Thursday, February 04, 2021
Kazakhstan must stop attacks on unions
3 February, 2021
Another independent union is under threat in Kazakhstan, a country notorious for its anti-union policies and persecution of union leaders. Sign our LabourStart campaign to demand an immediate end to the pressure on unions in Kazakhstan.
Shymkent local authorities have filed a lawsuit to suspend the Trade Union of the Fuel and Energy Industry Workers, with more than 4,000 members in the oil, metallurgical, energy and other industries in eight regions of Kazakhstan.
According to the lawsuit, the union has failed to make the necessary amendments to its statuary documents and violates current union legislation. However, legal experts consider these claims unreasonable and based on legal norms that no longer apply, or do not apply to this case.
According to the Central Asia Labour Rights Monitoring Mission, authorities filed this lawsuit on the initiative of a number of companies, including Oil Construction Company, West Oil and Bozashy Trans Kurylys, that belong to the state-owned KazMunayGaz.
In recent years, Kazakh authorities have intensified pressure on independent unions by prosecuting and sentencing union leaders on politically motivated charges. This pressure has seriously weakened the union movement in Kazakhstan.
In July 2019, the previous leader of the Trade Union of the Fuel and Energy Industry Workers Erlan Baltabay was sentenced to seven years in prison and handed a seven-year ban on conducting any public activity, such as trade union activities. He was later released following a massive solidarity campaign.
In 2017, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Kazakhstan was forcefully dissolved and its leaders were prosecuted for their union activities.
Please sign and share the LabourStart campaign launched by IndustriALL and ITUC to send a message to Kazakh authorities, urging them to stop any pressure on unions and respect fundamental workers’ and trade union rights, in accordance to the ILO conventions ratified by Kazakhstan.
Shymkent local authorities have filed a lawsuit to suspend the Trade Union of the Fuel and Energy Industry Workers, with more than 4,000 members in the oil, metallurgical, energy and other industries in eight regions of Kazakhstan.
According to the lawsuit, the union has failed to make the necessary amendments to its statuary documents and violates current union legislation. However, legal experts consider these claims unreasonable and based on legal norms that no longer apply, or do not apply to this case.
According to the Central Asia Labour Rights Monitoring Mission, authorities filed this lawsuit on the initiative of a number of companies, including Oil Construction Company, West Oil and Bozashy Trans Kurylys, that belong to the state-owned KazMunayGaz.
In recent years, Kazakh authorities have intensified pressure on independent unions by prosecuting and sentencing union leaders on politically motivated charges. This pressure has seriously weakened the union movement in Kazakhstan.
In July 2019, the previous leader of the Trade Union of the Fuel and Energy Industry Workers Erlan Baltabay was sentenced to seven years in prison and handed a seven-year ban on conducting any public activity, such as trade union activities. He was later released following a massive solidarity campaign.
In 2017, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Kazakhstan was forcefully dissolved and its leaders were prosecuted for their union activities.
Please sign and share the LabourStart campaign launched by IndustriALL and ITUC to send a message to Kazakh authorities, urging them to stop any pressure on unions and respect fundamental workers’ and trade union rights, in accordance to the ILO conventions ratified by Kazakhstan.
Related documents
Joint IndustriALL and ITUC letter to President Tokayev
Related links
Sign and share the LabourStart campaign on Kazakhstan
Unions push to ratify ILO Convention 190
4 February, 2021
Since the start of 2021, three countries have voted in favor of authorizing the ratification of Convention 190 on the elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work.
Latin American unions continue to work for the ratification of C190. On 17 January, Ecuador voted and approved the ratification of C190.
The Confederation of Free Trade Union Organizations (CEOSL) said that the campaign by its affiliate, the National Union of Domestic Workers and related workers, together with the National Council for Equality, UN Women Ecuador and the Simón Bolívar Andean University played a fundamental role.
On 26 January, Chile voted and approved a draft agreement requesting that steps be taken to ratify C190 and adopt ILO recommendation 206. It is a big step forward, following on CUT’s campaign, #TrabajoSinViolencia, with the participation of the International Trade Union Confederation and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES Chile).
More countries are in line to ratify C190. On 11 January, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged to ratify the convention. Violence in the world of work affects a large part of women workers in the country. A study from 2018 estimated that 30 per cent of women were victims of unwanted sexual advances in their workplaces. IndustriALL affiliates are campaigning for the ratification of C190 and it has been taken up by the President and the parliament.
Data shows that domestic violence has exploded during the pandemic, with reports of a global increase of domestic violence. Social consequences of the outbreak and related confinements leading to a loss of social interaction may have increased tensions inherent to forced cohabitation and increased the risks of domestic violence.
Trade unions are reporting cases where women have been asked for sexual favours in return for equipment to protect against Covid-19. The past shows that women are at an elevated risk of abuse and quid-pro quo sexual harassment during an economic downturn and when jobs are fewer.
“With the current pandemic and its economic consequences it is even more urgent to fight against violence against women. Trade unions should continue their efforts for ratification of C190 in their countries. In the countries where the convention has been ratified, the unions and their campaigns made a difference,”
says Armelle Seby, IndustriALL gender coordinator.
Latin American unions continue to work for the ratification of C190. On 17 January, Ecuador voted and approved the ratification of C190.
The Confederation of Free Trade Union Organizations (CEOSL) said that the campaign by its affiliate, the National Union of Domestic Workers and related workers, together with the National Council for Equality, UN Women Ecuador and the Simón Bolívar Andean University played a fundamental role.
On 26 January, Chile voted and approved a draft agreement requesting that steps be taken to ratify C190 and adopt ILO recommendation 206. It is a big step forward, following on CUT’s campaign, #TrabajoSinViolencia, with the participation of the International Trade Union Confederation and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES Chile).
More countries are in line to ratify C190. On 11 January, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged to ratify the convention. Violence in the world of work affects a large part of women workers in the country. A study from 2018 estimated that 30 per cent of women were victims of unwanted sexual advances in their workplaces. IndustriALL affiliates are campaigning for the ratification of C190 and it has been taken up by the President and the parliament.
Data shows that domestic violence has exploded during the pandemic, with reports of a global increase of domestic violence. Social consequences of the outbreak and related confinements leading to a loss of social interaction may have increased tensions inherent to forced cohabitation and increased the risks of domestic violence.
Trade unions are reporting cases where women have been asked for sexual favours in return for equipment to protect against Covid-19. The past shows that women are at an elevated risk of abuse and quid-pro quo sexual harassment during an economic downturn and when jobs are fewer.
“With the current pandemic and its economic consequences it is even more urgent to fight against violence against women. Trade unions should continue their efforts for ratification of C190 in their countries. In the countries where the convention has been ratified, the unions and their campaigns made a difference,”
says Armelle Seby, IndustriALL gender coordinator.
IndustriALL Global Union and IndustriAll European Trade Union call for justice and solidarity in the fight against Covid-191 February, 2021
More than a year into the health, social and economic crisis brought about by Covid-19, the pandemic has become an existential crisis for humankind. The universal right of access to medical supplies, especially vaccines and potential medicines to treat Covid-19, should not depend on the purchasing power of governments and other market dynamics. We believe that there should not be first- and second-class citizens and no-one should be left behind.
After an unprecedented effort to develop, approve and roll out cures, medicines and vaccinations, several are available. The world has come closer to overcoming the pandemic. And the common global endeavour and public-private cooperation to find drugs and vaccines demonstrated the best internationalism.
It is crucial that we do not leave the path of cooperation, solidarity and justice.
No continent, no country, no economy, no person will be safe until the whole world is safe. Vaccine nationalism is a short-sighted response to this global problem. It will prolong the pandemic and the threat of new variants endangering us all. We stand for the right of universal access to vaccination.
The pharmaceutical industry will for the next decades be judged by its conduct during the pandemic. 2020 saw an improvement of the reputation and importance of this crucial sector, but image gains are easily lost.
IndustriALL Global Union and IndustriAll Europe appeal to the industry to show its best side:
Cooperate, even with competitors in order to increase production so that the vaccination process can speed up
Provide full transparency about production volumes, price calculations, purchasing contracts, etc
Put the public good and interests before profits, make medicines and vaccinations available for everyone
We have full understanding for the pressure on countries to secure medical products and bring relief to people. Bearing this in mind, IndustriALL Global Union and IndustriAll European Trade Union appeal to politicians:
Populism will not defeat Covid-19
We – our health, our economies and our jobs – will only recover if we recover globally
Work rationally and in solidarity for the best possible outcome for all globally with the universal value of solidarity and equality
Workers in the pharmaceutical industries around the globe, represented by IndustriALL Global Union and IndustriAll European Trade Union, are ready and eager to produce all the medication and vaccines needed and thus contribute to overcoming this crisis.
More than a year into the health, social and economic crisis brought about by Covid-19, the pandemic has become an existential crisis for humankind. The universal right of access to medical supplies, especially vaccines and potential medicines to treat Covid-19, should not depend on the purchasing power of governments and other market dynamics. We believe that there should not be first- and second-class citizens and no-one should be left behind.
After an unprecedented effort to develop, approve and roll out cures, medicines and vaccinations, several are available. The world has come closer to overcoming the pandemic. And the common global endeavour and public-private cooperation to find drugs and vaccines demonstrated the best internationalism.
It is crucial that we do not leave the path of cooperation, solidarity and justice.
No continent, no country, no economy, no person will be safe until the whole world is safe. Vaccine nationalism is a short-sighted response to this global problem. It will prolong the pandemic and the threat of new variants endangering us all. We stand for the right of universal access to vaccination.
The pharmaceutical industry will for the next decades be judged by its conduct during the pandemic. 2020 saw an improvement of the reputation and importance of this crucial sector, but image gains are easily lost.
IndustriALL Global Union and IndustriAll Europe appeal to the industry to show its best side:
Cooperate, even with competitors in order to increase production so that the vaccination process can speed up
Provide full transparency about production volumes, price calculations, purchasing contracts, etc
Put the public good and interests before profits, make medicines and vaccinations available for everyone
We have full understanding for the pressure on countries to secure medical products and bring relief to people. Bearing this in mind, IndustriALL Global Union and IndustriAll European Trade Union appeal to politicians:
Populism will not defeat Covid-19
We – our health, our economies and our jobs – will only recover if we recover globally
Work rationally and in solidarity for the best possible outcome for all globally with the universal value of solidarity and equality
Workers in the pharmaceutical industries around the globe, represented by IndustriALL Global Union and IndustriAll European Trade Union, are ready and eager to produce all the medication and vaccines needed and thus contribute to overcoming this crisis.
USPS
New Bill Aims to Scrap 'Ludicrous' Mandate Forcing Postal Service to Prefund Retiree Benefits Decades in Advance
"The unreasonable prefunding mandate has threatened the survival of the USPS and placed at risk vital services for the millions who rely on it."
by
Published on
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A postal worker gives a thumbs-up to demonstrators protesting the Trump administration's
sabotage of the U.S. Postal Service on August 22, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.
(Photo: Rich Fury/Getty Images for MoveOn)
A bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers introduced legislation this week that would scrap an onerous 2006 mandate requiring the U.S. Postal Service to prefund retiree benefits decades in advance, an obligation that's been blamed for the beloved mail agency's financial woes—which Republicans have readily used to justify recent attacks on the institution.
"It's an unnecessary burden that is jeopardizing its financial health. This is an easy fix that will dramatically improve USPS's finances and ensure mail delivery can continue uninterrupted."
—Sen. Brian Schatz
The USPS Fairness Act, an earlier version of which cleared the House last February, would "repeal the requirement that the United States Postal Service prepay future retirement benefits," a rollback supported by the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and other organizations representing mail carriers.
"The bipartisan USPS Fairness Act is one of the first steps toward returning the Postal Service to solid financial footing, and I urge Congress to quickly pass this critical legislation," said APWU president Mark Dimondstein.
Approved by a Republican-controlled Congress and signed into law by former President George W. Bush in 2006, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act "required the Postal Service to create a $72 billion fund that would pay for its employees' retirement health benefits for more than 50 years into the future," NBC News explained Tuesday.
"This is not required [of] any other federal agency," NBC noted.
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the lead House sponsor of the USPS Fairness Act, said in a statement Monday that "the unreasonable prefunding mandate has threatened the survival of the USPS and placed at risk vital services for the millions who rely on it."
"The prefunding mandate policy is based on the absurd notion of paying for the retirement funds of people who do not yet, and may not ever, work for the Postal Service," said DeFazio. "I'm hopeful that, under a Biden administration, we can finally repeal this ludicrous policy, provide the USPS with critical financial relief, and take the first step towards much-needed comprehensive reform."
The legislation's leading Democratic sponsor in the Senate, Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, echoed that message, declaring that "there is no reason we should be requiring the USPS to prefund its future health and retirement benefits."
"It's an unnecessary burden that is jeopardizing its financial health," said Schatz. "This is an easy fix that will dramatically improve USPS's finances and ensure mail delivery can continue uninterrupted."
The renewed push for repeal of the prefunding mandate comes as President Joe Biden is facing growing calls to act quickly to stop Postmaster General Louis DeJoy from inflicting any more damage on the USPS, whose services slowed dramatically after the Republican megadonor took over and began implementing sweeping changes last year.
Two Democratic members of Congress—Reps. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) and Tim Ryan (D-Ohio)—are publicly urging Biden to terminate every member of the Postal Service Board of Governors and appoint replacements who are dedicated to preserving and strengthening the USPS as an essential public service.
"Through the devastating arson of the Trump regime, the USPS Board of Governors sat silent," Pascrell wrote in a letter to Biden last week. "Their dereliction cannot now be forgotten. Therefore, I urge you to fire the entire Board of Governors and nominate a new slate of leaders to begin the hard work of rebuilding our Postal Service for the next century."
Joining Powerful Finance Committee, Warren Vows to Introduce Wealth Tax as 'First Order of Business'
"It is time to make the ultra-rich pay their fair share."
by
Published on
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) arrives at the U.S. Capitol for a vote on May 18, 2020
in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
After announcing that she landed a spot on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday said she plans to immediately introduce legislation to impose a wealth tax on individual fortunes above $50 million with the goal of reining in soaring inequality and funding "needed investments for working families."
"My first order of business on the Senate Finance Committee—the committee that leads tax and revenue policy in the Senate—will be to introduce legislation for a wealth tax on fortunes above $50 million."
—Sen. Elizabeth Warren
"I'm very pleased to join the Finance Committee, where I'll continue to fight on behalf of working families and press giant corporations, the wealthy, and the well-connected to finally pay their fair share in taxes," Warren (D-Mass.) said in a statement. "I look forward to being a progressive voice at the table to secure meaningful relief and lasting economic security for struggling families, including as an aggressive advocate for accomplishing much of our agenda through the budget reconciliation process."
At the top of the Massachusetts senator's to-do list upon joining the finance panel—which has jurisdiction over the Internal Revenue Service—will be advancing a two-cent tax on every dollar of individual wealth over $50 million, a proposal that Warren pushed during her 2020 presidential bid. Warren's campaign estimated that the two-cent wealth tax would raise $3.75 trillion in revenue over the next decade.
"My first order of business on the Senate Finance Committee—the committee that leads tax and revenue policy in the Senate—will be to introduce legislation for a wealth tax on fortunes above $50 million," Warren tweeted Tuesday. "It is time to make the ultra-rich pay their fair share."
The Massachusetts Democrat said she also intends to work on other key priorities such as "reforming our trade practices, expanding Social Security, lowering drug prices, advancing racial equity, and enforcing our tax laws."
"And I will continue to fight on issues like college affordability, cancelling student loan debt, adequate funding for K-12 schools, and racial equity in education," said Warren. "There's a lot of work to do."
My first order of business on the @SenateFinance Committee – the committee that leads tax and revenue policy in the Senate – will be to introduce legislation for a #WealthTax on fortunes above $50 million. It is time to make the ultra-rich pay their fair share. pic.twitter.com/IccP6do57y
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 2, 2021
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday released a full list of Democratic committee assignments, which must be ratified by the full Senate.
Weeks into the new Congress, Senate committee memberships have yet to be finalized as Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) iron out the details of a must-pass organizing resolution, which the Kentucky Republican delayed in an effort to preserve the archaic legislative filibuster.
McConnell's slow-walking of the organizing resolution means Republicans remain in charge of several key committees and in a position to hold up some of President Joe Biden's nominees.
Schumer announced on the Senate floor Wednesday that he and McConnell have finally reached a deal on the organizing resolution, which is expected to pass in a matter of hours.
In a statement on Tuesday, incoming Senate Finance Committee chairman Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said he is "thrilled to welcome" Warren to the panel and looks forward to "working with her on a range of issues, particularly fixing our broken tax code and ensuring billionaires and mega-corporations pay their fair share."
"Income inequality will be a major focus of my legislative and investigative work," said Wyden, "and Senator Warren will certainly play a significant role in advancing this agenda."
This story has been updated with news of Schumer and McConnell's agreement on the Senate organizing resolution.
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The Bombing of Civilians in Yemen's Civil War Involves Many Actors, Including Defense Contractors at Raytheon
It’s time to confront the powerful interests of the arms industry, stop arms sales to those who are indiscriminately bombing civilians, and end U.S. complicity in the war in Yemen for good.
by Shayna Lewis Published on Thursday, February 04, 2021 by azcentral
Civilians, who fled from the ongoing civil war where numerous civilian killed, are seen during their daily lives despite many difficulties at Al-Raqah refugee camp in Amran province of northern Sanaa, Yemen on November 24, 2019. (Photo by Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The villagers of Arhab were in a celebratory mood before the bomb exploded. The small Yemeni town had just struck water on a new well when a precision-guided munition crashed into the site, killing 31 and maiming many more.
Among the death and debris, investigators would later find a bomb fragment with a serial code indicating it came from Tucson—home of Raytheon Technologies.
The U.S. government is providing the weapons that are destroying a country, and Arizonans are unwittingly involved. We all deserve better.
It’s time to confront the powerful interests of the arms industry, stop arms sales to those who are indiscriminately bombing civilians, and end U.S. complicity in the war in Yemen for good.
Arms sales helped create a disaster
Since 2015, the United States has been militarily backing the authoritarian governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as they intervene in Yemen’s civil war, including by arming them with more than $85 billion worth of bombs, drones and fighter jets.
These sales have proven to be nothing short of a disaster. U.S.-sold weapons are regularly used to commit apparent war crimes, have repeatedly fallen into the hands of violent non-state actors, and have served only to prolong the conflict.
Yemen’s war rages on today, and the country is now the world’s largest humanitarian disaster—and U.S.-made bombs are partly to blame.
But despite the total failure of this strategy to bring peace or security, the sales continue. There’s a simple explanation for that: the weapons industry wants them to.
Raytheon, others aren't passive actors
While companies like Raytheon, whose missile program is headquartered in Tucson, pretend that they’re merely passive actors meeting their products’ demand, they actually have a large hand in the decision-making process.
Every year, Raytheon and the rest of the weapons industry spend millions of dollars influencing elections and lobbying for more arms sales—fueling horrific wars like Yemen’s for the sake of profits. The blood money from these sales isn’t going to everyday employees either: while Raytheon assembly workers receive about $37,000 per year, its CEO brings home more than 450 times that.
And it looks like the lobbying is paying off. Late last year, the U.S. Senate narrowly rejected legislation to block part of President Trump’s last-minute $23 billion weapons sale to the UAE when Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema defected from the Democratic party to vote “no.”
Understandably, Kelly and Sinema, along with other Arizonans, might worry that jobs depend on these sales. But the fact is, the arms industry is a poor job creator. Every government dollar spent on weapons manufacturing creates less jobs than the same spent on teachers, nurses, frontline pandemic responders, or green energy workers. Places like Huntsville, Ala.—former weapons hot spots that are successfully transitioning to green technology—can show us the way.
We'd be better off without these weapons
Arizonans don’t want their hard work to go toward massacring civilians halfway around the world, and they don’t want their senators voting to sell arms to dictators.
I should know. As a born-and-raised Arizonan and proud UofA alum, I care deeply about what’s best for my home state. And as the digital campaign director of one of the country’s leading anti-militarism advocacy organizations, I have seen Raytheon lobbyists in action as they trample the voices of everyday people from across the country, including our thousands of grassroots activists in Arizona.
With President Biden’s recent decision to pause arms sales to the UAE and Saudi Arabia pending review, we’re closer than ever to ending this terrible practice for good. Now is the time to put the pressure on.
From Arhab to Tucson, the Arabian Desert to the Sonoran, everyday people would be better off without Raytheon’s weapons. It’s time for Arizona to say no to these disastrous arms sales and the corporate powers that back them.
© 2021 azcentral
Shayna Lewis grew up in Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ, and is digital campaigns director at Win Without War, a Washington D.C.-based group advocating progressive national security solutions. Reach her at shayna@winwithoutwar.org.
It’s time to confront the powerful interests of the arms industry, stop arms sales to those who are indiscriminately bombing civilians, and end U.S. complicity in the war in Yemen for good.
by Shayna Lewis Published on Thursday, February 04, 2021 by azcentral
Civilians, who fled from the ongoing civil war where numerous civilian killed, are seen during their daily lives despite many difficulties at Al-Raqah refugee camp in Amran province of northern Sanaa, Yemen on November 24, 2019. (Photo by Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The villagers of Arhab were in a celebratory mood before the bomb exploded. The small Yemeni town had just struck water on a new well when a precision-guided munition crashed into the site, killing 31 and maiming many more.
Among the death and debris, investigators would later find a bomb fragment with a serial code indicating it came from Tucson—home of Raytheon Technologies.
The U.S. government is providing the weapons that are destroying a country, and Arizonans are unwittingly involved. We all deserve better.
It’s time to confront the powerful interests of the arms industry, stop arms sales to those who are indiscriminately bombing civilians, and end U.S. complicity in the war in Yemen for good.
Arms sales helped create a disaster
Since 2015, the United States has been militarily backing the authoritarian governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as they intervene in Yemen’s civil war, including by arming them with more than $85 billion worth of bombs, drones and fighter jets.
These sales have proven to be nothing short of a disaster. U.S.-sold weapons are regularly used to commit apparent war crimes, have repeatedly fallen into the hands of violent non-state actors, and have served only to prolong the conflict.
Yemen’s war rages on today, and the country is now the world’s largest humanitarian disaster—and U.S.-made bombs are partly to blame.
But despite the total failure of this strategy to bring peace or security, the sales continue. There’s a simple explanation for that: the weapons industry wants them to.
Raytheon, others aren't passive actors
While companies like Raytheon, whose missile program is headquartered in Tucson, pretend that they’re merely passive actors meeting their products’ demand, they actually have a large hand in the decision-making process.
Every year, Raytheon and the rest of the weapons industry spend millions of dollars influencing elections and lobbying for more arms sales—fueling horrific wars like Yemen’s for the sake of profits. The blood money from these sales isn’t going to everyday employees either: while Raytheon assembly workers receive about $37,000 per year, its CEO brings home more than 450 times that.
And it looks like the lobbying is paying off. Late last year, the U.S. Senate narrowly rejected legislation to block part of President Trump’s last-minute $23 billion weapons sale to the UAE when Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema defected from the Democratic party to vote “no.”
Understandably, Kelly and Sinema, along with other Arizonans, might worry that jobs depend on these sales. But the fact is, the arms industry is a poor job creator. Every government dollar spent on weapons manufacturing creates less jobs than the same spent on teachers, nurses, frontline pandemic responders, or green energy workers. Places like Huntsville, Ala.—former weapons hot spots that are successfully transitioning to green technology—can show us the way.
We'd be better off without these weapons
Arizonans don’t want their hard work to go toward massacring civilians halfway around the world, and they don’t want their senators voting to sell arms to dictators.
I should know. As a born-and-raised Arizonan and proud UofA alum, I care deeply about what’s best for my home state. And as the digital campaign director of one of the country’s leading anti-militarism advocacy organizations, I have seen Raytheon lobbyists in action as they trample the voices of everyday people from across the country, including our thousands of grassroots activists in Arizona.
With President Biden’s recent decision to pause arms sales to the UAE and Saudi Arabia pending review, we’re closer than ever to ending this terrible practice for good. Now is the time to put the pressure on.
From Arhab to Tucson, the Arabian Desert to the Sonoran, everyday people would be better off without Raytheon’s weapons. It’s time for Arizona to say no to these disastrous arms sales and the corporate powers that back them.
© 2021 azcentral
Shayna Lewis grew up in Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ, and is digital campaigns director at Win Without War, a Washington D.C.-based group advocating progressive national security solutions. Reach her at shayna@winwithoutwar.org.
Biden Boots 'Union Busters and Anti-Government Ideologues' From Key Labor Panel
Labor leaders called for replacements "with a background in labor-management relations who are not hostile toward unions."
by
Published on Wednesday, February 03, 2021
by
A sculpted bust of Cesar Chavez oversees a collection of personal framed photos on a table behind President Joe Biden's desk in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)
In another early win for organized labor, President Joe Biden on Tuesday requested that all 10 members of a key federal panel—who were appointed by his predecessor—immediately resign, and then fired the two appointees who refused to do so.
As Government Executive noted, former President Donald Trump had stacked the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP), which handles disputes between agencies and unions during collective bargaining negotiations, "with anti-labor partisans, most of whom lacked experience in labor-management relations or conflict resolution."
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees—which represents over 700,000 government workers and had accused the Trump appointees of improperly favoring agencies—told Bloomberg Law that "FSIP is a critical component in the federal negotiating process, and we look forward to President Biden's future picks issuing just decisions, unencumbered by political interference."
Although presidents have previously replaced all panel members, Bloomberg Law pointed out that Biden acted more quickly than his predecessors:
Trump dismissed all members of the FSIP in May 2017—about four months after he took office—and then moved that summer to begin installing a new panel. Former President Barack Obama dismissed the panel in March 2009 and began naming new members that September.
FSIP members are appointed by the White House and serve at the pleasure of the president; they don't require Senate confirmation and don't have defined terms.
National Treasury Employees Union national president Tony Reardon called Biden's overhaul of the panel "an extremely positive development."
Reardon expressed hope that "an FSIP made up of individuals with a background in labor-management relations who are not hostile toward unions or workers will help put federal employee unions and agency leadership back on equal footing, where disagreements can be resolved fairly and in a way that serves the interests of employees, agencies and taxpayers."
"The Trump-appointed panel was none of those things," he told Government Executive, "and its record of nearly always siding with agency management, notwithstanding the record before it, proved its bias."
Thank you! @POTUS https://t.co/y8ApnZbp4a
— AFGE District 3 (@3Afge) February 3, 2021
International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers secretary-treasurer Matt Biggs also welcomed the development, saying in a statement Tuesday that "the FSIP members unilaterally installed by President Trump can best be described as a 'who's who' of union busters and anti-government ideologues."
"They spent the better part of the last four years unilaterally imposing draconian contracts on federal unions and their members," Biggs said. "These are contracts that were not the result of good faith bargaining and compromise. Rather, they were intended to pull the rug out from under the union from any realistic ability to represent their members."
The Senate Democratic Caucus backed union complaints about bad-faith negotiations "in a furious letter" to Andrew Saul, the Trump-appointed commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) who has not yet been removed by Biden, Mark Joseph Stern reported for Slate on Wednesday. He continued:
Employees at agencies throughout the executive branch have been scorched by Trump's impasses panel. Its treatment of employees at the Social Security Administration, which oversees the country's largest government program and operates the largest judicial system in the nation, provides a case in point. Shortly before the pandemic, the impasses panel rewrote the SSA union's contract to roll back the agency's teleworking program, which had increased employee efficiency. (Managers partially restored telework in 2020 several weeks after many other agencies switched to remote work.) It slashed the amount of time that workers could spend on union activities far beyond what management requested. And it abolished the agency's responsibility to inform union members of their right to representation. To lock in these anti-union changes, the panel also extended the agreement by four years—though Biden's new appointees should be able to reopen negotiations after overturning their predecessors' policies.
The panel's assault on the SSA union has implications for millions of Americans. Administrative law judges at the SSA hear claims for disability benefits, and because they exercise judicial powers, they are meant to be independent. Their union contract safeguards this independence from political interference. At the bargaining table, however, the SSA's leaders stripped these safeguards from the contract—and the impasses panel backed their decision. Melissa McIntosh, president of the agency's administrative law judge union, told me that the panel "took away our ability to protect our independence through the contract," thereby depriving disabled Americans of their due process right to a neutral arbiter.
"Biden's work is not yet finished: The Federal Labor Relations Authority, which houses the impasses panel, remains in Republican control," Stern added, while also pointing out that the FSIP overhaul is not the president's first action applauded by organized labor.
Shortly after taking office, Biden sacked Peter Robb, the Trump-appointed general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board blasted by critics as an "extreme, anti-union ideologue" and a "uniquely destructive figure."
Stern noted in addition to appointing "a labor-friendly replacement" to the NLRB post, the president "reversed executive orders that had severely limited federal unions' ability to organize and bargain."
After 412 Years and 1,391 Executions, Virginia Poised to Abolish Death Penalty as Senate Passes Historic Bill
"We're going to look back 50 years from now, and that electric chair and that lethal injection table, they're going be sitting in a museum," predicted Sen. Scott A. Surovell.
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Published on Wednesday, February 03, 2021
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Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia is home to the state's death row and execution chamber. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Death penalty abolitionists on Wednesday applauded the passage of a bill by the Virginia Senate that—if passed by the Democrat-controlled House and signed by the Democratic governor as expected—will end capital punishment in the commonwealth after a more than 400-year history.
"Virginia has executed more people than any other state. The practice is fundamentally inequitable. It is inhumane. It is ineffective. And we know that in some cases, people on death row have been found innocent."
—Gov. Ralph Northam
The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reports the Senate voted 21-17 along party lines to approve S.B. 1165, introduced by Sen. Scott A. Surovell (D-Mount Vernon), after a prolonged and charged floor debate.
"We're going to look back 50 years from now, and that electric chair and that lethal injection table, they're going be sitting in a museum," Surovell predicted. "They're gonna be sitting next to the stocks in Jamestown and Williamsburg. They're going to be sitting next to the slave auctioneer block."
"This thing is going to be a museum piece, and people are going to look back and wonder how it was that we ever used these things," he added.
BREAKING: Sen. @ssurovell's SB 1165 to abolish the death penalty passed the Virginia Senate.
Virginia has executed more people than any other state throughout its history. It's long overdue to end the death penalty once and for all. pic.twitter.com/0Yp47TO2as
— ACLU of Virginia (@ACLUVA) February 3, 2021
During the floor debate, Sen. Mamie Locke (D-Hampton) spoke of the days of Black people were lynched while white spectators picnicked nearby.
"Lynchings were the precursor of the death penalty," said Locke. "In the 1940s and 1950s, they simply moved from outside to the inside—legal violence instead of vigilante justice. It is not lost on anyone—it's those states that have a high number of lynchings correlate with their support of the death penalty, including here in Virginia."
In fact, the very first execution to occur in the English colonies that became the United States happened in Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1608 when Capt. George Kendall was killed by a firing squad for treason. Four years later, colonial Gov. Sir Thomas Dale enacted the Divine, Moral, and Martial Laws, under which execution was the punishment for crimes including such minor offenses such as stealing grapes, killing chickens, and trading with Indigenous people.
BREAKING: Virginia's Senate just voted to pass legislation abolishing the death penalty, 21 to 17 votes.
Virginia has been one of most pro-death penalty states in U.S. history. So this would be a historic development. Next up: the House still has to vote on it.
— Taniel (@Taniel) February 3, 2021
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Virginia has executed nearly 1,400 people since then—more than any other state in the union. As in other states, there are troubling racial disparities in the application of capital punishment. While Virginia's population is about 20% Black, Black people make up nearly half of the people executed there since 1976.
That was the year when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Gregg v. Georgia, reinstated the death penalty four years after it was deemed a violation of the Constitution's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishment" in Furman v. Georgia.
Since resinstatement, Virginia has trailed only Texas, which has put 567 people to death.
Today, there are only two people on Virginia's death row, and the state has not executed anyone in nearly four years. If the House of Delegates—the state legislature's lower chamber—passes its version of the S.B. 1165 as expected, and if Gov. Ralph Northam signs the measure into law as he has promised, there will be no more executions in Virginia and the two death sentences will be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Virginia will then become the first Southern state and the 23rd in the nation to end capital punishment.
Northam led abolitionists in Virginia and across the nation in hailing S.B. 1165's passage.
"Today's vote in the Virginia Senate is a tremendous step toward ending the death penalty in our commonwealth," he said in a statement. "Virginia has executed more people than any other state. The practice is fundamentally inequitable. It is inhumane. It is ineffective. And we know that in some cases, people on death row have been found innocent."
It’s time for our Commonwealth to join 22 other states and abolish the death penalty. I applaud every Senator who cast a courageous vote today, and I look forward to signing this bill into law.
Read my full statement: https://t.co/5VKXO6UtPj
— Ralph Northam (@GovernorVA) February 4, 2021
"It's time for Virginia to join 22 other states and abolish the death penalty," Northam asserted. "I applaud every senator who cast a courageous vote today, and I look forward to signing this bill into law."
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