Majikthise

Thousands of dockworkers protest war in Iraq

Bravo, dockworkers:

Yesterday, more than 25,000 dockworkers in 29 West Coast ports stayed off the job in order to protest the Iraq war, according to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. “Longshore workers are standing down on the job and standing up for America,” Bob McEllrath, the union’s president, said in a statement. “We’re supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that it’s time to end the war in Iraq.”

The organized labor working for peace. I hope this is a sign of things to come.

Confessions of a Sweatshop Inspector

T.A. Frank has a great piece in the Washington Monthly about his career as an international "compliance consultant" hired by big American companies to check up on wages, hours, and conditions in factories overseas.

Frank talks about how to distinguish companies that are serious about staying sweatshop free from those that merely want cover for their unethical business practices.

Companies that are serious about spurning sweatshop labor will ask for assessments before they enter into purchase agreements, request unannounced inspections, and make the results of these audits public.

Of course, as Frank makes clear, the inspectors are themselves private for-profit consultants who serve at the pleasure of the companies that retain them.

Another fatal construction fall in New York City

Another construction worker fell to his death this morning in New York City, the cause of his fall has not yet been determined.

In other news, Michael Idov recently published an outstanding piece in New York Magazine about the new Trump "hotel"/condo ascending by fits and starts in SoHo. Idov's piece touches on just about everything that's wrong with building in New York these days, including that breakneck pace of construction that makes dangerous jobs even riskier.

May Day union vote for Connecticut casino employees

On May Day, employees of the engineering department at Foxwoods Resort Casino will cast ballots to determine whether they join the International Union of Operating Engineers.

MASHANTUCKET, Conn. - The National Labor Relations board has set a union election at the Foxwoods Resort Casino for May 1 for the 310 employees in the engineering department.

The employees in the engineering department will have the opportunity to vote for or against union representation by the International Union of Operating Engineers.

The first union election at the casino, which is owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, took place in November. [AP]

If the workers vote to unionize, the tribe intends to contest their right to organize and bargain collectively. The case could end up in federal court.

Inspector arrested in New York crane collapse

The inspector responsible for checking the crane that toppled over last Saturday in Manhattan has been arrested for allegedly falsifying his reports.

The NYC Department of Buildings sent Edward Marquette to inspect the crane after receiving a tip that the apparatus was unstable. It is alleged that Marquette never checked the crane, but filed paperwork saying that he did. 

Buildings officials would not discuss why Marquette failed to inspect the crane.

Union organizer banned from Facebook for making too many friends

A Canadian union organizer has been banned from Facebook for making too many friends.

CUPE organizer/Labour Start correspondent Derek Blackadder's foray into labor-related social networking was rudely interrupted by a warning from Facebook saying that he was making too many friends. Blackadder ignored the warning.

John of jonninit explains:

Derek got a note from the good book, telling him he was trying to add too many friends, and should calm down a bit, or else. Now as a union organiser, he’s quite likely to want to add lots of friends - it’s kind of what he does.  So he waits a bit and tries again, and is told he can’t add any more at the moment and to wait and try later. Fair enough. He waits a bit more and tries again, same message. By now, he’s probably frothing at the mouth and muttering “must organise, must organise”, so he has another go to see if the coast is clear, and promptly gets himself a ban.

That being a ban from Facebook itself - no more profile, no access to the stuff he’s built up, no appeal.

It's not clear exactly how many people Blackadder "friended" during his online organizing stint, or how quickly he racked up the contacts.   

So far, nobody is alleging that the ban was politically motivated. The Facebook Terms of Use stipulate that Facebook is for personal non-commercial use only-that line is blurry for people like Blackadder who effectively make friends for a living. Besides which, work-related networking is one of the main reasons people use Facebook in the first place. Almost every Facebook user I know uses it to keep track of clients, colleagues, sources, political allies, and so on.

In fact, Facebook is full of professional activists and organizers plying their trade openly. These organizers come from across the political spectrum. Facebook hosts thousands of politically-oriented groups. It seems odd that Blackadder would be singled out for the content of his profile.

Apparently, it's not uncommon for users to get banned for adding too many friends.

The tech blog Scobelizer reported last year that Facebook engineers imposed a 5000-friend limit on all users because the system isn't designed to handle such large sets of contacts.

Still, the question remains: Why did Facebook kick Blackadder out, instead of just regulating his friending? By disabling the account, Facebook has deprived Blackadder of a potentially valuable contact lists and whatever else he may have uploaded.

Blackadder and his many friends are taking the ban in stride. Naturally, they've started a Blackadder solidarity Facebook group. As of one o'clock this afternoon, over 600 people have joined the group to lobby for Blackadder's reinstatement.

I guess it's sort of backhanded compliment for an organizer to be too connected for Facebook.

House grants authority rights for Crandall Mine disaster hearings

The House Education and Labor Committee will have the power to depose witnesses in its hearings on the Crandall Mine Disaster, thanks to a resolution that passed the House yesterday.

The Education and Labor Committee already had the power to subpoena evidence, but the latest resolution gives the Committee the power to compel witnesses to testify.

“We need to know who knew what, when they knew it, and how they came to know it. We need to know about face-to-face meetings and telephone conversations they had. Emails and memos are important, but they will only tell a part of the story,” said Rep. George Miller (D-CA) in a statement on the Committee's website.

The deadly collapse at the Utah mine raised questions about whether the federal agency responsible for mine safety was doing enough to protect workers. The Crandall mine was under investigation by the Mine Saftey and Health Administration at the time of the collapse that killed 6 miners and 3 rescue workers on Aug. 6, 2007.

At the time of the cave-in, a similar tunnel nearby was being checked because of concerns about the stability of its roof. The MSHA allowed mining to continue during the investigation after the company promised to install thicker support pillars. It's not clear whether those thicker pillars were in place when the roof collapsed.

I hope the Committee uses its subpoena power to find out why the MSHA let work continue in a similiar mine and whether the employer allowed miners to work before the thicker pillars were installed.

Studios promise digital golden age, writers demand their share

This new Writers Guild clip explains exactly what the WGA strike is about.

When top studio executives talk to the business media, they brag about the massive profits they expect to make from digital distribution. They fully expect that shows like CSI will one day be available on the network and on the internet, and they have plans to get paid no matter how you watch it. Yet somehow, when it comes time to negotiate with their writers, the executives claim they can't give the writers a fair deal on digital residuals because they have no idea how much digital distribution is going to be worth.

[HT: DJA]

More on the Writers' Guild strike

Veteran scriptwriter John Rogers explains what's at stake in the WGA strike--very accessible, very thorough, and very entertaining.

Darcy James Argue wonders why his union, the American Federation of Musicians, hasn't advocated as effectively for its members as the WGA has.

Reporting on the writers' strike reinforcing the myth of "unscripted" reality TV

Jennifer Pozner has an excellent post about how the coverage of the WGA strike is reinforcing the myth of unscripted reality TV.

The conventional wisdom is that if the WGA strike is prolonged, producers will lean heavily on the reality TV format because these shows don't require writers.

Actually, as Jennifer explains, these shows do involve writers, just not usually WGA members:

[N]ews reports have generally not clarified for readers that these shows do, indeed, involve writers. Non-union writers (and story editors, video editors, and hands-on producers and directors), all of whom collaborate to achieve the networks’, executive producers’, and integrated advertisers’ desired story arcs.

Inside the media industry, this is perfectly understood. Outside the industry, not so much. For example, how many regular reality TV viewers know that groups of reality TV writers have, with the help of the WGA, attempted to sue producers of reality shows such as “The Bachelor” for violating labor laws and working them in “sweatshop conditions,” claiming that their storytelling services have been drastically underpaid?

It's hardly shocking that reality TV is to reality what WWF WWE is to wrestling.

The point is that the journalists should be more critical of the studios' self-serving implication that reality shows reduce the need for WGA writers because they don't have scripts.