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The DOJ told an appeals court this week that federal civil rights law does not ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
The DOJ told an appeals court this week that federal civil rights law does not ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
AFL-CIO Honors Korean Labor Leader Han with Human Rights Award, Call for His Release From Prison
President Han Sang-gyun of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has spent his life fighting for the rights of workers and has paid a high price. Han has been in jail since December 2015, serving a three-year sentence for defending trade union rights and fighting back against corporate corruption and the repressive government of former President Park Geun-hye. For his perseverance in the face of anti-democratic repression, the AFL-CIO Executive Council this week honored President Han with the AFL-CIO’s annual George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award, and joined the global labor movement in calling for his release.
KCTU President Han’s career as an organizer and labor leader is defined by militant action against long odds. During the years of military rule in 1980s South Korea, Han, a former student activist, helped organize a union in his auto manufacturing plant. He went on to lead that union in an occupation of the auto plant with 1,700 other workers, demanding an end to layoff and severance concessions. For that, he served his first...
Republican Joint Employer Legislation Takes Away Worker Freedoms
In our fragmented workplaces with perma-temps, contracted workers, agency employees and subcontracting, we must be vigilant so every worker is protected and paid fairly, and that goes double when it comes to protecting the freedom to stand in unity for better pay and working conditions.
A bill just introduced by Republicans called the “Save Local Business Act” takes us in the opposite direction.
The bill would take away essential freedoms that have been protected by the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act since they were adopted in the 1930s.
The bill achieves this through a ridiculously narrow definition of an employer. The definition is narrower than any used by any agency or court, and it would take freedoms from too many workers and allow irresponsible companies to violate workers’ rights.
We call on all members of Congress to reject this harmful and misguided proposal.
Tim Schlittner
Thu, 07/27/2017 - 16:35
In the case's closing arguments, a U.S. prosecutor on Thursday urged jurors to convict former drug company executive Martin Shkreli of defrauding investors in his hedge funds and stealing from his old company to repay them.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich told reporters that the accident that killed one person and injured seven more would not define the state fair.
Trump Administration Attacks Overtime Pay
The Trump administration has begun a process to undo President Obama’s overtime pay rule and deny working people a pay raise.
The Obama overtime pay rule would make 4.9 million more workers eligible for overtime pay, and make it tougher to deny overtime pay to another 7.6 million workers who already are eligible.
For years, working people had pushed President Obama to restore overtime protections that were eroded by inflation in recent decades.
The way overtime works is that salaried workers who make less than $23,660 are guaranteed overtime if they work more than 40 hours in a week. The Obama overtime pay rule would raise this threshold to $47,476, with future increases built in.
This threshold still is too low. Back in 1975, President Ford set the overtime salary threshold at the equivalent of about $58,000 in today’s dollars.
But the Trump administration's Labor Department has said the Obama threshold is too generous, and now has taken the first step to revise the rule, with an eye toward denying working people pay raises.
This is yet another example of Trump’s...
Some Wins, Some Major Disappointments in Oregon Legislature
The 2017 Oregon Legislature began with a simple math problem: Subtracting expenses from revenue equaled a $1.8 billion deficit. After the defeat of Measure 97 last November, Oregon’s business community promised to work with the governor and legislative leadership to find new revenue. Oregon already has one of the lowest overall tax rates on corporations in America. Yes, lower than Mississippi, Idaho and Alabama. Corporations in Oregon are not paying their fair share.
The linchpins to these discussions were cuts to Public Employees Retirement System benefits and a tightening of state spending. Public employee unions activated their members, explained the issue and challenges, and worked hard to find resolutions. At every turn, Oregon’s business community refused to sit down and find a solution. In the end, there were no major cuts to PERS benefits, but also no new revenue or corporate tax increases.
While our legislature did pass the Oregon health care protections bill, which provides coverage for 350,000 low-income Oregonians and reduces premiums for nearly 220,000...
Human Rights Watch and InterACT, a group advocating for intersex youth, released a detailed report assailing "normalization" surgery on intersex children.
Human Rights Watch and InterACT, a group advocating for intersex youth, released a detailed report assailing "normalization" surgery on intersex children.
