New USDA rule boosts “organic” food oversight, targets fraud

The Associated Press

Vegetables are displayed in a produce section at a supermarket in New York, Monday, May 17, 2021. On Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, the U.S. Agriculture Department issued new requirements for foods labeled as “organic,” a move aimed at cracking down on fraud and boosting oversight of products increasingly sought by consumers seeking healthy and environmentally sustainable options. 

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

The Agriculture Department on Thursday issued new requirements for foods labeled organic, a move aimed at cracking down on fraud and boosting oversight.

The rule strengthens enforcement of the USDA’s strict definitions of organic, which must rely on “natural substances and physical, mechanical or biologically based farming methods to the fullest extent possible.”

The rule requires USDA’s National Organic Program certification for all imported organic food, increases certifications of more businesses in the supply chain and boosts authority for inspections, record-keeping, traceability and fraud prevention practices.

The Organic Trade Association, which lobbied for rule, said it represents the biggest change to organic regulations since the creation of the USDA organic food program.

OTA officials said in a statement the regulation “will do much to deter and detect organic fraud and protect organic integrity throughout the supply chain.”

Sales of organic foods in the U.S. topped $63 billion in 2021, according to OTA, with consumers willing to pay top dollar for products free of pesticides and other contaminants.

Fresh produce, grains and other foods are vulnerable to fraud. This month, Department of Justice officials issued indictments in a multimillion-dollar scheme to export non-organic grain to the U.S., to be sold as a certified organic product.

The new rule takes effect in March and companies will have a year to comply with the requirements.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Hootsuite replaces CEO, confirms 7% staff reduction

Social media firm Hootsuite became the latest tech firm to announce layoffs, when it confirmed Wednesday its third round of job cuts since August, while also replacing its chief executive.

In addition to laying off 7% of its workforce, Hootsuite also confirmed Wednesday that Irina Novoselsky is taking over immediately as the company's CEO. She held the same role at CarreerBuilder. Photo courtesy of Hootsuite

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Social media management platform Hootsuite became the latest tech firm to announce layoffs, when it confirmed Wednesday its third round of job cuts since August while also replacing its chief executive.

Irina Novoselsky is taking over as CEO from Tom Keiser, who had held the job at the Vancouver-based company since 2020, the company said in a statement.

The new layoffs affect around 70 people, or 7%, of the company's workforce.

Novoselsky most recently served as CEO of CareerBuilder, an international employment website based in Chicago.

She did not touch on the workforce reduction in her opening address to the company's employees, maintaining a positive tone.

"Social media management is a largely untapped and growing $28 billion global market opportunity. I'm eager to partner with the talented team at Hootsuite to continue to delight our customers and deliver the products and services they need to successfully navigate the world of social," Novoselsky said in a statement.

Hootsuite did not specify which positions were eliminated.

The company reduced its staff by 400 employees in August, which amounted to 30% of its overall workforce. That was followed by another round of layoffs in November, or about 5% of its workforce.

Thursday's announcement follows a string of negative employment news across the tech sector.

Microsoft cautioned employees Wednesday the Washington state-based conglomerate expects to layoff 10,000 employees by the end of third quarter.

Amazon said earlier in the month it estimates it will cut 18,000 jobs from its global workforce.

Around the same time, Cloud-based software firm Salesforce said cuts to its staff would total around 10%, or 7,000 positions, because of economic downturn.

State Department creates private refugee sponsorship program


Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the new Welcome Corps will allow Americans to take part in assisting immigrants through a specific government-sponsored program, taking advantage of systems already in place. File Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department announced Thursday the creation of a new program that will allow private sponsorship of refugees to help them resettle into the country.

The Welcome Corps, created with the help of Health and Human Services, will allow private citizens to help refugees arriving through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

The program builds on work done to welcome refugees from troubled countries like Afghanistan, Venezuela and Ukraine.

"The Welcome Corps will build on Americans' generosity of spirit by creating a durable program for Americans in communities across the country to privately sponsor refugees from around the world," the state department said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the program allows U.S. residents to take part in assisting immigrants through a specific government-sponsored program, taking advantage of systems already in place.

"Providing a safe haven and a new home for people fleeing war, violence and persecution is one of America's noblest traditions, dating back to the founding of our nation," Blinken said in a video statement.

"Throughout our history, our country has benefited from the energy, the ingenuity, the hard work of refugees. American communities have long been at the heart of welcoming refugees, whether they were escaping the horrors of World War II, the repression of autocrats or persecution because of who they were or what they believed."

The Welcome Corps will be rolled out in two phases, the State Department said. Those phases will identify, evaluate and scale up the most successful elements of private sponsorship as an innovative, community-led model of resettlement.

It will match refugees with cases already approved for resettlement under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. The department will start facilitating matches between private sponsors and refugees arriving within the first six months of 2023.

The second phase will allow private sponsors to identify refugees to refer to the USRAP for resettlement and support the refugees they have identified.

RELATED Canada sets immigration record as country works to fill labor shortages

 

Biden invites Americans to sponsor refugees as admissions languish

Issued on: 19/01/2023 - 19:26Modified: 19/01/2023 - 21:39

Washington (AFP) – President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday launched a program to encourage ordinary Americans to sponsor refugees as admissions languish despite record displacement around the world.

In what he billed as the biggest innovation in US refugee resettlement in four decades, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the new Welcome Corps would aim to ask 10,000 Americans in its first year to offer a hand to new refugees.

"By launching the Welcome Corps, we build on a proud tradition of providing refuge and demonstrate the spirit and generosity of the American people as we commit to welcoming refugees in need of our support," said Blinken, long known for his advocacy for refugees.

US citizens or permanent residents in groups of five or more can sponsor refugees by helping them with basics such as winter clothing, furniture and security deposits for housing as the new Americans seek work.

Each circle of sponsors must demonstrate that it can provide a minimum of $2,275 in support per refugee. The circles will not be compensated.

The Welcome Corps is modeled after a successful program in neighboring Canada as well as narrower initiatives in the United States for people fleeing Ukraine and Afghanistan, a US official said.

Biden has set a goal of allowing 125,000 refugees a year, reversing drastic cuts by previous president Donald Trump, who made opposition to non-Western immigration a signature issue.

The Biden cap is in addition to Ukrainians and Afghans who can come to the United States under separate programs.
Hundreds of migrants from Venezuela, Haiti and Central America who had hoped to go to the United States wait in line to process their refugee status in Tapachula, Mexico on November 7, 2022 © STR / AFP/File

But only 6,750 refugees were resettled in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, due to long delays in processing and verification of claims.

Biden recently also gave the green-light for border guards to turn back migrants at the Mexican border after coming under political pressure over rising numbers of undocumented Central Americans, Haitians and Venezuelans.
Speeding up refugees

Refugee advocates including religious groups welcomed the initiative and businesses including Airbnb promised to offer support through the Welcome Corps.

Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, praised the Biden administration's "forward-thinking approach" but cautioned that "the ability to resettle refugees domestically has not been the fundamental challenge."

"The Biden administration must prioritize the streamlining of refugee admissions, which remain regrettably low this fiscal year," she said in a statement.
A displaced child who fled jihadists' attacks in northern and eastern Burkina Faso stands by a makeshift tent in Gampela near Ouagadougou on October 6, 2022 © Issouf SANOGO / AFP/File

"Without urgent action to increase efficiency, it risks letting the compassion of individual sponsors and the expertise of professional refugee resettlement organizations go to waste."

Julieta Valls Noyes, the assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, acknowledged that admissions were "not where we would like them to be."

But she called the quarterly figures a "lagging indicator" and said that US authorities have completed 20,000 interviews overseas.

"We expect that those people should be hitting our country within the next few months," she told reporters.

Calling refugees "the most vetted individuals to enter this country," Noyes said the United States was reaching out to the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations as it clears a backlog.

In addition to establishing Welcome Corps, "we're doing a lot of work with our traditional resettlement agency partners to try and speed up processing while maintaining the integrity and the security of the program," she said.

A record of more than 100 million people are displaced worldwide, according to UN figures, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine creating a new flow of refugees to add to crises including Afghanistan, Venezuela, Myanmar and Burkina Faso.

A surge in refugees over the past decade from war-ravaged Syria led to the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people in Europe but also a political backlash.

Turkey is host to the largest number of refugees at 3.7 million, mostly from Syria, followed by Venezuela's neighbor Colombia and then Germany, according to the UN refugee agency.

© 2023 AFP

Gallup: Fewer than half of Americans believe U.S. healthcare is good enough

The findings of the 2022 annual Health and Healthcare survey mark the first time in its 20-year history that the healthcare system has failed to meet the expectations of most Americans, Gallup said Thursday about its new poll.

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- A majority of Americans rate healthcare in the United States as substandard for the first time, according to a new Gallup poll released Thursday.

The results show 52% of those surveyed believe U.S. healthcare is subpar, with 31% saying it was "only fair" and 21% -- a new high -- rating it "poor." That compares to 48% who rated it ''excellent'' or ''good''.

The findings of the 2022 annual Health and Healthcare survey mark the first time in its 20-year history that the healthcare system has failed to meet the expectations of most Americans, Gallup said in a news release.

Although the excellent/good score is only 2 percentage points lower than 2021, it fell well below the 62% high point twice recorded in the early 2010s. It also lags behind the average 55% reading since 2001.

RELATED Gallup: Costs deter more Americans than ever from seeking healthcare

Gallup sought to explain the downward trend as a feature of the partisan divide among those surveyed, with Republicans' satisfaction levels falling year-on-year while Democrats' views have remained steady.

''Republicans' positive ratings have been subdued since President Donald Trump left office. Currently, 56% of Republicans rate healthcare quality as excellent or good, whereas 69% felt this way in 2020 and 75% in 2019,'' Gallup said.

''Republicans' views of healthcare quality also dropped in 2014 after implementation of the Affordable Care Act before rebounding under Trump. Meanwhile, Democrats' positive ratings have been steady at a lower level (currently 44%).''

RELATED More Americans with employer-sponsored insurance can't afford healthcare

The survey also unearthed an age divide, showing that public satisfaction with healthcare has trended downward among middle-age and younger adults while remaining high among those 55 and older.

Gallup says it is unclear whether the change across party lines is a result of rising healthcare costs for those not on Medicaid, perceived changes brought about by the ACA, or something else.

The more recent declines among young adults may reflect changes to healthcare since the COVID-19 pandemic or restricted access to abortion following the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision last year.

RELATED Pandemic funding eased medical debt for many Americans

This latest poll comes as U.S. healthcare garners growing criticism amid concerns it is becoming prohibitively costly and insurance coverage is, for a small but increasing number of Americans, failing to keep pace with rising costs

Earlier this week, another Gallup poll found that a record number of Americans postponed getting medical treatment in 2022 due to the high cost. In the survey, 38% reported that they or a family member had put off seeking medical care because of the high bills they would incur.

Meanwhile, an American Medical Association study published last month found an increasing number of Americans struggle to afford medical care -- even if they have health insurance through their employer.

Researchers from New York University discovered that over the past two decades, the number of Americans with job-based health insurance who skimp on medical care has been on the rise. One possible explanation the study postulated was efforts by insurers to push a larger portion of the payment for treatment onto consumers.

THEY WILL TEST IT ON PALESTINIANS
Israeli company to develop new attack drone for U.S. military

Israel Aerospace Industries Thursday announced it has been awarded a U.S. Defense Department contract to develop a new attack drone called Point Blank. It can be carried and used by a single soldier without support and can attack a variety of targets. IAI described it as a "hybrid electro-optically guided missile." Illustration of Point Blank launch courtesy of IAI.

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries won a U.S. Department of Defense contract to develop and deliver a new attack drone weapon described by the firm as a hybrid electro-optically guided missile.

The attack drone is called Point Blank. It can be carried in a soldier's backpack and it can be launched by a single soldier, landing back in the soldier's hand, according to IAI.

IAI said in a news release that Point Blank can attack a variety of targets in real time with "great precision and high lethality, without the need for support."

IAI released a video demonstrating the drone in action.

IAI Executive Vice President Guy Bar said in a statement: "Point Blank joins Israel Aerospace Industries' family of missiles, to provide ground-based tactical forces with more precise capabilities to undertake offensive operations especially against short-lived targets. ... IAI continues to develop and improve a wide range of offensive systems which provide precision operational solutions, and stands firmly to support our U.S. customers."

The IAI statement said the company was "competitively awarded a multimillion-dollar contract for the attack drone by the Irregular Warfare Technical Support Directorate of the U.S. Department of Defense to rapidly develop and deliver 'ROC-X' a version of the Point Blank system that meets specific U.S. requirements for the purpose of increasing the organic precision strike lethality and survivability of small tactical teams."

Point Blank weighs about 15 pounds and is about 3 feet long. It can fly above 1,500 feet at a maximum speed of 178 mph. the drone can hover over a target while gathering surveillance information in real time, according to IAI.

Study: Fast melting of Greenland Ice Sheet

will affect sea-level rise

This NASA image taken on July 17, 2017, shows a large circular sea ice floe covered with melt ponds in northern Greenland showing the impact of ice melt due to climate change. A new study this week said The Greenland ice shoot is melting faster in the early 2000s. 

File Photo by Nathan Kurtz/NASA/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- New research published in the scientific journal Nature on Wednesday said that upper levels of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 2001 to 2011 faced the warmest temperatures in 1,000 years, threatening to tip sea levels.

Because of the tremendous amount of water held in the ice there, experts say the Greenland Ice Sheet plays a critical role in the global climate system. Researchers with the Alfred Wegener Institute said global warming is having a pronounced impact in the remote higher elevations of central-north Greenland.

The study's authors said the Arctic has shown regular warming since the 19th century with the emergence of air temperature values outside the natural pre-industrial variability since the early-mid 20th century. They said that has also negatively impacted the Greenland Ice Sheet.

The ice sheet is projected to add up to 50 centimeters to the global mean sea-leave rise by 2100.

"The time series we recovered from ice cores now continuously covers more than 1,000 years, from the year 1000 to 2011," the institute's glaciologist Maria Horhold, said in a statement. "This data shows that the warming from 2001 to 2011 clearly differs from natural variations during the past 1,000 years.

"Although grimly expected in the light of global warming, we were surprised by how evident this difference really was."

The researchers said that Greenland melting has substantially increased since the 2000s and is now playing a major factor in sea-level rise.

"We were amazed to see how closely temperatures inland are connected to Greenland-wide meltwater drainage -- which, after all, occurs in low-elevation areas along the rim of the ice sheet near the coast," Horhold said.

Researchers said that the global mean temperature has increased to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in the second decade of the 21st century while the Arctic region had the most significant warming, particularly in the winter season.

The report comes on the heels of another study posted in Nature in November that showed extensive thinning of Greenland's ice sheet and a speedup of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream that drains glacier ice into the sea.

That study said ice stream deterioration from that melt could raise sea levels by as much as 0.6 inches, more than six times what scientists had previously estimated.

Global warming reaches central Greenland

At high elevations of the Greenland Ice Sheet, the years 2001 to 2011 were 1.5 °C warmer than in the 20th century and represent the warmest decade in the last thousand years

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ALFRED WEGENER INSTITUTE, HELMHOLTZ CENTRE FOR POLAR AND MARINE RESEARCH

 

IMAGE: RIVERS OF MELTWATER (GREENLAND'S ICE SHEET) view more 

CREDIT: ALFRED-WEGENER-INSTITUT / S. KIPFSTUHL

At high elevations of the Greenland Ice Sheet, the years 2001 to 2011 were 1.5 °C warmer than in the 20th century and represent the warmest decade in the last thousand years

A temperature reconstruction from ice cores of the past 1,000 years reveals that today’s warming in central-north Greenland is surprisingly pronounced. The most recent decade surveyed in a study, the years 2001 to 2011, was the warmest in the past 1,000 years, and the region is now 1.5 °C warmer than during the 20th century, as researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute just report in the journal Nature. Using a set of ice cores unprecedented in length and quality, they reconstructed past temperatures in central-north Greenland and melting rates of the ice sheet.

The Greenland Ice Sheet plays a pivotal part in the global climate system. With enormous amounts of water stored in the ice (about 3 million cubic kilometres), melt and resulting sea-level rise is considered a potential tipping point. For unmitigated global emissions rates (‘business as usual’), the ice sheet is projected to contribute up to 50 centimetres to global mean sea-level by 2100. Weather stations along the coast have been recording rising temperatures for many years. But the influence of global warming on the up to 3,000 m elevated parts of the ice sheet have remained unclear to due to the lack of long-term observations. In a study now published in Nature, experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) present clear evidence that effects of global warming have reached the remote, high-elevation areas of central-north Greenland.

“The time series we recovered from ice cores now continuously covers more than 1,000 years, from year 1000 to 2011. This data shows that the warming in 2001 to 2011 clearly differs from natural variations during the past 1,000 years. Although grimly expected in the light of global warming, we were surprised by how evident this difference really was,” says AWI glaciologist Dr Maria Hörhold, lead author of the study. Together with colleagues from AWI and the University of Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Institute, she analysed the isotope composition in shallow ice cores gathered in central-north Greenland during dedicated AWI expeditions.

Previous ice cores obtained at co-located sites starting in the 1990s, did not indicate clear warming in central-north Greenland, despite rising global mean temperatures. Part of the reason is substantial natural climate variability in the region.

The AWI researchers have now extended the previous datasets up to winter 2011/2012 by a dedicated redrilling effort, recovering time series unprecedented length and quality. The temperatures were reconstructed by using consistently one single method for the entire record in the lab: measuring concentrations of stable oxygen isotopes within the ice, which vary with the temperatures prevailing at times of ice formation. Previous studies had to draw on a range of different climate archives and combine results to reconstruct temperature, introducing much larger uncertainties in the assessment of natural variability.

In addition to the temperature, the team reconstructed the melt production of the ice sheet. Melting has increased substantially in Greenland since the 2000s and now significantly contributes to global sea-level rise. “We were amazed to see how closely temperatures inland are connected to Greenland-wide meltwater drainage – which, after all, occurs in low-elevation areas along the rim of the ice sheet near the coast,” says Maria Hörhold.

In order to quantify this connection between temperatures in high-elevation parts and melting along the edges of the ice sheet, the authors used data from a regional climate model for the years 1871 to 2011 and satellite observations of ice-mass changes for the years 2002 to 2021 from the GRACE/GRACE-FO gravimetry missions. This allowed them to convert the temperature variations identified in the ice cores into melting rates and provide estimates for the past 1,000 years. This represents an important dataset for climate research: better understanding of the melt dynamics of the ice sheet in the past improves projections of related future sea-level rise; reduced uncertainties in projections is one step to help optimize adaptation measures.

Another exciting finding from the study: the climate of the Greenland Ice Sheet is largely decoupled from the rest of the Arctic. This could be shown in comparison with the Arctic-wide temperature reconstruction ‘Arctic 2k’ (https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201426). Although ‘Arctic 2k’ is an accurate representation of the circumpolar region, it does not reflect the conditions in central Greenland. “Our reconstruction now offers a robust representation of temperature evolution in central Greenland, which has proven to have a dynamic of its own,” says Prof. Thomas Laepple, AWI climate researcher and co-author of the study. “Actually, we had expected the time series to strongly covary with the warming of the Arctic region,” Laepple reports. But the authors have an explanation for these differences: the ice sheet is several kilometres thick; because of its height, Greenland is more affected by atmospheric circulation patterns than other parts of the Arctic. Temperature time series on the Arctic with regional resolution are needed, says Laepple, in order to reliably describe climate change in the Arctic.

Original publication:

Hörhold, M., Münch, T., Weißbach S., Kipfstuhl S., Freitag J., Sasgen I., Lohmann G., Vinther B., T. Laepple: Modern temperatures in central-north Greenland warmest in past millennium (Nature, 2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05517-z

---

JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-022-05517-z 

ARTICLE TITLE

Modern temperatures in central-north Greenland warmest in past millennium

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Jan-2023

US union membership rate hits all-time low despite campaigns

 Amazon JFK8 distribution center union organizer Jason Anthony speaks to media, April 1, 2022, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The U.S. union membership rate reached an all-time low in 2022, despite high-profile unionization campaigns at Starbucks, Amazon and other companies. Union members fell to 10.1% of the overall workforce, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was down slightly from 10.3% in 2021. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)

The U.S. union membership rate reached an all-time low last year despite high-profile unionization campaigns at Starbucks, Amazon, Apple and other companies.

Union members fell to 10.1% of the overall U.S. workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was down slightly from 10.3% in 2021.

The number of workers belonging to a union actually increased by 1.9% to 14.3 million. But that failed to keep pace with higher overall employment rates. The number of wage- and salary-earning workers rose by 3.9%, the government said.

U.S. union membership has been falling steadily for decades. In 1983, the first year that comparable data is available, the union membership rate was 20.1%, the government said.

Public-sector workers, like police and teachers, had the highest unionization rates last year, at 33%. Just 6% of private-sector workers were unionized.

Automation, outsourcing and lower unionization rates in traditional union strongholds, like auto manufacturing, are among the reasons for the steady decline. But states have also chipped away at unions’ power. Twenty-seven states now have “right-to-work” laws, which prohibit a company and a union from signing a contract that requires workers to pay dues to the union that represents them.

Despite those laws, support for unions has been growing. In a survey published in August, Gallup found that 71% of Americans said they approve of labor unions, the highest percentage recorded since 1965.

There has been a surge in demand for union representation as the pandemic has eased. Labor shortages gave workers a rare upper hand, which they used to seek higher pay and benefits from their employers. Median weekly earnings for union workers are about 18% higher than those for nonunion workers, the government said.

The National Labor Relations Board reported a 53% increase in union representation petitions in its 2022 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. A total of 2,510 petitions were filed with the agency, the highest number since 2016.

Dan Cornfield, a sociology professor at Vanderbilt University who studies unions, noted that while unionization rates are declining in some sectors, like telecommunications and clothing manufacturing, they’re rising in others, including hospitality, the arts and entertainment. Younger workers are largely driving those efforts, he said.

“Those actions and attitudes could portend a reversal of this long-term decline,” Cornfield said.

Workers at more than 270 U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize over the last year, an effort that Starbucks opposes. Workers at REI and Chipotle followed with their own unionization campaigns.

Contract negotiations began last week at an Apple store in Maryland that voted to unionize last June. And workers at an Amazon warehouse in New York City voted to unionize last spring, although Amazon workers at a different warehouse in upstate New York later rejected unionization.

New York and Hawaii have the highest unionization rates, while North Carolina and South Carolina have the lowest, according to the government’s data. Men are slightly more likely to be union members than women. And Black workers are more likely to be union members than white, Hispanic or Asian workers.

Percentage of union workers in U.S. fell in 2022, report says

Nurses strike and hold a rally outside of Mount Sinai Hospital earlier this month in New York City. The Labor Department said on Thursday that overall union representation hit a record low.

Photo by John Angelillo/UPI |

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The percentage of U.S. workers who are union members tumbled by 0.2% in 2022 despite the overall number of members increasing by 273,000, according to new figures by the Labor Department released Thursday.

That percentage rate in the report dropped union representation to a record low of 10.1%. That's a fall from 20.1% in 1983, representing 17.7 million workers.

In the department's Union Members Summary for 2022 found that the number of union members in 2022 grew to 14.3 million American workers, an increase of 1.9% from the year before.

The number of wage and salaried workers, though, increased 3.9% or by 5.3 million, outpacing the growth of employees represented by unions.

"This disproportionately large increase in the number of total wage and salary employment compared with the increase in the number of union members led to a decrease in the union membership rate. The 2022 unionization rate," the report said.

The AFL-CIO said the tug-and-pull efforts to unionize businesses like Amazon and Starbucks is a perfect example of how corporations are pushing back on efforts to get workers represented.

"In 2022, we saw working people rising up despite often illegal opposition from companies that would rather pay union-busting firms millions than give workers a seat at the table," said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, in a statement. "The momentum of the moment we are in is clear.

"Organizing victories are happening in every industry, public and private, and every sector of our economy all across the country. The wave of organizing will continue to gather steam in 2023 and beyond despite broken labor laws that rig the system against workers."

The union membership rate of public-sector workers, which is 33.1%, continued to be more than five times higher than the rate of private-sector workers, which sits at 6.0%.

Striking French workers lead 1 million people in protest over plans to raise retirement age

Story by Joseph Ataman • CNN

Strikes disrupted train services, flights, schools and businesses in France on Thursday as more than one million people protested against the government’s plans to raise the retirement age for most workers.

Protests in major French cities, including Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes and Nice, brought many transport services to a standstill. The Eiffel Tower was closed to visitors.

France’s Interior Ministry said more than a million people took to the streets across the country, including 80,000 in Paris, where small groups of demonstrators threw bottles, rocks and fireworks at riot police.

Eight of the biggest unions had called for a “first day of strikes and protests” against pension reforms unveiled by President Emmanuel Macron’s government. The legislation will require French citizens to work until 64, from 62 currently, to qualify for a full state pension.

The French government has said this is necessary to tackle a pension funding deficit, but the reforms have angered workers at a time when living costs are rising.

Teachers and transport workers were among those who did not report for work. More than 40% of primary school teachers and more than one third of high school teachers went on strike, according to France’s education ministry.

Train lines across France saw “severe disruption,” according to French rail authority SNCF, and metro lines in Paris were hit by full or partial closures, the city transport authority RATP said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Eurostar canceled several services between the French capital and London, according to its website, and some flights at Orly airport were scratched. Charles de Gaulle airport reported “a few delays” due to striking air traffic controllers, but no cancellations.


Striking French workers lead 1 million people in protest over plans to raise retirement age© Provided by CNNTrain tracks lie empty at Gare de l'Est railway station in Paris as France is hit by widespread traffic disruption amid a nationwide strike against proposed pension reforms. - Kiran Ridley/Getty Images

CGT, one of France’s major confederation of trade unions, estimated that two million people took part in more than 200 protest events across the country, and said that the majority of refinery workers at TotalEnergies (TOT) walked out, interrupting deliveries of oil products. TotalEnergies (TOT) said that fuel supplies at its network of gas stations would not be affected.

Why are people protesting?

Related video: Paris braces for major strike against pension reform (AFP)
Duration 0:57 View on Watch

StringersHub France: Thousands Join National Strike Against Macron's Pension Reform 5
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StringersHub France: Thousands Join National Strike Against Macron's Pension Reform 2
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StringersHub  France: Thousands Join National Strike Against Macron's Pension Reform 3
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Macron’s proposed pension reforms come as workers in France, as elsewhere, are being squeezed by rising food and energy bills. Nurses and ambulance drivers in the United Kingdom are also striking on Thursday over pay and working conditions.

Thousands took part in mass demonstrations on the streets of Paris last year protesting the cost of living, and strikes by workers demanding higher pay caused fuel pumps to run dry across the country a few months ago.

“This reform falls at a moment where there is lots of anger, lots of frustration, lots of fatigue. It’s coming at the worst moment, in fact,” CFE-CGC union chief François Hommeril told CNN on Tuesday, pointing to the inflation that has wracked Europe this year following the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking to journalists in Spain on Thursday, Macron defended the changes as “fair and responsible.”

“If you want the pact between generations to be fair, we must proceed with this reform,” he added.

France spent nearly 14% of GDP on state pensions in 2018, which is more than most other countries, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.



French workers walk out in mass strikes against plans to raise the retirement age© Provided by CNNWooden pallets burn, as demonstrators gather during a rally called by French trade unions outside the Gare de Lyon, in Paris on January 19, 2023. - Stephane De Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images  

How does France compare?

Government spokesperson Olivier Veran told journalists Wednesday that 40% of French workers will be able to retire before 64 under the proposed regime because of exceptions for those who started work early or who have physically taxing jobs.

“We have the most protective, the most developed system in Europe [for pensions],” he said. “Even after the reforms, we will retire in France better off and earlier than in almost all eurozone countries,” he added.

In Europe and in many other developed economies, the age at which full pension benefits vest is 65 and increasingly moving towards 67.

Overhauling pensions has long been a controversial issue in France, with street protests halting reform efforts in 1995, and successive governments facing stiff resistance to changes that eventually passed in 2004, 2008 and 2010.

An earlier attempt by Macron to revamp France’s pensions system was met with nationwide strikes in 2019 before being abandoned because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

French unions are due to meet Thursday evening to decide on whether strike action should continue.

— Saskya Vandoorne in Paris and Al Goodman in Barcelona contributed reporting.

France: Over 1 million march against raising retirement age

By SYLVIE CORBET and JADE LE DELEY

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People gather on Place de la Republique during a demonstration against proposed pension changes, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023 in Paris. Workers in many French cities took to the streets Thursday to reject proposed pension changes that would push back the retirement age, amid a day of nationwide strikes and protests seen as a major test for Emmanuel Macron and his presidency. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
 

Firefighters demonstrate against pension changes, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023 in Lille, northern France


Workers in many French cities took to the streets Thursday to reject proposed pension changes that would push back the retirement age, amid a day of nationwide strikes and protests seen as a major test for Emmanuel Macron and his presidency. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)


PARIS (AP) — At least 1.1 million people protested on the streets of Paris and other French cities Thursday amid nationwide strikes against plans to raise the retirement age — but President Emmanuel Macron insisted he would press ahead with the proposed pension reforms.

Emboldened by the mass show of resistance, French unions announced new strikes and protests Jan. 31, vowing to try to get the government to back down on plans to push up the standard retirement age from 62 to 64. Macron says the measure - a central pillar of his second term — is needed to keep the pension system financially viable, but unions say it threatens hard-fought worker rights.

Out of the country for a French-Spanish summit in Barcelona, Macron acknowledged the public discontent but said that “we must do that reform” to “save” French pensions.

“We will do it with respect, in a spirit of dialogue but also determination and responsibility,” he added.

As Macron spoke, riot police pushed back against some protesters throwing projectiles on the sidelines of the largely peaceful Paris march. Some other minor incidents briefly flared up, leading officers to use tear gas.

Paris police said that 38 people were detained as a mass of people thronged the streets of the capital despite freezing rain, the crowd so big that it took hours to reach their destination. Retirees and college students joined the diverse crowd, united in their fear and anger over the reform.

In a country with an aging population and growing life expectancy where everyone receives a state pension, Macron’s government says the reform is the only way to keep the system solvent.

Unions propose a tax on the wealthy or more payroll contributions from employers to finance the pension system instead.

Polls suggest most French people oppose the reform, and Thursday was the first public reaction to Macron’s plan. Strikes severely disrupted transport, schools and other public services, and more than 200 rallies were staged around France.

The Interior Ministry said more than 1.1 million people protested, including 80,000 in Paris. Unions said more than 2 million people took part nationwide, and 400,000 in Paris.

Big crowds also turned out for protests against previous efforts at retirement reform, notably during Macron’s first term and under former President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010. But none of those drew more than 1 million people according to government estimates.

Jean Paul Cachina, 56, a worker in human resources, joined the march in the French capital — a first ever for him.

“I am not here for myself,” he said. “I am here to defend the youth and workers doing demanding jobs. I work in the construction industry sector and I’m a first-hand witness of the suffering of employees.”

Many young people were among the Paris crowd, including high school students.

Nathan Arsac, 19, a student and member of the UNEF union, said: “I’m afraid of what’s going to happen next. Losing our social achievements could happen so fast. I’m scared of the future when I’ll be older and have to retire.”

Sylvie Béchard, a 59-year-old nurse, said that she joined the march because “we, health care workers, are physically exhausted.”

“The only thing we have is to demonstrate, and to block the economy of the country,” she added.

The economic cost of Thursday’s strikes wasn’t immediately clear, but protracted walkouts could hobble the economy just as France is struggling against inflation and trying to boost growth.

Police unions opposed to the retirement reform also took part in the protests, while those on duty sought to contain scattered unrest.

Most train services around France were halted, including some international connections, and about 20% of flights out of Paris’ Orly Airport were canceled.

The Education Ministry said more than a third of teachers were on strike, and national electricity company EDF announced that power supplies were substantially reduced Thursday amid the strikes.

The Versailles Palace was closed Thursday while the Eiffel Tower warned about potential disruptions and the Louvre Museum closed some exhibition rooms.

Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the hard-left CGT union, urged Macron to “listen to the street.”

Laurent Berger, head of the more moderate CFDT union, called the reform “unfair” and said Thursday’s show of resistance was a warning sign.

Many French workers expressed mixed feelings about the government’s plan and pointed to the complexity of the pension system.

Quentin Coelho, 27, a Red Cross employee, felt he had to work Thursday despite understanding “most of the strikers’ demands.” Coelho said he fears that the government will keep raising the retirement age, so is already saving money for his pension.

Others worry the reform will hit harder for low-income workers, who live less long than the wealthy.

“It’s a social issue. Do you want to retire sick, broken and even some dead? Or do you want to enjoy life?” asked Fabien Villedieu, a 45-year-old railway worker,

French Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt acknowledged “concerns” prompted by the pension plans but said the government rejected other options involving raising taxes — which he said would hurt the economy and cost jobs — or reducing pensions.

The French government is formally presenting the pension bill on Monday and it will head to Parliament next month. Its success will depend in part on the scale and duration of the strikes and protests.

Most opposition parties, including the left and the far-right, are strongly against the plan. Macron’s centrist alliance lost its parliamentary majority last year, yet still has the biggest group at the National Assembly, where it hopes to ally with the conservative The Republicans party to approve the pension reforms.

Under the planned changes, workers must have worked for at least 43 years to be entitled to a full pension. For those who do not fulfil that condition, like many women who interrupted their career to raise children or those who studied for a long time and started working late, the retirement age would remain unchanged at 67.

Those who started to work under the age of 20 and workers with major health issues would be allowed early retirement.

Protracted strikes met Macron’s last effort to raise the retirement age in 2019. He eventually withdrew it after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Retirement rules vary widely from country to country, making direct comparisons difficult. The official retirement age in the U.S. is now 67, and countries across Europe have been raising pension ages as populations grow older and fertility rates drop.

But opponents of Macron’s reform note that, under the French system, people are already required to work more years overall than in some neighboring countries to receive a full pension. The plan is also seen by many as endangering the welfare state that’s central to French society.

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Alexander Turnbull, Oleg Cetinic and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

French union workers go on strike nationwide to protest pension reforms

Hundreds of French health workers have been calling for better working conditions in recent months, and were taking part in a nationwide strike to protest a government plan to overhaul the country's pension system. File photo by Yoan Valat/EPA-EFE


Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Tens of thousands of French workers walked off the job and took to the streets Thursday as part of a nationwide strike to protest President Emmanuel Macron's proposal to raise the age at which people can retire with benefits.

The protests were seen as a major test of Macron's policies that were meant to shore up the nation's economy amid a persistent inflation crisis and a population seething over high energy costs.

More than 200 demonstrations organized by dozens of trade unions were taking place in every corner of the country, with schools, public transportation and many health and utility services grinding to a standstill for what has been dubbed "Black Thursday."

It was the first time in 12 years that all the country's major unions mobilized under a common cause in what could turn out to be days or even weeks of national unrest. Police were also bracing for a massive protest in Paris throughout the day.



Union leaders said Thursday's demonstrations were only the "first day of mobilization" and suggested that they would keep up the pressure on Macron until he rescinded the plan.

"This is the first day. And when we say that, we mean there will be others ... everywhere if possible," Philippe Martinez, the head of the CGT union, told French media.

Thursday's strikes impacted dozens of industries, with trains throughout the country not running, and many flights canceled after workers didn't show up for the day

Public trains in urban areas were feeling the brunt of the strike, with most regional operations and some international connections shutting down service. Ferry services to and from Calais were suspended, with the P&O Ferries telling passengers to look for other options.

Transport workers are typically required by law to maintain a minimum level of service, but operators warned there were no guarantees of availability amid the strikes.

Police unions, theater employees, music venues and banks were also teaming up with the effort. Electricity workers also scaled back power supplies in some areas.

The Port of Dover was "still open with services to Dunkirk running as normal" but facilities were packed with stranded travelers.

Macron's proposal would raise the legal retirement age from 62 -- when most French workers typically stop working -- to at least 64 or 65 years, meaning all citizens would need to stay on the job for several additional years to qualify for a full pension.

The plan is deeply unpopular, with nearly 70% of French citizens opposing it. Polls show that a majority of young people who will not retire for decades also believe the measure is wrong for the country.

The French president has previously expressed a strong commitment to pension reform, calling it one of his most important pursuits due to an aging population in which millions of retirees currently draw $1,500 a month from the government, threatening to bankrupt the country over time.

The administration has indicated that it does not intend to back down, although Macron has made a few concessions already, including a guarantee that all workers will begin receiving a pension of at least $1,288 per month, which was a major demand from the opposition party.

Unions call the proposal unfair and unprecedented, saying it would lead to lower earnings and drastically upend the traditional mold of retirement, which is considered a birthright in France.

Previous efforts to overhaul the retirement system have failed after being met with fierce public protests.

The pension overhaul also faces an uphill battle in France's National Assembly, where Macron's Renaissance Party no longer holds a majority after last June's parliamentary elections.

The president would need to win considerable support from the new conservative majority to fulfill the reforms, and such a scenario was plausible since Macron's administration has pushed through several other reform bills with help from Republicans. However, some conservative lawmakers were not as optimistic about Macron's chances this time, given the contentious nature of pension reform.

The outcome on pension reform holds deep implications for Macron's other planned reforms and stands to impact his overall ability to govern during the remaining years of his second term.

There is some fear that Macron could become a lame-duck president if the retirement measure ultimately fails. Macron could invoke article 49.3 of the French constitution to bypass parliament on the issue, but doing so would risk a no-confidence vote that could result in his removal from office and tarnish his legacy.

Pension reform: Political divides and mass protests over proposed changes to retirement

 

Huge protests across France: 400,000 people gather in Paris to demonstrate against President Emmanuel Macron's proposed pension reform, which aims to raise the age of retirement to 64. Guests on the France 24 Debate discuss crucial issues like the timing of this reform, and how to negotiate the social and financial challenges of pension policy.

Officials must understand why Inuit overrepresented in jails, Labrador leader says

Story by The Canadian Press • 

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — As the federal government announced funding Thursday to tackle the overrepresentation of Inuit people in jail, the head of Labrador's Inuit government urged policymakers to visit his region and understand the issues for themselves.



Nunatsiavut government president Johannes Lampe said Inuit in the region are targeted by police and forced to navigate a justice system that doesn't understand their language, history or current circumstances.

"Come and see the poverty that Inuit are living today, where at times you are so poor, you have to do what it takes to feed your family," Lampe told reporters. "Where food insecurity is prevalent, high prices ... and not having the means of obtaining a boat or a snowmobile to help you get out on the land to find that fish, the partridge, the seal."

Lampe joined the press conference by video Thursday, as did federal Justice Minister David Lametti, who announced $1.17 million in funding over several years to help address the overrepresentation of Inuit from the Nunatsiavut region in the justice system.

The Nunatsiavut region comprises five fly-in communities along Labrador's northern coast. Part of the money will fund a cultural awareness educator who will help criminal justice officials better understand why a disproportionate number of Inuit end up in correctional facilities, Lametti said. It will also support the Nunatsiavut government's community-based justice services.

Lametti did not have statistics specific to Inuit in corrections, but numbers last April from the Newfoundland and Labrador Justice Department showed Inuit women are overrepresented at the province's only women's jail.

Though Inuit women represent less than one per cent of the province's population, they accounted for nine per cent of inmates at the Correctional Centre For Women in central Newfoundland between April 1, 2011, and April 1, 2021.

Lampe said the numbers are too high.

"Labrador Inuit hold solutions that can better help Labrador Inuit," he said, adding: "If our communities are going to make life better for its residents, Labrador Inuit have to be given that self-determination, that ownership ... to run their affairs themselves."

Lametti said the funding is aimed at enabling the Nunatsiavut government to take the lead.

"It's what they're asking and it's what we haven't done in 150-plus years of colonialism in Canada," he said. "We have tended to opt for top-down solutions drafted in the national capital or other provincial capitals, and that hasn't worked."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 19, 2023.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press

NDP could pull support for Liberal government over pharmacare, health care privatization: Singh

Story by Anja Karadeglija • National Post

OTTAWA — The NDP would consider pulling support for the minority Liberal government if it doesn’t pass a pharmacare bill this year or insist on no-privatization conditions for health care funding, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh indicated Thursday.


NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to “protect” publicly funded health care while negotiating with the provinces on funding. He said one of the conditions of the money should be “straight-up no privatization.”

A day earlier, Singh called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to “protect” publicly funded health care while negotiating with the provinces on funding. He said one of the conditions of the money should be “straight-up no privatization.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced this week he would direct more publicly funded surgeries to private clinics.

Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill Thursday, Singh said “one of those conditions should be that public money from the federal government should not be going towards enriching private companies. And any new money that we invest in the health-care system shouldn’t be going towards private delivery.”

He also indicated his party would consider pulling support over that stance. “We really believe that health care has to remain public. This is one of our major priorities,” Singh said.

“Every option is on the table. If the government’s not willing to defend a public system, we’ll always use all options.”

Related video: Federal leaders trade barbs on immigration, health care and inflation (cbc.ca)

Duration 5:56 View on Watch

Liberals vague on verification criteria for new federal dental-care benefit

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says party will hold minority Liberals accountable but stops short of withdrawing support

The NDP and the Liberals announced a deal last year in which the NDP agreed to support the minority Liberal government through to 2025 in exchange for action on a series of NDP priorities, including passing a Canada Pharmacare Act by the end of 2023. The House of Commons is currently on break and will resume sitting on Jan. 30.

Singh said that is “the framework necessary to move forward with universal public pharmacare. And that’s something that we fought for in the agreement we negotiated, and we expect it to be there.”

He said if the government doesn’t follow through, it would be the Liberals who are breaking the agreement.

Singh said the NDP would fight to ensure the bill is passed, but could withdraw support. “We always have the right, if the government breaks any conditions of the agreement, if they don’t follow through with what we forced them to agree to, we have then the power or the option of withdrawing our support.”

The party’s must-haves for the federal budget, which will be released this spring, include enough money to move forward with the dental care program, the first phase of which launched last year and which is also a part of the agreement, and more investments for health care in general, Singh said.

“We want to see investments in health care, broadly speaking.”

The government announced last year an interim Canada Dental Benefit that will provide $650 a year per child, for two years, to cover the cost of dental care for uninsured children whose families earn less than $70,390 a year. Families that earn between $70,390 and $90,000 can receive either $390 or $260, depending on their income.

The NDP’s agreement with the Liberals specifies a new dental care program which would be expanded to cover under 18-year-olds, seniors and persons living with a disability by the end of this year.