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News :: Labor |
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Labor Headlines 5-17-03 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
(No verified email address) |
17 May 2003
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Headlines broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturday at 11 am on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign. UI Sending Out Layoff Notices, Personal Bankruptcy Filings Soar, Union Evicted from Offices for Anti-War Stance, US Uses Secret WTO Court to Force Frankenfoods into Europe, South Korean Truck Drivers Win Strike |
UI Sending Out Layoff Notices
The News-Gazette reported on May 9 that 117 civil service workers have received layoff notices, 32 academic professionals will receive 1-year terminal contracts, and about 160 graduate assistantships will be cut. The university claims that these reductions are caused by budget reductions from the state. The cuts come in addition to positions lost through attrition, which includes 94 faculty, 73 academic professionals, and 92 civil service workers. The university says another round of layoff notices is possible in July, although a spokesperson said that none of the moves was final, since the university had not yet received definite budget information from the state.
Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, May 9, 2003, p A-1
Personal Bankruptcy Filings Soar
The Administrative Office of the US Courts released data this week showing who the current economic recession is hitting hardest. The data show that individuals, not businesses are suffering most under the recession, with the number of personal bankruptcy filings soaring to record levels, while business bankruptcy filings declined. Personal bankruptcy filings increased by 7 percent to 1.6 million last year. The number of filings per judge rose from 3,000 in March 2002 to 5,000 in March 2003. Harvard Bankruptcy professor Elizabelth Warren told Bloomberg News that more than 75 percent of families filing for bankruptcy have a job problem, a health-care problem, or both, and she expects the number of personal filings to increase as credit card debt crashes onto people. Meanwhile, Chapter 11 business bankruptcies fell by 6.6 percent.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/134748856_bankruptcies16.html
Union Evicted from Offices for Anti-War Stance
"Pop quiz: In which country can a tenant be evicted for protesting against the government? Answer: The United States of America." That's how the Albuquerque Tribune opened an article about how the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees' Union District 1199 was evicted from their offices. The landlord said the union, quote, "breached the terms of its lease by holding an anti-war demonstration," unquote, and for disturbing other tenants. The union did hold an anti-war rally, but it wasn't at their office; and if planning for the event became noisy, it happened after 5 pm in a reserved clubhouse. Despite being called by the landlord to complain, the police left after determining that the group wasn't disturbing anyone. Eleanor Chavez, director of the Hospital Workers' union told the Tribune that she was frightened by the fact that in the US, a tenant can be evicted for its political views. "What's happening in this country?" she asked. "We talk about going to war with Iraq to defend freedom. Well, how do you define freedom?" The director of the New Mexico ACLU noted that in addition to the Union's eviction, he has heard of tenants in apartment complexes and members of homeowners associations who have been told they can't display antiwar signs, bans which are legal in the United States. For its part, the union has relocated to space rented from the United Food and Commercial Workers' union, whose director told the hospital workers, quote, "Here, you're among friends, you can say whatever you want."
http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news03/051303_news_evict.shtml
US Uses Secret WTO Court to Force Frankenfoods into Europe
On Tuesday last week, the United States announced that it will sue the European Union to force genetically modified foods into the European markets, despite opposition from European citizens. Reuters reported that the US will sue in the World Trade Organization which will hold a secret tribunal to determine whether the European Union's ban of genetically modified food is unfair to multinational agribusiness corporations in the US, Canada, and Egypt. The WTO is expected to rule on the suit in about 20 months, and the ruling could lead to a trade war with Europe or force the EU to overturn democratically-chosen laws. In the United States about 75 percent of soybeans, 34 percent of corn and 71 percent of cotton are from genetically-altered seeds. The Washington-based consumer advocacy group Public Citizen responded to the suit, saying, quote "Now Europeans are seeing GMOs being forced down their throats by the powerful WTO dispute system," unquote. Friends of the Earth called it "the latest in a series of attempts by the Bush administration to block efforts by other countries to protect public health and the environment."
http://www.tradewatch.org/
http://www.foe.org/
http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/globaleconomy/
South Korean Truck Drivers Win Strike
Truck drivers in South Korea's largest port city won their week-long strike last Thursday when the union, government negotiators, and transport companies reached an agreement that satisfied all parties. The union claimed victory saying the government agreed to cuts in highway tolls, increases in transport service fees, and state subsidies for any fuel price hikes. The Financial Times of London quoted free-market professors who criticized the government for negotiating an agreement in a strike that they viewed as illegal. They said the agreement shows that the president, who has some historic ties to South Korea's labor movement, isn't supportive enough of free-market capitalism, despite the fact that he has privatized the railway and state-owned banks, both amid fierce union opposition. Nonetheless, victorious strikers who gathered at a nearby college campus were jubilant about the outcome. The industrial action by about 5,000 truck drivers threatened to close down the world's third-busiest port.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/economicnews/view/39828/1/.html
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1051390057938&p=1012571727313
http://www.labourstart.org/
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