Bill Bumpus Somerville MA - An injury to one is an injury to all

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A driver has been arrested on charges of threatening to kill or harm the president, vice president, or their family members after he allegedly plowed a U-Haul truck into security barriers near the White House while carrying a Nazi flag. What do you think?

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Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Profiles: Fred Yamashita

For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this year, the AFL-CIO is spotlighting various Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have worked and continue to work at the intersection of civil and labor rights in the United States. Today's profile is Fred Yamashita of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

Fred Yamashita is a native of Detroit who has served as the executive director of the Arizona AFL-CIO since November 2017. Yamashita brings more than 25 years of union organizing experience to the federation, starting his career in organized labor with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 99. From 2015 to 2017, Yamashita served as chair of the Pima Area Labor Federation in Tucson. Prior to working in the labor movement, Yamashita worked on the floor in the grocery industry for 20 years.

Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 05/24/2023 - 11:29

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LUBBOCK, TX—Admitting that he assumed the guy was waving his gun at him, local man Jeffrey Regis confirmed Wednesday that he was embarrassed after taking a bullet intended for the person behind him. “Oh my god, I’m such an idiot—I totally thought those shots he fired were meant to go into my chest, skull, and arm,”…

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Service & Solidarity Spotlight: UNITE HERE's Culinary Union Announces Palms Casino Resort Has a Union Contract

Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we'll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

UNITE HERE's Culinary Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 reached a new agreement with Palms Casino Resort on a first time three-year contract to protect workers with health care benefits, provide fair wages and job security, and to respect the seniority rights for more than 900 employees.

The new agreement covers guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders and stewards. The contract includes standard union language on worker security regarding subcontracting, safety buttons, sexual harassment, workload, technology and immigration. Workers voted by an overwhelming majority of 95% to accept the new contract.

“We celebrate this historic agreement with Palms, which protects workers with the best health care in Nevada, strong job security, and fair wage increases,” said Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union. “The San Manuel Gaming and Hospitality Authority and Palms Casino Resort have done the right thing by respecting their employees and recalling workers back to work with their seniority intact. The Culinary Union is proud to have reached an agreement for a strong union contract at Palms, which protects workers with the union standard we have fought to build and strengthen over 88 years. Congratulations to the workers on your new union contract and welcome to the union family!”

Palms workers voted in April 2018 to unionize with the Culinary Union and Bartenders Union by an 84% majority under its previous operator, Station Casinos, the worst labor law violator in the history of the Nevada gaming industry. 

Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 05/24/2023 - 10:04

The NAACP issued a travel advisory for Florida, urging people to avoid the state due to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity and inclusion programs” in the state’s schools. What do you think?

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WASHINGTON—According to the results of a new study released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, the average American considers biting a stranger three times a day. “We found that nearly 90% of American adults experience the uncontrollable urge to sink their teeth into the leg, arm, or face of a person they do not…

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SAN DIEGO—Feeling heartbroken and betrayed by his failure of her spontaneous pop quiz, local woman Sadie Vidale was reportedly fighting with her boyfriend Neal Jones on Thursday after he admitted he did not even know her dad’s eye color. “We’ve been together nearly two years, and you don’t even know the color of his…

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The Onion asked Americans why real, red-blooded men have been relegated to the dregs of society and replaced by weak-willed, feminine cucks.

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TALLAHASSEE, FL—In a sweeping effort to curtail what he called “woke gender ideology,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new bill into law Wednesday banning men from becoming nurses. “Imagine how disturbed a child would be at the doctor’s office if a nurse stepped into the room to take their temperature and it was a…

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Six months ago, news broke that Belgian police had arrested the newly-elected general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) as part of the “Qatargate” scandal. The government of Qatar was accused of paying bribes to several members of the European Parliament — and to Luca Visentini, the ITUC leaders — in exchange for softening criticism of the Gulf state’s record on labour rights. Visentini’s predecessor, Sharan Burrow, had increasingly expressed support for “reforms” carried out by the Qatari regime, though she was not implicated in the scandal.

In the months that followed, the ITUC removed Visentini from his post and is trying hard to distance itself from the scandal. But the issue of Qatari influence in the labour movement is bigger than the ITUC, as the Guardian reported last week.

According to the newspaper, the International Labour Organization (ILO) “is facing a backlash over the nomination of Qatar to chair its flagship annual conference” which takes place every June in Geneva.

Leading the criticism of the ILO for giving such prominence to the Qatari government is the ITUC itself. According to the Guardian report, the acting ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle “has written to the UN body to express ‘strong concerns’ about Qatar’s likely presidency of the conference” and warns the ILO of “reputational risk” if it goes ahead with the appointment. The ITUC letter specifically mentions “allegations” that “attempts have been made to influence decision makers in the European Union in a highly inappropriate manner” though without, apparently, naming its own former General Secretary, Visentini.

The ITUC letter is not available on the organisation’s website, but a press release from just two months ago reflects a somewhat different view of the ILO role in Qatar. “The ITUC recognises the ILO’s role in striving to ensure the rights of workers in Qatar, especially migrant workers,” it said.

Under Triangle’s leadership, the ITUC has clearly taken a more critical approach. He told the Guardian that with “this letter we wanted to make clear to the ILO president that we are absolutely unhappy with this proposal because it undermines the credibility of the ILO.”

The ILO seems completely unfazed by the criticism. Just a few days before the publication of the Guardian report, the ILO website announced that an important conference on the subject of “occupational heat stress” had been held — in Qatar. Among those speaking were ILO officials and representatives of the Qatari government. One of those was Ali bin Samikh al-Marri, the Qatari Minister of Labour who has been implicated in the Qatargate scandal.

To be fair to the ILO, discussing heat stress in a country where large numbers of migrant workers died building facilities for the FIFA World Cup might have made sense — except that it is not clear if any workers actually attended the event. The ILO press release mentioned “workers’ representatives” from the Arab states participating, but the only group named was the “National Committee of Labour Committees of Saudi Arabia”. That organisation is not part of the ITUC and a Google search for it produced no results. When I wrote to the ILO press office to enquire which other “worker representatives” participated in the conference, I received no reply.

The decision of the ITUC’s new leadership to distance itself from the previous policy of shameless whitewashing of the Qatari regime is a good beginning. But unions must do much more — and pressure on the ITUC must come from below, meaning from national trade union centres like the TUC in Britain and its affiliated unions.

As for the ILO, its tripartite character means that collusion with authoritarian regimes seems to be baked into the organisation, despite all the good work it does to promote workers’ rights and better conditions for working people.

Unions have successfully put pressure on the ILO to not recognise dictatorial, anti-worker regimes like Belarus and Myanmar. But much more needs to be done — including making sure that the International Labour Conference next month is not chaired by a Qatari minister implicated in the cash-for-influence scandal in Brussels.

This column appears in this week’s issue of Solidarity.

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