The truth is far more frightening. Nobody is in control. - Alan Moore
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| DAILY SPECIALS |
Joe to Trump: You can call out white nationalism
Guantanamo Bay Prison Commander Fired, But No Reason Given
Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding the Administration’s Trade Talks with China
Attorney General Barr to testify before Congress on Mueller Russia probe
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| UNIONS |
Singing the blue-law blues: As with other recent labor disputes, healthcare and retirement costs dominated the Stop & Shop fracas.
But there was a twist that made this 11-day strikeunusual: The United Food & Commercial Workers also battled with grocery conglomerate Ahold Delhaize over whether employees should continue to get paid extra for working on Sundays.
A year ago, that wouldn’t have even been an issue, at least not in Massachusetts. Time-and-a-half pay would be guaranteed by state law.
But remember the “Grand Bargain”? Everything changed in those negotiations that culminated in a package of new labor laws last year. The state’s minimum wage will gradually go up, over five years, to $15 an hour, as a result. Meanwhile, the time-and-a-half pay requirement for retail work on Sundays and several holidays is being phased down to straight time by 2023.
Now, we are seeing some of the real-life consequences. The UFCW will likely have to fight for this right, each time a new contract comes up for renewal
Union leaders were smart to worry that the loss of the pay requirement could lessen their clout at the bargaining table. The tentative three-year agreement, which now needs to be approved by union members, protects existing employees’ premium pay. But new employees apparently will need to work at the company for three years before they qualify for it.
The Grand Bargain was supposed to end a fight that seemed to resurface on Beacon Hill, year after year. The Retailers Association of Massachusetts would plead with lawmakers to erase the premium pay requirement, saying mom-and-pops were struggling enough amid the advent of online shopping. It made no sense, RAM says, to single out one industry with this vestige of the state’s old blue laws. Union leaders would strike back by making a quality-of-life argument for keeping the rules in place.
How long has this fight been going on? Consider that stores in Massachusetts were first allowed to open on Sunday afternoons, year-round, in the early 1980s. The Legislature granted various exemptions over time, until voters narrowly passed a ballot question in 1994 that expanded morning openings to all retailers. At the time, the premium pay requirement was supposed to remain in place.
But Jon Hurst, the retail trade group’s president, says the times have changed. Sure, online shopping is taking its toll like never before. Another big factor, though, is the state’s minimum wage. He says the near-doubling of the minimum, from $8 an hour to $15 an hour, over a decade’s time was never envisioned back in the 1990s. Plus, he notes that Rhode Island has been the only other state that required time-and-a-half pay on Sundays.
State lawmakers had never seemed eager to end the requirement. They dropped that reluctance once the retailers wielded a powerful weapon: the promise of a ballot question to reduce the state’s sales tax to 5 percent. Facing a potential loss of $1 billion-plus in annual tax revenue, legislative leaders acquiesced.
Peter Derouen, political director at the UFCW Local 791, says he knows it’s highly likely his union will have to deal with the issue when its contracts with Shaw’s expire in 2022. (Local 791 doesn’t represent Stop & Shop.)
Derouen says his concern goes beyond union membership: Retail workers deserve extra pay when they come in on a Sunday and take valuable time away from their families on what he says should be a day of rest. (State law still requires Sunday work to be voluntary.)
Derouen and his team haven’t given up. They support new legislation that would reinstate the time-and-a-half pay requirement; Senator Paul Feeney and Representative Antonio Cabral filed bills this year to do so, on the union’s behalf. This could be a tough sell to leadership, though. The “Grand Bargain” was a negotiated compromise, and most of the key players are still in charge at the State House.
But the bills do accomplish one thing, at least. They mean the decades-long battle over premium pay on Sundays isn’t over yet, after all. [Boston Globe Talking Points PM, April 23, 2019].
But there was a twist that made this 11-day strikeunusual: The United Food & Commercial Workers also battled with grocery conglomerate Ahold Delhaize over whether employees should continue to get paid extra for working on Sundays.
A year ago, that wouldn’t have even been an issue, at least not in Massachusetts. Time-and-a-half pay would be guaranteed by state law.
But remember the “Grand Bargain”? Everything changed in those negotiations that culminated in a package of new labor laws last year. The state’s minimum wage will gradually go up, over five years, to $15 an hour, as a result. Meanwhile, the time-and-a-half pay requirement for retail work on Sundays and several holidays is being phased down to straight time by 2023.
Now, we are seeing some of the real-life consequences. The UFCW will likely have to fight for this right, each time a new contract comes up for renewal
Union leaders were smart to worry that the loss of the pay requirement could lessen their clout at the bargaining table. The tentative three-year agreement, which now needs to be approved by union members, protects existing employees’ premium pay. But new employees apparently will need to work at the company for three years before they qualify for it.
The Grand Bargain was supposed to end a fight that seemed to resurface on Beacon Hill, year after year. The Retailers Association of Massachusetts would plead with lawmakers to erase the premium pay requirement, saying mom-and-pops were struggling enough amid the advent of online shopping. It made no sense, RAM says, to single out one industry with this vestige of the state’s old blue laws. Union leaders would strike back by making a quality-of-life argument for keeping the rules in place.
How long has this fight been going on? Consider that stores in Massachusetts were first allowed to open on Sunday afternoons, year-round, in the early 1980s. The Legislature granted various exemptions over time, until voters narrowly passed a ballot question in 1994 that expanded morning openings to all retailers. At the time, the premium pay requirement was supposed to remain in place.
But Jon Hurst, the retail trade group’s president, says the times have changed. Sure, online shopping is taking its toll like never before. Another big factor, though, is the state’s minimum wage. He says the near-doubling of the minimum, from $8 an hour to $15 an hour, over a decade’s time was never envisioned back in the 1990s. Plus, he notes that Rhode Island has been the only other state that required time-and-a-half pay on Sundays.
State lawmakers had never seemed eager to end the requirement. They dropped that reluctance once the retailers wielded a powerful weapon: the promise of a ballot question to reduce the state’s sales tax to 5 percent. Facing a potential loss of $1 billion-plus in annual tax revenue, legislative leaders acquiesced.
Peter Derouen, political director at the UFCW Local 791, says he knows it’s highly likely his union will have to deal with the issue when its contracts with Shaw’s expire in 2022. (Local 791 doesn’t represent Stop & Shop.)
Derouen says his concern goes beyond union membership: Retail workers deserve extra pay when they come in on a Sunday and take valuable time away from their families on what he says should be a day of rest. (State law still requires Sunday work to be voluntary.)
Derouen and his team haven’t given up. They support new legislation that would reinstate the time-and-a-half pay requirement; Senator Paul Feeney and Representative Antonio Cabral filed bills this year to do so, on the union’s behalf. This could be a tough sell to leadership, though. The “Grand Bargain” was a negotiated compromise, and most of the key players are still in charge at the State House.
But the bills do accomplish one thing, at least. They mean the decades-long battle over premium pay on Sundays isn’t over yet, after all. [Boston Globe Talking Points PM, April 23, 2019].
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| ACTIVISTS |
The time for denial is over. Conservatives have to take the climate crisis seriously
Extinction Rebellion London: Arrests near 1,000 and police vow crackdown will continue
Extinction Rebellion London: Arrests near 1,000 and police vow crackdown will continue
For more than a month, mock graves for Putin have been popping up around Russia. We talked to an activist leader about where they came from.
Leaders of Hong Kong's Pro-Democracy Movement Handed Prison Sentences
Senators push HHS to take legal action against Gilead over a patent for an HIV drug
The trials of Open Russia How the Russian government uses laws against ‘undesirable organizations’ to target activists from a single human rights group
Activists And Suicide Prevention Groups Seek Bans On Conversion Therapy For Minors
CONSERVATIVE ACTIVISTS ACCUSE BANK OF AMERICA OF MISLEADING ABOUT PLANNED PARENTHOOD TIES
WORLD'S GREATEST LEADERS
Why Philly’s Reformist Prosecutor Finally Supports Letting Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Appeal Go Forward
Youth Activists Petition for 2020 Presidential Candidate Debate on Environmental Policy
Hong Kong protesters hold biggest march in 5 years, political group says
Greenpeace activists climb aboard oil rig in Norwegian Arctic
Leaders of Hong Kong's Pro-Democracy Movement Handed Prison Sentences
Senators push HHS to take legal action against Gilead over a patent for an HIV drug
The trials of Open Russia How the Russian government uses laws against ‘undesirable organizations’ to target activists from a single human rights group
Activists And Suicide Prevention Groups Seek Bans On Conversion Therapy For Minors
CONSERVATIVE ACTIVISTS ACCUSE BANK OF AMERICA OF MISLEADING ABOUT PLANNED PARENTHOOD TIES
WORLD'S GREATEST LEADERS
Why Philly’s Reformist Prosecutor Finally Supports Letting Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Appeal Go Forward
Youth Activists Petition for 2020 Presidential Candidate Debate on Environmental Policy
Hong Kong protesters hold biggest march in 5 years, political group says
Greenpeace activists climb aboard oil rig in Norwegian Arctic
Kansas Supreme Court rules state constitution protects abortion rights
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled late last week that the right to an abortion is protected under the state’s constitution, blocking a 2015 state law that would have banned a common second-trimester procedure. The state has had a contentious history regarding abortion: Physician George Tiller, who had faced threats for performing the procedure, was killed in 2009 by an abortion opponent who had previously targeted him. With Friday’s landmark decision, Kansas joins at least nine other states whose high courts have ruled in favor of abortion rights activists. Antiabortion activists in Kansas have already vowed to organize to amend the state’s constitution. [STAT: Morning Rounds, April 29, 2019]
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| CONSPIRACY THEORIES |
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Strange and Obscure Stories of New York City
Crystallizing Public Opinion
The Gringo Champion FICTION
Crystallizing Public Opinion
The Gringo Champion FICTION
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| GREAT BRITAIN |
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