It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, February 01, 2022
USW Rejects Marathon's Most Recent Proposal, Offers 24-Hour Rolling Extensions to Current Oil Agreements
PR Newswire
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 1, 2022
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The United Steelworkers union (USW) announced today that it rejected Marathon Petroleum's most recent proposal for a pattern settlement on wages, benefits and working conditions for approximately 30,000 USW members in the oil and petrochemical industry. The union then offered rolling 24-hour extensions of the current labor agreements.
"USW members were on the front lines of the pandemic, ensuring that our nation could meet its energy needs while company executives were safely tucked away, working from home," said USW International President Tom Conway. "Management needs to finally come to the table ready to negotiate a deal that reflects our members' hard work, commitment and sacrifice."
The USW has been in talks with Marathon, which represents industry as its lead negotiator, since Jan. 13. The current national agreement expired at midnight on Feb. 1.
"Our members remain strong and united in their commitment to reaching a deal that meets their needs on wages, benefits, health and safety and more," said Mike Smith, who chairs the USW's National Oil Bargaining Program. "We call on Marathon to demonstrate the same urgency."
The USW represents 850,000 workers employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in health care, public sector, higher education, tech and service occupations.
Virginia shipyard, union reach tentative contract agreement
Steve Helber The Associated Press Mon, January 31, 2022,
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Virginia’s largest industrial employer and a key player in the U.S. Navy’s modernization efforts has reached a tentative five-year contract with its biggest union.
The agreement with Newport News Shipbuilding and the United Steelworkers Local 8888 comes after the latter’s members rejected an earlier pact late last year, the Daily Press of Newport News reported.
Both agreements called for annual pay increases.
Union spokesman Dwight Kirk said the latest deal represents an enhancement over the rejected agreement but declined to provide details on the wage stipulations. Kirk said the union planned briefing the 12,000 workers in its collective bargaining union before they’re asked to vote on it.
Kirk also said the agreement includes pension improvements, a cap on health care costs union members pay and the first benefit involving domestic partners.
Newport News Shipbuilding spokesman Danny Hernandez confirmed the tentative agreement was reached Friday.
“In the coming week, we will post the tentative agreement terms, including wage, health care, and pension information to ensure all employees have a complete and accurate understanding of the agreement prior to the upcoming employee vote. Meanwhile, we are pleased that the union is continuing to honor all current contract terms and conditions and that we continue to meet our mission in building ships for the U.S. Navy,” Hernandez said in a statement to Defense News.
About 25,000 people work at Newport News Shipbuilding, which builds and refuels all the Navy’s aircraft carriers and builds nuclear-powered submarines. A strike hasn’t occurred at the shipbuilding yard since 1999, the newspaper said.
The shipyard is critical to the Navy’s top modernization program — the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, according to the newspaper. With a $2.2 billion contract, Newport News shipbuilders are working to build portions of the new boats.
Israel calls on Amnesty not to release apartheid report 1 / 7 Palestinians use a ladder to climb over the separation barrier with Israel on their way to pray at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Al-Ram, north of Jerusalem, July 11, 2014. Israel on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, called on Amnesty International not to publish an upcoming report accusing it of apartheid, saying the conclusions of the London-based international human rights group are “false, biased and antisemitic.”
(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File)
Mon, January 31, 2022
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Monday called on Amnesty International not to publish an upcoming report accusing it of apartheid, saying the conclusions of the London-based international human rights group are “false, biased and antisemitic.”
Amnesty is expected to join the New York-based Human Rights Watch and the Israeli rights group B'Tselem in accusing Israel of the international crime of apartheid based on its nearly 55-year military occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state and because of its treatment of its own Arab minority.
Israel dismissed the other reports as biased, but is adopting a much more adversarial stance this time around. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has said Israel expects intensified efforts this year to brand it as an apartheid state in international bodies and hopes to head them off.
In a statement issued Monday, he said Amnesty “is just another radical organization which echoes propaganda, without seriously checking the facts," and that it “echoes the same lies shared by terrorist organizations.”
“Israel isn’t perfect, but we are a democracy committed to international law, open to criticism, with a free press and a strong and independent judicial system," Lapid said.
Amnesty did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Amnesty's report “denies the state of Israel’s right to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people.”
“Its extremist language and distortion of historical context were designed to demonize Israel and pour fuel onto the fire of antisemitism,” it added.
Neither Human Rights Watch nor B’Tselem compared Israel to South Africa, where an apartheid system based on white supremacy and racial segregation was in place from 1948 until the early 1990s. Instead, they evaluate Israel’s policies based on international conventions like the Rome Statute, which defines apartheid as “an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group.”
They argue that Israel’s various policies in the territories under its control are aimed at preserving a Jewish majority in as much of the land as possible by systematically denying basic rights to Palestinians. Israel says its policies are aimed at ensuring the survival and security of the world’s only Jewish state.
The International Criminal Court is already investigating potential war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian militants in the occupied territories. After last year’s Gaza war, the U.N. Human Rights Council set up a permanent commission of inquiry to investigate abuses in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, including “systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.”
Israel has accused both the ICC and the U.N. rights body of being biased against it.
DUTY TO ACCOMODATE He got fired after going to church instead of work on a Sunday. Now employer will pay
Michael Conroy/AP Hayley Fowler Mon, January 31, 2022, 1:19 PM·3 min read
An employee in Florida who negotiated his work schedule around going to church was fired after he failed to show up for a Sunday shift, according to court documents.
Now the company owes him $50,000.
Tampa Bay Delivery Service LLC, an Amazon delivery partner out of Florida, agreed to settle allegations of religious discrimination after the former worker filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC, which is tasked with enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws in the workplace, launched a lawsuit on his behalf last year.
Under the terms of the agreement, which a federal judge approved on Jan. 27, Tampa Bay Delivery Service denied any wrongdoing but agreed to provide better training to managers and dispatchers as well as hire a religious accommodation coordinator.
“We commend Tampa Bay Delivery Service for working collaboratively with EEOC to resolve this lawsuit,” Robert E. Weisberg, regional attorney for the EEOC Miami District, said in a news release. “The company’s willingness to address EEOC’s concerns will help in preventing future employees from being forced to choose between employment and a religious belief.”
A representative and lawyers for Tampa Bay Delivery Service did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Monday, Jan. 31.
According to the EEOC’s complaint, Tampa Bay Delivery service hired the man in May 2019 as a delivery driver. He reportedly told the company during the hiring process that he could not work on Sundays because he is a Christian and attends church on Sundays.
The owner agreed — if the man agreed to work on Saturdays, according to the lawsuit.
About four months later, Tampa Bay Delivery Service scheduled the employee to work a Sunday shift, the EEOC said. He told them that he could not work that day and went to church instead. The company fired him later that same day, the complaint states.
The former employee filed a charge of religious discrimination with the EEOC shortly thereafter, and the agency determined there was reasonable grounds to believe Tampa Bay Delivery Service had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Its attempts to resolve the matter outside of court fell short, and the EEOC filed a complaint in the Middle District of Florida on Sept. 29.
The parties filed a proposed consent decree around the same time, which the judge didn’t approve until last week, court documents show.
Under the two-and-a-half-year agreement, Tampa Bay Delivery Service will pay the former worker $25,000 in back pay and $25,000 in compensatory damages. The company also agreed to:
Designate someone as the “Religious Accommodations Decision maker” who will decide all requests for religious accommodations from employees
Create an anti-religious discrimination policy
Post a public notice about the EEOC’s allegations and resulting settlement
Provide 90 minutes of in-person training on religious discrimination to all managers and supervisors
An Amazon warehouse manager faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing $273,000 worth of computer parts and selling them to a wholesaler
Dominick Reuter Mon, January 31, 2022 Robots called "pods" inside an Amazon Fulfillment Center in France.PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP via Getty Images
A 27-year-old North Carolina man pleaded guilty to mail fraud after stealing Amazon merchandise.
For more than a year, the man stole computer parts and sold them to a wholesaler in California.
The scheme targeted high-value components, including hard drives, processors, and GPUs.
A former Amazon employee has pleaded guilty to charges of mail fraud related to a scheme involving the sale of stolen computer parts worth $273,000.
Douglas Wright, 27, admitted to stealing high-value components including internal hard drives, processors, and GPUs when he was an operations manager at an Amazon warehouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, the US Department of Justice announced Friday.
From June 2020 to September of last year, Wright used his access to Amazon's inventory-tracking systems to locate specific packages, which he then took home and sold to a wholesaler in California, prosecutors said. The penalties for mail fraud include a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The Justice Department is no stranger to mail-fraud investigations involving Amazon.
In December, prosecutors said a Virginia man pleaded guilty to a scheme in which he claimed refunds on goods worth $300,000 and sending back similar items of significantly lesser value.
And in October, another North Carolina man pleaded guilty to engaging in more than 300 fraudulent transactions with Amazon over four years, causing losses to the company worth over $290,000.
RUSSIAN WHITE NATIONALISTS VS UKRAINIAN WHITE NATIONALISTS
Notorious Russian Mercenaries Pulled Out of Africa Ready for Ukraine
Philip Obaji Jr. Mon, January 31, 2022
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
ABUJA, Nigeria—The infamous Wagner Group—run by one of President Putin’s closest associates—is pulling dozens of battle-hardened mercenaries out of Africa to send them to Eastern Europe where Russian forces are threatening Ukraine, The Daily Beast has learned.
According to two senior military officers in the Central African Republic (CAR) unprecedented numbers of Wagner mercenaries left the country for Eastern Europe in January and more are preparing to leave in the coming weeks.
“Usually when we hear that some have left we find out that they are just a handful—sometimes five or six people within a month,” an officer, who works at the military headquarters in the CAR capital, Bangui, told The Daily Beast. “It’s the first time we are hearing that dozens have departed in a month.”
One man who was recently detained by Wagner Group forces told The Daily Beast that he overheard CAR troops in the camp where he was being held describe a sudden exodus of mercenary fighters heading directly to Ukraine.
The move comes at a time when Ukrainian authorities have said Russia is boosting supplies of weapons, ammunition and military equipment to separatist regions in Ukraine while actively recruiting mercenaries to fight in the ongoing conflict. Kyiv’s military intelligence service said last week that Moscow was undertaking “active recruitment of mercenaries” who are being sent to separatist-controlled regions.
Some have called Wagner Putin’s “private army.” It is often dispatched undercover to regions where Russia denies having any official military presence.
It's not the first time the Wagner Group has re-deployed private special forces soldiers from Africa or other combat zones in line with Putin’s evolving foreign policy objectives—despite Kremlin denials that Wagner has any links to the Russian government.
An investigation by Bellingcat published in November found that more than 200 Russians had been sent to Belarus to destabilize the country in the run-up to its August 2020 presidential elections from other hotspots where the Wagner Group was deployed, including CAR.
If Putin was asking his friends at Wagner to increase the destabilization inside Ukraine, it would be likely that some of those Russian mercenaries would be drafted in from sub-Saharan Africa.
This is the first time the Russians have left in large numbers since Wagner mercenaries arrived in CAR at the request of the government more than four years ago, according to a military official, who said the mercenaries that have departed had come from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and are returning to where they came from.
“We have specifically been told by their supervisors that about 20 Russians departed this January for Eastern Europe,” another official, who works closely with the Russians, told The Daily Beast privately. “What we understand is that the Russians who’ve left, and those who will leave later on, are doing so as part of their assignment rotation policy and that they would be replaced in due course.”
But no one seems to know when exactly the replacements for the departing mercenaries will arrive—if at all. The operations of the Wagner Group are often so shrouded in secrecy that even the people they work with in CAR have very little information about what they do.
“Yes, they share intelligence with us,” the military official said. “But that’s where it often ends. We rarely know anything about their itenary or plans.”
More than 1,000 Russians are deployed to CAR by the Wagner Group, which first gained international notoriety in Ukraine at the height of the 2014 incursion when they were accused of war crimes.
The organization was founded by Dmitry Utkin, who was once a member of the Russian special forces and is currently under U.S. sanctions for aiding Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
According to a CNN report, Utkin was once head of security for Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin. Prigozhin became famous as a restaurateur, and earned the nickname,“Putin’s chef” because of the lucrative contracts handed out to his catering company. Russian business outlet RBC reported a few years back that Utkin’s name appeared in a corporate database as the general director of one of Prigozhin's companies.
Progozhin denies that he is the financier of Wagner—a secretive and, under Russian law, illegal organization of private military contractors. But the allegations are persistent, the denials are pro forma, and its existence is an open secret. In 2016, the Russian broadcaster RBC published a detailed report on Wagner in the context of the global private military contractor industry.
The group has recruited many of its mercenaries from the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU, and its founder, Utkin (nickname: “Wagner”), is a veteran of the GRU’s elite Spetsnaz special-operations forces. RBC reported that the group operates under the supervision of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
A 26-year-old trader, who was arrested at the start of January by Wagner mercenaries in the CAR town of Bria, told The Daily Beast about his experiences in the camp where he was held. He said he and dozens of other young men were forced to demolish old brick houses and then recover the bricks for use in the construction of a new base for the Russians near a diamond buying office. He said he heard soldiers for the official CAR military—known as FACA—discussing amongst themselves how the mercenaries that arrested him had now traveled to Ukraine and may not return anytime soon.
“For the 15 days we stayed in the camp, we only saw the four Russians that arrested us the first two days when we arrived,” said Patrice Gaopandia, who was picked up along with three others when the Russians stormed the area he lived and embarked on a systematic arrest of young people for forced labor.
“It was later we heard FACA soldiers say that the Russian soldiers had left for Ukraine," said Gaopandia, who was later released.
A 'sea pickle'? An animal that can grow to 60 feet long is washing up on the Oregon coast
Jordan Mendoza, USA TODAY
Hundreds of animals nicknamed "sea pickles" have been washing up on the shores of Oregon, and they are causing quite a stir in the Beaver State.
"They're not the easiest things to describe," Tiffany Boothe, administrator at the Seaside Aquarium in the state, told USA TODAY.
While they are called "sea pickles" based on their looks, the animals are actually a pyrosome. It is a "colony" of multi-celled organisms called zooids, meaning individual zooids will be tightly packed together to form a bigger version of themselves, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
National Geographic refers to them as the "cockroaches of the sea," and they are able to illuminate the ocean waters.
A single zooid is about the size of a grain of rice, but conjoined together, these colonies can make the creature about 60 feet long and wide enough for a human to fit in, according to Oceana, a non-profit ocean conservation organization.
As terrifying as this creature may sound, they aren't rare. "Sea pickles" are typically found in the warm, open ocean waters around the world, but strong currents can push them north. They first puzzled researchers in 2017 when they made it all the way up to the Alaskan coast, the first time they had ever been observed that far up north.
Boothe said recent storms in the south Pacific Ocean have created those strong ocean currents to where hundreds of people have spotted pyrosomes throughout the Oregon coast. However, these aren't the 60-foot long ones, with most there measuring around 2-feet long.
"When somebody who hasn't come across one of these on the beach comes across one, it creates a lot of questions because they are so so odd-looking," Boothe said.
So far, there have been no other reports of the creature in any other Pacific states, but if someone does spot the creature, she encourages people to get an up-close look at them. If they're washed up on shores, that means they are dead.
"If you're interested, pick it up and take a closer look at it. It's not gonna harm you since it's not alive anymore," Boothe said, "It's just kind of an interesting creature to try to wrap your mind around."
As for what they feel like?
"Kind of jellyfish-like. Gelatinous, rigid and bumpy," Boothe said.
Boothe said scientists are still trying to understand the impact pyrosomes appearing so far north have by appearing in the north. Fish have been eating them, but since they have no known nutritional value, it's unknown if they are good or bad.
"These big blooms could have implications in the marine environment that we're just not sure of yet," Boothe said.
California eyes giving 500,000 fast food workers more power Fast-food workers drive-through to protest for a $15 dollar hourly minimum wage outside a McDonald's restaurant in East Los Angeles Friday, March 12, 2021. On Monday, Jan. 31, 2022 California lawmakers approved a first-in-the-nation measure by Assemblyman Chris Holden that gives California's more than half-million fast food workers increased power and protections.
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)More DON THOMPSON Mon, January 31, 2022
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California's more than half-million fast food workers would get increased power and protections under a first-in-the-nation measure approved by the state Assembly on Monday.
Workers would be included alongside employers and state agencies on a new Fast-Food Sector Council to set statewide minimum standards on wages, working hours, training and working conditions including procedures designed to protect employees from the coronavirus pandemic.
It would be limited to fast food restaurants with at least 30 establishments nationally.
“California has a chance to lead the country and address outstanding issues in the fast food industry," said Democratic Assemblyman Chris Holden, a former franchisee himself. “It is about fairness and it is about bringing all the responsible parties to the table to collaborate on solutions.”
Organized labor made the bill regulating the fast food industry and boosting the voice of the most populous state's estimated nation-leading 557,000 fast food workers a priority. But it initially failed in June even in a Legislature overwhelmingly dominated by Democrats, falling three votes short of the 41 it needed to pass the 80-member Assembly.
It passed the state Assembly Monday on a 41-19 vote and now heads to the state Senate.
It passed over the objections of some Democrats who said it delegates too much legislative power to the council. The Legislature would have 60 days to overrule the council's regulations before they take effect.
Other opponents objected to singling out fast food workers for a council when employees in other fields may also have similar wage and safety concerns.
The bill "just drives entire franchises and franchise brands away from California,” said Republican Assemblyman Kelly Seyarto.
Supporters said fast food workers make up the largest and fastest growing group of low-wage, private sector workers in the state, but have lacked protections specific to their industry.
They estimate that about 80% of the workers in California are Latino, Black or of Asian descent, two-thirds are women, and many live in working class communities that have been hardest hit by the pandemic.
But the International Franchise Association said a growing number of women and racial minorities own franchise establishments.
“This potential for continued growth is threatened” by the bill, the group said in opposition, as is “continuing an economic recovery from the pandemic.”
Fast food workers as well as local franchisees “are often at the mercy” of fast food chains, Bob Schoonover, president of 700,000-member SEIU California, said before the vote. The bill “addresses this imbalance of power by bringing workers and franchisees together to raise standards and protections across the California fast food industry.”
Among other things, employees could sue the restaurant if they contend they have been fired, discriminated or retaliated against for exercising the rights created under the bill. And franchisees could bring actions against franchisors if they believe the corporations are impeding their compliance with health, safety and employment laws.
The council would be under the Department of Industrial Relations, with 11 members appointed by the governor and legislative leaders, all currently Democrats.
It would include two representatives of fast food restaurant employees, two representatives of advocates for fast food restaurant employees, one representative of fast food restaurant franchisors and one representative of fast food restaurant franchisees.
The remaining five members would be representatives of state agencies.
The bill was first introduced by Lorena Gonzalez, a longtime labor advocate perhaps best known nationally for her law aimed at giving many independent contractors the same rights and benefits as full-time employees. Gonzalez resigned this month to become executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation.
Letters to the Editor: Anti-vaxxers are losing their jobs. It's called 'consequences'
Mon, January 31, 2022 Protesters gather for a rally against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Jan. 23. (Patrick Semansky / Associated Press)
For the anti-vaccine and anti-mandate people who worry that the vaccines are rushed, of course they were developed quickly. There was a concerted effort fueled by government and private sector resources and better technology. I only wish the vaccines could have been developed faster.
As far as religious exemptions are concerned, I could claim my pet dog is the second coming of Christ, and he told me in my dreams that the vaccines are bad, so of course I'll believe him and demand that everyone accept this. These people vaccinate their children against other diseases to enroll them in school, and there's no reason not to include the latest inoculations.
The loss of jobs and differences in medical treatment (including a patient who said she was denied a heart transplant because she was unvaccinated) are what can be expected in response to such senseless claims. With 76% of the country having had at least one COVID-19 shot, there is no reason to allow the remaining 24% to prolong the pandemic.
Alan Bews, Los Angeles
.. To the editor: Your article quotes unvaccinated people spouting off at length about all kinds of anti-vaccine nonsense. You do not include a single quote from a medical professional with expertise in pandemic response.
You do manage to mention that the vaccines are 90% effective at preventing infected people from being hospitalized and that the shots were thoroughly studied, but that should be the headline.
Data show the vaccines to be extraordinarily safe and effective. If more of us had been following the advice of medical professionals and scientists, we would be in much better shape and closer to getting back to normal.
Dave Courdy, Huntington Beach
.. To the editor: "My body, my choice," say anti-vaxxers. They forget: "My consequences."
It's the first principle of being an adult. You don't get to do anything you want without consequences. These people remind me of me when I was a young teenager, when my guiding principle was "you can't make me."
As I see it, our country is facing a crisis and needs the people's help, and anti-vaxxers have chosen to put themselves and everyone around them in greater danger. They've listened to lies by people who are very good at lying, and this is the choice they've made. Losing their job is the consequence of that choice.
Adults have to do things they don't like everyday. Grow up.
An Amazon factory whistleblower who says he was tortured by Chinese police before being jailed has called on Jeff Bezos to help overturn his conviction
Isobel Asher Hamilton
Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos.Paul Ellis - Pool/Getty
Tang Mingfang was jailed after disclosing illegal work practices at a factory making Amazon products.
Tang says he was tortured during the police interrogation process that led to his conviction.
He has called on Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos to support an appeal against his conviction.
A man who was jailed after blowing the whistle on illegal working practices at a Chinese factory that makes Amazon Echo and Kindle devices has called on Jeff Bezos to help overturn his conviction.
In 2019, Tang Mingfang leaked documents to China Labor Watch, which revealed that the Foxconn factory in Hengyang, China, was making schoolchildren work illegally long hours. Tang was later charged and convicted by Chinese authorities of leaking trade secrets. He was released in September.
In a letter to the Amazon executive chairman and founder, published by China Labor Watch on Sunday and first reported by The Observer, Tang said he was "tortured during the interrogation process" at the hands of police and "forced to make false confessions."
In the letter, Tang calls on Bezos to "ask Hengyang Foxconn to face up to its own problems and apologise to me" and "communicate with the local court and assist me in my complaint about the case so that the court can finally revoke my guilty verdict."
An Amazon spokesperson said: "We do not tolerate violations of our supply chain standards. We regularly assess suppliers, using independent auditors as appropriate, to monitor continued compliance and improvement — if we find violations, we take appropriate steps, including requesting immediate corrective action."
Foxconn did not immediately reply when contacted by Insider for comment.
