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Source: LA Review of Books
Source: NYTimes
Source: NYTimes
Workers and protesters holding a defaced portrait of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing and banners reading “right of collective negotiation,” “low pay subsidy” and “retire security” march to the government’s office during a May Day rally in Hong Kong Wednesday, May 1, 2013. Hundreds of workers, local labor rights groups and striking dockworkers joined the annual May Day rally in Hong Kong to fight for better wages and working conditions. Photo by Associated Press
Truck drivers, domestic helpers, striking dockers – they came from different walks of life, but the thousands of people who joined yesterday’s two Labour Day marches were united in their demand for better working conditions.
The Confederation of Trade Unions said a record 5,000 people took part in its march from Victoria Park to government headquarters in Admiralty before ending near tycoon Li Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong Center in Central. Police said 3,700 people joined the rally.
Many of the signs and banners called for legislation on standard working hours, a collective bargaining law and an annual review of the minimum wage.
“The turnout was a record high this year because the dockers’ strike has...
Union leader and Bolivian President Evo Morales sings his national anthem during the annual May Day march in La Paz on Wednesday. He announced during a speech that he was expelling the U.S. Agency for International Development from the country. Juan Karita/AP
Bolivian President Evo Morales expelled the U.S. Agency for International Development from his country, accusing it of undermining his government.
Bolivia’s official ABI news agency reported that Morales accused USAID, which has been in Bolivia since 1964, of political interference with peasant unions and other social organizations and conspiring against his government.
“In a 2010 Freedom of Information Act request, The Associated Press asked USAID for descriptions of the Bolivian recipients of grant money. The response did not go into detail, but did include such items as $10.5 million for ‘democracy-building’ awarded to Chemonics Int. Inc. in 2006 ‘to support improved governance in a changing political environment.’
This isn’t the first time the Bolivian president has expelled a U.S. agency working in the country. In 2008, he ordered the Drug Enforcement Administration out.
More at National...
BOLIVIA: El presidente Evo Morales anunció el miércoles la expulsión de la Agencia de Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID), a la que acusó de conspirar contra su gobierno, cuatro años después de haber echado al embajador de ese país y a la agencia antidroga DEA por las mismas razones.
El gobierno de Morales advirtió en varias ocasiones con expulsar a USAID a la que acusó de financiar a organizaciones que se oponen a sus políticas, entre ellas a algunos pueblos indígenas de la amazonia que rechazan una carretera que el mandatario proyecta construir por medio del Territorio Indígena del Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure (TIPNIS) una rica reserva natural en el centro del país.
Morales expulsó al embajador estadounidense Philip Goldberg por confabulación con los opositores en septiembre de 2008 y dos meses después a la agencia antidroga de ese país, DEA, por supuesto espionaje.
Fuente: Associated Press
The Port of Oakland’s redevelopment zone is highlighted in blue; the City of Oakland’s is highlighted in green. Phase One of the army base renovation is expected to be completed by the end of 2015. Due to the port’s shortfall, things look dicey for the finance of Phase Two, which includes a new intermodal rail terminal, a bulk marine terminal, thirty acres of truck parking and service areas, two million square feet of warehousing space, and a new recycling center, according to this report. Currently, the port has no timeline for when it will be able to begin Phase Two.
As the City of Oakland plans to start the overhaul of a 400-acre former army base this year, lack of money threatens the completion of the project because the Port of Oakland is $1.3 billion in debt. This funding deficit will likely delay the second phase of the project, and the potential of thousands of new jobs in West Oakland.
The port’s fiscal problems might hurt Oakland’s ability to remain competitive with port rivals for container business. For example, the Port of Los Angeles has an annual capital improvement program of $400 million, and the Port of Long Beach has $700 million. The Port of...
In an early morning incident at the port Wednesday, involving a large showing of Vancouver police, several vehicles entered the United Grain site, including a semi truck, a red car, and a white van. The van’s windows were obscured, and a sticker on the rear window contained an obscenity. Union supporters speculate that vans like this one are being used to transport replacement workers from a hotel near the Westfield Vancouver mall.
Meanwhile, some area church leaders have entered the fray in support of union dockworkers. They say they’ve collected about 50 signatures of church members for a petition they will present to the city of Vancouver and United Grain. The petition says, in part, that “we will not be silent as another corporation seeks to create a world that hurts people for the sake of profit.” They’ve also made early morning visits to the Holiday Inn Express hotel, where they believe replacement workers are staying.
The Rev. Jeremy Lucas of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Battle Ground said police have arrested ILWU members for “silly things” such as pedestrian interference. “It seems like the city of Vancouver and Vancouver police … have...
Excerpts from The News Tribune:
According to a leaflet being distributed by the pickets, they were protesting the failure of the Pacific Maritime Association to pay medical bills they and their family members have incurred since their retirement.
“PMA employers are taking away medical insurance from ILWU pensioners, their surviving spouses and children,” said the retiree group, the Pacific Coast Pensioners Association.
“Medical claims are being denied or reimbursements delayed unfairly,” the group said in its printed statement. “The problem is getting worse by the day.”
“We pensioners have earned medical coverage from our lifetime work for the PMA employers. We retired with PMA’s commitment that we would have our medical bills paid fully and timely by the industry health plan,” the group said.
The pickets said some retirees are now being pursued by collection agencies to pay medical bills that PMA employers should be paying.
“This is causing our retirees, spouses and widows great fear and grief, pushing some into poverty,” the handout said.
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