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To convince British American Tobacco (BAT) to use its influence to improve the rights of tobacco farm workers in the United States, Baldemar Velasquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), will be briefing members of the British Parliament on the working conditions at farms run by Reynolds American. BAT owns more than 42% of Reynolds and FLOC is attempting to convince BAT to persuade Reynolds to sign an agreement that would guarantee good working conditions and protect the collective bargaining rights of migrant workers at Reynolds-owned farms in North Carolina. Velasquez will participate in the briefing Thursday.
A shooting at a Los Angeles nursing home Wednesday morning was a mercy killing, police said.The LAPD Mission Division says a man shot and killed his 58-year-old sister, who had been at the Country Village Sheraton Nursing Home for five years and was unconscious.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s statement on the budget deal reached by congressional negotiators calls on Congress to extend unemployment benefits:It is shocking that Republicans have refused to include an extension of unemployment benefits in today’s budget agreement. At the end of December, federal unemployment benefits will expire for 1.3 million jobless workers. Lawmakers must not desert these workers by going home for their own holidays without extending the federal unemployment benefits program.
As previously reported, SeaTac, a small town outside of Seattle, voted to raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour on Nov. 5. The victory was confirmed Tuesday after a recount and will go into effect after a corporate-backed lawsuit over the wage is resolved. Now working family activists in Washington State are hoping to ride the success of the SeaTac vote to Seattle, and they've found support from the mayor and the majority of City Council members.
Registered nurses at Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C., Tuesday night voted 232 to 66–a 78% margin–to join the National Nurses Organizing Committee, an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU). They became the first nonunion D.C. hospital workers in decades to vote to join a union. The National Labor Relations Board conducted the secret ballot election.
The Mega Millions jackpot grew to an estimated $400 million after no one won the top prize of $344 million on Tuesday. The next draw is slated for Friday, December 13 - considered an unlucky date by some - at 11 p.m. ET.
Up to three feet of lake-effect snow could bury areas of upstate New York by the end of this week.
A couple and four children who vanished in sub-zero conditions in the mountains of northern Nevada were found safe Tuesday and revealed they had heated rocks in a fire to keep warm, officials said.
Sources tell News4 a man pulled from the water at Hains Point in Southwest D.C. Tuesday night is believed to be D.C. Police officer Marc Washington.U.S. Park Police responded to the area just before 9 p.m. for a missing man believed to be in the water.
