Clear It with Sidney | Hillman Foundation

Clear It With Sidney

The best of the week’s news by Lindsay Beyerstein

Clear It with Sidney

Sidney's Picks: Starbucks Stops Fighting Union

The Best of the Week’s News

  • More than half of workers at the Vanz Mercedes-Benz plant in AL have signed cards to join the UAW in the first successful union drive at the plant in its 27-year history. 
     
  • Amazon paid $1.9 million to compensate migrant workers after International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and its partners exposed Amazon’s exploitative labor practices in Saudi Arabia. (Guardian, ICIJ)
     
  • In a major breakthrough, Starbucks and Workers United agree to move forward together to create a framework for contract talks. (Prospect, Starbucks Press, NYT)
     
  • Proposed law in Arizona would make it legal for property owners to kill migrants on their land. (NBC)

Starbucks Asked To Disclose $240M Spent on Union-Busting

Photo credit: 

Weighing the coffee beans, Matthew Bellemare, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News
 

  • Union-backed shareholders ask SEC to make Starbucks level with investiors about the $240 million the company has spent on union-busting. (Reuters)
     
  • Labor Department says Fayette Janitorial LLC illegally hired 24 children to clean two slaughter houses, including the head-splitters and bandsaws. (NBC)
     
  • How to save the collapsing U.S. media. (Jacobin)
     
  • A formerly unhoused journalist reports on the spiraling housing crisis from the tents, cars, motels, and couches of America. (NYT)
     
  • Alexei Navalny’s mother says the Russian government is blackmailing her, refusing to releae his body unless she agrees to a secret burial. (Axios)
     
  • How part-time schedules wreak havoc on workers’ lives. (NYT)

Sidney's Picks: Putin Critic Alexei Navalny Dies in Prison As Election Nears

Photo credit: 

Prachatai, Creative Commons.

  • Anti-corruption crusader and Putin critic Alexei Navalny dies in prison, depriving Russia of key voice as election nears. (WaPo)
     
  • Concertina wire installed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott is maiming migrants on the border. (HuffPo)
     
  • A trove of documents sheds light on the legal malfeasance behind the January 6 insurrection. (TPM)
     
  • New law takes heavy toll on Florida’s labor unions. (WLRN)
     
  • Labor names housing affordability as its number one issue. (Guardian)

Sidney's Picks: Dartmouth Hoops Players Cleared to Unionize

The Best of the Week’s News
 

  • NLRB judge rules that Dartmouth’s basketball players are employees of the university, gives the first NCAA players the right to organize a union. (AP)
     
  • A 16-year-old boy died after being pulled into an industrial chicken-boning machine at the plant where he worked. (Law & Crime)
     
  • New podcast explores the history, strategy, and significance of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). (Organizing the Unorganized)
     
  • Labor judge orders Starbucks to reinstate barista who was forced out for organizing at the first Buffalo store. (AP)
     
  • Guardian Angel vigilante group roughs up an alleged heckler for Fox News cameras, falsely accuses him of shoplifting. (NYMag)
     
  • More than 30% of Hyundai autoworkers in Montgomery, AL have joined a UAW union drive. (ITT)

Sidney's Picks: Golden Arches Made with Prison Labor

The Best of the Week’s News

 

    •     McDonald’s, Walmart and Cargill use food from hidden prison labor network. (AP)

 

    •    Biden cracks down on extremists in the West Bank attacking Palestinians and peace activists. (WaPo)
 

    •    This teacher was sanctioned for teaching Between the World And Me, but she’s trying again. (WaPo)
 

    •    SpaceX and Trader Joes launch major legal attack on labor. (Guardian)
 

    •    The UAW saved a Stellantis plant, but these workers are still fighting to get back to work. (In These Times)
 

    •    Killing the Messenger: An inside look at the death of a media company (NY Mag)

 

Sidney's Picks: Texas Defies Supreme Court, Dares POTUS to Respond

Photo credit: 

Thomas Hawk, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News:

Sidney's Picks: Koch-Backed Supreme Court Challenge Imperils Environment

Photo credit: 

Herring fishery, by Deborah Freeman, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News 

Sidney's Picks: Crackdown on "Ghost Tags" After Sidney-Winning Exposé

Photo credit: 

Illustration by Martin Schapiro, courtesy of Streetsblog.

The best of the week’s news

  • Licenses yanked from dozens of car dealerships after Sidney-winning exposé of illegal “ghost tags.” (Streetsblog)  
     
  • National Labor Relations Board blocks bid to dissolve Starbucks union at Mall of America. (MN Reformer)  
     
  • Elmore Nickleberry, one of the last living participants in the Memphis sanitation strike of 1968, dies at age 92. (NYT)  
     
  • The “legitimate shell company” that Oversight Chair James Comer initially denied owning was shut down twice. (Daily Beast)  
     
  • Big Oil drops eight figures on ads to derail action on the climate crisis. (Guardian)

Sidney's Picks: Starbucks Faces Mounting Pressure

Photo credit: 

Mike MozartCreative Commons

The Best of the Week’s News

  • Organizers keep the pressure on Starbucks in 2024. (NYT)
     
  • Hillman Prize-winner Julie K. Brown discusses the newly unsealed trove of Jeffrey Epstein papers. (NPR)
     
  • Elon Musk illegally fired eight SpaceX workers for criticizing him, NLRB alleges. (Fortune)
     
  • Companies like Trader Joes use endless delays to wear down workers seeking their first union contracts. (Guardian) 
     
  • Nerds Unite: Fantasy role-playing staffers vote to join Workers United. (NYT)
     
  • Donald Trump received at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments during his term in office, House Dems report. (MSNBC)

Announcing the SEIU Award for Reporting on Racial and Economic Justice

The SEIU Award for Reporting on Racial and Economic Justice honors investigative journalists who expose and confront workplace injustice. The award commends journalists whose reporting plumbs the depths of racial discrimination and economic inequality, sparking crucial conversations and driving positive change.

Entries are evaluated on impact, depth of investigation, and quality of storytelling. The SEIU Award aims to inspire workers fighting for justice in the workplace and provide a platform to share the stories of these everyday changemakers. Through this recognition, the SEIU Award celebrates the vital role of investigative journalism in creating a more equitable and inclusive society.

All entries to the 2024 Hillman Prizes for Journalism will be automatically considered for this award.

The SEIU Award will be presented at the annual Hillman Prizes for Journalism celebration in May in New York City.

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