VRWC War on Employees: "Working Families Flexibility Act."

[boutons_deux]

Texas Police Oppose Anti-Union Bill Championed by Abbott, Patrick

“They get the teachers this time … and next time they’re coming after us,” said a police association president

Senate Bill 7, which passed largely along party lines with a 19-12 vote, would prohibit public employees from voluntarily having union dues withheld from their paychecks.

Leeton and other union members say the ban on automatic deductions — a special session priority set by Governor Greg Abbott — would decrease membership by making payment more difficult.

SB 7 carves out exemptions for police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel, yet police associations still oppose it.

“The reality is this is a stepping stone,” said Leeton. “So they get the teachers this time, and other labor groups, and next time they’re coming after us. …

This is a union-busting bill, that’s all this is.”

https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-...unions-abbott/

[boutons_deux]

Trump Poised to Repeal Popular Federal Jobs Initiative, With Disproportionate Impact to Be Felt by Minorities

But with momentum on infrastructure stuck in neutral, the administration this week is quietly moving ahead to repeal a two-year-old initiative dating from the Obama administration that

might be the only dynamic infrastructure and jobs program in existence at the federal level.

According to its August Significant Rulemaking Report, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has set Friday as the termination date for

a program that has already enabled states and cities to create thousands of new, high-wage transportation and construction jobs in some of the nation’s most depressed local labor markets.

“Many of these jobs were finally addressing long-term unemployment — many, for people of color,”

said Angela Glover Blackwell, CEO of PolicyLink, an economic and social equity think tank. “This is yet another example of the

Trump administration not standing up for jobs for the nation’s most vulnerable.”

Madeline Janis, executive director of Jobs to Move America (JMA), a national coalition that has been at the center of leveraging public transit projects to generate opportunities for the unemployed, has been raising the alarm about the repeal.

She told Capital & Main that

she discovered it buried in the DOT rules change report almost by accident.
https://capitalandmain.com/trumps-pr...kill-jobs-0824

Repugs, job creators!

[Thread]

Trump Poised to Repeal Popular Federal Jobs Initiative, With Disproportionate Impact to Be Felt by Minorities

They've been on their knees & the since LBJ.

Act like somebody.

[boutons_deux]

Trump Just Cut The Wages Of 4.2 Million Workers The Day After Labor Day

The U.S. Justice Department today said it will abandon efforts to appeal a ruling by a Texas judge that put on hold an order by President Obama that greatly increased the number of workers who should receive overtime pay by making it harder for corporations to pretend they are actually white collar supervisors who are exempt from wage rules.

Chris Opfer
✔@ChrisOpfer

Just In: Justice Department to drop appeal in overtime case.

Judge last week killed Obama rule to make 4 million overtime eligible.
9:54 AM - Sep 5, 2017

The impact is that with a shrug and a wink at the big companies,

Trump has slashed the wages for millions of workers,

and cost many of them payments due for work already done under the old rules which were enacted under President George W. Bush.

“The Obama overtime rule provided protections to workers who were listed in bogus salaried positions

in the service, retail, and other sectors of the economy as a way to avoid having to pay employees overtime,” reporter and lawyer Chris Opfer wrote for Bloomberg BNA.


President Obama pushed the rule when it became clear the Republican controlled Congress would never raise the minimum wage for those in economic terms who are at the bottom of the labor pool.

“President Obama raised wages for 4.2 million workers with this rule,” adds Opfer. “Donald Turmp will slice those wages so that the money can go back into the hands of corporations.”

http://occupydemocrats.com/2017/09/05/trump-just-cut-wages-4-2-million-workers-day-labor-day/


How many of these 4.2 million SCREWED employees voted for Trash?

[boutons_deux]

AMERICA STRESSES OVER MAKING TIME FOR HOLIDAY CHEER


It’s little wonder that Americans are stressing out about their ability to find time for merriment.

They are, after all, working very long days.

According to a 2014 Gallup Poll,

the average American works 47 hours per week,

compared with fewer than 35 hours per week in Western European countries like France, Germany and Denmark.

Half of full-time, salaried U.S. employees — those who don’t earn overtime pay — said they worked at least 50 hours.

http://www.ozy.com/a en/america-stresses-over-making-time-for-holiday-cheer/82463?utm_source=dd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign= 12112017&variable=992d608214b505003aa04bf10a595031

50 hours/week? Probably about right for Trash's TV watching hours.

[boutons_deux]

IT giant CSC screwed its 1,000 sysadmins out of their overtime – jury

DXC to appeal verdict after court heard biz giant deliberately shortchanged staff

Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) “willfully” misclassified 1,000 of its system administrators to avoid paying the techies overtime.

On Wednesday, a jury in Connecticut, USA, found in favor of staff who had brought 11 claims of labor law violations against the IT services provider.

Their class-action lawsuit, launched in 2014,

accused the multinational giant of failing to pay mandatory overtime.

During the three-year legal battle in Connecticut and California, CSC merged with the Enterprise Services business of Hewlett Packard Enterprise to form DXC Technology.

After deliberating over two days, the jury unanimously rejected

CSC’s claim that its low-level system administrators were exempt from mandatory overtime pay under federal,

Connecticut and California law due to their “associate professional” and “professional” job labels.

The panel decided instead that the workers should have been classified as nonexempt, and thus should have been paid overtime.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/1..._says_us_jury/

[boutons_deux]

the oligarchy / Capital is financing the eternal war on Labor

Janus and fair share feesThe organizations financing the attack on unions’ ability to represent workers

Organizations litigating fair share fees and their donor foundations

National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTWLDF)

Center for Individual Rights (CIR)

Liberty Justice Center and NRTWLDF

Donors Trust/Donors Capital Fund

Sarah Scaife Foundation

Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

Ed Uihlein Family Foundation

Dunn’s Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking

The link between anti–fair share and the broader attack on workers

A driving factor behind these trends is an increasingly energized and well-funded campaign against workers’ rights.

This campaign has occurred across all levels of government—federal, state, and local.

http://www.epi.org/publication/janus-and-fair-share-fees-the-organizations-financing-the-attack-on-unions-ability-to-represent-workers/?utm_source=Economic+Policy+Ins ute&utm_campaign =4be39a88d2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_23&utm_medium=email&utm_ter m=0_e7c5826c50-4be39a88d2-59312805&mc_cid=4be39a88d2&mc_eid=3f6f7e5a76

Capital has $Bs to spend on ing over Labor, and as Warren Buffet said, they are "winning" the Class War of Capital vs Labor

[boutons_deux]

Cheating workers out of wages is easier than ever

Two features alone, “rounding” and “automatic break deductions,” could result in the loss of up to 44 minutes a day – or US$1,382 a year at the federal minimum wage.

Timekeeping software was the focus of a study I co-authored last year do enting how it could be used to facilitate wage theft.

But it left a lingering question: Did companies actually use these features to shortchange workers? Based on my review of hundreds of lawsuits like Willis’, the answer is yes – and it’s just the tip of the iceberg.


“Wage theft” is a shorthand term that refers to situations in which someone isn’t paid for the work. In its simplest form, it might consist of a manager instructing employees to work off the clock. Or a company refusing to pay for overtime hours.

A report from the

Economic Policy Ins ute estimated that employees lose $15 billion to wage theft every year, more than all of the property crime in the United States put together.

Our 2017 study, which was based on promotional materials, employer policies and YouTube videos, suggested that

companies can now use software to avoid paying all sorts of hourly workers.
Hundreds and hundreds

When an employee clocks in for the day – using a computer login, ID badge or phone – that employee’s time log becomes a form of data.

I ran a search of legal opinions to see if there were any cases in which workers sought to reclaim wages lost through digital wage theft.

I found hundreds and hundreds of legal opinions involving digital wage theft.

And this suggests there are hundreds more because, typically, for every case that results in a legal opinion many more do not.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/cheating-workers-wages-easier-ever/

Capital screwing Labor, the eternal war.

[boutons_deux]

News from a Repug HOLE aka Texas

San Antonio City Clerk Certifies Pe ion Signatures For Mandatory Paid Sick Leave

Earlier this month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to the city saying any such ordinance mandating sick leave at the city level would violate the Texas Minimum Wage Act.

http://www.tpr.org/post/san-antonio-city-clerk-certifies-pe ion-signatures-mandatory-paid-sick-leave

=============

AG Paxton’s Office Warns San Antonio Against Cir venting Texas Law on Paid Sick Leave

In April, Attorney General Paxton intervened in a lawsuit filed by the National Federation of Independent Business, American Staffing Association, LeadingEdge Personnel, Staff Force, HT Staffing, and Burnett Staffing Specialists

against the city of Austin’s unlawful sick leave ordinance, which is scheduled to take effect on October 1.

https://texasattorneygeneral.gov/new...as-law-on-paid

of course a 5-4 or 6-3 oligarchy SCOTUS would side with the oligarchy/Captial Repugs against Labor.

In TX, get sick, family member gets sick, get pregnant, get fired.

[boutons_deux]

Solving The 'Wage Puzzle': Why Aren't Paychecks Growing?

some economists say that should add up to wage growth rates of about 3.5 percent.

Instead, wages are increasing at a 2.7 percent annual rate.

Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, is among those who worry that

declining unionization and other factors

have eroded American workers' ability to demand higher pay;

they are not benefiting from the strong economic growth.

In 2012, recruitment firm Korn Ferry's survey ranked pay the top reason workers left jobs.

This year, it was "culture and purpose,"

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/02/63475...ign=&utm_term=

[boutons_deux]

quit rate is key to understanding workers. If they think they can get a better job (pay, conditions), they quit

Workers are quitting their jobs at a rate not seen since dotcom bubble

Americans are quitting their jobs at a record rate, with the proportion of workers leaving their jobs reaching the highest level in over 17 years,

Despite a tick down in the number of open jobs, there are still more open jobs than there are unemployed people—only the second time in two decades that has happened.

Businesses advertised 6.64 million available jobs in May, down from 6.84 million the month before. But there were only 6.1 million unemployed people.

The proportion of workers quitting their jobs, known as the quit rate, reached the highest level since April 2001.

Quits are seen as a positive sign that workers are confident they can find another job.

Most people who quit do so for higher-paying positions.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/workers...n-in-17-years/

[boutons_deux]

Americans have amassed a record $13.2 trillion in debt, but economists aren’t that worried about it

US household debt has set yet another record high. In the first quarter of 2018, it reached $13.2 trillion, a $63 billion increase from the previous quarter.

Now, household debt is half a trillion dollars higher than its previous peak in 2008,

Delinquency rates for credit cards and auto loans are rising,

while about 10% of student loans were at least 90 days overdue in the latest reading.

While subprime loans are no longer a serious issue in the mortgage market, they are still prevalent for auto loans.

In the first quarter, 19% of new auto loans were issued with credit scores below 620, amounting to $25 billion.

Auto-loan delinquencies have been rising since 2012, and

at the end of March 4.3% of auto debt was at least 90 days overdue.

The highest rate in the past 15 years was 5.3% at the end of 2010.

Meanwhile, wealth from housing has also increased to a record high, at more than $14 trillion.

For the most part, house prices have recovered since the financial crisis—

but homeownership rates haven’t, particular for younger people.

The homeownership rate for Americans under 35 is just 35%, compared with 43% before the crisis.

For over 65s, homeownership rates have held steady at around 80%.

“While housing wealth is at an all-time high,

it has shifted into the hands of older and more creditworthy borrowers,

in part because of tight mortgage lending standards,”

Although American households, in the aggregate, appear able to withstand a financial shock thanks to rising wealth and less worrying types of indebtedness,

the details reveal that this is mostly true for older borrowers with higher credit scores.

https://qz.com/1280927/us-household-...13-2-trillion/

[boutons_deux]

City Council adopts mandatory paid sick leave ordinance for San Antonio workers

In a major victory for a coalition of labor and community organizations, the City Council on Thursday adopted a mandatory paid sick leave ordinance that would ensure nearly all workers in San Antonio earn the benefit.

In a 9-2 vote, the council adopted the ordinance that will become effective next year. It would apply to both for- and not-for-profit businesses.

Officials expect that

the ( hole Repug) Texas Legislature will move to preempt the ordinance and similar laws in Austin and Dallas,

if voters there approve it in November.

If it isn’t addressed by state lawmakers, Mayor Ron Nirenberg suggested that the city would work with those who presented the pe ion for the ordinance and business owners who have voiced concerns with mandating that businesses offer paid sick time.

Councilmen Greg Brockhouse and Clayton Perry voted against the measure.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...ium=newsletter

[boutons_deux]

Trump's war on workers is flying under the radar, but it's relentless
the attack he’s mounted on working people is staggering … and mostly under the radar.

The Trump administration killed the Obama-era rule requiring federal contractors to disclose violations of labor law when they bid for contracts.

They stopped the Obama administration’s effort to expand overtime eligibility so that millions more people would get overtime when they work more than 40 hours a week.

Then there’s the string of damaging National Labor Relations Board decisions, including

a ruling against small unions within larger workplaces, the decision that got McDonald’s off the hook for workers in its franchise restaurants,

and:

— Reversing a 2004 decision bolstering workers’ rights to organize free from employer interference.

— Reversing a 2016 decision safeguarding unionized workers’ rights to bargain over changes in employment terms.

—Overturning a 2016 decision that required settlements between employers and employees to provide a “full remedy” to aggrieved workers, instead of partial settlements.

Over at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, meanwhile, they’ve

delayed three important workplace safety rules.

And, of course, the Supreme Court has said that employers can force workers into mandatory arbitration, denying them their day in court, and has also attacked public unions in the Janus decision.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/178976

Capital ALWAYS wins over Labor

The oligarchy's pollution-increasing rules will kill 1000s more Americans than MS-13 or Muslims ever will.

but y'all stupid, ignorant rightwingnutjobs keep voting about God, guns, LGBT, immigrant animals/rapists, Muslims, globalism, MS-13, Hillary, welfare cheats, socialism, etc...

[boutons_deux]

[boutons_deux]

Southern cities are passing paid sick leave — but Republicans won’t let them have it

The United States is the only 1 of 22 rich countries that has no national guaranteed paid sick-leave policy

On August 16, the San Antonio city council voted 9-2 to pass a paid sick leave ordinance that will allow residents to earn an hour of time off for every 30 hours worked up to six days a year at small employers and eight at larger ones.

The United States is alone among 22 wealthy countries in having no national guaranteed paid sick-leave policy. As a result, states are left to pass their own laws, and in those like Texas where GOP legislatures stand opposed to paid sick leave, it’s up to the cities.

San Antonio became the 33rd city in the country to take such a step, and the second in the South after Austin passed a similar law in February.

The San Antonio law is supposed to go into effect in January, and Austin’s was scheduled to go into effect in October. But the fate of both laws is up in the air.

The very day after San Antonio’s ordinance passed,

an appeals court temporarily put Austin’s law on hold in the midst of a lawsuit brought by the conservative

Texas Public Policy Foundation — a member of the Koch-backed State Policy Network—

that claims the law violates the Texas Minimum Wage Act.

Even if that lawsuit fails, many

Republican members of the Texas legislature have vowed to pass legislation to block such local progressive laws throughout the state.

Lawmakers are expected to take up broad preemption legislation as a top priority when the next legislative session begins in the new year.

Greg Abbott pledged to preempt cities’ ability to pass their own ordinances.

In 2017 he explained this decision would “continue our legacy of economic freedom” (aka Capitial freedom to Labor)

and “limit the ability of cities to California-ize the great state of Texas.”

In 2015,

the state blocked cities from regulating oil and gas drilling activity, including fracking, and

it has also banned local laws that would create sanctuary cities.

It’s a growing trend in legislatures controlled by Republicans.

At least 25 states have passed preemption laws that block cities from raising the minimum wage, and

20 have banned cities from ins uting paid sick leave.

The majority of these laws have been enacted since 2013 and advocates for higher workplace standards say the trend is only accelerating.

https://www.salon.com/2018/09/03/southern-cities-are-passing-paid-sick-leave-but-republicans-wont-let-them-have-it_partner/

Uber/Lyft hired hole TX Repug s to block Austin, Houston from imposing finger print checks / Federal b/g checks on rideshare drivers.

[boutons_deux]

Michigan GOP blocking paid sick leave by passing paid sick leave?



Michigan’s Republican-controlled legislature just passed bills requiring paid sick leave and raising the minimum wage to $12.

The Republicans passed those laws in order to keep them weak:

That’s because the effort to pass the two measures was more about keeping the issues off the Nov. 6 ballot and

giving the Legislature the power to amend the two laws with a simple majority.

If the proposals had gone to the ballot and were

passed by voters,

it would take a three-quarters majority to amend the laws.

====================================


About two million low-income Americans would lose benefits under House farm bill, study says.


Under the bill, states could remove about 8 percent of those receiving aid from the rolls,

About 34 percent of seniors in the program, or 677,000 households, would lose benefits under the proposal

More than one in 10 people with a disability, another 214,000 households, would also lose eligibility.



https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1793843

[boutons_deux]

Sears execs to split $25 mil in bonuses after telling workers no severance because of bankruptcy




19 top executives will get to split a paltry $8.4 million if the company hits its “goals,” and

315 senior employees might get the remaining $16.9 million.

This means that the executives that helped to bankrupt the company in the first place

will get a little less than half a million dollars apiece in holiday cheer.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/12/17/1819712/-Sears-execs-to-split-25-mil-in-bonuses-after-telling-workers-no-severance-because-of-bankruptcy?detail=emaildkre

====================

Predatory, asset-stripping, job-killing vulture Capitalism

Hedge funds have killed Sears and many other retailers

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/16/investing/retail-sears-private-equity/index.html

[boutons_deux]

Too Many Workers Are Trapped By Non-Competes

Employers shouldn’t get away with limiting their options.

Why have wages been so slow to rise at a time when demand for workers has pushed the U.S. unemployment rate to its lowest point in nearly half a century?

One answer: contracts that tie millions of unspecialized workers to their jobs.


In far too many cases, these so-called

noncompetes are an unwarranted restriction on freedom to transact and a drag on growth.

A 2014 survey found that about two in five workers were or had at some point been bound in this way,

including workers such as security guards and camp counselors.

Some 12 percent of employees without a bachelor’s degree and earning less than $40,000 a year were tied down.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/ar...erican-workers

[boutons_deux]

https://rwer.wordpress.com/2019/02/0...-of-the-world/

[boutons_deux]

From the anti-Labor Labor Dept

U.S. Labor Department moves to ease companies' liability for franchisee wage violations

The U.S. Department of Labor on Monday issued a proposal that would make it more difficult to prove companies are liable for the wage law violations of their contractors or franchisees,

a top priority for business groups.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-labor/us-labor-department-moves-to-ease-companies-liability-for-franchisee-wage-violations-idUSKCN1RD2UK

[boutons_deux]

Senate TURDS on Labor for Capital in hole Texas

Texas Senate passes bill to kill mandatory paid sick leave

Killing Austin's sick leave law would protect businesses from government overreach,

Opponents say Austin is a darling of the global economy and is clearly doing something right.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2019/04/12/texas-senate-passes-bill-to-kill-mandatory.html?ana=e_du_prem&s=article_du&ed=2019-04-12

[boutons_deux]

"In 2016, the Department of Labor (DOL) attempted to strengthen overtime regulations for working people.

The updated overtime pay rule would have raised the overtime salary threshold from $23,660 to $47,476 in 2016, and by 2020 it would have automatically increased to around $51,000.

That rule would have benefitted 13.5 million working people―making 4.6 million newly eligible to receive the overtime pay they deserve, and strengthening the rights of 8.9 million more."

this long-overdue update was

blocked in the courts by business interests and Republican-led states, and

the Trump administration refused to defend the updated rule.

the Trump administration’s lack of action has

already cost working people more than $1.6 billion in lost overtime pay.
Now, the

Trump administration has published a new proposal

that would dramatically weaken the DOL’s 2016 overtime rule―

leaving behind 8.2 million people,

including 4.2 million women,

3.0 million people of color,

4.7 million workers without a college degree, and

2.7 million parents of children under the age of 18,

who would have gotten overtime protections under the 2016 guidelines."

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/submit-your-official-comment-tell-the-department-of-labor-to-reject-trumps-weak-overtime-rules?source=20190412OvertimeComm_EPI&referrer=gro up-economic-policy-ins ute&utm_source=Economic+Policy+Ins ute&utm _campaign=a40d993235-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_04_23_08_30&utm_medium=email&u tm_term=0_e7c5826c50-a40d993235-59312805&mc_cid=a40d993235&mc_eid=3f6f7e5a76

Trash supporters get screwed financially, but they are getting abortion restricted and getting the govt to over the HATED LGBTQ people

[boutons_deux]

the oligarchy's corrupt SCOTUS5 protecting Capital and screwing Labor

Split 5 to 4, Supreme Court Deals a Blow to Class Arbitrations

The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that

workers at a California business could not band together to seek compensation

for what they said was their employer’s failure to protect their data.

The vote was 5 to 4, with the court’s conservative members in the majority.

The decision was the latest in a

line of rulings allowing companies to use arbitration provisions to bar both class actions in court and class-wide arbitration proceedings.

In earlier 5-to-4 decisions concerning fine-print contracts with consumers and employment agreements,

the court ruled that arbitration provisions can require disputes to be resolved one by one.
Those rulings can

make it difficult for consumers and workers to pursue minor claims even where their collective harm was substantial.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/us/politics/supreme-court-class-arbitrations.html

[boutons_deux]

Capitalists' Repug s screwing Labor

GOP-LED EFFORTS TO CRUSH UNIONS HAVE A NEW TARGET: HOME HEALTH CARE WORKERS

FIVE STATES ARE pushing back against the latest Republican-led assault to weaken unions across the country, which targets in-home caregivers who work with Medicaid beneficiaries.

On Monday, attorneys general representing California, Connecticut, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Washington filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging

a new rule, announced earlier this month, that impedes home care workers from paying union dues through their Medicaid-funded paychecks.

The rule, which goes into effect in July, will impact more than half a million workers in California alone, and several hundred thousand more in 10 other states.

The plaintiffs argue that the defendants have illegally reinterpreted federal law “in service of anti-union objectives.”

The new rule, they say, disrupts long-settled arrangements that allow seniors and individuals with disabilities —

who work with state governments to set wages, benefits, and terms of service for their providers —

to direct their own health care.

More than 700,000 individuals across the five plaintiff states currently use consumer-directed Medicaid programs.

https://theintercept.com/2019/05/16/lawsuit-home-care-workers-union-dues/