The Worker Thread

[Vrede too]

[O Really]

So in another instance of hiring Republicans to chop off your nuts, the West Virginia Republicans, who took majority in 2014, have now neutered the unions by passing "right to work" law. And, if that's not enough, they repealed the requirement to pay "prevailing wage" on state contracts.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/lawm ... e-36895943

Damn, how stupid can you be to be a mine worker and believe the Republicans who say "Obama's gonna close the mine" and don't know that Republicans are all anti-labor, always have been, and will happily take food away from your baby. Effin' idiot Dew-mouths.

[billy.pilgrim]

So in another instance of hiring Republicans to chop off your nuts, the West Virginia Republicans, who took majority in 2014, have now neutered the unions by passing "right to work" law. And, if that's not enough, they repealed the requirement to pay "prevailing wage" on state contracts.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/lawm ... e-36895943

Damn, how stupid can you be to be a mine worker and believe the Republicans who say "Obama's gonna close the mine" and don't know that Republicans are all anti-labor, always have been, and will happily take food away from your baby. Effin' idiot Dew-mouths.

but they got em some god and guns

I caught a little of something on TV today from President Clinton. He said that there are two counties in WV where disability income is the average income for males.

I spent several months a few years back in and around Freemont. Not to mention the poverty and the ignorance, but never in my life could I have imagined so many people in one town with missing limbs.

[Vrede too]

It's not like WV "Dems" have been great for workers, either.

[billy.pilgrim]

It's not like WV "Dems" have been great for workers, either.

agreed,

wasn't blair mtn war, a vw dem governor and repug president

[Vrede too]

Nope, Ephraim F. Morgan, Governor during the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain, was a Republican along with POTUS Warren G. Harding.

[billy.pilgrim]

Nope, Ephraim F. Morgan, Governor during the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain, was a Republican along with POTUS Warren G. Harding.

you are right, but it started earlier with a repug in office - some say the day Mother Jones lost her nerve
On May 19, 1920, 12 Baldwin-Felts agents arrived in Matewan


as you said a post or two ago. "It's not like WV "Dems" have been great for workers, either."

[O Really]

It's not like WV "Dems" have been great for workers, either.

No, but everything is relative. The Man might put you in a cell and kick you when he brings your lunch, but are your going to trade that for a Man that keeps you on a chain and doesn't feed you at all?

[Vrede too]

Agreed, the GOP had to upstage the WV "Dems" somehow. Most of them would be Republicans in other states.

[O Really]

Historic EEOC Suits Apply Gender Bias To Sexual
Orientation
By Aaron Vehling
Law360, New York (March 1, 2016, 1:36 PM ET) ­­ The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission has filed its first lawsuits accusing employers of gender bias for discriminating
against employees for their sexual orientation, the workplace discrimination watchdog
announced Tuesday.
The EEOC has sued Scott Medical Health Center and Pallet Cos. in separate suits, saying Title VII's
protections against gender bias extend to sexual orientation as well. (Credit: AP)
The EEOC has filed two separate lawsuits — one in Pennsylvania federal court against Scott
Medical Health Center and another in Maryland federal court against Pallet Cos. — accusing
the companies of violating Title VII’s protections against gender bias, according to the
agency’s announcement. The agency argues that those protections extend to sexual
orientation as well as gender.
"With the filing of these two suits, EEOC is continuing to solidify its commitment to ensuring
that individuals are not discriminated against in workplaces because of their sexual
orientation," EEOC General Counsel David Lopez said in a statement Tuesday. "While some
federal courts have begun to recognize this right under Title VII, it is critical that all courts
do so."
In the case filed against Scott Medical Health Center, the EEOC alleges that a gay male
employee was subjected to harassment. The man’s manager repeatedly referred to him
using various anti­gay epithets and made other highly offensive comments about the man’s
sexuality and sex life, according to the suit.
When the employee complained to management, a clinic director responded that the
3/2/2016 Historic EEOC Suits Apply Gender Bias To Sexual Orientation ­ Law360
http://www.law360.com/articles/765783/p ... employment 2/2
employee’s boss was “just doing his job” and refused to take action, according to the suit.
The employee ultimately quit his job rather than endure further harassment, the suit
alleges.
In the suit against Pallet Companies, which is also known as IFCO Systems NA, the EEOC
alleges that a supervisor harassed a lesbian employee because of her sexual orientation.
The supervisor allegedly made numerous comments about her sexual orientation and
appearance, such as “I want to turn you back into a woman” and “you would look good in a
dress,” according to the suit. The employee’s boss also allegedly blew a kiss and circled his
tongue at the employee, the suit says.
The employee complained about the treatment on a harassment tip line, and a few days
later was fired in retaliation for doing so, the suit alleges.
This isn’t the first time the EEOC has posited that the gender bias protections in the Title VII
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 cover sexual orientation discrimination.
In July, in an agency federal sector decision entitled Baldwin v. Department of
Transportation, the EEOC ruled that sexual orientation discrimination is by nature bias
because of sex, according to the decision.
In that instance, the EEOC said that sexual orientation bias necessarily involves treating
workers less favorably because of their gender because sexual orientation “as a concept”
cannot be understood without reference to gender.
It also found that bias related to sexual orientation is rooted in an employee’s noncompliance
with gender norms and stereotypes, and courts have long found employment
decisions based on either to violate Title VII.
A Scott Medical Health Center attorney declined Tuesday to comment on the case
and representatives for the other parties were not immediately available.
Counsel information for the EEOC and IFCO was not available Tuesday.
Scott Medical Health Center is represented by Charles Saul of Margolis Edelstein PC.
The cases are EEOC v. Scott Medical Health Center, case number 2:16­cv­00225, in the
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and EEOC v. IFCO Systems,
case number, case number 1:16­cv­00595, in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Maryland.
­­Editing by Patricia K. Cole.

[Vrede too]

... Title VII's protections against gender bias extend to sexual orientation as well.

Wow, if it succeeds we won't need ENDA, or to win state by state.

[Vrede too]

I can't remember who I voted for.

[JTA]

My biological clock has not adjusted to the time change.

[O Really]

My biological clock has not adjusted to the time change.

Try being off in Central or Mountain time when the time changes on you. You were already an hour off, now you're two or three. Then you're off again when you get back. I did that last year. Wasn't fun. Otherwise, I love DST. Ought to keep it year round.

[Vrede too]

[Wneglia]

He should be aptly named Robert Rich

[Vrede too]

As a professor himself, Mark J. Perry knows full well that typical and highly valued professor duties include far more than how many undergrad classes they teach - research, work with grad students, administrative duties, campus committees, etc. I can't know how much of these things Reich is doing, but for Perry to not even mention them and to say that Reich is only "lecturing a few hours a week" is fundamentally dishonest.

He continues this dishonesty with: "Professor Reich took time off from his hectic one-course, two-hour a week teaching schedule to berate and excoriate American CEOs and Harvard Business School in a post on the Harvard Business Review blog for allowing 'a pay gap between CEOs and ordinary workers that’s gone from 20-to-1 fifty years ago to almost 300-to-1 today.'”

He can't know whether Reich "took time off from his" professorial duties for this or whether he did it on his own time.

Also:

-- At $178,400, "average CEO pay" obviously includes a bunch of tiny mom and pop corporations, a goofy stat when discussing the obscenity of major corporation CEO pay.

-- Reich is not clear in his essay whether the pay gap he discusses is an average or a subset. However, 1/300th of $178,400 per year is $595, so it's obvious that he's discussing the obscene extreme. Thus, Perry's comparing Reich's words to "average CEO pay" is again fundamentally dishonest.

-- For better or worse, comparing professor pay to CEO pay is as dumb as comparing apples to oranges.

-- Reich is far more accomplished in his field than the "average CEO", yet makes only 36% more than them and far, far less than many marginal MBA's who benefited from family money.

-- "market forces that determine CEO pay" - not worthy of response.

Hmmm, if I, a lowly non-degree Econ student decades ago can shred Mark J. Perry's whining so easily, maybe it's all just about jealousy that Reich is a much better economist.

Perry is currently a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Ah, that explains it.

Wneglia, you'd do better trying your own hand at arguing with the Robert Reich essay Mark J. Perry fails so miserably at assailing - How Business Schools Can Help Reduce Inequality. Good luck.

[O Really]

So poor people do a better job of helping workers than rich guys?
Reich earned his bona fides as Secretary of Labor, and probably did more for US workers than any "non-rich" person you can find.

[Vrede too]

Just out of curiosity, Wneglia, what was the pay gap between you and the lowest paid worker at your practice - janitor, receptionist or someone else. My guess is that it was far closer to or even less than the 20-to-1 that Reich finds acceptable than the 300-to-1 that he objects to.

[Vrede too]

Reich ... did more for US workers than any "non-rich" person you can find.

Rich or not, I'd go with the inventor of ibuprofen.