ARGENTINA

Government intervenes to avert strike in

 health-worker pay dispute

Labour Ministry bans healthcare workers from staging two days of walkouts, ordering 15 days of talks between unions and companies from sector to resolve pay dispute.


HEALTH-WORKERS UNIONS HAD CALLED FOUR-HOUR STOPPAGES OVER TWO DAYS AMID A PAY DISPUTE. | NA

Faced with the threat of patients being left without urgent medical care in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic due to a pay dispute, the government moved to head off planned strike action from health-workers this week

On Wednesday, the Labour Ministry ordered 15 days of mandatory conciliation talks between health unions, led by Carlos West Ocampo and Héctor Daer, and companies from the sector to resolve the dispute.

The portfolio, headed by Claudio Moroni, told union leaders to "nullify any direct action measure that they were implementing and/or have planned to implement” and summoned representatives from both sides to the Ministry’s headquarters for a hearing next Wednesday.

Health-workers unions had earlier announced four-hour stoppages for Thursday and Friday, saying they would only treat urgent priorities during those hours amid an ongoing pay dispute. The news followed assemblies in hospitals, clinics and health institutions across the country. Workers at private institutions were also set to join the walkout.

Grouped under the banner of the Federación de Asociaciones de los Trabajadores de la Sanidad (FATSA), representing some 250,000 employees, workers at hospitals and clinics are seeking a salary increase of between 43 and 45 percent, in line with recent increases secured by unions representing truckers and bankers. Annual inflation totals 48.8 percent over the last 12 months, according to government data.

The strike threat comes at a challenging moment for Argentina’s health system, which is split into three sectors of public hospitals, union-run obras sociales healthcare schemes and private prepaid medicine. Firms say they can't meet the pay demands if they are not allowed to increase their fees for services, a move the government will not allow. They argue that the health system has suffered "dramatic underfunding" for years.

After more than a year of battling the coronavirus pandemic, many hospitals say resources are stretched and that staff are close to exhaustion. Covid-19 cases and fatalities remain stubbornly high, with more than 21,000 confirmed cases and almost 500 fatalities recorded on Thursday alone. The previous day’s death toll was 638.

However, occupancy of intensive care units nationwide has slowly lowered over the past week to 66.3 percent, dropping to 64.2 percent in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA), as of Thursday.

– TIMES/NA

2,500 County Workers in and Around Chicago Are Currently on Strike

JACOBIN
AN INTERVIEW WITH ERICKA WHITE 07.04.2021

Cook County workers never stopped working during the pandemic. At the bargaining table, they say that Cook County Board president Toni Preckwinkle refuses to recognize their sacrifices — which is why 2,500 county workers are currently in their second week of a strike. We spoke to one of the strikers.
Cook County workers represented by SEIU Local 73 are on strike. (Courtesy SEIU Local 73)

INTERVIEW BY Sarah Hurd

The custodians, technicians, and clerks of Cook County, Illinois, never stopped working during the pandemic, even as many of their coworkers died of the virus. This week, they aren’t working. The 2,500 members of SEIU Local 73 are now in their second week of a strike.

Local 73 has been negotiating a contract for more than eight months, and the key point of debate is health benefits. The county has threatened to increase premiums by up to 80 percent over the length of the next contract. Seeing the success of fellow SEIU members at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Chicago Public Schools, Cook County workers want something similar. So far, the county, under the leadership of Cook County Board president Toni Preckwinkle, appears to want to make an example of Local 73. Despite the local’s support of Preckwinkle during her failed 2019 mayoral run, her negotiation team has made deals to settle contracts with other unions in the city with wage increases these striking workers are denied.

Sarah Hurd talked about the strike to Ericka White, who works in the procurement office of Cook County and is a union steward and negotiating team member for Local 73.
SH


What is the most important piece of these contract negotiations, for you?
EW


For me, it’s about basic dignity and respect for workers who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic and before. Cook County government never closed down during the pandemic. The people using the services of Cook County are the least of us — we couldn’t shut down the hospitals, we couldn’t shut down the jails, we couldn’t shut down the corporate offices. We didn’t have that luxury.

We’ve always worked hard, and we should not be pushed aside like we’re insignificant. We provide a service for Cook County government, and we’re determined to not let that be forgotten. The main thing we’re fighting for is our health care coverage. The county is proposing increasing our health care premiums over the life of our four-year contract by almost 80 percent.

SH


Has the pandemic made you and your coworkers think more about adequate health care coverage?
EW


A great many of our coworkers, especially those in the clinics and jails, have contracted the virus. Some not once but twice. We have employees who have passed away due to COVID while doing their jobs. We are a county health system, so we don’t turn anybody away. We had whole floors at the hospital that were COVID floors, and our members were the ones working them. For parts of it, they didn’t even have PPE.

Our workers are passionate about the work they do. They went to work every day. Others opened our homes up as home offices when the county buildings closed down because the work of the county never stopped.
SH


Toni Preckwinkle is not only the president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, she is also your boss. How do you feel about how she’s handled the union’s demands?
EW


It doesn’t feel like she’s been willing to listen. We have not seen her at any of the negotiations. She has a management team in the labor relations department that conducts these negotiations. From what they’ve put across the table, it doesn’t seem like they are interested in negotiating a fair and equitable contract for our members.

We’ve been negotiating now for almost nine months. We are in the economics phase of it right now. This week, the SEIU negotiating team has been negotiating well into the morning. We got out of negotiation sessions at about 2:15 AM — the night before we got out about 2:47 AM. And this is after we’ve been on the picket line all day long. Since Saturday we have been trying to negotiate nonstop, to no avail.
SH


I know Local 73 supported President Preckwinkle in the past. Do you think this dispute will affect that support for her in the future?
EW


Absolutely.
SH


A wide range of workers are on strike right now: office workers, health care workers, many others. Has it been challenging to bring everybody together?
EW


We are very much together, and it wasn’t a struggle to bring us together. We are all experiencing the same issues throughout the county. No matter what department you work for, we are all experiencing the very same thing.
SH


It feels like we’re in a time right now when many different kinds of workers are seizing their power and realizing that the world doesn’t really function without them doing these jobs. Have workers in other fields who are fighting for themselves had an impact on Local 73 members?
EW


Yes. We are in Chicago and have come off of two great [recent] strikes that SEIU were a part of, with the University of Illinois Chicago workers as well as the Chicago public-school workers in conjunction with the Chicago Teachers Union. So we had the privilege of watching before us the victories [those strikes produced] and how it brought those organizations closer together and made them willing to fight. Now that we are on the front lines, those very organizations are coming out in support of us, because they know why we’re fighting and they’ve been there.

So they are encouraging us to stay in this fight. They are encouraging us by coming out to the strike lines with us, giving us pep talks, and letting us know what’s to come.
SH


What are you expecting to happen in the negotiations in the next few days?

EW


The SEIU 73 negotiating team never left the table. We are just waiting on Cook County to say, “Let’s get back to the table and finish this. Let’s work out a settlement for a fair and equitable contract for the very workers that have kept the county going and never let it shut down.”

I am a woman of faith and I’ve prayed on this. I asked God to let it end in such a way that it’s equitable for the members. I’m hopeful we’re on the right path. Will it happen overnight? I won’t say that, but when we put in the work, things happen. SEIU is ready to put in the work; we’re just waiting on the county.

We are losing pay every day. We are not rich, so when we lose a day’s pay, we have to make decisions about what we can pay and what can wait. It hurts. But we’re in it for the long haul because we know we’re worth it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ericka White works in the procurement office of Cook County. She is a union steward and negotiating team member for SEIU Local 73.

ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Sarah Hurd is a producer for the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America’s Midwest Socialist podcast.

Report: Vale strike drives up price for battery-grade nickel

Darren MacDonald

CTV News Northern Ontario Digital Content Producer
@Darrenmacd Contact

Published Friday, July 2, 2021


Adrian Gardner, principal analyst for nickel markets at research firm Wood Mackenzie, told Bloomberg News the strike at Vale in Sudbury could last for several months. (File)


SUDBURY -- A nickel market analyst expects the strike at Vale operations in Sudbury to drag on, as prices for the high-grade nickel produced in the area increases, in part because of the local labour disruption.

According to a story from Bloomberg, the strike is putting pressure on the supply of nickel needed to make batteries for electric vehicles.

"Sudbury is one of the world’s few producers of nickel pellet, a form used to produce alloys for aerospace, electronic and nuclear industries," the story said. "Production at Vale’s northeast Ontario operation halted when unionized workers went on strike on June 1. The disruption is driving consumers to tap battery-grade nickel briquette as an alternative."

That shift is increasing competition for briquette, the main form of nickel stored at LME warehouses. Supply has fallen by nine per cent since a peak in April and are now at the lowest in more than a year, Bloomberg said.

"Battery-grade nickel is a key ingredient in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, helping pack more energy into cells and allowing producers to reduce use of cobalt, a more costly metal that typically has a less transparent supply chain," the story said.

"The market for such nickel is expected to be in a tight balance in the next two to three years and could slip into a deficit as early as 2024, according to energy data and analysis firm BloombergNEF."

Members of Steelworkers Local 6500 have been on strike since last month. Issues include benefits for new workers.

Adrian Gardner, principal analyst for nickel markets at research firm Wood Mackenzie, told Bloomberg the strike could last for several months. Vale faced a yearlong strike in Canada back in 2009 and 2010.

Striking workers represented by United Steelworkers Local 6500 have twice rejected a wage offer presented by the Brazilian mining giant this year.

Read the full story here.

Related Stories
Pop-up rally in support of striking Vale workers
Sudbury Steelworkers Local 6500 rejects Vale's second offer
Vale strikers collect money for food bank

VALE Strike impacting battery market
Analyst senses labour dispute could extend for months

Author of the article: Sudbury Star Staff
Publishing date: Jul 02, 2021 • 

Family and friends of striking USW 6500 members, along with supporters from the local labour community, take part in a rally Wednesday afternoon at the Four Corners. Many of the signs read: "We stand by you, as you fight for them," in reference to the union's concern for the next generation of Vale workers. PHOTO BY JIM MOODIE/SUDBURY STAR

A strike at Vale’s Sudbury operations is taxing a nickel market that’s key to powering electric vehicles.

The job action by USW Local 6500 is now entering its second month, with no new contract talks planned.

Bloomberg News notes that Sudbury is one of the world’s few producers of nickel pellet, a form used to produce alloys for aerospace, electronic and nuclear industries.

Production at Vale’s northeast Ontario operation halted when unionized workers went on strike on June 1. The disruption is driving consumers to tap battery-grade nickel briquette as an alternative.

That shift is increasing competition for briquette, pushing up North American premiums, or extra charges consumers pay on top of nickel prices on the London Metal Exchange, as stockpiles of the metal dwindle, Bloomberg said.

Inventories of briquette, the main form of nickel stored at LME warehouses, have fallen nine per cent since a peak in April and are now at the lowest in more than a year.

“Given the challenges at a number of Class 1 nickel operations over 2021 to date, availability of material for end customer purchases is more limited that might have been thought,” Colin Hamilton, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, told Bloomberg.

Battery-grade nickel is a key ingredient in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, helping pack more energy into cells and allowing producers to reduce use of cobalt, a more costly metal that typically has a less transparent supply chain.

The market for such nickel is expected to be in a tight balance in the next two to three years and could slip into a deficit as early as 2024, according to energy data and analysis firm BloombergNEF.

Bloomberg said that since the Vale strike began, the premium on briquette has risen 24 per cent and U.S. prices on June 22 hit their highest level since November 2019, according to Fastmarkets data.

Nickel for three-month delivery posted an eight per cent weekly gain last week on the London Metal Exchange, the biggest since August 2019.

On Thursday, nickel was selling for US $2.115.

“The strike is not the main driver of nickel price increase, but it will be the main driver on the North American nickel premium increase,” Adrian Gardner, principal analyst for nickel markets at research firm Wood Mackenzie, told Bloomberg.

Gardner said he isn’t optimistic about a solution to the Vale strike and anticipates the labor dispute could extend for many months. Vale faced a year-long strike in Canada back in 2009 and 2010.

Striking workers represented by Local 6500 have twice rejected a contract offer presented by the Brazilian mining giant this year.

Local 6500’s bargaining committee recommended acceptance of a tentative agreement with Vale on May 31, but the membership rejected it.

Vale made a second offer two weeks later, but this time the bargaining team was not in favour and members also voted it down.

The Steelworkers say Vale’s contract offers contained concessions that union members find unacceptable and believe are not needed.

Vale said contract changes are needed to justify new investments that are needed to its Sudbury operations.

Meanwhile, the Brazilian miner this week said it will invest C $150 million ($121.15 million U.S.) to extend current mining activities in Thompson, Man. by 10 years.

“This is the largest single investment we have made in our Thompson operations in the past two decades,” Vale’s executive vice-president for base metals, Mark Travers, said in a statement.

The company said the Thompson Mine Expansion is a two-phase project and the investment announcement represents phase 1. It added phase 1 includes infrastructure such as new ventilation raises and fans, increased backfill capacity and additional power distribution.

Vale expects changes to improve current production by 30 per cent.

The Thompson orebody was first discovered in 1956 by Vale and mining began in 1961.

Vale said it will continue exploration drilling of known orebodies that hold the promise of mining well past 2040.

— with files from Reuters

350 Kingston resumes weekly climate strike

Author of the article:Brigid Goulem

Publishing date:Jul 02, 2021 •

Members of 350 Kingston protest on Princess Street on Friday, July 3, 2021, calling for meaningful and immediate action on climate change. PHOTO BY BRIGID GOULEM /The Whig-Standard

The town of Lytton, B.C., burned to the ground earlier this week following days of record-smashing heat and severe wildfires so large they developed pyrocumulonimbus clouds, which produced wind and lightning and started more fires.

In the face of such a catastrophic climate event, climate activists with 350 Kingston are resuming their weekly Fridays for Future climate strikes outside Tara’s Foods to call for immediate and meaningful action on climate change at the municipal, provincial and federal levels.

Jude Larkin, an organizer with 350 Kingston, explained that now that much of the risk of COVID-19 has subsided, the group is recommitting to addressing the growing climate crisis.

Larkin is concerned that governments are not taking action and is calling for government budgets that reflect the urgency of the issue.

“I’m most concerned that we’re not taking any action. You have to spend money proportionate to the size of the crisis. For instance, in Vancouver, 7 per cent of their municipal budget is climate,” she said in an interview with the Whig-Standard.

Despite mounting evidence of the immediate and catastrophic consequences of climate change, Larkin says the Canadian government continues to increase emissions and prioritize economic projects.

“Canada is one of the worst countries for increasing our emissions. Other countries have gone down, but we have steadily gone up and it’s because of the tarsands. We need to cancel all fossil fuel projects immediately,” she said.

Larkin is calling for a shift away from climate policies that focus on incentives and towards the implementation of mandatory changes.

“It can’t just be incentives to buy electric cars. There needs to be a commitment that there will be no more (internal combustion) cars after 2025,” she said.

Fellow activist Floyd Rudmin expressed concern that the Canadian government was investing too much money in military spending that could be directed towards meaningful climate action.

“If five million Canadians die in a week, it’s not going to be (because of) Russia; it’s going to be gigantic firestorms like in B.C. but in Toronto or Ottawa,” Rudmin said in an interview with the Whig-Standard.

Until they see meaningful action on climate change, the activists of 350 Kingston vow to be on the streets every Friday.

Video shows lightning strike as fire burns on Strawberry Hill

A number of fires have been ignited in the July 1 storm that rolled through Kamloops

Kamloops This Week
JULY 1, 2021 

A lightning strike hits the top of Strawberry Hill on July 1, igniting a fire at that spot. A lighting strike about 20 minutes earlier sparked the blaze to the right. There were two more lightning-ignited fires on the mountain above Highway 5, but all were eventually doused via Kamloops Fire Rescue Service work and Mother Nature's rain.

Photograph By CHRISTOPHER FOULDS/KTW

  

Protests delay inauguration of Chile's new constitutional assembly

By Aislinn Laing

© Reuters/PABLO SANHUEZA 

Chile's assembly holds first session to draft a new constitution

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - The swearing in of the architects of Chile's new constitution got off to an inauspicious start on Sunday after protests outside and inside the venue, and clashes with police forced a delay to the event.

© Reuters/PABLO SANHUEZA Chile's assembly holds first session to draft a new constitution

Problems arose after marches organised by independent, left-wing and indigenous groups fielding delegates for the constitutional body, as well as other interest groups, met heavily armed police manning barricades outside Santiago's former congress building where the ceremony is being held.

© Reuters/IVAN ALVARADO Chile's assembly holds first session to draft a new constitution

Scuffles broke out after some participants sought to overrun the barriers, prompting police to respond with tear gas and water canons.

Delegates inside the event then remonstrated with the organisers over heavy-handed police tactics, banging drums and shouting over a youth classical orchestra playing the national anthem.

Amid demands by delegates for "repressive" special forces police to be withdrawn, the electoral court official presiding over the ceremony agreed to suspend the event until midday.

The fracas underscores the intense challenges for the drafting of a new magna carta against a backdrop of deep divisions that still simmer after Chile was torn apart by massive protests that started in October 2019 over inequality and elitism and were fueled by a fierce police response.

© Reuters/IVAN ALVARADO Chile's assembly holds first session to draft a new constitution

The constitutional body is made up of 155 delegates, including 17 indigenous candidates, equally split between men and women, and was picked by a popular vote in May.

It is dominated by independent and leftist candidates, some with roots in the protest movement, with a smaller share of more conservative candidates backed by the current centre-right government.

Vale Miranda, at 20 the youngest constitutional delegate, wrote on Twitter that she and other delegates sought to stop heavy-handed security forces blocking protesters from marching.

© Reuters/PABLO SANHUEZA Chile's assembly holds first session to draft a new constitution

"Now they are hitting us and they just split my lip!" she said. "Let the whole world know that there is no democracy in Chile."


Marcela Cubillos, a candidate representing the government coalition, said the impasse was "a bad sign."

"Today should be the day that our important work starts, to comply with the mandate given to us by Chileans," she said.

Chileans voted overwhelmingly to tear up the current constitution drafted during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in a referendum last year.

The delegates have vowed to address topics including water and property rights, central bank independence and labour practices, prompting jitters among investors of potentially significant changes to the free market system of the world's top copper producer.

Before the ceremony began, Aymara and Mapuche delegates held spiritual ceremonies with song and dance in the downtown streets surrounding the body's new headquarters and on a nearby hillside.

Unrecognised in the current constitution, they are hoping a new text will afford their nations new cultural, political and social rights.

"We walk with our people and our history to open the gates they put before us," said Elisa Loncon, a Mapuche delegate and university professor who is seen as a candidate for presidency of the body.

MUTED GOVERNMENT

The government of centre-right President Sebastian Pinera stayed quiet as the events unfolded.

His coalition failed to secure the necessary one third of seats on the body to ward off drastic changes.

The inauguration is not the first sign of tensions in the process. Last month, when Pinera sought to remind delegates of the need not to overstep their remit, he was slapped down by some delegates who said they would set their own rules.

In recent weeks, there have been angry denunciations of government by delegates over budgets, COVID-19 rules around gathering size and who would preside over the ceremony.

The commission has up to a year to agree a common rulebook, establish committees and draft a new text.

Leandro Lima, a Southern Cone analyst for Control Risks, said the independents brought "legitimacy" to the process given Chileans' deep mistrust in established politics but a paucity of policymaking experience and deep ideological divisions could cause critical delays to the drafting of the text itself.

(Reporting by Aislinn Laing; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Journalist’s Months long Hunger Strike Points to Perils of Reporting in Morocco

Soulaimane Raissouni, who has been held without trial for over a year, is more than 80 days into a hunger strike

A protest calling for the release of the detained journalists Omar Radi and Soulaimane Raissouni in Rabat, Morocco, in May.Credit...Mosa'Ab Elshamy/Associated Press


By Nicholas Casey and Aida Alami
July 3, 2021


For years, Soulaimane Raissouni, a Moroccan newspaper editor, didn’t shy away from reporting on some of the most sensitive issues in the North African kingdom, including antigovernment protests that erupted in 2011 and 2016. But his criticism of how the authorities have handled the pandemic appeared to go too far.

A little over a year ago, he was arrested at his home in Casablanca after accusations of a sexual assault — allegations that he says are false and trumped up to intimidate him. Imprisoned ever since, he launched a hunger strike almost three months ago in protest.

On June 10, he appeared in court, emaciated and unable to walk without assistance. “Please take me back to prison to die,” he told the judge.

Mr. Raissouni is one of at least 10 Moroccan journalists who have been jailed in recent years, most of them accused of sex crimes and other acts deemed illegal in Morocco, including certain forms of abortion. Rights groups say the cases are being pursued by authorities whose true aim is to silence the country’s small cadre of independent journalists with false and politically motivated accusations.

All of the journalists detained had published articles about corruption or abuse of power within the kingdom, many of them targeting businesses or security officials with ties to King Mohammed VI.

Morocco, a constitutional monarchy in which the elected Parliament has little sway over the royal palace, has close ties to the United States and is a reliable ally in counterterrorism cooperation. But rights groups have long criticized the kingdom over its limits on freedom of expression and violations of human rights.

“The monarchy has asphyxiated the independent media when they became too critical,” said Abdeslam Maghraoui, a professor of political science at Duke University.

The Moroccan government said that Mr. Raissouni had been granted “all the guarantees of a fair trial” and that neither his prosecution nor those of other journalists were related to their work. It added that Mr. Raissouni had eaten at times in recent weeks and that “his state of health remains normal, despite a loss of weight.”

The government also said that his accusations of abuse were false, adding that representatives of rights groups had visited him in jail.



The journalist Hajar Raissouni, center, was convicted in 2019 on charges of having sex with her partner and of having an abortion. 'WHICH WAS THE WORSE CRIME'

Credit...Fadel Senna/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images


Mr. Raissouni, 49, came of age during the years after King Mohammed VI ascended to the throne and promised greater openness. He was the editor of the newspaper Akhbar al-Yaoum, which shut down in March because of the imprisonment of its journalists and longstanding financial problems.

He and other well-known Moroccan journalists had made their names by investigating the previous king’s excesses. But as they turned their attention toward the new monarch, the tenor of the palace changed.

Democracy protests reached Morocco in 2011, and journalists increasingly became the target of security officials. Then, in 2016, the death of a fishmonger in the northern city of al-Hoceima — echoing a vegetable seller’s suicide in Tunisia that ignited the Arab Spring uprisings in late 2010 — set off Morocco’s largest protests in years. The authorities arrested hundreds of demonstrators and sentenced the movement’s leaders to years in jail.

Mr. Raissouni covered both movements despite deepening harassment of journalists covering the protests. And by the start of the pandemic, he was taking aim at what he deemed the government’s shoddy response to the coronavirus.

“More people are getting arrested than are getting tested for the virus,” he wrote in a column a couple of days before his arrest in May 2020, criticizing the powerful chief of Morocco’s security apparatus.

The police arrested Mr. Raissouni after a man claimed in a Facebook post to be the victim of an attempted sexual assault. The post did not name Mr. Raissouni but when the police summoned its author, he confirmed that he was accusing the journalist, according to documents.

Mr. Raissouni has denied the accusations and says the authorities used the accuser to set him up. In April, he began a hunger strike to protest the conditions in jail, which his lawyer said had included solitary confinement.

“Hunger strike is the most extreme form of protest,” Mr. Raissouni wrote last month in a public letter in which he said that officials in jail had beaten him. “Only one who has been a victim of a great injustice can undertake it.”

Mr. Raissouni is not the only journalist in Morocco who has faced accusations of sex crimes after publishing investigative work. Last July, Omar Radi, a freelance journalist who wrote about official corruption, was jailed on charges of espionage and rape and is now on trial.

In 2019, Hajar Raissouni, Mr. Raissouni’s niece who is a fellow journalist, was convicted on charges of having sex with her partner, whom she was not married to at the time, and of having an abortion — both of which are crimes in Morocco.

“I kept on thinking, ‘What did I do to deserve this? What happened to my dreams?’” said Ms. Raissouni, who left for Sudan after a royal pardon.

Omar Radi in Casablanca in March 2020. He was jailed on charges of espionage and rape and is now on trial.Credit...Youssef Boudlal/Reuters

In 2018, Akhbar al-Yaoum’s founder and publisher, Taoufik Bouachrine, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on sexual assault charges. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that the case was politically motivated, but the sentence was increased to 15 years in an appeal.

In a Washington Post opinion essay last year, Afaf Bernani, a former Akhbar al-Yaoum employee, said the police had tried to force her to falsely testify that Mr. Bouachrine had sexually assaulted her. When she refused, she was prosecuted on charges of perjury. She fled to Tunisia.

Experts say the cases reflect a dangerous dynamic for journalists more broadly in North Africa and the rest of the Arab world. Those dangers escalated during the Trump administration, when the American president expressed admiration for leaders of countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, who use repressive tactics.

After U.S. intelligence officials concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia had ordered the assassination of the columnist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018, President Donald J. Trump repeatedly expressed skepticism and sought even closer ties with Saudi Arabia. Rights advocates say that monarchs in places like Morocco took note.

Yet under the Biden administration, Secretary of State Antony Blinken attended a meeting with Morocco’s foreign minister in Rome last month and seemed to nod at the troubles for reporters in the kingdom. He tweeted about a need for “shared interest in regional peace and stability and human rights, including press freedom.”

Still, Mr. Raissouni’s wife, Kholoud Mokhtari, said nothing would persuade him to suspend his hunger strike.

“He is convinced that it is the only way he can obtain a fair trial and a provisional release,” she said. “My demand, as his wife, is that they release my husband. You have achieved your revenge. You have destroyed our lives.”

Morocco’s Jailing of Journalists

A Victim Not Only of Unjust Laws, but of ‘Unjust Authorities’
Nov. 15, 2019

Morocco’s King Pardons Journalist Sentenced on Abortion Charge
Oct. 16, 2019

Moroccan Journalist Sentenced to Prison for Abortion and Premarital Sex
Sept. 30, 2019

Nicholas Casey is the Madrid bureau chief, covering Spain, Portugal and Morocco. He spent a decade as a foreign correspondent in Latin America and the Middle East and wrote about national politics during the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign. @caseysjournal

A version of this article appears in print on July 4, 2021, Section A, Page 9 of the New York edition with the headline: Morocco Hunger Strike Bares Journalists’ Peril. 

Frito Lay union members reject latest offer from management. A strike is set to begin Monday.

Andrew Bahl
Topeka Capital-Journal


Employees at Topeka's Frito Lay plant voted Saturday to reject a proposed labor contract with the company, paving the way for a strike to begin on Monday.

While workers had previously voted to go on strike last week, negotiations between Local 218 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union and PepsiCo, Frito Lay's parent company, had continued in a bid to reach a deal.

Union leadership and management reached a tentative, two-year deal this week but roughly 400 of its members voted it down after two days of voting, which culminated Saturday.

Union members have criticized the company for working conditions at the plant and have pressed for a pay hike in their next deal.

More:  Members of Topeka's local Frito-Lay union just voted to strike. Here's what we know.

Mark Benaka, business manager for Local 218, said the vote was "overwhelming" in its opposition to the proposed deal, which would have brought a 2% pay raise, as well as limits on mandatory overtime, among other items.

While Benaka noted management had come around on the overtime element after initial opposition, he said members likely felt the wage package was not sufficient as they voted against the offer.


"It was very decisive," Benaka said. "It is obvious we're far apart on the discretions forced on employees over the last ten years. Basically, they're not going to take it anymore."

Benaka said last month it would be the first time since the union was started in 1973 that a strike will take place.

Workers had been operating under a two-year agreement which ran out in September of 2020 and was extended through Sunday.

More: 'Ready to walk': Topeka's Frito-Lay workers take a vote that may prevent strike. Union president isn't optimistic.

In a statement, PepsiCo argued it had worked to meet the demands of workers and committed to fully continue operations at the plant in light of the strike.

"That the union membership rejected this fully recommended agreement suggests union leadership is out of touch with the sentiments of Frito-Lay employees," the statement said. "Because the union had fully recommended our tentative agreement, we do not anticipate any further negotiations with the union for the foreseeable future."

According to John Nave, executive vice president of Kansas AFL-CIO, the state's labor federation, a strike is the last thing workers want when negotiating union contracts. He expected donations from the community and other labor unions throughout the state as the strike date nears.

"It's kind of like the last line of defense," Nave said. "And that's a hard decision because it affects many, many people. Union members don't want to do that. ... But when the company fails to do a fair negotiation at the bargaining table — and history has shown (Frito-Lay has) repeatedly failed to do that — then there's no other alternative."

PepsiCo's seven divisions include Frito-Lay, one of the largest snack-selling companies in the U.S., whose Topeka plant is at 4236 S.W. Kirklawn Ave.

The Capital-Journal's Tim Hrenchir and India Yarborough contributed to this report.

Frito-Lay calls bakers’ union leadership “out of touch” following vote to strike

By Kimberly Donahue
Published: Jul. 4, 2021 

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Frito-Lay responded to Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 218 union to strike this weekend after more failed negotiations.

In a statement to 13 NEWS Frito-Lay said:

“Frito-Lay and BCTGM Union Local 218 met last week and reached a fully recommended two-year agreement that included across-the-board wage increases both years of the contract and improved work rules that would have reduced overtime and hours worked.

Though each member of the union negotiating committee, including the union president, individually committed to supporting the agreement and encouraging Frito-Lay employees to vote in favor of ratifying it and Frito-Lay urged all associates to vote in favor of the fully recommended agreement (after nine months of negotiations), the agreement was voted down Saturday, July 3. While the union has suggested that Frito-Lay didn’t meet its terms, Frito-Lay had agreed to the union’s proposed economic terms. In addition, it was Frito-Lay, not the union, that proposed overtime limitations.

That the union membership rejected this fully recommended agreement suggests union leadership is out of touch with the sentiments of Frito-Lay employees. Because the union had fully recommended our tentative agreement, we do not anticipate any further negotiations with the union for the foreseeable future.

Therefore, Frito-Lay employees will be on strike effective Monday, July 5. The strike unnecessarily puts our employees at risk of economic hardship and will inevitably divide the workforce. Frito-Lay will be focused on continuing to run the operations of our plant in Topeka and has a contingency plan in place to ensure employee safety. We will continue to be attentive to the situation and welcome any employees who wish to continue to work as they are legally entitled to do so.”

The strike begins at 12:01 AM Monday.

Copyright 2021 WIBW. All rights reserved.

Black TikTok Creators Are On Strike To Protest A Lack Of Credit For Their Work

July 1, 2021
SHARON PRUITT-YOUNG

Black creators on TikTok have joined a widespread strike over what some are criticizing as cultural appropriation on the popular video app.Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Black creators on TikTok are hanging up their dancing shoes until further notice.

Tired of not receiving credit for their creativity and original work — all while watching white influencers rewarded with millions of views performing dances they didn't create — many Black creators on TikTok joined a widespread strike last week, refusing to create any new dances until credit is given where it's due.

The hashtag "BlackTikTokStrike" has been viewed more than two million times on TikTok, with users sharing videos of less inspired dances that have popped up in the absence of Black creators. The hashtag has taken off on Twitter as well.

If you were to check out TikTok videos featuring Megan Thee Stallion's latest hit, "Thot S***," for example, what you'd find instead of another viral dance challenge are videos by Black creators calling out the lack of credit they receive and raising awareness of the strike.

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The hashtag "BlackTikTokStrike" has been viewed more than two million times on TikTok.Photo Illustration by Amna Ijaz

One video, which has been viewed more than 440,000 times, shows Erick Louis, a Black TikTok creator, seemingly about to introduce a new dance before flipping the script with a caption that reads "Sike. This app would be nothing without [Black] people." (And even that, Louis said in another post, was copied by a pair of TikTok users whose video got 900,000 views.)

The situation called to mind the recent TikTok controversy surrounding the Nicki Minaj song "Black Barbies." With lyrics like, "I'm a f****** Black Barbie. Pretty face, perfect body," the song was used on the app to showcase videos of Black beauty. But white users soon began using the song as well, kicking off a debate about cultural appropriation on the app

While TikTok has only been around since 2016, it has already emerged as an example of how new forms of technology are being used as a tool for cultural appropriation, according to Sarah J. Jackson, an associate professor and co-director of the Media, Inequality & Change Center at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. While Jackson's work does not focus on TikTok, much of her research centers on the intersection of race, media and activism.

"A large swath of American popular culture comes from Black culture and that is before the internet even existed," Jackson said. "We can take any historical period and look at popular culture, at any particular historical period, and see the ways in which white folks who have access to mainstream capital and mainstream media and other forms of access were drawing inspiration from the art forms and creative forms of Black folks."
Dissatisfaction has been brewing for some time

Black creators on the app have long been calling out what they say is the preferential treatment that white creators receive. In March, late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon invited TikTok star Addison Rae Easterling to perform a seriesof eight viral TikTok dances on his show, none of which she created. The creators of those dances were not featured for the segment, nor were they given credit, aside from the show posting their usernames in the description box of the YouTube video after the episode aired. After considerable backlash, Fallon invited the actual creators of the dances onto his show the following month, and acknowledged that they "deserve their own spotlight."

But the Fallon episode wasn't the first example, nor will it likely be the last, of Black TikTok creators being overlooked in favor of their white counterparts.

During last year's NBA All-Star Weekend, the NBA invited several white TikTok creators, most notably Easterling and siblings Charli and Dixie D'Amelio. The trio scored prime seats, sat for interviews and were even asked to dance on the court. Easterling's TikTok videos show her performing numerous TikTok dances with NBA cheerleaders and teaching dances to NBA players — including the Renegade dance. The choreography is set to K Camp's "Lottery," and it's one of the most well-known dances on TikTok.

The dance's actual creator — Jalaiah Harmon, a Black teenager from greater Atlanta — was initially not invited until the NBA issued an invitation following pushback on social media. She later made a video that weekend performing the dance with Easterling and Charli D'Amelio, who were criticized alongside the NBA for not acknowledging Harmon earlier. Neither Easterling or the D'Amelios were reachable for comment.

In an interview with The New York Times, Harmon said that unfortunately, not being credited for a world-famous dance that she created, yet seeing it become ubiquitous, has been hard to watch.

"I was happy when I saw my dance all over," Harmon told the paper in 2020. "But I wanted credit for it."

Harmon has only recently begun to receive more widespread recognition for creating one of the first TikTok dances to really take off in popularity, scoring major endorsement deals and magazine covers. But for every Harmon, frustrated users are asking themselves how many Black creators are still struggling not only to get the recognition they deserve, but dealing with antagonism from those who don't understand why receiving that credit is so important in the first place.

When it comes to being credited for one's work, there's crucial historical context to consider, said Jackson.

"Since the founding of this country, Black art forms, Black dance forms, have been appropriated, watered down, repackaged and used to make money by white folks," she said. "And so, if you put it in that context of that longer history of basically stolen labor and stolen creativity, then you start to see why it matters to people and why it's important to people to be credited for the origins of these things."
TikTok says it wants credit for creators to be the norm

It's not the first time that TikTok has been called to the carpet over issues of race. Last summer, numerous Black TikTok users joined together to host a "blackout" to protest content related to Black Lives Matter, police brutality and the murder of George Floyd being seemingly hidden on the app. TikTok responded with an apology to the Black community, referring to what happened as a "technical glitch," promising to "repair that trust" with Black users, and pledging to make the app a more diverse, welcoming space. The company also held town hall and round-table discussions and formed a Creator Diversity Collective.

Still, some Black creators said that, around eight months later, problems with the app persisted, according to NBC News.

In a statement to NPR, a spokesperson for TikTok said Black creators are part of what makes the platform so successful, and that the company is working to build a culture on the app around crediting creators.

"TikTok is a special place because of the diverse and inspiring voices of our community, and our Black creators are a critical and vibrant part of this. We care deeply about the experience of Black creators on our platform and we continue to work every day to create a supportive environment for our community while also instilling a culture where honoring and crediting creators for their creative contributions is the norm," that statement said.

The company also pointed to a recent progress report on its diversity efforts and referenced the recent launch of the @BlackTikTok page, an official TikTok account run by Black employees.

In the meantime, Black creators are still using the app, but instead of creating dances that get stolen, they're calling out non-Black users and pointing out just how much everyone else is struggling without their input.

Just consider the case of "Thot S***." It's a summer anthem waiting to happen, but the dances that are being posted to the song don't have the same magic as previous viral creations, despite the fact that, as many online have pointed out, the song's chorus includes pretty simple instructions about putting "hands on [your] knees."

As the strike continues, some users have been posting videos lamenting how different their experience on the app is without Black dance creators.

"When are the Black creators finishing their strike?" a voice-over says in one video. "This app isn't fun anymore."

Viral dances: Black tickers go on strike


Livia Laurie



Black tickers creating viral dances went on strike. That’s the reason you can’t get a glimpse of the choreography in Megan Thee Stallion’s new song.

Everything indicated that the viral dance performed by thousands of users would accompany this song Thought shit, Released in mid-June as a trend in Tic Tac Toe. However, this is not the case for Megan Thee Stallion’s new song. And it’s no coincidence: black designers are on strike for not getting credit for the dances they create.

Florida-based dictator Eric Lewis was the first person to protest against the cultural acquisition of black creators and say he would not choreograph the song, according to the U.S. Daily. Vox.

“As blacks we are always aware of being excluded and rejected. Whether in the fields of music, fashion, language or dance – even in the places we can create for ourselves – blacks are constantly invading these spaces without respect for the architects who built them,” he explained in an interview. Vox.

Because, financially and notoriously – the people who benefit from these choreographies are not the ones who created them, but the most popular ticktockers like Charlie de Amelio or Addison Ray, whose subscribers number in the millions.

“It’s necessary because we are assembling in this way, and it’s something we’ve been discussing in ourselves for a while,” Eric Lewis said.

Addison Ray’s invitation to the Jimmy Fallon show last March was the grass that broke the camel’s back for many. Although she is not a creator, she has performed eight of the most popular dances on the social stage. The names of the original creators of these choreographies were not mentioned during the broadcast.

After the fact, some of them were invited to the show, giving some recognition to their choreography. The host opened the section by admitting that it was a mistake not to invite them in the first place, saying that the creators “deserved to come forward.”



Livia Laurie
“Web specialist. Pop culture buff. Thinker. Foodaholic. Travel maven. Avid coffee junkie. Amateur tv advocate.” See author's posts