| Hillman Foundation
March 10, 2023

Sidney's Picks: Why Does Poverty Persist

Photo credit: 

Brecht Bug, Creative Commons.

Best of the Week’s News:

  • Hillman Prize-winning sociologist Matthew Desmond proposes new objective in the war on poverty: fighting exploitation. (NYT)
  • The storied history and uncertain future of Scabby the Rat. (Guardian)
  • Why unions matter so much. (NYT)
  • Teamsters’ president calls GOP senator a “greedy CEO” in senate testimony. (WaPo)
  • Barista union will ask Starbucks shareholders to back an independent review of the coffee company’s labor practices. (Reuters)
March 3, 2023

Sidney's Picks: Judge Smacks Down Starbucks' Union-Busting in Buffalo

Photo credit: 

Garen Meguerian, Creative Commons.

Best of the Week’s News:

  • In massive blow to Starbucks’ union-busting campaign, judge orders coffee retailer to reopen stores and respect workers’ rights. (WaPo)
     
  • Starbucks is also facing discontent from its white collar workforce. (Bloomberg)
     
  • A big step forward in the campaign for affordable insulin. (Vox)
     
  • Biden administration announces crackdown on migrant child labor, days after this New York Times exposé. (NYT)
     
  • Antifascists expose Dallas Humber, the Voice of Terrorgram and a propagandist for mass shootings. (HuffPo)
     
  • The Warrior Met coal strike ends after 2 years. (Democracy Now, Nation)
February 17, 2023

Sidney's Picks: Tesla Fires Workers After Union Launch; Fox Hosts Knew the Big Lie Was Bogus

Photo credit: 

Duncan Cumming, Creative Commons.

Best of the Week’s News:

  • Tesla workers fired a day after labor push, union says; the automaker also recalled over 300,000 “full self-driving” cars that may cause crashes. (PBS, NYT, CNBC)
     
  • California electricity giant PG&E arraigned for manslaughter in wildfire deaths, drops cute music video. (ABC 10)
     
  • Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh decamps to lead the National Hockey League players’ union. (NPR)
     
  • Blunt texts show Tucker Carlson and other top Fox News hosts knew the 2020 election was legit. (Vice)
     
  • Over 1000 trains derail every year, but it doesn’t have to be that way. (NYT)
February 10, 2023

Sidney's Picks: Two Unions Reach Sick Leave Deals with Railroad

Photo credit: 

Don O’Brien, Creative Commons.

Best of the Week’s News:

February 3, 2023

Sidney's Picks: Union-Busters Get Nervous; Fake Clinics Get Nasty

Photo credit: 

Gambling with Death, Gilliam, 1888. Library of Congress. 

The Best of the Week’s News:

January 27, 2023

Post-Gazette Bargained in Bad Faith; South Korea Smears Unions

Photo credit: 

Can Pac Swire, Creative Commons, illustration. 

Best of the Week’s News:

  • Judge rules that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette bargained in bad faith with the union, broke National Labor Relations Act. (WTAE)
     
  • Nearly all of NYC’s 300,000 unionized employees are working under expired contracts and frustration is mounting. (The City)
     
  • HarperCollins and its union head to mediation to resolve their differences after weeks on strike. (Publishers Weekly)
     
  • Amazon workers strike in Britain for the first time, with workers walking off the job in Coventry. (Jacobin)
     
  • South Korea’s government smears labor unions as fronts for communist spies from North Korea. (Al Jazeera)
January 20, 2023

Sidney's Picks: Senate Judiciary Committee Blocks LaSalle

Photo credit: 

Courtesy of New York State Senate, under Creative Commons.

Best of the Week’s News:

  • Hector LaSalle’s bid to become New York’s top jurist blocked in the State Senate after pressure from labor and pro-choice groups. (NYMag)
     
  • The restaurant industry makes new hires pay for “safety trainings” and spends their money fighting minimum wage increases. (NYT)
     
  • Kroger union files lawsuit alleging rampant wage theft. (News59)
     
  • “That was torture”: Kenyan laborers paid $2/hr (or less) to screen out horrific content for the ChatGPT bot. (Time)
     
  • The teacher shortage in MS is so bad that high school students are teaching themselves geometry. (WaPo)
January 13, 2023

Sidney's Picks: New York Nurses Win; Twitter Fires Cleaning Staff

Photo credit: 

Courtest of the NYSNA. 

The Best of the Week’s News:

January 6, 2023

Sidney's Picks: Hochul's Pick for Top Judge Slammed as Anti-Labor

Photo credit: 
New York State Court of Appeals, Wadester16, Creative Commons

The Best of the Week’s News:

December 16, 2022

Sidney's Picks: Labor Board Gets Tough on Employers Who Break the Law

Photo credit: 

Wikimedia Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News:

  • The National Labor Relations Board stiffens penalties for employers who break the law. (WaPo)
     
  • Starbucks workers plan three-day walkout starting Friday, the second major strike in a month. (NPR)
     
  • Twitter’s former head of trust and safety was forced to flee his home after Elon Musk falsely accused him of being a pedophile. Critical journalists kicked off the platform without notice. (CNN)
     
  • Solar and wind power poised to become the largest source of energy by 2025. (LA Times)
     
  • Mapping Mar-a-Lago: A potential playground for spies (NYT)

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