Websites, podcasts, social media, etc. I don't really care about the medium but I can't seem to find a good single source on the subject.

Employees sign open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, calling on him to show 'Palestinian lives matter'

Nearly 300 current and former Apple employees signed an open letter accusing the company of "wrongfully terminating" or disciplining several workers for expressing support for Palestine by wearing pro-Palestinian articles of clothing.

The letter, which has received 299 signatories, says that employees have been told by their superiors that anyone expressing support for Palestine in the form of "kaffiyehs, pins, bracelets, or clothing" has been told they are "breaking business conduct" and creating a "harmful environment".

"Team members have even been wrongfully terminated for this small show of solidarity, while our leadership ignores the pain and suffering our co-workers and their families are facing in Gaza," said the letter, reported by Wired Magazine on Tuesday.

The letter goes on to call on Apple CEO Tim Cook to acknowledge the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza.

Israeli forces have killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, the majority being women and children, since it began its war on Gaza in response to the 7 October Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and saw over 200 hostages taken back to Gaza.

read more: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-apple-employee-wrongfully-terminated-expressing-pro-palestine-views-colleagues

The West Bank and Gaza Strip were forcibly incorporated into a customs union with Israel, Farsakh says, with Israel imposing restrictions on the kinds of commodities that can be imported or exported from the territories, protecting Israeli agriculture. Additionally, Israeli officials unilaterally set an external tariff structure. Farsakh explains that any trade with the rest of the world had to go through Israel and be handled by Israeli agents.

Israel enforced a monetary union with the Palestinian territories, adopting Israeli currency as official tender and shutting down all but two banks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which were under Israeli supervision. Israeli authorities prohibited investments from Israel — or abroad — in the Palestinian economy. The Israeli military exercised full control over the budgets in the West Bank and Gaza, including taxation and collection.

The resulting economic arrangement, which allows Palestinians to seek jobs in Israel in sectors that lack sufficient Jewish labor, such as construction, agriculture, and the service industry, was beneficial to Israeli employers in various ways, but ultimately damaging to the Palestinian national economy.

...

Israel also often withholds taxes collected on behalf of the Palestinians as a punitive measure. Several public workers in the West Bank tell me they have not been paid since the conflict in Gaza erupted six months ago.

Israel maintains strict control over more than 60 percent of the West Bank, known as “Area C,” prohibiting Palestinian development while Israeli settlements continue to grow. “The Palestinian economy is an economy of survival,” Farsakh says. “It is not one of independence that has the opportunity to grow and thrive. It is one that allows individual prosperity [from higher wages in the Israeli economy] often at the expense of national growth.”

This reality has created what Farsakh has termed the “Bantustanization” of the West Bank. “Israel inadvertently created an apartheid reality by trying to incorporate the maximum amount of Palestinian land in the West Bank without the Palestinian population, while relying on Palestinian labor,” Farsakh explains. “What this did was turn the Palestinian areas — encircled by checkpoints and settlements — into population reserves.

....

Ayad was allowed to return to her work three weeks after October 7, but she tells me her employer has not honored previous agreements, taking advantage of the current vulnerability of the Palestinian workers. “Our salaries have decreased since the war,” Ayad says, adding that they have returned to piece-rate pay — they are paid by the pots filled instead of hours worked. She also notes that her bosses “even calculate the boxes wrong and pay us less than what we did. When we complain, our boss tells us to go find another job if we don’t like it.”

According to Yoav Tamir, a workers’ advice center representative, tens of thousands of Palestinian workers, now left with no employment, have little recourse to change their situation. Despite all of them having a pension fund in Israel, they face a significant obstacle: they were not fired and did not quit but are now stuck behind closed army checkpoints, which prevents them from accessing the funds. “In order to get money from the pension fund, they need to stop working,” Tamir tells me. “But if they stop working then they forfeit their work permit.”

Anyone else know Ron Carey?

From the bottom of the article:

• Steve Mellon, Pittsburgh Union Progress, “​‘Where are you, President Biden?’ Union organizers, residents demand health care for East Palestine“

• Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, ​“East Palestine DEMANDS Biden Visit More Than ​‘PHOTO OP‘“

• To contact the Justice for East Palestine Residents and Workers organizing committee, reach out to Steve Zeltzer: labormedia[at]gmail[dot]com or Penny Logsdon: onecent7921[at]gmail[dot]com.

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Legislation in Washington state known as the strippers’ bill of rights, which advocates say includes the most comprehensive statewide protections in the nation, was signed into law on Monday.

The new law requires training for employees in establishments to prevent sexual harassment, identify and report human trafficking, de-escalate conflict and provide first aid. It also mandates security workers on site, keypad codes on dressing rooms and panic buttons in places where entertainers may be alone with customers.

Most dancers in the state are independent contractors who are paid by customers and then must pay club fees every shift. The new law limits the fees owners can charge, capping them at $150 or 30% of the amount dancers make during their shift — whichever is less. It also prohibits late fees and other charges related to unpaid balances.

Only one other state has added worker protections for adult entertainers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In 2019, Illinois started requiring that adult entertainment establishments, along with other businesses, have a written sexual harassment policy.

There have also been other efforts — including at a bar in Los Angeles and a strip club in Portland, Oregon, where dancers voted to unionize. And, the Nevada Supreme Court in 2014 ruled that dancers at one Las Vegas club are employees, and are entitled to minimum wage and other protections.

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Dewit.

Friend just made me aware of this ongoing shittery in the UK. Ongoing demonstration in London at the moment. I said I would spread the word.

Pretty sure this is straight up illegal.

Let's bring it.

Quite surprising. Here's an excerpt from the interview:

As always, we appreciate your support in whatever form it takes. Now over 50 million freelancers participate in the gig economy in the United States, and in 2023 it was projected to generate $455 billion. Many freelance workers work white collar freelance contracts across a number of industries, most notably tech, media and other creative industries. According to one survey, over 50% of gig workers reported to have experienced wage theft at least once in their freelance career. And due to the nature of contingent gig work, it can be difficult to compel employers to pay their freelancers once the project has been completed. Oftentimes, freelancers are left in a lurch after working for weeks or months on a contract and to find themselves unable to reach employers who owe them payment sometimes to the tune of thousands of dollars. That’s where freelance isn’t free, comes in legislation aimed at protecting freelancers from nonpayment by unruly employers First passed in New York City in 2017.

Freelance isn’t Free. Legislation has helped freelancers recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices over the last seven years. Now backed by organizers at the National Writers Union and the Freelance Solidarity Project. Local and state governments are looking to enact their own freelance Isn’t Free Laws with me today to discuss all this are Eric Thurm and Keisha Dutes. Keisha TK Dutes is an audio producer and executive producer educator and on-air talent with experience spanning terrestrial radio online and podcasts since 2005. Her life and audio is all encompassing. Her most recent offering on NPR Life Kit is about how to mind your business, and currently she is helping people bring their podcasts to life via her company. Philo’s Future Media. TK also serves as a board member for the Association of Independents in Radio. Eric is the campaigns coordinator at the National Writers Union and member organizer with the Freelance Solidarity Project. Organizations that have advocated for freelance isn’t free legislation in places like New State and Illinois. Welcome to the show guys. Thanks so much for coming on this morning. Thanks for having us.

BTW, free-lancers count as "self-employed," right?

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Cancer Survivor and Retiree Advocate/UFT member Sheila Zukowsky said she celebrated the day she turned 65 because it meant she could finally start claiming her traditional Medicare benefits.

“I didn’t like turning 65 — but I could finally go to the hospital that was around the corner from my house where everybody took my healthcare,” Zukowsky said. “There was no longer a problem — I got great treatment and I’m here to today. There’s no way they’re gonna take away our Medicare. No matter what they do — we’re gonna fight like hell against them.”

The private health insurance industry’s hard sell — with it promises of reduced up front costs, dental coverage, gym memberships and the like — has resulted in more than half of all Medicare eligible recipients in the country now being enrolled in a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan.

Many of those recipients, however, now regret being taken in by the Medicare Advantage sales pitch — and feel trapped.

Even Mayor Adams jeered Medicare Advantage as a “bait and switch” before winning election and doing an abrupt about-face after taking office.

A great many Medicare eligible recipients also do not even realize that a privatized, profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan is not Medicare — something that privatization advocates are loath to admit.

The Save Medicare Act, reintroduced in the House last year, seeks to prohibit giant insurance companies from advertising their profit-driven plans as “Medicare.”

“Michael Mulgrew keeps saying Medicare Advantage is just Medicare Part C — that’s an absolute lie,” Retiree Advocate/UFT member Norm Scott said on Friday. “We know the difference. I’ve been on Medicare for 14 years — I love it. I’ve had no problems.”

Retiree Advocate/UFT member Sarah Shapiro said, “It’s difficult when you know the city is fighting against you,” but that “it’s really difficult when you know the people in our union leadership are fighting against the rank & file — and the retirees.”

Fellow Retiree Advocate/UFT member Bobby Greenberg’s work on national labor campaigns with the American Federation of Teachers goes back a half century. What’s needed, and what Retiree Advocate/UFT promises, he said is a return to authentic union culture centered on empowering the membership

“[Mulgrew] said this is the best plan we can get — he still says that. That plan died — it was killed by us,” Greenberg said. “We’re winning because the guns have shifted from us — to the working teachers. Now, it’s their healthcare being attacked…what we need is a different culture. We need a culture that welcomes the members.”

Retiree Advocate/UFT Jonathan Halabi said the Retired Teachers Chapter had two critical jobs to do under Mulgrew and Murphy’s watch: protect pensions and healthcare. But they have failed at both.

“Medicare Advantage, Aetna, Alliance — that’s not protecting our healthcare,” Halal said. “That’s Mulgrew, Murphy, Mayor Adams, and the MLC endangering our healthcare…who knows what they have in store four our pensions? Reitrees will vote for the team that will protect our healthcare and our pensions.”

I still feel that this article from this point-of-view isn't telling us everything and I get the feeling that it's not simply a matter of the typical "rank-and-file versus corrupt union leadership" story, but we'll see.

I haven't really seen the union leaders quoted here.

But I could be wrong; I just feel that the article isn't really giving us the full story.

Turkey is going wild over this as well.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2010898

I understand this is mostly an empty gesture, but it does allow you to donate some money to the Trader Joe's Union, which is better than nothing.

Glencore continues being teflon mining op, china doing a cringe (via Huayou), kazakhstan boldly being a shithead