WORKERS CAPITAL

Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan board defeat shareholders' Jeffrey Epstein lawsuit

SHAREHOLDERS ARE:  City of Miami General Employees & Sanitation Employees Retirement Trust 

Jonathan Stempel
Wed, August 9, 2023 a

 JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge has dismissed a shareholder lawsuit accusing JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon and his board of directors of ignoring red flags surrounding disgraced former client Jeffrey Epstein.

In a Wednesday evening decision, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said shareholders led by Miami and Pittsburgh pension funds failed to first ask the bank's board directly to address their concerns, or show it would be futile to do so, before suing.

The Manhattan-based judge said he will explain his reasoning in due course. Rakoff did not address specific accusations about the largest U.S. bank's relationship with Epstein.

Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.

Lawyers for the shareholders did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Shareholders had accused Dimon, seven other directors and Jes Staley, a former private banking and investment banking chief, of having "put their heads in the sand" as Epstein used his accounts to further abuses of young women and girls.

The so-called derivative lawsuit sought to have the defendants or their insurers pay damages to JPMorgan, for the benefit of shareholders.

Rakoff is also overseeing two Epstein-related lawsuits against JPMorgan by the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the financier owned two neighboring islands, and by Epstein victims.

The U.S. Virgin Islands is seeking at least $190 million in damages, while a $290 million settlement with victims awaits final court approval.

JPMorgan is suing Staley, who has expressed regret for his friendship with Epstein and denied knowing about his sex trafficking, to cover its losses in both lawsuits.

Staley was also Barclays' chief executive from 2015 to 2021.

The case is City of Miami General Employees & Sanitation Employees Retirement Trust et al v Dimon et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 23-03903.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Bank of Canada rate hikes hitting young adults hardest: Yahoo/Maru poll

Reported annual incomes for these respondents mainly spanned between $50,000 and $99,000

THE WORKING CLASS

Jeff Lagerquist
Wed, August 9, 2023 

Canadians between 18 and 34 years old were most likely to admit the Bank of Canada's string of rate hikes is causing them stress, a new poll shows.

Young adults outside Canada's most populous provinces are feeling the pinch from the Bank of Canada's rate hikes more than older age groups, and those in Ontario and Quebec, a new poll suggests.

The latest Yahoo/Maru Public Opinion poll reached 1,527 Canadian adults between July 21 and 24. More than half (52 per cent) say higher borrowing costs are either causing anxiety due to money pressures (36 per cent), or making them "worried sick" about their financial futures (16 per cent).

Among those citing money pressures, 51 per cent were 18-to-34 years old, the youngest cohort in the poll. The most common regions for this group were Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Atlantic Canada, Alberta, and British Columbia. Reported annual incomes for these respondents mainly spanned between $50,000 and $99,000.

“Despite the significant rise in interest rates since last October to today, many Canadians have made an adjustment in their lives to manage or accommodate what has occurred,” Maru executive vice-president John Wright said.

“Those most likely to do so are primarily women, those with both the lowest and the highest incomes, and the oldest Canadians. Regionally, those in Atlantic Canada, Ontario, and Quebec have fared better than those in the west.”

A Yahoo/Maru Public Opinion poll conducted in October 2022 found 57 per cent of respondents say they are personally feeling the impact of rising interest rates, with 39 per cent suggesting ever-higher rates are causing some anxiety over the impact on their finances.

Back then, 43 per cent of respondents said rising interest rates are not a problem for either themselves or their family. In the latest poll, that figure rose to 48 per cent.

Last month, Canada's central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to five per cent, a level not seen since April 2001. Eighteen months ago, the overnight rate was 0.25 per cent.

“For that group in dire straits, and for those about to renew their mortgage, there will be great anticipation of what the Bank of Canada will do in September following a pause for two months, Wright said. "The next Consumer Price Index release on August 15, may well portend whether their may be a continued reprieve in store.”

The Bank of Canada's next rate decision is scheduled for Sept. 6.

Jeff Lagerquist is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jefflagerquist.

Canadians divided over retailers' anti-theft measures, poll finds

THEFT IS CONSUMPTION 

BY OTHER MEANS

BIG RETAILERS ARE INSURED

The Canadian Press
Wed, August 9, 2023 



Less than half of Canadians believe retail stores are implementing the right amount of security measures to prevent shoplifting but the majority say they would feel safe working in one, a new Leger poll found.

The survey on retail security indicated that a wide majority of people support retailers implementing measures to prevent theft such as installing security cameras or electronic anti-theft alarms attached to items, hiring security guards or locking certain products in display cases.

But respondents were split on whether they would support measures such as store employees checking receipts when customers exit or eliminating self-checkout machines. Support dipped to 17 per cent for requiring customers to scan their IDs to make a purchase.

The survey was completed online by more than 1,500 Canadians at least 18 years old between Aug. 4-6 and results were weighted according to age, gender, mother tongue, region, education and presence of children in the household.

When it comes to retailers implementing security measures to prevent shoplifting, 45 per cent of respondents said companies are putting in place the right level.

Around 27 per cent said they are not implementing enough measures, while 10 per cent said stores are doing too much to prevent shoplifting.

Asked about the level of shoplifting where they live relative to the rest of Canada, just 14 per cent of respondents said their province sees more theft than other parts of the country.

The sentiment was felt most strongly in B.C., where one-quarter of respondents said they felt their province sees more store theft than others.

But two-thirds of Canadians would or do feel safe working in a retail store, according to the survey, compared with 18 per cent who said they do not. Measured by gender, 70 per cent of male respondents said they would feel safe, compared with 63 per cent of female respondents.

Store theft and break-ins continue to be top issues for Canadian businesses, according to a separate survey conducted in May by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

The organization found theft or shoplifting was the most common community safety issue recently experienced by its members, followed by vandalism or breaking and entering.

Three-in-four small business owners said they were concerned about their own safety or that of their staff and customers. Around 65 per cent said they had recently spent more on security, including on cameras or guards, to address safety issues.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 9, 2023.

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press

RIP

Robbie Robertson, Master Storyteller Who Led the Band, Dead at 80

Andy Greene

ROLLING STONE

Wed, August 9, 2023
robbie-robertson

Credit: Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns/Getty Images

Robbie Robertson, the Band’s guitarist and primary songwriter who penned “The Weight,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” and many other beloved classics, died Wednesday at age 80.

Robertson’s management company confirmed the musician’s death. “Robbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death, including his wife, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her partner Nicholas, and his children Alexandra, Sebastian, Delphine, and Delphine’s partner Kenny,” his longtime manager Jared Levine said in a statement. “In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to support the building of their new cultural center.”

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The Band only lasted eight years after the release of their 1968 debut LP, Music From Big Pink, but during that time they forever changed the pop-culture landscape by releasing brilliant Americana music at the peak of the psychedelic movement. Their first album sent shockwaves through the industry, inspiring Eric Clapton to break up Cream, the Beatles to attempt their own stripped-back project with Let It Be, and a pair of young British songwriters named Elton John and Bernie Taupin to begin writing and recording their own material.

Robertson took on the role as the group’s leader, writing the majority of their songs and pushing them forward when substance abuse issues and infighting threatened their existence. It was also his decision to pull the plug on the group in 1976 when he couldn’t take it anymore, setting the stage for their legendary farewell concert The Last Waltz.

“The road has taken a lot of the great ones,” he said at the time. “Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, Otis Redding, Janis, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis. It’s a goddamn impossible way of life.”

Bob Dylan and Robertson perform onstage for the Band’s ‘The Last Waltz’ concert at the Winterland Ballroom on Nov. 25, 1976, in San Francisco.

Before the Band began making their own music, Robertson was one of Bob Dylan’s key collaborators, playing guitar on Blonde on Blonde and convincing the songwriter to hire the other members of his group as his backing band. They toured the world in 1965 and 1966, facing a torrent of boos by enraged folk purists. “His friends, his advisors, and everyone told him to blow us off and start from scratch,” Robertson said in 1987. “And it took a tremendous amount of courage for him not to do that.”

Born in Toronto on July 5, 1943, to a Native American mother and Jewish father, Robertson was fascinated by music from a young age. “I’ve been playing guitar for so long I can’t remember when I started,” he told Rolling Stone in 1968. “I guess I got into rock & roll like everybody else.”

He left high school long before graduation to tour Canada with a series of rock bands, joining rockbabilly icon Ronnie Hawkins’ backing band when he was 16. “We played everywhere,” Robertson said, “from Molasses, Texas, to Timmins, Canada, which is a mining town about 100 miles from the tree line.”

The Band’s Garth Hudson, Robertson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel and Rick Danko (from left) in 1971

It was in Hawkins’ band where he first played with drummer Levon Helm, keyboardist Richard Manuel, organist Garth Hudson, and bassist Rick Danko. They formed a tight musical bond, which continued when they hit the road with Dylan in 1965. “I had never seen anything like it,” Robertson said in 2004. “How much Dylan could deliver with a guitar and a harmonica, and how people would just take the ride.”

In early 1966, during a break from the tour, Dylan brought Robertson down to Nashville to play guitar on his landmark double album Blonde on Blonde. “We’d go into the studio, and he’d be finishing up the lyrics to the songs we were going to do,” Robertson said. “I could hear his typewriter — click, click, click, ring, really fast. There was so much to be said.”

The tour came to a sudden end in the summer of 1966 when Dylan crashed his motorcycle in Woodstock, New York. But a few months later, Dylan summoned Robertson and company to Woodstock to begin work on a series of home recordings later known as The Basement Tapes. “We thought nobody was ever going to hear this thing,” Robertson said decades later. “In their own way, they were like field recordings.”

Dylan resumed his own career in 1968. Around that time, the group redubbed themselves the Band. “There aren’t many bands around Woodstock and our friends and neighbors just call us the Band, and that’s the way we think of ourselves,” Robertson said in 1968. “We just don’t think a name means anything. It’s gotten out of hand, the name thing. We don’t want to get into a fixed bag like that.”


When they began writing songs for their first LP, Robertson stepped forward as the leader in the process. In a 1969 interview with Rolling Stone, the guitarist attempted to explain how he wrote “The Weight.” “I thought of a couple of words that led to a couple more,” he said. “The next thing I know I wrote the song. We just figured it was a simple song, and when it came up, we gave it a try and recorded it three or four times. We didn’t even know if we were going to use it.”

Needless to say, the song wound up on Music From Big Pink and generated radio play all over the world, generating cover versions by the Staple Singers, Joe Cocker, the Grateful Dead, Aretha Franklin, and countless others.

Over the next eight years, the Band scored more Robertson-penned hits (“Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “Stage Fright,” “The Shape I’m In”), played Woodstock, toured the world many times over, and reunited with Dylan for a hugely successful stadium tour.




By 1976, Danko and Manuel developed severe substance-abuse issues, and Robertson — who had effectively been on the road since 1959 — was burned out. “The road turns you into a meaningless piece of dribble that will complain about shit that doesn’t mean anything to anybody,” he said in 1987. “It got to the point where I couldn’t see the upside.”

Robertson decided that the Band should go out with a bang, so he organized a massive farewell gig at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom and invited everyone from Dylan to Neil Young to Muddy Waters and Hawkins to guest. Martin Scorsese filmed the event, which was released in 1978 under the title The Last Waltz.

It’s widely seen as one of the greatest concert films of all time, even though Helm felt it focused way too much attention on Robertson at the expense of other members of the group. It was the beginning of a long feud with Helm over credit and songwriting royalties that was never fully resolved, though Robertson did visit his old friend in the hospital during the final days of his life in 2012.


The Last Waltz was also the beginning of a tight bond between Robertson and filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who hired the songwriter as the musical supervisor for his movies The King of Comedy, Casino, Gangs of New York, Shutter Island, and The Wolf of Wall Street. Robertson had a role in the 1980 film Carny, and the documentaries Dakota Exile (1996) and Wolves (1999). In 1967, Robertson married Canadian journalist Dominique Bourgeois, with whom he had three children. They later divorced. In 2014, Robertson’s son Sebastian published a children’s book, Rock and Roll Highway: The Robbie Robertson Story, about his father’s life and legacy.

“Robbie Robertson was one of my closest friends, a constant in my life and my work. I could always go to him as a confidante. A collaborator. An advisor. I tried to be the same for him,” Scorsese said in a statement. “Long before we ever met, his music played a central role in my life — me and millions and millions of other people all over this world. The Band’s music, and Robbie’s own later solo music, seemed to come from the deepest place at the heart of this continent, its traditions and tragedies and joys. It goes without saying that he was a giant, that his effect on the art form was profound and lasting. There’s never enough time with anyone you love. And I loved Robbie.”

Neil Diamond, who appeared onstage in The Last Waltz and whose 1976 album Beautiful Noise was produced by Robertson, said in a statement to Rolling Stone, “I am crushed by the news of Robbie Robertson’s passing. Robbie played an important role in my career. He was a gifted producer and artist and a good friend. I will miss him greatly.”

Keeping the promise of The Last Waltz, Robertson never returned to touring, though he did release five solo albums beginning with 1987’s critically acclaimed Robbie Robertson. In 2011, he collaborated with Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails on the blues-steeped How to Become Clairvoyant.

His most recent solo release was 2019’s Sinematic, which featured guest appearances by Van Morrison, Derek Trucks, and Citizen Cope. He also oversaw the music for Scorsese’s Silence, The Irishman, and the upcoming Killers of the Flower Moon, capping off a five-decade relationship with the director that stretched back to The Last Waltz.

In 2016, he published the memoir Testimony, following it up in 2019 with the documentary Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band. At the time of his death, he was working on a second volume of his memoir series. That work ethic was consistent with his life, says Jonathan Taplin, who road managed the Band and was in touch with Robertson in recent months. “Robbie was disciplined, and he didn’t indulge the way others did,” says Taplin. “On the Festival Express in 1970, there was a bar car with all those all-night drunken jams. Robbie was not a stay-up-late-at-night guy. That’s why he was so efficient as a songwriter. In Woodstock I’d go over to his house at 9:30 in the morning and he’d already be in his little studio at the piano, writing. He would tell you it was his upbringing. He watched Bob Dylan go a little crazy in 1966 taking lot of speed and staying up all night.”

“There is something blatantly honest about this period I’m in now, what I’m drawn to,” he told Rolling Stone in 2019. “I guess I’m at an age now — a place in my journey — where I don’t care what you think. I’ll tell you anyway!”

Toronto doc director Daniel Roher remembers Robbie Robertson as risk-taker and artist

The Canadian Press
Wed, August 9, 2023 



TORONTO — An Oscar-winning Toronto director who credits Robbie Robertson with helping to launch his career remembered the legendary singer-songwriter as a risk-taker and musical talent who “created a bridge across time.”

Daniel Roher says he felt a great loss upon learning the gravelly voiced rocker died Wednesday in Los Angeles. Robertson was 80.

Before he won an Oscar in March for “Navalny,” a portrait of Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny, Roher wrote and directed "Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson And The Band.”

The documentary, which opened the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019, traces the formation of one of the most enduring groups in popular music, including interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Martin Scorsese and Peter Gabriel.

Roher says he was an unknown filmmaker when Robertson gave him his big shot, mirroring the way rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins gave Robertson his big shot at age 16 and unleashed a musical talent whose blended influences would help reshape Americana.

Roher says those influences included strong ties to the Indigenous community of Six Nations of the Grand River near Brantford, Ont., where Robertson's mother was raised and where Robertson learned to play guitar.

"The first chords he ever learned were his relatives on Six Nations and it clearly had a long-lasting impression on his life," Roher said Wednesday.

In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made to the southern Ontario community to support a new Woodland Cultural Centre.

Roher said Robertson was a champion of Indigenous communities across North America.

“When no one was interested in talking about Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous rights, Indigenous sovereignty, Robbie Robertson was beating that drum. He was someone who was sort of on the forefront, who always took on projects that he found interesting, that had some sort of Indigenous slant or perspective," he said, noting that includes Scorsese's upcoming film, "Killers of the Flower Moon," for which Robertson worked on the soundtrack.

Roher described Robertson’s music and artistry as universal, with timeless appeal.

“It's like you've never heard anything like them before and they sounded completely brand new but yet familiar. He had that quality. His sound created a bridge across time."

He said he'll forever be grateful that Robertson entrusted him with making the documentary, inspired by Robertson's 2016 memoir, “Testimony.”

“He gave me a chance and opportunity and took a risk on me," Roher said.

“I owe him a great debt and I'm thinking about him tonight. And I'm going to be listening to 'Music From Big Pink' all evening."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 9, 2023.

Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press

Martin Scorsese Pays Tribute to Robbie Robertson: ‘He Was a Giant’

Scott Mendelson
Wed, August 9, 2023 



Filmmaker Martin Scorsese paid tribute Wednesday to Robbie Robertson, calling the musician “one of my closest friends, a constant in my life and my work.”

Robertson, a guitarist, bandleader, producer and composer who also wrote film scores for Martin Scorsese and served as a record executive, died on Wednesday at the age of 80 after a long illness.

Robertson was best known for his stint in The Band, a group of four Canadians (including Ontario native Robertson) and one American who first met while playing backup for rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. Their final concert was chronicled in Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz” in 1976, with the film released in 1978.

“I could always go to him as a confidante,” Scorsese continued. “A collaborator. An advisor. I tried to be the same for him.”

Following the breakup of the band, Robertson wrote scores for several Scorsese pictures, beginning with “Raging Bull” in 1980 all the way through to “The Irishman” in 2019 and the upcoming “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Long before we ever met, his music played a central role in my life—me and millions and millions of other people all over this world. The Band’s music, and Robbie’s own later solo music, seemed to come from the deepest place at the heart of this continent, its traditions and tragedies and joys.

“It goes without saying that he was a giant, that his effect on the art form was profound and lasting. There’s never enough time with anyone you love. And I loved Robbie.”

Steve Pond contributed to this report.

The post  appeared first on TheWrap.

Biden wants to compensate New Mexico residents sickened by radiation during 1945 nuclear testing

The Canadian Press
Wed, August 9, 2023 


BELEN, N.M. (AP) — President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he’s open to granting assistance for people sickened by exposure to radiation during nuclear weapons testing, including in New Mexico, where the world’s first atomic bomb was tested in 1945.

Biden brought up the issue while speaking Wednesday in Belen at a factory that produces wind towers.

“I’m prepared to help in terms of making sure that those folks are taken care of,” he said.

The state's place in American history as a testing ground has gotten more attention recently with the release of “Oppenheimer,” a movie about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the top-secret Manhattan Project.

Biden watched the film last week while on vacation in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico spoke of how the first bomb was tested on soil just south of where the event was. The senator also discussed getting an amendment into the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which gives payments to people who become ill from nuclear weapons tests or uranium mining during the Cold War.

“And those families did not get the help that they deserved. They were left out of the original legislation,” Lujan added. “We’re fighting with everything that we have” to keep the amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act.

Last month, the U.S. Senate voted to expand compensation. The provisions would extend health care coverage and compensation to so-called downwinders exposed to radiation during weapons testing to several new regions stretching from New Mexico to Guam.

Biden said he told Lujan that he’s “prepared to help in terms of making sure that those folks are taken care of.”

The Associated Press

Minister launches review of B.C. port strike case to uncover 'structural issues'

The Canadian Press
Wed, August 9, 2023 



VANCOUVER — Federal Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan is launching an examination of the recently resolved British Columbia port dispute to see if "structural issues" in negotiations led to a 13-day work stoppage last month.

In a written statement released Wednesday through social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, O'Regan said officials will immediately begin by reviewing reports on previous, similar disputes.

O'Regan said the goal is to create "a harmonious working environment" between unions and employers in future collective bargaining, in order to prevent future stoppages similar to the port strike from happening.

"Another dispute and disruption on that scale is still possible, and that's not good enough," O'Regan said in the statement. "The workers and businesses that depend on our ports deserve long-term solutions. They deserve answers."

The port labour dispute between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada representing about 7,400 workers and the BC Maritime Employers Association came to an end last Friday, when the union announced its members voted almost 75 per cent in favour of ratifying a new deal.

But the unrest had been tumultuous.

Workers went on strike from July 1 to July 13, freezing the movement of billions of dollars worth of cargo at some of the country's busiest ports.

A tentative deal halted that strike action, but when the union caucus said it wanted to reject the contract, there was a brief return to pickets on July 18.

The Canada Industrial Relations Board ruled that move illegal without notice, forcing employees back to work the next day.

A full union membership vote rejected the tentative agreement on July 28, and O'Regan directed the industrial relations board to consider imposing a deal or binding arbitration on the two sides.

The union and employers announced they had reached a new deal with the help of the board on July 30, and it was ratified by last week's union vote.

In a written statement, BCMEA president and CEO Mike Leonard indicated employers may be interested in taking part in O'Regan's efforts to improve "port labour relations structure," saying the association welcomed the government review as an "opportunity to modernize" the process.

Groups such as the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce have called for "new tools" to settle labour disputes in critical supply-chain sectors, with the federation asking for the designation of ports as essential services.

Labour experts, however, said the federal government may have limited options to prevent similar strikes from happening when talks hit an impasse, as was the case with the B.C. port dispute.

University of Manitoba associate professor of Labour Studies David Camfield said workers' right to strike in Canada is already "very narrowly circumscribed," with only unionized workers eligible to take job action at a specific time after a collective agreement has expired.

Camfield said a push by the government to further limit strike action during collective negotiations — an act protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms — may end up triggering legal challenges and getting bogged down in courts.

"I can understand why there are business groups putting pressure on the federal government to further restrict it, particularly for some kinds of workers," Camfield said. "But this is already a pretty restricted right."

Camfield said the number of strikes in Canada has not grown as fast as those in other countries such as the United States, and pales in comparison to the frequency of job action between the 1960s and the 1980s.

"The relative impact of strikes on the economy is actually really low compared to what it once was," he said. "But the tolerance level for inconvenience and disruption also has dropped, and so when workers like these port workers exercised their legal right, some people act like the sky is falling."

University of British Columbia professor emeritus Mark Thompson said a post-mortem of the port strike by someone not involved in the negotiations would likely show that "all of the parties were rather inept" in causing the work stoppage, and structural changes to labour relations are not warranted.

"Longshoring strikes cause economic damage, which is usually made up rather quickly," he said. "Stories of economic losses are greatly exaggerated … more skilled negotiators on both sides, plus the mediator, might well have ended this strike more quickly without direct intervention by the government."

Thompson said the strike may have been avoided if the employers addressed the union's non-wage concerns such as contracting out and job protection earlier in the negotiations.

Terms of the deal ratified by both the union and the BC Maritime Employers Association released by the CIRB this week included a commitment by employers to train workers to perform maintenance on new equipment.

Contracting out maintenance work to third parties had been one of the most contentious issues during the dispute.

The four-year agreement also contains several terms about workers' compensation, including boosts to hourly wages to a base rate of $57.51 by 2026.

There are also increases in the "Modernization and Mechanization retirement lump sum," bringing that payout to $96,250 in 2026 for eligible retirees, over and above normal pension entitlements.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 9, 2023.

Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press

LOW PAID TEMP WORKERS
Census workers logged hundreds of cases of violence, harassment by public: documents

The Canadian Press
Wed, August 9, 2023



OTTAWA — Statistics Canada documents show workers who went door-to-door to collect data for the 2021 census logged hundreds of workplace injuries and at least 15 assaults by members of the public.

The data tables obtained by The Canadian Press through access-to-information law list 680 injury reports, including more than 280 cases of harassment or violence.

In some of the most extreme examples, employees were punched, threatened with firearms, spat on or sexually assaulted.

In one case, a census interviewer was assaulted by a resident using a "pellet gun," while another had a "gun pointed at her from another vehicle," the documents say.

One worker was knocked down stairs after being punched in the face by a resident, and had to go to the hospital.

Another census employee was unwillingly detained in the home of an angry resident, the documents say. The event was reported to the RCMP.

In at least three separate instances, people collecting data for Statistics Canada reported that they were sexually assaulted by members of the public.

The majority of the census workplace safety complaints were traced to western and central provinces.

The Canadian government collects national population data every five years, and Statistics Canada representatives are sent to visit households that are late to submit their census questionnaires.

The injury reports from staffers showed there were 137 cases of people's dogs being aggressive or biting them, along with 158 slips, trips or falls.

Details about the total number of assaults and psychological injuries are redacted in the documents, as is information about any workplace fatalities.

Other categories of injuries included vehicle accidents, "potential contamination" and other "emergency" situations. The total number of incidents for each is also redacted.

The Canadian Press has contacted Statistics Canada and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, who is responsible for Statistics Canada matters, for comment, but neither responded by deadline.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 9, 2023.

Liam Fox, The Canadian Press

National Steel Car workers ratify new deal, end 41-day strike

CBC
Wed, August 9, 2023 

Frank Crowder, United Steelworkers Local 7135 president, stands outside National Steel Car, workers picketed since June 29. (Samantha Beattie/CBC - image credit)

A new deal between National Steel Car and its workers has been ratified, officially marking the end of a 41-day strike at the rail car maker.

A press release from the Local 7135 of the United Steelworkers union (USW) says workers voted for a new contract that will include a 13 per cent wage increase over three years, with six per cent in the first year and a $1,000 signing bonus.

Members in the skilled trades will also get an extra one dollar per hour wage increase in each of the first and third years of the contract, the union says.

The new collective agreement will also add another health and safety representative at the workplace and will improve other health and safety provisions.

Other improvements, the union says, includes changes to the defined-benefit and defined-contribution pension plans, and increases in shift premiums, dental care, vision care and safety boots allowances.

"We believe that we achieved what we were looking for," Frank Crowder, president of USW Local 7135, said.

"We went out with only a 52 per cent majority in favour of a strike, but our presence on the picket line was 100 per cent."

Some 1,475 workers went on strike on June 29, calling on higher wages and improved safety, Crowder previously said.

The union said maintenance workers will head back to work immediately to conduct inspections of the plant, while the remainder of union members will return to work on Monday, Aug. 14.

Striking Workers Caught Coca-Cola Breaking BC Labour Laws


Local Journalism Initiative
Wed, August 9, 2023 

Striking Coca-Cola workers in Metro Vancouver caught the company breaking labour laws in apparent effort to keep the soda flowing during a weeks-long shutdown.

The BC Labour Relations Board has twice ordered Coca-Cola Canada Bottling to stop using workers it paid to do the work of striking members of Teamsters Local 213 at its bottling plant in Richmond.

Union members say they caught the company through an impromptu surveillance operation they dubbed a “flying picket line,” which involved Teamsters covertly tailing company trucks and speaking with drivers and passengers.

They found the company has flown in employees from as far as Quebec.

Coke Canada spokesperson Kathy Murphy said in a written statement that the company was “deploying our contingency plan as permitted by British Columbia labour laws.”

But Teamsters Local 213 business agent Jim Loyst said the board found the company’s conduct was illegal.

“They’ve chosen to break the labour code as part of their contingency plan, which obviously creates a lot of frustration on the lines for my members,” Loyst said.

“If the company would just follow the laws and respect them, the focus would be on getting back to the bargaining table.”

Teamsters Local 213 represents more than 400 Coca-Cola employees at the Richmond bottling site and at three distribution centres in the Lower Mainland, as well as another worksite on the Sunshine Coast.

Those workers have been on strike since July 13 after their collective agreement expired earlier this year.

Workers on the picket line say the dispute boils down to wages.

Ron Walsh, who has worked at the Richmond bottling plant for 26 years, said he and his colleagues have seen their expenses skyrocket since the last deal was signed in 2020.

Walsh and his colleagues never stopped working when the COVID-19 pandemic began. In fact, the bottling facility began operating 24-7 to keep up with the steady demand for Coke, A&W root beer and Canada Dry ginger ale. The company’s net sales dipped when the pandemic began, according to its public financial reports, but its profits have rebounded. It reported net revenues of a staggering $43 billion in its most recent fiscal year.

But its workers in the Lower Mainland say their wages have been eclipsed by runaway inflation. Walsh said many workers were hoping for more just to make ends meet in Metro Vancouver.

“We’re just trying to beat some of the inflation that’s happening,” Walsh said.

Workers had hoped picketing the plant would hurt the company enough to push them back to the bargaining table.

The last time workers went on strike in 2017, some local stores reported a shortage of the company’s products on their shelves. But that hasn’t happened this year.

Instead, Loyst said workers on the picket line have seen massive charter buses with tinted windows arriving at the bottling plant each morning, dropping off what appear to be dozens of people at the plant.

“We can observe them wearing safety vests for work boots and some are wearing COVID masks or hoodies, which seem to hide their identities,” Loyst said.

In British Columbia, it is illegal for a company to hire someone to do the job of a striking worker, even if they work for the same employer at a different facility. Legislation calls them “replacement workers”; many union members use the derogatory term “scab.”

But there are exceptions. Managers who fall outside of a collective agreement, for example, are allowed to do the work of striking union members.

Loyst said his members recognized some of the people coming into the bottling facility as managers. But they couldn’t place the others. The company erected a fence around the bottling plant during the dispute, Loyst said, and retained a security company to monitor picketing workers. Loyst claimed those security workers also stood in front of the mysterious workers when they got on and off the buses, meaning union members couldn’t identify them.

Loyst said the union responded by dispatching members to follow company trucks as they left the plant to see who was driving them.

“There’s guys who are out on the road full time who are following to see who is taking a trailer from point A to point B,” Walsh said.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said another union member who did not wish to be named. “You put the Mission Impossible music on, and off you go.”

Loyst said his members eventually identified multiple workers Coca-Cola had apparently brought in, including managers and workers from Prince George, Kelowna and Quebec.

The Teamsters brought a complaint to the BC Labour Relations Board, who issued a bottom-line decision on July 25 stating the company had violated the province’s labour laws and ordering them to stop.

Coca-Cola agreed to a second cease and desist on Aug. 1, Loyst said.

Coca-Cola has not faced any fines as a result of the violations, something Loyst believes highlights a flaw in the province’s labour laws.

“Why do we have to basically play cat-and-mouse to catch them doing something, when they should know better?” Loyst said.

Michelle Travis, a spokesperson with Unite Here Local 40, a union representing thousands of workers in hospitality and food services in B.C., says her union has filed multiple complaints to the labour board about the use of replacement workers and has won some of them. But the province’s labour code doesn’t outline any penalties for employers who break those rules, even though they can undermine a union’s leverage during a strike or lockout.

“If they break the law, I think there is a penalty that should come with it. It shouldn’t be acceptable for an employer to break the code multiple times and they don’t have to pay a stiff penalty,” Travis said.

Meanwhile, Walsh and his colleagues are hoping for a breakthrough at the bargaining table.

William Asomaning, a quality inspector at the Richmond plant, says the sharpest increases were for items like gasoline, rent and groceries — essentials that his family can’t opt out of.

“We were OK. But then with the inflation going on, we went from doing $300 of groceries every month to doing $300 every two weeks. That’s what it’s been for us,” Asomaning said.

Loyst said the company made two offers to the union during 22 days of bargaining, including a wage package that included a 10 per cent hike over three years. Some union members on the picket line said they were hoping for an increase as high as 15 per cent.

In her statement, Murphy said the union was asking for “a magnitude of increases that go beyond what is offered in the industry, across our business and that we simply cannot accept.”

Workers on the line, though, say they are just trying to keep up with the cost of living.

“Our rents have gone up. Groceries go up. Gas goes up all the time. We haven’t taken a raise and we’ve worked through it,” Walsh said.

Zak Vescera, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee

Disney CEO reaches out to striking Hollywood creatives with 'deep respect'

Danielle Broadway and Dawn Chmielewski
Wed, August 9, 2023


 Hollywood actors and writers on strike outside Disney studios in California


By Danielle Broadway and Dawn Chmielewski

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Walt Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger on Wednesday said he was committed to finding a solution to the Hollywood writer and actor strikes, citing his "deep respect" for creative professionals, as he signaled a turn from comments that inflamed tensions last month.

Iger last month told striking actors that their demands were "not realistic."

The Hollywood writers' strike entered its 100th day on Wednesday with contract talks stalled and people on the picket lines protesting what they say is a disregard for their demands. The actors strike started less than a month ago.

The growth of artificial intelligence has been a key issue for union members, who fear that it could replace their creative input.

"Nothing is more important to this company than its relationships with the creative," Iger said on a call discussing Disney's quarterly results on Wednesday.

"I have deep respect and appreciation for all those who are vital to the extraordinary creative engine that drives this company and our industry," he said.

Iger, who returned to Disney as CEO last year, did not say how he would help bring the strikes to an end.

In July, Iger angered members of both unions by saying that the demands of the SAG-AFTRA actors union for a labor contract with higher pay and limits on use of artificial intelligence were "not realistic."

Emmy-winning "Breaking Bad" actor Bryan Cranston about a week later took aim at Iger in remarks to striking actors, saying: "We don't expect you to understand who we are, but we ask you to hear us. And beyond that, to listen to us when we tell you, we will not be having our jobs taken away and given to robots."

Under Iger, Disney has created a task force to study artificial intelligence and how it can be applied across the company, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Danielle Broadway and Dawn Chmielewski; Editing by Mary Milliken and Leslie Adler)

Disney Rises After Hollywood Strikes Save Company $3 Billion

Thomas Buckley
Wed, August 9, 2023


(Bloomberg) -- Walt Disney Co. rose more than 6% in extended trading after management of the world’s largest entertainment company said capital spending and outlays for movies and TV shows are coming in lower than projected.

Disney expects content spending this year to total about $27 billion, Kevin Lansberry, acting chief financial officer, said Wednesday on a call with investors after the Burbank, California-based company posted third-quarter results. Disney typically spends about $30 billion.

The savings are partly as a result of production cuts tied to writer and actor strikes in Hollywood, he said. Disney also forecasts capital spending of $5 billion, lower than projected previously, as the company shifts the timing of some projects. He reiterated Disney’s ambition to pay a modest dividend this year.

The comments lifted shares of Disney to as high as $92.80 in extended trading, reversing an earlier decline.

Earlier Wednesday, Disney reported fiscal third-quarter profit of $1.03 a share, beating the 99-cent average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales grew 3.8% to $22.3 billion in the quarter ended July 1, missing analysts’ projections slightly.

During the period, Disney’s online video operation cut its loss to $512 million from more than $1 billion a year ago. Just three months ago, management predicted the direct-to-consumer business would lose more than $750 million in the quarter. Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger also told investors that the company will crack down on password sharing, echoing the recent effort from rival Netflix Inc. that has boosted subscriber numbers.

But subscribers to the Disney+ streaming service tumbled 7.4% to 146.1 million from the previous three months, missing the 154.8 million consensus analysts had expected. Nearly all of that shortfall was borne by the company’s Disney+ Hotstar in Asia. It lost almost 25% of its customers after Disney failed to renew streaming rights for popular cricket games in the Indian Premier League.

The company also announced it’s raising prices for some streaming subscriptions by as much as 27%.

The world’s largest entertainment company launched an extensive cost-cutting effort after Iger returned to run the company in November. That included 7,000 job cuts and other reductions in spending.

As part of that effort, Disney recorded $2.44 billion in costs in the third quarter to remove shows and movies from its online services and terminate deals with outside producers, greater than earlier projections. The company also recorded charges of $210 million due to severance costs. In a statement Wednesday, Iger said he expects to exceed the overall cost-cutting target of $5.5 billion.

Disney reported a 23% decline in profit, to $1.89 billion, in traditional TV — underscoring the troubles confronting that division. The business, which includes channels such as ABC and ESPN, has been buffeted by falling cable subscribers, lower broadcast advertising sales and higher programming costs for sports.

The company’s theme-park business, the world’s largest, earned $2.43 billion, an 11% increase from last year. Weakness at the Florida resorts was offset by a huge swing to profitability at the international theme parks.

Disney is in the throes of major upheaval: Iger signaled in a July interview with CNBC that TV networks including ABC, Freeform and FX, which contributed about half of Disney’s operating income before the pandemic, “may not be core” to the company any longer.

Speculation in Hollywood is also rampant with the notion that Iger is seeking to sell Disney to a larger tech company such as Apple Inc. Iger appeared to softly talk down that prospect on the call with investors Wednesday, saying that “anyone who wanted to speculate about such things would have to immediately consider the global regulatory environment. I’ll say no more than that.”

He’s also seeking to sell a stake in the ESPN sports business to a partner that can help accelerate the network’s transition to streaming. Iger recently hired former lieutenants Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs as consultants to advise on that effort.

On Tuesday, ESPN announced a long-term agreement with casino operator Penn Entertainment Inc. to license its brand for sports betting. Penn will make cash payments totaling $1.5 billion over the 10-year term and grant ESPN $500 million of warrants to purchase Penn shares.

The company is also conducting a search for a new chief financial officer after longtime executive Christine McCarthy left that position in July.

 Bloomberg Businessweek