• In These Times recaps the Top Labor Stories of 2012. 

• Check out the Daily Beast’s Best Longreads of 2012, including an expose of child  abuse at an evangelical school and the story of a rust belt teen’s climb from poverty.   

• A California court ruled that a man who admitted to impersonating a sleeping woman’s boyfriend in order to trick her into sex is not guilty of rape because he didn’t pretend to be her husband.

• Did unleaded paint and gasoline cause a historic drop in violent crime?

[Photo credit: Wander Mule, Creative Commons.]

Electronics manufacturer Foxconn, China’s largest employer, became a byword for dismal working conditions and rock bottom morale. After a spate of suicides and strikes, Foxconn has pledged to clean up its act. According to Keith Bradsher and Charles Duhigg of the New York Times, the company is making good on at least some of those promises.

Security guards at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport have paused their strike now that the Port Authority has asked their employer to meet with them.

The guards at JFK will have lots to talk about with AirServ, starting with the fact that they, the professionals who keep terrorists from skirting TSA checkpoints, earn poverty wages and don’t get sick days:

[Prince Jackson, a guard at JFK’s Delta Terminal] wasn’t thrilled about the wages—less than he’d made in other security jobs—but Jackson was desperate. He has been working the overnight shift ever since—except for a week last year when he got a severe stomach flu.

Jackson found a clinic in Astoria that would treat him for $15. “When I came back the next week, I brought a doctor’s note, so they didn’t fire me. But we don’t get sick days, so I didn’t get paid. That really put me in the hole. I’m still behind on my rent.”

On its website, Air Serv describes itself as a people company. “To have satisfied customers, you must first have employees who feel valued and are recognized for exceptional job performance… . Once a year, 110% Club galas are held across the country to recognize those employees who play a huge role in our success.”

Jackson isn’t convinced. “We never heard anything about a 110 Club,” he says. “The first time they mentioned that was when we started talking about a union.” [Village Voice]

The guards are working with SEIU 32BJ, which specializes in organizing security workers and other support staff. Even if the talks go well, the AirServ guards are still expecting a long fight for fair pay and decent working conditions.

[Photo credit: Prince Jackson, JFK guard, by Dania Eliazov.]

Sidney Award-winner Spencer Soper chronicles the ongoing struggles of Amazon warehouse workers for The Morning Call:

Months after she suffered heat exhaustion and lost her job in an Amazon.com warehouse in Breinigsville, Rosemarie Fritchman sat in a small conference room pleading for unemployment benefits of about $160 a week.

Opposing her at the hearing before a state referee, who would decide whether Fritchman was eligible for the benefit, was a human resources agent representing her employer.

The testimony of Gwen Golbreski, the human resources representative, was brief and procedural: “She was terminated for attendance,” said Golbreski, who attended multiple hearings involving Amazon warehouse workers that day. “We have a no-fault attendance policy.”

Fritchman, 67, remained poised and gave a detailed account about how she struggled working in brutal heat until medical personnel examined her and told her to go home. Following company policy, she provided a doctor’s note upon returning to work, and she was still terminated without explanation, she said.

A “no fault attendance policy” is the most Orwellian corporate buzzword I’ve heard all day. What a charming way to indicate Amazon accepts no excuses for missing work, not even heat prostration caused by Amazon’s overheated warehouse.

[Photo credit: Soumit, Creative Commons.]