Clipmarks | Labor Clips

What has Congress done so far...?

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:52:58 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Barring a burst of legislative activity after Labor Day, this group of 535 men and women will have accomplished a rare feat. In two decades of record keeping, no sitting Congress has passed fewer public laws at this point in the session -- 294 so far -- than this one. That's not to say they've been idle. On the flip side, no Congress in the same 20 years has been so prolific when it comes to proposing resolutions -- more than 1,900

With the mostly symbolic measures, Congress has saluted such milestones as the Idaho Potato Commission's 70th anniversary and recognized soil as an "essential natural resource." As legislation on gasoline prices, tax fixes and predatory lending languish, Congress has designated May 5-9 as National Substitute Teacher Recognition Week, and set July 28 as the Day of the American Cowboy.

Wal-Mart Warns of Democratic Win

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:36:03 GMT

clipped by: raisins4peace

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart.

In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if stores were to be unionized.

The actions by Wal-Mart -- the nation's largest private employer -- reflect a growing concern among big business that a reinvigorated labor movement could reverse years of declining union membership. That could lead to higher payroll and health costs for companies already being hurt by rising fuel and commodities costs and the tough economic climate.

make it clear that voting for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama would be tantamount to inviting unions in,

Educating children from the dump

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:07:14 GMT

clipped by: traviscrocker

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (CNN) -- Walking down a street in Cambodia's capital city, Phymean Noun finished her lunch and tossed her chicken bones into the trash. Seconds later, she watched in horror as several children fought to reclaim her discarded food.

she quit her job and started an organization to give underprivileged children an education. Noun spent $30,000 of her own money to get her first school off the ground.

opened a school at Phnom Penh's largest municipal trash dump, where children are a large source of labor

Today, Noun provides 240 kids from the trash dump a free education, food, health services and an opportunity to be a child in a safe environment. Watch Noun and some of the children who attend her school »

"I have seen a lot of kids killed by the garbage trucks," she recalls. Children as young as 7 scavenge hours at a time for recyclable materials. They make cents a day selling cans, metals and plastic bags.

Tags: mercy, poverty

Cinderella, Snow White, Tinkerbell, and Peter Pan Arrested!

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 19:16:49 GMT

clipped by: sahara

Clip Source: rawstory.com

Cinderella, Snow White, Tinkerbell and other fictional fixtures of modern-day childhood were handcuffed, frisked and loaded into police vans Thursday at the culmination of a labor protest that brought a touch of reality to the Happiest Place on Earth

The arrest of the 32 protesters, many of whom wore costumes representing famous Disney characters, came at the end of an hour-long march to Disneyland's gates from one of three Disney-owned hotels at the center of a labor dispute.

Those who were arrested sat in a circle on a busy intersection outside the park holding hands until they were placed in plastic handcuffs and led to two police vans while hundreds of hotel workers cheered and chanted.

The protesters were arrested on a misdemeanor count of failure to obey a police officer and two traffic infractions, said Sgt. Rick Martinez of the Anaheim police. They were cited and released, Sgt. Chris Schneider said.

The Associated Press has more details here.

U.S. groups file election complaint against Wal-Mart

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:51:10 GMT

clipped by: katsteevns

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

U.S. groups file election complaint against Wal-Mart

Thu Aug 14, 2008 2:23pm EDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Labor groups on Thursday asked federal regulators to look into whether Wal-Mart Stores Inc broke the law during company meetings with store managers where it warned about the consequences of a proposed labor law backed by Democrats.

At issue is whether Wal-Mart's discussion of the law, which would make it easier for workers to unionize, amounted to an effort to dissuade employees from voting for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Wal-Mart denies that it tried to influence voting.

At some meetings, "they outright said if you vote for Barack Obama this law is going to pass, your wages would go down, you could lose your job," said Meghan Scott. She added that the comments varied in their directness.

Wal-Mart opposes proposed legislation that would make it easier for workers to unionize by signing a card rather than holding a vote.

Everyday slave wages at Wal-Mart

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:56:18 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Welcome to the Korporation!

Clip Source: www.brasschecktv.com

[Video]

And don't you dare complain

Welcome to the Snitch State

According to Fortune Magazine, Wal-Mart is now the world's biggest private employer dwarfing other US mega-employers like the US Postal Service, McDonald's, and IBM.

Although it's practically a state secret within the much-propagandized US, Wal-Mart is known worldwide for its

brutal labor practices.

Not bad if your frame of reference is digging coal in a Chinese coal mine, but certainly not what one would expect from a successful First World company.

Wal-Mart's treatment of its employees is so egregious that many countries, including China, would not let Wal-Mart do business within their borders unless company permitted its in-country labor force to be unionized.

Slaves on the Chinese side making the stuff and slaves on the US side stocking the shelves and running the cash registers. The perfect New World Order enterprise.

when Sam Walton founder of the company died, his good friend, George H.W. Bush, the president's father, openly wept.

Wal-Mart Warns of Democratic Win

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:33:50 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: By ANN ZIMMERMAN and KRIS MAHER
August 1, 2008; Page A1

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

According to about a dozen Wal-Mart employees who attended such meetings in seven states, Wal-Mart executives claim that employees at unionized stores would have to pay hefty union dues while getting nothing in return, and may have to go on strike without compensation. Also, unionization could mean fewer jobs as labor costs rise.

Batman Tumbler Is Nearly Perfect, Built With One Man's Bare Hands

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:40:47 GMT

clipped by: suckmyclip
clipper's remarks: Man builds an amazing working replica of Batman's current-gen Batmobile.

Clip Source: gizmodo.com

Bob Dullam is a man possessed—by a lot of things, surely, but mainly by the drive to build this absolutely amazing working replica of Batman's current-gen Batmobile, the Tumbler. Our buddies over at Jalopnik have spotted it, and It's got it all—the afterburner, the huge honking double-barrel wheels, the stealth-toothiness on all of the edges—immaculate. Dullam threw it all together with nothing more than commonly available photos and the movies themselves, all custom welded, in his own garage by himself. And if you're assuming he's got a pretty impressive Batsuit to go with it, you're right.

Bob estimates when all is said and done, his labor of love will cost him anywhere from $50k-$70k. And even after repeated pleading on the Super Hero Hype forums where he's showing it off, he ain't sellin'. At least not until he needs to liquify some assets to work on a working Batpod, which he's setting his sights on next. Head to Jalopnik and the boards for more. [SuperHeroHype via Jalopnik]

Tags: batmania

Chicken company: Workers wanted Islamic religious event recognized

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:39:40 GMT

clipped by: grace5

Clip Source: wnd.com

Tyson replaces Labor Day with Muslim Eid al-Fitr

Chicken company: Workers wanted Islamic religious event recognized

Food workers at the Shelbyville, Tenn., plant for Tyson Foods, which boasts on its corporate website that it strives "to honor God," will have time off for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday closing the month of Ramadan, instead of the American tradition Labor Day.

"Union leadership did request and receive Eid al-Fitr ... as a paid holiday in place of Labor Day," Mickelson told the newspaper.

"Since all Team Members will still have eight paid holidays, the change will not affect production," Mickelson said.

"If this holiday is that important to them, make them take it off instead of Christmas Day and allow ALL workers to be off Labor Day. Most AMERICAN families have some type of function on Labor Day," wrote one participant.

China on Bush: Don't interfere in our affairs

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:22:50 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks:

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

BEIJING - China rejected President Bush's criticism Thursday of its human rights record and restrictions on religion, diplomatically telling him to stay out of its affairs only hours before he arrived in Beijing to attend the Olympics.

In a speech in Bangkok outlining America's achievements and challenges in Asia, Bush pushed for a free press, free assembly and labor rights in China, and against its detentions of political dissidents, human rights advocates and religious activists. He said he wasn't trying to antagonize China, but called such reform the only path the potent U.S. rival can take to reach its full potential.

He antagonized the Chinese anyway, setting the stage for an interesting reception when he attends the opening ceremonies Friday evening, takes in some events — including the U.S.-China men's basketball game — and meets with President Hu Jintao on Sunday after attending church.

Tags: bush, u.s., china, human rights, olympics

North Korea's surreal Mass Games

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:03:45 GMT

clipped by: pussycatdoll
clipper's remarks: While everyone else watches the Olympics, Asia's weirdest sporting event transpires in the world's most secretive country

In the capital Pyongyang, your tour group (there’s no other way to enter but on an officially sanctioned tour) will cheerily clap along as your shy guide, exhibiting all the undisguised nervousness of a karaoke virgin, balances at the front of the bus while warbling the cheery Korean song “Pan Gap Seumnida,” or “Pleased To Meet You.” Should your country ever cross swords with hers, however, rest assured that she would have no qualms about mowing you down with an AK-47. The DPRK is permanently on a war footing, and all outsiders are viewed with suspicion.

And while China has marshaled its masses to provide cheap labor for the rest of the world, thereby becoming an economic superpower, the DPRK invests an estimated 200 million of its people’s man-hours each year in a choreographed extravaganza of gymnastics, music and dancing.

Clip Source: thephoenix.com

The most popular adjectives with which to describe North Korea are "Orwellian," "paranoid," and "totalitarian." "Repressive" and "isolated" get ample play, as do "dystopian" and "Kafkaesque." Christopher Hitchens once described it as a "slave state." Dubya name-checked it in his infamous "axis of evil" speech. Let’s add another to the list: surreal.

Clip Source: thephoenix.com

Life in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), to use its official title, revolves around the personality cult of the Great Leader Kim Il Sung -- who was rather absurdly made president for life after his death in 1994 -- and that of his son and successor Kim Jong Il. Kim the younger is usually referred to as the General or Dear Leader, but has also been variously described by the Korean Central News Agency as the Sun of the 21st Century, the Highly Intelligent and Almighty Leader, the Greatest Personifier of Human Wisdom, the Incarnation of Might Displaying Infinite Creative Ability, and Top Brain of the Socio-Political Organism.

Clip Source: thephoenix.com

Tags: korea

Labor day out, Eid al-Fitr in

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:34:02 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: Most unbelievable item of the day.

Clip Source: www.tennessean.com

Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be granted the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.

According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new 5-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant.

Tyson's director of media relations Gary Mickelson said the contract includes eight paid holidays — the same number as the old contract.

Eid al-Fitr — which falls on Oct. 1 this year — marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Union leaders say implementing the holiday was important for the nearly 700 Muslims, many of them Somalis, who work at the plant that employs a total of 1,200 people.

Thought Police | The Left vs. Free Speech

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:20:19 GMT

clipped by: missjackson
clipper's remarks: From the article: The extreme left loves to pretend it stands for freedom. It never has and never will. From the Reign of Terror in Paris onward, its core agenda has been the tyranny of egomaniacal intellectuals.

The left pretends that campuses should enjoy freedom of speech, yet activist students shout down, harass and even attack speakers whose views they dislike. That's brownshirt behavior, folks - as surely as show trials are Stalinist.

Hardcore leftists never welcome a freewheeling debate - they'd rather force their beliefs on the rest of us. It's an article of faith for the left that folks like you and me are too stupid to know what's good for us (we're so dumb, some of us even believe in God).

For many years, the left's tactic was to pretend to care about average citizens. In the last century, the motto was the "dictatorship of the proletariat"

Now we have the would-be dictatorship of the pseudo-intellectuals.

Clip Source: www.nypost.com

The Holocaust's victims were 6 million innocents. The handful of prisoners at Guantanamo are accused terrorists. Guantanamo has no gas chambers; prisoners aren't forced into slave labor. They aren't tortured or starved or shot. And their trials are open to members of the press.

It wasn't just Lenin and Stalin whose propaganda machine prefigured MoveOn. Nazi is an acronym for "National Socialist." Read Mein Kampf. It isn't a tribute to free-market capitalism, folks. Mussolini was a populist. Mao was a leftist, as was Pol Pot. The last century's worst censors and book burners all emerged from leftist ideologies.

The more I think about that proposed war-crimes trial, the more excited I get.

If we could just delay it until President Obama invades Pakistan, he and I could share the prisoners' docket together.

the charges he'd face would be far worse, given that Saddam Hussein was a genocidal dictator and Pakistan's a democracy

But the left is right: We can't let war crimes go unpunished

Soviet dissident writer Solzhenitsyn dies at 89

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:18:27 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

lexander Solzhenitsyn, the Soviet dissident writer and Nobel literature prize winner, has died aged 89,

He died of a stroke, the agency said, quoting literary sources in Moscow.

Solzhenitsyn served with the Red Army in World War Two but became one of the most prominent dissidents of the Soviet era, enduring labor camps, cancer and persecution by Soviet officialdom.

His experience in the network of labor camps was vividly described in his "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich."

His major works, including "The First Circle" and "Cancer Ward" brought him world admiration and the 1970 Nobel Literature Prize.

Stripped of his citizenship and sent into exile in 1974 after the publication of "The Gulag Archipelago", his monumental history of the Soviet police state, the writer settled in the United States, returning to post-Soviet Russia as a hero in 1994.

Tags: obituary

The Best States For Business Forbes Annual Listing

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:51:12 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: In Forbes' annual ranking of the Best States for Business, Virginia finished first for the third straight year. But Georgia is the real story, moving from 15th to fifth place. Georgia finished in the top 10 in four of the six categories we examined (economic climate, growth prospects, labor supply and regulatory environment). Just two other states, Virginia and third-ranked Washington, managed this feat.

Our rankings measure states on six main areas of importance: business costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life. Business costs are weighted the most, but low costs were not enough to keep Louisiana and West Virginia from being the bottom two in our ranking. We look at a total of 32 data points to compile rankings of the six main categories.

Clipmarks | Labor Clips

What has Congress done so far...?

Wal-Mart Warns of Democratic Win

Educating children from the dump

Cinderella, Snow White, Tinkerbell, and Peter Pan Arrested!

U.S. groups file election complaint against Wal-Mart

U.S. groups file election complaint against Wal-Mart

Everyday slave wages at Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Warns of Democratic Win

Batman Tumbler Is Nearly Perfect, Built With One Man's Bare Hands

Chicken company: Workers wanted Islamic religious event recognized

China on Bush: Don't interfere in our affairs

North Korea's surreal Mass Games

Labor day out, Eid al-Fitr in

Thought Police | The Left vs. Free Speech

Soviet dissident writer Solzhenitsyn dies at 89

The Best States For Business Forbes Annual Listing

No. 1: Virginia

No. 2: Utah

No. 3: Washington

No. 4: North Carolina

No. 5: Georgia

No. 6: Colorado

No. 7: Idaho

No. 8: Florida

No. 9: Texas

No. 10: Nebraska

No. 11: Minnesota

No. 12: Delaware

No. 13: North Dakota

No. 14: Maryland

No. 15: New Mexico

No. 16: Oregon

No. 17: Tennessee

No. 18: Arizona

No. 19: Nevada

No. 20: New Hampshire

No. 21: Kansas

No. 22: Iowa

No. 23: South Dakota

No. 24: Montana

No. 25: Indiana

No. 26: Oklahoma

No. 27: Hawaii

No. 28: Alabama

No. 29: South Carolina

No. 30: Missouri

No. 31: Wyoming

No. 32: Arkansas

No. 33: Connecticut

No. 34: New Jersey

No. 35: Illinois

No. 36: Massachusetts

No. 36: Vermont

No. 38: New York

No. 39: Ohio

No. 40: California

No. 41: Pennsylvania

No. 42: Mississippi

No. 43: Wisconsin

No. 44: Kentucky

No. 45: Rhode Island

No. 46: Maine

No. 47 Michigan

No. 48: Alaska

No. 49: Louisiana

No. 50: West Virginia