An UN security officer stands at a cell entrance of a jail in Bunia in the DRC. A new policy by Ban Ki-Moon would curtail security officers' ability to negotiate safer working conditions, even though their work brings them to high-risk areas.   (UN Photo/Sylvain Liechti) United Nations workers spend their time on the front lines of the global struggle for human rights, but now they are battling fo...

Pat Morrison September 16, 2013 09:51 More than 40 teenage burn survivors from across North America will attend the 18th International Burn Camp  September 21-28 in the Nation’s Capital. The week-long program provides a unique support system for these young burn survivors. No one understands better than the fire fighters who serve as camp counselors that burns leave scars that last a lifetime and ...

Nurses and supporters marched over the Brooklyn Bridge this summer to protest the closure of the Long Island College Hospital. (Photo from NYSNA).   The momentum in the fight to save Brooklyn's hospitals seems to have shifted decidedly to the side of the community, not the bosses. Not only did the fight over the hospitals prove central to the mayoral primary , helping sweep Bill de Blasio from the...

Respect DC is fighting to ensure a living wage for employees of six planned Wal-Mart stores in Washington, D.C. (Respect DC / flickr )   District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray disappointed labor supporters Thursday when he vetoed a bill that would have boosted the minimum wage for some retail workers at a time when Wal-Mart is moving forward with a major expansion in the nation’s capital. The bil...

Original link Original author: PR

Original link Original author: PR

Nicole Berry is one of the 321 cafeteria workers at the University of Miami who joined 32BJ SEIU in May. (32BJ SEIU)   Food-service workers at the University of Miami walked off the job today during the noontime rush hour, accusing the university’s food service subcontractor, Chartwells’, of bargaining in bad faith. A yearlong organizing campaign culminated in 321 cafeteria workers joining the Ser...

Teachers have gathered en masse in Mexico City to protest President Nieto's new education reform legislation. (Viral MediaNews/Youtube)   In Mexico City, school teachers are meting out some serious discipline to a government gone awry. For the past several weeks, the metropolis has pulsed with a labor insurrection . There have been fierce union-led rallies, clashes with police , and mass demonstra...

Original link Original author: PR

Frank Little, who came to Butte in 1917, was brutally murdered for his efforts to organize mine workers against the Anaconda Copper Company.   (KUED / Creative Commons) In June of 1917, 168 workers died in the Speculator mine disaster in Butte, Montana—many from asphyxiation. That July, legendary Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union organizer Frank Little arrived in Butte to help organize a...

It’s not good for businesses these days to be associated with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Sallie Mae, the nation’s largest student loan lender, became the 50th business to publicly drop its membership in ALEC. ALEC has worked to make the education system a for-profit entity and a Sallie Mae spokesperson said it thought carefully about pulling its membership. “The noise level ...

Original link Original author: PR

Original link Original author: PR

Original link Original author: PR

Late last week, OUR Walmart —a union-backed organization of store associates calling for improved working conditions, health benefits, and a minimum $13-an-hour wage—staged its largest protests since Black Friday. Demonstrations in 15 cities drew several thousand people, and about 100 were arrested . In addition to OUR Walmart’s core demands, the protesters turned out to insist that Wal-Mart resci...