries via Zoom call.

In a letter to Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng today TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady will warn the government that if it ditches the promised Bill “it will be sending a green light to rogue employers to treat staff like disposable labour.”

Ms O’Grady said: “After the scandalous events at P&O, which have exposed gaping holes in UK employment law, the need for new legislation has never been clearer or more urgent.

“There is no excuse for delay. If the government breaks its promise to enhance workers’ rights working people will have been conned and betrayed.

“It’s vital ministers come clean about their plans. In the wake of P&O the government can stand on the side of workers and legislate new protections. Or it can side with bad bosses and abandon its long overdue employment Bill.

“But let’s be crystal clear – without new laws to protect people at work there is nothing stopping P&O type scandals from happening again in the future.

“And the use of exploitative practices like fire and rehire and zero-hours contracts will continue to soar.

“Tinkering around the edges with feeble statutory codes is not going to rein in unscrupulous employers. We need proper legislation for that.”

Outlawing fire and rehire is a key target for trade unions. Last week transport unions RMT and Nautilus, whose members were brutally sacked by P&O, launched a Fair Ferries campaign which calls on the government to ban fire and rehire to stop “employers getting away with the most appalling employment practices.”

GMB union general secretary Gary Smith said: “To drop the Employment Bill after the disgraceful P&O sackings and widespread use of revolting fire and rehire tactics says everything about this government’s attitude to working people.

“In the face of spiralling energy bills, rampant inflation and a cost of living crisis, working people should be able to stand up for their rights at work and organise for better pay.”

Transport union TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said: “A leopard never changes its spots. Never trust the Tories to deliver for working people.”

Labour MP Andy McDonald, who introduced a ground-breaking Status of Workers Bill to the Commons in January, said: “Ministers wringing their hands when bullying companies threaten fire and rehire and berating P&O when they sack 800 workers illegally is utterly meaningless if they won’t legislate.”

Institute of Employment Rights director Ben Sellers told the Star: “We need a complete reassessment of how workers, especially those in precarious employment, are treated under the law.

“Any further delay in the employment Bill is a sure sign that the government is not serious.”

Business Minister Paul Scully has repeatedly given a commitment to an employment Bill.

He said: “Workers’ rights should be enhanced and protected, so we are absolutely committed to bringing forward an employment Bill that will help us to build back better and to protect vulnerable workers.”

A government spokesman said it is “committed to ensuring workers’ rights are robustly protected while also fostering a dynamic and flexible labour market.

Victims of Brazil’s Mariana dam disaster seek compensation through UK courts


In one of the largest claims in English legal history, 200,000 people affected by the 2015 incident will have their case heard this week

Members of the Krenak Indigenous community at the Royal Courts of Justice in London for the hearing on their compensation claim for the Mariana dam disaster. 

Photograph: Matthew Pover

Phoebe Weston
THE GUARDIAN
Tue 5 Apr 2022

More than 200,000 victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster are seeking compensation in a UK court this week, in one of the largest group claims in English legal history.

The claimants, including representatives of Krenak indigenous communities, are fighting to get compensation for the devastation caused by the Mariana dam disaster in November 2015. The £5bn lawsuit is against the Anglo-Australian mining company BHP.

When the Fundão tailings dam burst, it released 40m cubic metres of toxic mining waste, killing 19 people and affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands more. The brown, polluted sludge spilled down the River Doce in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, flowing for 400 miles (670km) into the Atlantic Ocean. Thousands were made homeless and livelihoods centred on the river were destroyed.

This week’s court case is the culmination of a three-and-a-half year legal fight in the UK, with lawyers from the London-based international law firm PGMBM representing hundreds of thousands of individuals as well as 530 businesses, 150 members of indigenous communities, 25 municipalities and six religious organisations.

PGMBM filed the lawsuit in 2018, and last July won the right to reopen the case after an earlier ruling denied jurisdiction for English courts to hear it.

Bento Rodrigues after the Mariana dam burst. ‘Much of what the companies have taken from our people is irrecoverable,’ says one of the local Krenaks.

 Photograph: Douglas Magno/AFP/Getty

A representative of the Krenak indigenous communities in London said yesterday: “Every time that I remember what my family and my community has gone through, every time that I revisit the river, I become angry.

“These times are a time of great struggle for my people, and I have made it my purpose to help us achieve fair compensation. Alas, I understand that no matter how hard we fight, much of what the companies have taken from our people is irrecoverable. For it to have been suggested by the defendants that my community is receiving full redress in Brazil makes me even angrier.”

Tom Goodhead, managing partner of PGMBM, said: “BHP is a multinational that generates huge profits in the regions where it operates, and it is only right that the company … is held directly accountable at its headquarters. The days of huge corporations doing what they want in countries on the other side of the world and getting away with it are over.


‘It’s about survival’: the Yorkshireman seeking justice for the Mariana dam disaster

In Brazil, BHP, along with the Brazilian iron-ore mining company Vale, and Samarco, the joint venture company responsible for managing the Fundão tailings dam, established the Renova Foundation to mitigate the environmental consequences of the collapse and to provide compensation for individuals and some small businesses for loss and damages. By November 2021, Renova had spent more than 19.6bn Brazilian reals (£2.6bn) on environmental and economic reparations and rehabilitation projects, including R$7.78bn in compensation and financial aid to 359,000 people, according to the company.

BHP had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

The hearing is due to continue until Friday and will be heard by three senior court of appeal judges. It is being streamed on London’s court of appeal YouTube channel.

WGA East Recommends Change To Its Constitution To “Fully Embrace” All Members & End Its Digital Divide


David Robb
Thu, April 7, 2022,

The WGA East, whose leaders last year talked openly about spinning off their digital news members into a separate union, is now fully embracing them by proposing changes to the guild’s constitution that would ensure “balanced representation” on its governing body for members from its different work sectors.

The guild said that to ensure that all members are represented on its governing body, its Council is unanimously recommending that members approve changes to the constitution that include creating three work sector vice presidents covering members who work in Film/TV/Streaming, Broadcast/Cable/Streaming News, and Online Media.

The constitutional changes will be put to a vote of the members later this spring. In the meantime, the guild says it will be kicking off a campaign, called #NextChapter, to encourage members to approve the changes. The guild also will be holding virtual town hall discussions in April to share more information with members about the proposed changes. Members will receive additional information about the changes by email in the next few days.

“The WGAE Council has spent the last several months working together and with an outside facilitator,” said WGA East president Michael Winship. “I think I speak for everyone involved when I say that it has been a learning process in which everyone exchanged ideas and listened to one another. Now we have united. I’m enthusiastic about the result and the next chapter for this brave union of storytellers.”

An organizing resolution approved by the Council requires the appointment of an organizing committee made up of Council members from all work sectors that will meet regularly to advise and consult with staff about potential organizing targets – and requires an increase in the organizing budget to aggressively grow the guild equitably across all sectors.

“I’m thrilled that our governing body has not only created an agreement to increase and formalize our commitment to organizing but also built a process to collaborate with each other on finding solutions to challenges across all work sectors,” said Sara David, a member of the Council who works in online media. “These changes mark an exciting new chapter of the WGA East where we can negotiate stronger contracts, expand our organizing work, and ensure that every member’s voice is heard.”

“The organizing resolution and constitutional changes, when combined, mark an exciting new chapter for the Guild where members have better representation on Council and we will have aggressive new organizing goals that will benefit everyone,” said Gail Lee, a broadcast member of the Council. “Reaching agreement on these changes wasn’t easy, but I am proud of everyone’s willingness on Council to have the difficult but necessary conversations.”

The guild, which has been aggressively organizing digital newsrooms in recent years, put a pause on that last year amid concerns that news writers and producers were on the verge of becoming a majority of the guild’s membership.

WGA East Considers Spinning Off Digital News Members Into New Union Amid “Existential Threat”

Those concerns played out last summer during the guild’s officer and Council elections, with secretary-treasurer-elect Chris Kyle, running unopposed, warning that the influx of digital news writers and producers posed “an existential threat to the guild” that could lead to it “collapsing.”

Only a few years ago, the vast majority of the guild’s members were film and scripted television writers. But over the past six years, the campaign to organize dozens of digital news outlets like Salon, Slate and HuffPost began to change the union’s demographics so dramatically that its broadcast and digital news members were on the verge of becoming a majority of the guild’s membership.

During last year’s elections, which amounted to a referendum on the future of the guild, Winship, who was also running unopposed, told Deadline that the organizing of digital media had “triggered a flow” of so many new members “that we needed to stop for a while – just pause for a while – and access where we are.”

The guild’s opposition Solidarity slate, however, dominated the contested Council races, campaigning on the belief that “it’s important that we continue to organize the entire industry.”

WGA East Council Votes Unanimously To Resume Organizing Digital Newsrooms

The two sides mended their fences in February when the Council voted unanimously to resume organizing digital newsrooms. In a statement, the guild said: “As the media industry continues to unionize across sectors, the WGAE Council is deliberating how to address changes in the make-up of the Guild’s membership and how to ensure that the union can meet the needs of all members – in digital and broadcast news, podcasts, scripted and nonfiction television, feature films, and public broadcasting.”

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WGA Awards: 'Don't Look Up' Wins For Original Screenplay, 'CODA' Wins For Adapted; 'Hacks', 'Succession', 'Conan' Also Win - Full Winners List


Dick Cavett Set As Recipient Of WGA East's Evelyn F. Burkey Award

WGA East Council Finalizes Proposal to Restructure Digital Media Unionization Efforts

Jeremy Fuster
Thu, 7 April 2022

After several months of meetings, the leadership of the Writers Guild of America East have settled on proposed changes to the constitution that will change how the guild develops its plans to unionize digital media companies.

The guild’s leadership announced Thursday that it will start a campaign called “#NextChapter” that will include online meetings with members about the proposed constitutional amendments, on which the WGAE Council unanimously recommended a “yes” vote ahead of a referendum later this spring.

Though WGA East was light on details about the proposed changes, the guild said that the constitution changes, if approved, would create three new vice president positions for each of the work sectors covered by WGA East: Film/TV/Streaming, Broadcast/Cable/Streaming News, and Online Media.

The Council is also proposing a resolution that would provide a budget increase for the guild’s organizing efforts and establish an organizing committee made up of Council members from all three work sectors that will advise and consult with staff about potential organizing targets. This would be done to “ensure that members from all work sectors are represented on the union’s governing body.”

WGA East President Michael Winship hailed the proposal as one that addresses the concerns of both digital media members of WGA East and film/TV writers whose work the union was originally founded to protect. Since 2015, WGA East has been heavily involved in organizing digital media outlets like Gizmodo and Vice and have been a source of stability for writers during a time of mass media layoffs.

However, Winship and other leaders and members within WGA East from the film/TV branch voiced concerns that such writers would soon be outnumbered within the guild and that not enough was being done to ensure that such members had an influential voice in contract and organizing issues that impacted their section of the industry. The debate over the future of WGAE’s organizing was at the core of last September’s council elections, which saw the legacy wing led by Winship take top positions unopposed while 7 of 11 open council seats were taken by digital media organizing supporters.

“The WGAE Council has spent the last several months working together and with an outside facilitator. I think I speak for everyone involved when I say that it has been a learning process in which everyone exchanged ideas and listened to one another,” said Winship said in a statement. “Now we have united. I’m enthusiastic about the result and the next chapter for this brave union of storytellers.”

“I’m thrilled that our governing body has not only created an agreement to increase and formalize our commitment to organizing but also built a process to collaborate with each other on finding solutions to challenges across all work sectors,” said Sara David, a WGAE council member and editor on Netflix’s editorial team. “These changes mark an exciting new chapter of the WGA East where we can negotiate stronger contracts, expand our organizing work, and ensure that every member’s voice is heard.”

As the referendum vote nears, digital media organizing has pushed forward after the WGAE Council unanimously agreed to do so in a vote this past February. Headlining the guild’s organizing work was a six-day strike at Gizmodo Media last month that ended with a bargaining agreement with several major wage and working condition improvements for the media site’s workers.

WGA East Leaders Strike Compromise on Membership Battle, Will Pursue Changes to Union Structure

Cynthia Littleton - 

Thu, 7 April 2022, 

Variety

Leaders of the WGA East have reached a compromise after months of friction over the membership base of the union that represents film and TV writers on the East Coast.

The WGA East council voted unanimously to pursue major changes to the union’s constitution to allow for different classifications of membership. The council is recommending changes that will be voted on in a member referendum later this spring.
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All of this is an effort to settle the divide over the WGA East’s big push during the last decade to organize writers for digital news and entertainment outlets.

“The WGAE Council has spent the last several months working together and with an outside facilitator. I think I speak for everyone involved when I say that it has been a learning process in which everyone exchanged ideas and listened to one another,” said Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America East. “Now we have united. I’m enthusiastic about the result and the next chapter for this brave union of storytellers.”

The guild’s plan is to create three “work sectors” for WGA East membership: Film/TV/Streaming, Broadcast/Cable/Streaming News and Online Media. Under the proposed constitutional changes, all members would vote for the President and Secretary-Treasurer officer posts. The guild will create three new VP council posts — one for each sector — and voting for those slots will be limited by membership sector. Guild members would also only vote WGA East contracts or strike authorization votes that affect their sector.

“We’re very happy. The community was able to come together and reach an agreement that protects everyone’s rights and everyone’s contracts and everyone’s negotiations,” Winship told Variety after the vote.

Longtime WGA East members who work in traditional entertainment and scripted TV and film have gradually raised concerns about the influx of members who typically make far less that successful screenwriters and showrunners. The income differential has some members worried that the union’s health and pension funds will be diluted.

But the even bigger concerns among film and TV writers was the fast rate of growth for the ranks of digital writers at a rate that would quickly outpace the ranks of the union’s traditional core narrative screenwriters — which would be a big departure from the WGA East’s roots. Among the old guard, there were worries that some members would be inclined to shift membership to the WGA West, where the vast majority of members work in traditional TV and film.

The schism was laid bare last fall during the WGA East election for officers and board members when two clear factions emerged. The slate of candidates that ran under the Solidarity banner reflected the desire to keep broadening the WGA East tent with digital writers. Candidates that ran on the Inclusion and Experience ticket, which included Winship, called for a moratorium on WGA East organizing of digital outlets while the issues were vetted by union leaders.

Over the past few months, sources said Winship has led the effort to bridge the gap with the goal of keeping the union from breaking up or bifurcating along more permanent lines.

“I’m thrilled that our governing body has not only created an agreement to increase and formalize our commitment to organizing but also built a process to collaborate with each other on finding solutions to challenges across all work sectors,” said Sara David, a member of the Council who works in online media. “These changes mark an exciting new chapter of the WGA East where we can negotiate stronger contracts, expand our organizing work, and ensure that every member’s voice is heard.”

David Simon, a veteran showrunner and council member who ran on the Inclusion and Experience slate, said the issue at hand came down to a problem of governance. The WGA East needed to find a way to make room for new members working in different sectors while still protecting the interests of the members that the union was founded to represent. At present the WGA East has about 6,500 members.

“What it came down to was: How do we protect the existing union and its intention and allow the digital side to continue to organize,” Simon told Variety. “None of us wanted to stop that process or throw them out of the union.”

But without the changes now recommended by WGA East leaders, the union’s board membership and representation on negotiating committees could eventually be dominated by writers from other sectors. That would be a big disadvantage when it comes to bringing leverage to the table with Hollywood’s major employers, in the view of Simon and many others.

“At that point, somebody in the West who calls us to talk about a contract might be talking to somebody who works for Vice or for Hearst,” Simon said. “That’s a different kind of writing job.”

Sources close to the situation said the discussions picked up steam after the first of the year. Council members broke up into working groups to tacke the nitty-gritty issues that require changes to the union’s constitution. Numerous scenarios for restructuring the union were considered, including the prospect of the digital members to create their own local.

Ultimately, it was determined that creating a separate local was too big of a lift for new members that don’t have as much experience with union governance and contract negotiations.

Winship credited the contributions of two outside labor law experts — Susan Davis, of Cohen Weiss and Simon, and Rutgers professor Susan Schurman — for helping to bring objective perspective that helped guide discussions. He also cited the work of WGA East vice president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen and Secretary-Treasurer Christopher Kyle.

“They shouldered so much by helping us hammer out language and being able to reach compromise when necessary,” Winship said.