The Worker Thread

[Vrede too]

Send a letter to your representative TODAY. Tell them to sponsor and VOTE YES on the Protecting the Right to Organize Act!

[O Really]

Good example here of distortion of fact...
Headline: Mom forced to pay former employer thousands after switching jobs during maternity leave: 'I wasn’t prepared for it'

True statement, but as might be expected it doesn't exactly paint a true picture.

Woman goes out on FMLA leave
Company agrees (because it's required to) to give her her job back after the leave and to continue providing her normal benefits
Woman doesn't return, takes a job with another company.
During the leave, the company has paid its share of health plan benefits for the woman, who has used those benefits during her childbirth.
If she doesn't return, the company is entitled to recover benefit plan expenses it paid on her behalf, and decided to do so.

IRL, most companies don't actually try to recover those costs, particularly because in a lot of cases they're just as happy to see the employee leave. But it's not cruel and unusual punishment if they do have a policy of recovering the cost.

Maybe the woman might have read the fine print on her FMLA documents when she left on leave? Trusting an employer, without verification, to act in your best interest is about the same as believing your used car salesman.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/mom-for ... 56248.html

[Vrede too]

https://www.epi.org/publication/class-o ... e-edition/

[O Really]

I wouldn't argue with their findings - the numbers are what they are. But wage comparisons don't mean diddly without the context of industry, position, and location.

It's been long lamented that males are far more likely to go into technology fields than females, and thus get more of the software developer jobs at Google in Silicon Valley and get paid (literally) twice what the rate would be elsewhere. So we can blame gender typecasting, early life role-setting, or whatever, or maybe even hiring bias by Google, but until they show me that Google starts the white guy Stanford graduates at more than the female/black Stanford graduates to do the same job, then I'm not particularly impressed. Actually, they (and other companies) may very well do that, but it was ignored in the article.

[1 CAT FAN]

They have excellent service in Ohio, down south not so much

[Vrede too]

$15 Minimum Wage Becomes Part of 2020 Presidential Landscape

From liberal firebrands Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to moderates Joe Biden and John Hickenlooper, nearly the entire 2020 Democratic presidential field agrees that the federal minimum wage should be more than doubled, to $15 an hour.

That near-unanimity reflects the success of an unorthodox campaign by the Service Employees International Union called the Fight for 15. It launched in 2012 to help nonunion McDonald's workers who walked off their jobs as cooks and servers agitate for a then-unthinkable $15 minimum wage. Now, according to the National Employment Law Project, one-third of the country will have a $15 minimum wage as gradual increases in bedrock Democratic states like California, Illinois and New York kick in over the coming years.

Ernie Tedeschi, an analyst at Evercore ISI, calculated the de facto national minimum wage at a historic high of $12 an hour when accounting for a flurry of recent city and statewide increases. Officially, the federal minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour.

Other than the sudden jump on wages and its hold in the Democratic primary, the Fight for 15 is also showcasing a different form of labor organizing as traditional union membership has dwindled....

[Vrede too]

Unchecked corporate power
Forced arbitration, the enforcement crisis, and how workers are fighting back

Tell Congress: Shift power back to working people. Pass the “Restoring Justice for Workers Act”

[Vrede too]

A Democratic senator wants to protect federal contractors — the people most screwed over by the shutdown
A new bill from Sen. Tina Smith (MN) would guarantee them back pay.

Petition to Congress:

"Pass the bills that would provide back pay to low-wage federal contractors who went without pay during Trump's government shutdown."

Looks like the petition is still active. I signed again.

I've got mixed feelings about that. Sure, it seems fair that the contractors should be made whole since their loss was totally caused by Ann Coulter goading Trump into further stupidity. But from a practical standpoint, they actually work for somebody other than the federal government. And loss of work because of contract issues or whatever is a common risk of that type of employment. I've got a client who pays for 8 holidays per year, but they contract with a company that closes for 12 holidays. The contractor's employees aren't paid for those extra holidays unless they use their own PTO. Some employers use temporary/contract workers specifically to absorb the ups and downs of production and thus avoid laying off their "real" employees. If a company closes for a week for inventory or moving the office, the contract employees are out of work for a week unless their real employer has other assignments they can send them on.

Nevertheless, if I got a vote, I'd vote to give them the back pay.

Back pay for federal contractors set to advance'

... At the time, workers advocates called on Congress to include federal contractors when it comes to back pay – but that had never happened before, and they weren’t included when Congress approved retroactive pay for federal workers after the shutdown at the beginning of this year.

ut earlier this week, the House Appropriations Committee announced that an upcoming spending package will include back pay for an estimated 580,000 federal contractors, according to a report published Wednesday in the Washington Post.

According to the Post, union leaders believe many of the affected federal contractors earn between $460 and $650 weekly, making them the among the lowest-paid government workers....

Although back pay for federal contractors is expected to clear the House, perhaps this month, its fate in the Senate is far from certain. A group of Senate Democrats, joined by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), have been pushing for the measure. But other Republican senators are balking.

[Vrede too]

Don’t let Trump shut down Appalachian Job (Corps) Training Centers!
Submit your comment today to the Department of Labor.

It's not like those magic coal jobs ever materialized.

[Vrede too]

[Vrede too]

Trump is stealing overtime pay from workers. Congress must fight back.



Petition to Congress:

"Expand overtime pay and restore overtime protections to the millions of workers hurt by the Trump administration and conservative business lawsuits. Support the Restoring Overtime Pay Act."

[neoplacebo]

Don’t let Trump shut down Appalachian Job (Corps) Training Centers!
Submit your comment today to the Department of Labor.

It's not like those magic coal jobs ever materialized.

In the local newspaper on Friday, front page above the fold "Flatwoods Job Corps spared" which is in Coeburn, VA. So at least this one is slated to remain open. It's a good thing, too, since there's not much opportunity in Coeburn or even in the entire Wise County area up there. From the story, Warner and Kaine got behind this and got it taken off the list of facilities that were to be shut down.

[Vrede too]

In the local newspaper on Friday, front page above the fold "Flatwoods Job Corps spared" which is in Coeburn, VA. So at least this one is slated to remain open. It's a good thing, too, since there's not much opportunity in Coeburn or even in the entire Wise County area up there.

Cool, thanks!

From the story, Warner and Kaine got behind this and got it taken off the list of facilities that were to be shut down.

Hey, it was my comment, too.

[neoplacebo]

In the local newspaper on Friday, front page above the fold "Flatwoods Job Corps spared" which is in Coeburn, VA. So at least this one is slated to remain open. It's a good thing, too, since there's not much opportunity in Coeburn or even in the entire Wise County area up there.

Cool, thanks!

From the story, Warner and Kaine got behind this and got it taken off the list of facilities that were to be shut down.

Hey, it was my comment, too.

opps! didn't mean to leave out your contribution.

[Vrede too]

opps! didn't mean to leave out your contribution.

They're all safe nationwide, for now.

Trump administration backs down on closing job centers

Yeah, I'm that good.


Tell Congress to Stop Offshoring

[neoplacebo]

opps! didn't mean to leave out your contribution.

They're all safe nationwide, for now.

Trump administration backs down on closing job centers

Yeah, I'm that good.


Tell Congress to Stop Offshoring

I knew you weren't a superstar cultmaster just for the hell of it.

[Vrede too]

I knew you weren't a superstar cultmaster just for the hell of it.

It's a heavy burden, but someone has to do it.

Tell Congress: Pass the Restoring Overtime Pay Act

[1 CAT FAN]

I knew you weren't a superstar cultmaster just for the hell of it.

It's a heavy burden, but someone has to do it.

No one interferes with Vrede's appointed BRD rounds.

[Vrede too]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aErRAiJnlQ

Help Us Send Coal Miners with Black Lung to Washington, DC!
Support Coal Miners Fighting to Protect their Hard-Earned Black Lung Benefits!

[Vrede too]

Coal mining and Bob Murray

On June 18, 2017, Last Week Tonight's main segment was about coal mining and Bob Murray. In his segment, (John) Oliver talked about how the safety condition inside the coal mines specifically the 2007 Crandall Canyon Mine collapse, which killed six miners, in which Oliver criticized Murray for claiming the collapse was caused by an earthquake, despite all evidence demonstrating otherwise. The show ended with a costumed squirrel named "Mr. Nutterbutter" presenting Murray with a voided check for "3 acorns and 18 cents" in response to Murray's company presenting its employees with low sums of money as bonuses, and how the employees retaliate by voiding the checks, and in reference to a claim that stated that Murray supposedly got the idea to start his company from a talking squirrel. On June 22, Bob Murray presented a lawsuit against Oliver, HBO, and Time Warner for defamation. HBO believes Last Week Tonight has done nothing wrong, with a First Amendment lawyer describing the lawsuit as "frivolous." In February 2018, a West Virginia judge stated that he plans to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Murray as unfounded.

Bob Murray Sends Judge Whiny Letter Saying That Losing Case To John Oliver Is Making People Say Mean Things To Him

... Just because you feel bad, Bob, it doesn't make it illegal.

Indeed, just yesterday, the Defendants aired worldwide the enclose attack on the undersigned and our Compay, whereby John Oliver taunted us, once again, stating "Eat Sh-t Bob" and announcing that, once your order is issued, he will "gloat" and he will be "rubbing it in the face of the person that lost over and over again."

Oooooooooooooh. He taunted you again. I mean, that's positively Pythonesque, and we all know how King Arthur v. French Knight turned out, don't we?

This clearly demonstrates the vindictiveness and intentional destruction that the Defendants have caused.

No. It means that you were mocked, had such thin skin that you sued in a case that you quickly lost, and thus were called out on filing a bad case (pretty mildly too, frankly). It doesn't show "vindictiveness." You know what shows vindictiveness? Suing a television comedian for reporting on your antics because you don't like how you were portrayed. And, really, if anyone's trying to "destroy" anyone, I think that honor must go to the person who sued someone for making fun of them, demanding "general damages," "special damages," "punitive damages," "attorneys' fees" and "a permanent injunction" against the person who made fun of you....

Further, since your ruling, we have been subjected to multiple insulting and threatening email and telephone messages, including these: "BOB, KISS MY A--"' "Hey Bob, I guess John Oliver f---ed you in your a--. You are a real evil piece of s--t"; "Consume defecation, Bob."; "What an old and selfish c--t of a human being. You and your industry are no longer relevant and the entire world knows it."; "Congratulations on having HBO make you look like a big fat lardass loser in court. Idiot.;" And "Ha ha you fat pig, you lost your lawsuit... burn in hell dr. evil." This is a very small sampling of the flagrant and extremely damaging personal attacks that we continue to receive on a daily basis.

First off, Bob, thank you for sharing those. We never would have seen them otherwise. I'm assuming that Bob self-censored the dashes in the curse words, which is nice of him. But, really, the "consume defecation, Bob" statement is a really tremendous work of art.

Oh, and Bob, defamation is not "people made fun of me and I'm sad." It requires false statements of fact made with actual malice. That's not what's happening. And you don't even bother to allege that's what's happening, because it isn't.

Accordingly, we respectfully request that you reconsider your decision to dismiss this lawsuit and allow this case to proceed on the merits.

What merits? There are no merits, which is what the judge has already made clear....

The ACLU of West Virginia's Legal Director, Jamie Lynn Crofts, put out a nice statement in response to all of this:

“Other than the fact that Bob Murray’s case against John Oliver is a ridiculous attempt to quell speech by abusing our legal system, it really is the gift that keeps on giving. With the disdain Mr. Murray has shown for our constitution and our legal system, I’m not surprised that he would also improperly try to influence a judge in this way (or with such a hilarious letter). Unfortunately for Bob, everything John Oliver has said on his show was and continues to be protected speech. It is, in fact, legal for anyone to say, ‘Consume defecation, Bob.'”

Yes, all together now: Consume Defecation, Bob.

Me: Eat shit, Bob.