Daily Archives: June 13, 2021

Last summer, as part of a COVID-19-related spending bill, the Massachusetts legislature added Juneteenth Independence Day (June 19) to the list of premium pay holidays in the Commonwealths Blue Laws. Juneteenth now joins New Years Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day as holidays where retail employers must pay a premium hourly rate to non-exempt employees (until the obligation phases out on January 1, 2023) and cannot require employees to work. What do Massachusetts employers need to know about this latest obligation and the Blue Laws generally?

What is Juneteenth Independence Day?

Juneteenth Independence Day commemorates the reading of President Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation by Union General Gordon Granger in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, two months after the Confederacys surrender ended the Civil War. Over the years, the holiday has spread from Texas throughout the country as an annual celebration of freedom from slavery and of African American culture. Forty-six states and the District of Columbia recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday or day of recognition.

What are the Blue Laws?

Dating back to the states Puritan founding, Massachusetts has long outlawed any manner of labor, business or work on Sundays and certain holidays. Rather than repeal this law, the legislature has added 56 exemptions covering nearly all forms of business and industry over the past four centuries. While most of the exemptions simply permit a business to operate on Sundays or holidays, a few add other obligations for certain types of employers.

Specifically, the following employers must pay their non-exempt employees a premium rate for work on Sundays and the seven holidays listed above if they:

What are a Retail Employers Obligations on Sundays and Blue Laws Holidays?

A retail employers obligations under the Blue Laws fall into three categories: whether the business may legally open; the premium pay rate owed to employees who work on Sundays/holidays; and whether an employer can require work on Sundays/holidays.

Can We Open?

The Blue Laws are closure laws requiring businesses to be closed unless exempted. A few exemptions permit retailers to open any time on a Sunday and most holidays. However, retailers wishing to open prior to 12:00pm on Columbus Day, prior to 1:00 pm on Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, or Christmas need to ensure that both a state-wide permit for such opening has been granted by the Department of Labor Standards, and that the retailer has obtained a permit from the local chief of police.

What is the Premium Pay Rate?

As of January 2021, non-exempt retail employees must be paid at least 1.2x their regular rate for any time worked on Sundays, New Years Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth Independence Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day. Due to recent changes in Massachusetts law as a result of the Grand Bargain in 2018, the premium pay multiplier has decreased by 0.1x each year since 2019. In 2022, retail employers will be obligated to pay 1.1x the regular rate, and the premium pay obligation will be completely eliminated in 2023.

Can Retailers Mandate Work on Sundays or Holidays?

No. Work on Sundays/holidays must be voluntary and an employer cannot take an adverse action against an employee who refuses to work on Sundays/holidays. While there is little guidance about whether an employee who normally works Sundays can call out on a specific Sunday (versus stating upon hire that they are unavailable on all Sundays), employers are advised to be upfront about Sunday/holiday work expectations during the hiring process to avoid unnecessary confusion down the road. Likewise, an employer may not treat an employee negatively because of their unwillingness to work Sundays/holidays. This includes any discrimination, dismissal, discharge, reduction in hours, or any other penalty. Importantly, the voluntariness of work requirements will not expire when the premium pay obligations sunset in 2023.

What Else Should Employers Consider?

The Massachusetts Blue Laws are an intertwined hodgepodge of statutory obligations that are both overlapping and contradictory. The lack of clarity and dearth of relevant guidance from enforcement agencies places employers at peril and leads to considerable confusion. A few issues frequently raised by retail employers are discussed below.

My business is authorized to open by an exemption other than the retail store exemptions, do the premium pay requirements apply to me?

There are presently 56 exemptions to the Sunday closure law. Only the exemptions in paragraphs 25, 27, 50, and 52 of 6 of the statute require premium pay. If your entire operation fits into one of the other 52 exemptions, your employees may not be entitled to premium pay on Sundays or some of the Blue Law holidays (Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, or Labor Day) because the premium pay obligations for those holidays specifically incorporate the Sunday pay law by reference.

However, the authority to open on three other holidays (New Years Day, Columbus Day, or Veterans Day) is derived from a separate statute that does not rely on the Sunday pay law. Instead, it requires premium pay to employees of any retail establishment. Massachusetts courts have concluded this statute compels payment of premium pay even if the employer is otherwise exempt from the Sunday pay law, with one court calling this conclusion a somewhat odd result. These courts have concluded that the use of the term retail establishment was meant to apply to a much broader swath of business operations and does not require reference to the Sunday pay law. If any of your operations involves retail, you need to consider whether you are required to pay premium pay on New Years Day, Columbus Day, or Veterans Day, even if otherwise exempt from the Sunday pay law.

What happens when a holiday falls on a weekend?

Under Massachusetts law, when a holiday falls on a Saturday, it is observed on the Saturday. Sunday holidays, however, are observed on the following Monday. This means that in certain holiday weeks, employers may be on the hook for Sunday pay and holiday pay, despite the holiday being on a Sunday. For example, Independence Day (July 4) falls on a Sunday in 2021. Therefore, any employees working the following Monday (July 5) are entitled to premium pay for both July 4 (under the Sunday pay law) and July 5 (under the holiday pay law).

How do Sunday/holiday premium payments interact with overtime and the calculation of an employees regular rate?

Prior to 2019, the answer to this question was simple. Sunday and holiday payments were not considered in determining an employees regular rate under either Massachusetts or federal law, as both exclude payments for Sunday/holidays if such payments are at least 1.5x the employees regular rate. However, neither Massachusetts nor federal law permits an employer to exclude premium payments from the regular rate calculation when they are less than 1.5x the regular rate. If an employer attempts to avail itself of the reduced premium pay rate for Sundays/holidays, it must carefully consider the impact of those payments if its employees also work overtime.

The following examples illustrate how the reduced premium rates factor into determining the overtime rate, using the current minimum wage of $13.50/hour.

As the last two examples demonstrate, when an employee works more than 40 hours and on a Sunday/holiday in the same workweek, employers must be careful in calculating the regular rate. In Example 3, the calculation is simple when all Sunday/holiday hours are also overtime hours, the employer must pay the higher rate of 1.5x for all hours. When some of the Sunday/holiday hours are not also overtime, the math gets complicated. To avoid this, many employers have continued paying 1.5x for all holidays, despite the lower rate provided by statute.

Read more here:

Massachusetts Retailers: Juneteenth Premium Pay Obligations Begin This Year - JD Supra

Five days after graduating from high school in 1972, 18-year-old Bob McDaniels boarded his first train and embarked on a career that would carry him to new cities, friendships and family.

McDaniels mother had encouraged him to follow in his late fathers footsteps by taking a job at CN Rail as soon as he was eligible. On that summer day, McDaniels boarded a line from his hometown of Winnipeg to Montreal, working as the trains "pantry boy," a dishwasher in the dining car.

"I never called it a job. I always called it a lifestyle as a railroader," says McDaniels, now 67.

SUPPLIED

Bob McDaniels as a waiter in the 1970s.

He would go on to spend his whole career working at what would become Via Rail. During his career, McDaniels met countless Black elders, many of whom had established lives in Winnipeg after finding steady albeit challenging work as sleeping car porters on the rails, and was warmly embraced by the unique community of the railroading crew.

SUPPLIED

The eight-episode CBC drama The Porter will tell the story of Canadas Black sleeping car porters, offering historical insights to the job that paved the way for Black community life in Canadas western provinces.

Next February, the biggest Black-led production ever in Canada will bring an integral story of Winnipegs Black history to life and to the screens.

The eight-episode CBC drama The Porter will tell the story of Canadas Black sleeping car porters, offering historical insights to the job that paved the way for Black community life in Canadas western provinces.

Though the show is set in Montreal, the story of the porters is at its heart a Winnipeg story. It was in this citys northern neighbourhoods that North Americas first Black railway union was born, ushering in better work conditions for the citys Black residents.

Porters became the bedrock of Winnipegs Black community, too, as Black men moved their families westward and settled in neighbourhoods and community hubs a stones throw from the old train station.

Though the porters stories are riddled with hardships, exposing at times the dark underbelly of Canadas history, they are predominantly scored by resilience, friendship, and lasting family ties.

As a young and self-described "punk," McDaniels said the train presented a host of learning opportunities as he worked his way up through the ranks. By the time he retired more than 35 years later, he had landed the prestigious service manager position, only made available to Black employees thanks to the work of Black Winnipeg porters before him.

"Anything I learned through that point in my life was by the train, through instructors or senior people who showed me how to do the job. They were my teachers," McDaniels says.

The rail lines have long been an essential part of the McDaniels family storylines. McDaniels adopted father August, known affectionately among his fellow railroaders as Book Off McDaniels, had begun working as a porter in the 1930s, and remained there until dying of cancer when Bob was just 13.

Years after his own retirement (when adoption records were opened in 2015) Bob McDaniels would also learn his biological father, Albert Hamilton, had been one of his co-workers on the railway line.

McDaniels met his wife, Brigite, on the trains, too. She was another porter, based out of Ontario, who he met at a conference. The two worked on the lines sometimes from thousands of kilometres apart until they had their first child together and his wife chose to stay home.

As a second-generation railroader, McDaniels was taken under the wing of the largely Black group of senior porters many of whom had worked with his father through the 1930s.

SUPPLIED

Albert Hamilton was former porter Bob McDaniels biological father.

"The older Black guys, they liked me because they loved my dad, so they instinctively tucked me under and showed me the ropes," he says fondly.

"They always treated me like a million bucks, I always felt so special in their company."

When he started in 1972, McDaniels was a grunt in the dining car, washing dishes and working to impress his superiors.

"I was always inspired to do the best job I could," he says, adding employees on the CNR and CPR lines had to work their way up to secure better roles.

Just two years later McDaniels began working as a porter, though he would occasionally return to the dining car as a lead chef. By the end of his career he had worked nearly every job available on the train, including supervisory roles.

A sleeping car porters main responsibility is to look after the customers. Greeting them, orienting them to the train, explaining how things work in the rooms, taking care of baggage, cleaning and attending to customer needs were all part of a regular days work.

Shifts on the train were long and gruelling. Porters often worked for 72 hours one direction, spend a layover away from home, and work another 72 hours on the return trip in six or seven day stretches.

In the early days, McDaniels said porters like him worked 21 hours a day, resting for three hours in a "little roomette" on the train. While the money was good complete with tips the job could be exhausting.

Raising a family was difficult, McDaniels says, as busy schedules sometimes meant being away for holidays and birthdays. On one occasion he remembers spending Christmas in a small town and calling home to talk to his then three-year-old daughter, Julia-Faye.

"Shes sobbing on the other end of the phone, she can barely say anything. Im crying on one end, shes crying on another," he remembers. "I said at that point, I will never miss another Christmas."

From that year on, any Christmas he had to spend on the train, he would bring his wife and daughter along a practice that wasnt uncommon for porters, who took to one another like family.

"Lots of people did that because we all missed them. If someone brought their family on, they were our family too. We always took care of them always."

Marring the good times on the trains was a deeply rooted streak of discriminatory treatment. It had dwindled significantly by McDaniels days, but had run rampant among his fathers generation.

The McDaniels family immigrated to Canada from a small coal town in Indiana in the early 1930s, and the elder McDaniels quickly started work as a shoe-shiner, then on the railway, basing themselves in Winnipeg.

SUPPLIED

An internal Via newspaper featuring Albert Hamilton and Bob McDaniels. At the time, McDaniels did not know Hamilton was his biological father.

"Working on the railway as a Black man starting out in the 30s there were a lot of things in front of him to stop promotions or wage increases. Your own peace of mind couldnt be had because you were structured by sort of a racist system," he says.

Certain passengers treated porters especially Black employees with a sort of arrogance, McDaniels says, remembering one passenger who insisted on calling him boy during his time on the train.

"You cant take your frustrations out on the passenger," he says. "You have to really guard your words carefully when youre in those situations."

He recalls a time when he was 21 and a man younger than him boarded the train in civil war boots, fresh out of a farm field. The passenger placed his dirty boots in the shoe-shining box a compartment in each room that could be opened from either side expecting McDaniels to scrub them clean.

SUPPLIED

Former porter Bob McDaniels on his first trip as a Service Manager in 1984.

"I refused to shine shoes. That was a big part of the job and I just couldnt do it. It was beneath me, so to speak, to do that," he says.

Shoe shining was, at the time, mandatory for the sleeping car porters, but McDaniels said he took a stand because of his fathers history.

"As a black man coming to Canada your first job is shining shoes, and here I am 50 years later and Im required to shine somebodys shoes? I said it was demoralizing and they understood that," he says.

Shortly after the incident, McDaniels says the rail line stopped mandating the shoe shining aspect of the job, and the rest of his career was largely unmarred by the discrimination that had stained the career in decades past.

It was a presumed acquiescence to discriminatory treatment that made Black men the top choice for rail companies when the porter jobs began at the turn of the 20th century.

"When slavery ended in the United States and railway travel especially luxury railway travel was taking off, George Pullman, the creator of the sleeping car service, wanted to say to wealthy white people: All is not over. The world doesnt come to an end just because you cant have slaves anymore. You can still have the fantasy of having a servile Black person at your beck and call on my railway service," explains Sarah Jane (Saje) Mathieu, a professor in the History department at the University of Minnesota.

"In order for Canadian companies to compete, they started building a sleeping car service and they to want to ensure that they could provide that racialist fantasy even though that wasnt Canadas particular path."

The Pullman cars launched in Canada in the 1870s, and with them came the servitude model that distinguished the Pullman brand.

American companies leasing or selling the sleeping cars to CPR and CNR railways secured the model of servitude in the contract to buy a car you also needed 12 pillows and two Black people, Mathieu says.

"Canadian companies decided by the turn of the 20th century that they had to step take one step further and that was that they had to get the most seemingly authentic, servile black person. They would dip into the deepest part of the American south to find Black people with a southern accent to have white Canadians marvel at how the Canadian company was as good as the American one.

"In other words, if you were a Black man who went to McGill or you grew up in Winnipeg and you just didnt sound sufficiently servile, you couldnt get a job. Black men would affect the southern accent and probably cooked up all kinds of fantasy background for themselves in order to secure a job. Imagine the deeply disturbing racialist circle there."

By 1909 there were dozens of Black men working as porters in Winnipeg. Some had moved up from the States, while others moved west from Halifax, Montreal and Toronto, where Black communities had already been established.

Mathieu based her book North of the Color Line: Migration and Black Resistance in Canada, 1870-1955 on research she did while writing her masters thesis, which focused on Black migration into Manitoba and the Canadian west. Through her research she found many Black communities had settled in Winnipeg, Calgary and other large cities across the west.

"I wanted to know what happened to them. I kept finding them on the rails," she says.

"And so this young 23-year-old hitchhiked across Canada and parts of the U.S. looking for porters. I found most of them in Winnipeg."

For the early Black community in Winnipeg, the porter job came with status; it provided secure income and respectable work, allowing Black men to plant roots for their families in a new town.

As Valerie Williams daughter of the late Deacon, community leader and railroader Lee Williams puts it: "there wouldnt be a Black community without the porters."

Early in the 20th century, Winnipeg was home to just a smattering of Black residents, many of whom had immigrated north after the emancipation of slavery in the southern United States.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Valerie Williamss father Lee Williams spent a lifetime breaking down barriers for Black porters.

The vast majority of Black men in Winnipeg, Williams recalls, were porters, establishing the beginnings of Winnipegs Black community in the shadow of the CPR railway station in what is now North Point Douglas.

"They were central to the Black community," Williams says of the porters in a phone interview. "I think it would be safe to say the way the Black community evolved was through the porters."

The Williams family had moved to a homestead in Saskatchewan in the early 1900s, arriving in 1910. Decades later, as a young adult, Valeries father Lee moved eastward to Winnipeg for a job as a porter on the CNR railway.

He would work on the rails for 42 years retiring the very same year the young McDaniels would take his first train and over that time Lee Williams would transform the working conditions for Black porters.

Lee Williams did not love his job on the trains, his daughter says it was rife at the time with discrimination, racism and poor treatment but it was secure income, with a solid pension that could support his growing family.

"He was committed, he was dedicated and he supported his family, did he enjoy the job? I think it was better when he was able to secure promotions and cross that hurdle of discrimination," she explains.

"He led the fight for better treatment. He knew it was wrong, he knew they deserved equal rights."

In 1955, Lee Williams challenged the predominant porter union at the time the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employees with a request to remove job discrimination from the unions collective agreement, and thereby open room for Black men to be promoted on the trains. He was ultimately shut down.

Still Williams persisted. Along his many trips on the train, Williams had met and befriended a young Member of Parliament from Saskatchewan; a man who would later rise in political ranks to become Prime Minister John Diefenbaker.

As the story goes, Williams wrote to Diefenbaker once he was prime minister, asking for help securing better rights for the porters. Diefenbaker sent him a copy of the nations Fair Employment Practices Act, leading Williams to charge the rail companies with discrimination. Again, nothing changed.

A decade later, under then Liberal Prime Minister Lester Pearson, Williams tried again, demanding the act be enforced on the federal railways and Pearson backed him up, ordering the rail lines to comply. By 1964 many of the provisions that prevented porters from advancing in the CNR ranks had been eliminated.

For his efforts, Williams became the first Black porter to be promoted to sleeping car conductor and supervisory roles on the trains.

Mark Collins, 61, now a boxing instructor in Winnipegs North End, spent many years as a railroader too, joining the CN rail lines in 1979 and rising from dining car attendant to porter. The hours were long and the job was difficult, he recalls, but the money was steady, the job was known to hire Black people, and it opened doors to new opportunities.

"I dont miss the job, but I miss the people and I miss the travelling," Collins says in a phone call. "It was like a family."

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Mark Collins served as a sleeping car porter on the railway through the 1980s and 90s. The job was hard, but the money was steady, and the railways were known for hiring Black people, he says.

He got used to the schedule, he says, and enjoyed the long stretches of time off he could have in a single month despite the busy days of work that would precede it.

Of course, even in his days, passengers on the railway could be ignorant.

"Ignorance is ignorance. I was subjected to that," Collins says. "Unfortunately youre in a position where, you know, Im at work, so you get used to just absorbing it. All you can really do is just pray for people like that."

But Collins remembers being mentored by the older Black porters who he worked with. At the time, his supervisor was Black too, and would coach him through the job.

"It was very rewarding because there was a lot of the classic guys that arent alive anymore who did that job right from the very beginning," Collins says, adding they taught him little bits about the history of the rail lines.

Without Williams efforts, McDaniels acknowledges things may have been different for him on the rails.

The old guard on the trains usually kept quiet about discrimination they had faced, he says. His dad never mentioned any difficult experiences, though he heard whispers of the struggles the older Black employees had navigated.

"It was kind of hidden. My dad never said any stories and the older guys never really told me much about what it was like to be a Black porter in the early 30s," he says.

"No one really said too much but you could feel it. You could tell. A lot of those older guys, you could see it in the lines on their face some of the things they must have gone through it tells the story without having to say it in words."

Now 13 years into his retirement, McDaniels looks back fondly on his railroading job.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Bob McDaniels, a former porter with Via Rail, followed in his family footsteps and into a lengthy career with the railway.

"To this day I have numerous amount of friends on there and the friends become family," he says, calling from his country home near Oak Point, Man.

Despite the gruelling hours and the occasional disrespect from customers, McDaniels said the people and the travel made the job hard to walk away from. The trains would trek up north to Churchill, or west to the Pacific shorelines of Vancouver, or east into Toronto and Montreal.

Between rigorous shifts, the porters would spend layovers in different cities, enjoying the landscape and each others company. On the trains they would have the opportunity to meet people from "all walks of life," people who would become lifelong friends, or just appear for short periods of time.

"I think the camaraderie was one of the best parts of the job. To this day most of my friends are via rail people," he says. "It was a regular melting pot working on the railway, and that was the best part in my opinion."

julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jsrutgers

Read more here:

The porter, a job born out of the end of slavery, helped build Winnipeg's Black community - Winnipeg Free Press

On Saturday, May 22nd, 2021, in anticipation of the global events marking African Liberation Day, the Black Alliance for Peace hosted African Liberation Day in the Americas, a webinar exploring the parallel struggles and inter-connected histories of people of African descent throughout the Americas. The webinar featured Black activists and academics from Haiti, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and the United States. Together, they examined how anti-African repression extends across the geographic, national, and linguistic divisions of the hemisphere only to be resisted by a shared culture and tradition of African revolt and autonomy. Haiti was at the center of African Liberation Day in the Americas.

As Professor Gerald Hornes remarks made clear, Haitis anti-slavery efforts contributed to the freedom struggles of all of the laborers and toilers throughout the Americas:

My brief remarks will mostly be about slavery. That is to say, in the first instance, I will be laying the foundation for how and why Black people from Africa wound up in the Americas.

In the late 18th century, two profound processes unfolded in the Americas that were to have consequences for the entire hemisphere. First, in 1776, you had a revolt led by slave owners driven by the lust for indigenous land. They also felt the desire to continue and accelerate the enslavement of Africans, which they had thought might be in jeopardy because of a growing abolitionist movement not only in the Caribbean, but also in London, itself. Second, another process began unfolding in 1791, culminating in 1804 with the Haitian Revolution. It was driven by anti-slavery.

Needless to say, the newly-born United States of America was quite hostile to revolutionary Haiti and indeed, in 1844, the US aligned with forces in a sizable portion of the island to engineer a split that led to the creation of the Dominican Republic. Haiti, on the other hand, sponsored abolitionists and anti-slavery movements. The efforts of Haiti compelled London to abandon the slave trade by 1807 and slavery itself by 1833. Interestingly, Texas (where I am now sitting) seceded from Mexico in 1836 on pro-slavery grounds because Mexico had moved to abolish slavery in the late 1820s under the leadership of Vicente Guerrero, a president of African descent.

After Texas successfully seceded from Mexico on pro-slavery grounds, Haiti, along with an international abolitionist movement, put so much pressure on independent Texas it decided to join the United States in 1845, where it still resides. For Texas, it was an attempt to continue its slave trading operations. During its brief existence as an independent nation, Texas was a major slave trading force with slave ships flying its flag found off the coasts of Angola, Brazil, and Cuba.

Mexico, it is fair to say, was probably the major victim of U.S. expansionism not least because Mexico offered a refuge to enslaved Africans fleeing not only the United States, but from the Caribbean as well. As a result, we saw the United States wage war against Mexico in 1846, which led to the United States seizing a sizable portion of Mexican land, including California, which today is the wealthiest and most populous state in the United States of America and by some measures, ranks as the fifth-largest economy on planet earth. Thereafter, the United States continued to try to seize Mexican territory, often with the help of traitorous Mexican forces.

Brazil, too, was also a major victim of Washington. U.S. slave traders are largely responsible for the fact that Brazil has the largest Black population outside of West Africa itself. In the 1840s US-flagged ships could be found off the coast of Mozambique, off the coast of Angola, seizing and manacling Africans and dragging them across the Atlantic to toil in Brazil. There were powerful forces in Washington as well who wanted to execute in Brazil what they had executed in Mexico. That is to say, they had this scheme that suggested that the Amazon River was in some ways an oceanographic extension of the Mississippi River. By this logic, the United States should seize the Amazon River and indeed expel a good deal of the population of the United States of America to be enslaved workers in the Amazon River valley.

Fortunately, that plan did not succeed. I should also say that all the while these diabolical schemes were taking place, it was Haiti, through its diplomatic missions, particularly in London, that was plotting against theUnited States

Haiti stood tall as the first independent Black republic campaigning on our behalf. It is fair to say that the Haitian Revolution was not only a victory for the millions of enslaved Africans in the Americas. The Haitian Revolution was also a victory for all working class people because the existence of slavery drove down the wages and working/living standards ofallpeople who sold their labor for a living.

You can read the rest of the transcript of the talk at Black Agenda Report

Gerald Horne is author of The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century, The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in Seventeenth-Century North America and the Caribbean, Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music, and Confronting Black Jacobinss: The United States, the Haitian Revolution, and the Origins of the Dominican Republic, all published by Monthly Review Press.

Read the original:

Gerald Horne on the debt owed to Haiti (Black Agenda Report/Black Alliance for Peace) - Monthly Review

By Emeline Wuilbercq

ADDIS ABABA, June 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The United Nations says child labour is on the rise for the first time in 20 years, with millions more young people at risk of becoming child labourers due to the economic shocks and school closures caused by COVID-19.

Here are 10 facts about where and why child labour persists, ahead of Saturday's World Day Against Child Labour:

1. Every day, more than 5,700 children enter the child labour workforce for the first time.

2. An estimated 97 million boys and 63 million girls are child labourers.

3. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to most of the world's child labourers, with some 87 million, or 24%, of children in work, and little progress in ending SCRIchild labour in recent years.

4. Child labour is falling steadily in Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean, where about 6% of children work.

5. Agriculture is the most common sector for child labour, employing 112 million, or 70%, of working children, while 20% work in services and 10% in industry.

6. Almost three-quarters of child labour takes place within families and often due to poverty, the sudden illness of a caregiver, or job loss of a primary wage earner.

7. More than one-third of child labourers aged 5 to 17 are out of school, severely constraining their prospects for decent work and their overall life potential.

8. Child labour can result in extreme bodily and mental harm, and even death as children can be exposed to injuries, sexual and physical abuse and slavery.

9. Global progress against child labour has stalled for the first time in two decades and the COVID-19 crisis is likely to push a further 8.9 million children into child labour by the end of 2022 without action.

10. Solutions to reduce child labour include universal child benefits, getting children back into the classroom and promoting decent work for adults. Sources: International Labour Organization, U.N. Children's Fund.

Related links:

Child labour rises globally for the first time in decades

Governments urged to boost cash grants to end pandemic-fuelled child labour

Africa's children need to get back to school to avoid 'lost generation'

(Reporting by Emeline Wuilbercq; Editing by Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

This material has been funded by UK aid from the UK government; however the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK governments official policies.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Continued here:

factbox Ten facts about rising child labour around the world - Thomson Reuters Foundation

MASSGOP FISSURES ON DISPLAY Jim Lyons walked out of last nights contentious Massachusetts GOP state committee meeting with a smile.

It was a great night for Republicans in Massachusetts, the party chairman told me. We came out united tonight.

Not everyone felt that way. It went horribly, Vice Chairman Tom Mountain told me. Right now were facing our biggest crisis in probably two decades on the state committee, because of the actions of one rogue committeewoman.

Mountain was talking about Deborah Martell, the Ludlow committeewoman who recently wrote in an email she was sickened that GOP congressional candidate Jeffrey Sossa-Paquette and his husband had adopted children.

Lyons, who faced calls from nearly every House Republican to make Martell resign or step down himself, did neither last night, telling me life is about forgiveness. There was also no movement to oust him.

Martell was instead given the floor early in last nights meeting. Martell said she wasnt trying to cancel Sossa-Paquettes campaign, but made clear she didnt apologize for standing up for a traditional family and wouldnt be bullied into resigning, according to multiple sources inside the meeting.

Sossa-Paquette said via text that Martell has the right to believe as she does, however she should never weaponize her beliefs to seek harm against another individual. Prior to the meeting, Sossa-Paquette slammed Lyons as a feckless leader and said the party needed a new one to actually win in deep blue Massachusetts.

Emotions were high and conflicts grew both heated and personal inside of the closed-press, security-guarded meeting at Apex Entertainment in Marlborough, according to sources in the room. When Mountain asked for others to be allowed into the below-capacity room, Lyons declared him out of order. The partys fissures were also on display among the handful of demonstrators from across the Republican spectrum that gathered outside the building, some to call for inclusion and others to air more personal grievances.

Yet the embattled Lyons, whom sources say was very much a part of last night's clashes and even vented about being "called a racist," seemingly walked away in good spirits. State committee members agreed on a bylaw change championed by Lyons that would give endorsement power in primaries to the full state committee instead of the executive committee a plan put forward only after one Lyons initially backed to kick Gov. Charlie Baker and other elected Republican officials off the executive committee fell apart. The new plan needs two more approvals and is slated to come up again in September.

Committee members also approved a watered-down version of a resolution from committeeman state Rep. Shawn Dooley (R-Norfolk) that aimed to condemn bigotry, but ditched language that would have given it teeth. I still feel it is important that we create consequences for people who violate these basic tenets of decency, Dooley said. But given that Lyons wanted to table it, Dooley said he took what he could get.

GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Heres a FIRST IN PLAYBOOK SCOOPLET:

UNION RAMPS UP ATTACKS ON BAKER The National Association of Government Employees is launching the second ad in its $250,000 campaign to hold Baker accountable for issues at the Holyoke Soldiers Home, where a coronavirus outbreak killed at least 76 veterans last year.

The 15-second digital spot, titled He Forgot, hits Baker for saying he forgot he interviewed the facilitys former superintendent, Bennett Walsh, before appointing him to lead the soldiers home. Baker initially said in a press conference last year that he hadnt met Walsh before swearing him in. Walsh now faces charges of criminal neglect.

Baker knew, and its time he took responsibility, the narrator of the political-style ad says.

The union previously unveiled a 30-second Baker Knew video and launched a website with the same name. NAGE is planning to take its campaign up on the airwaves and on streaming services, said a person familiar with the plans but not authorized to speak publicly on them.

NAGE represents a small portion of nonclinical workers at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. The union remains in collective bargaining talks with the Baker administration, though its president recently told the Boston Globe the critiques of Baker are unrelated.

Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for the Playbook? Get in touch: [emailprotected]

TODAY Acting Boston Mayor Kim Janey delivers remarks at the Boston Police Department graduation ceremony at 11 a.m. Janey hosts a press conference on measures to boost wages and homeownership at 3:30 p.m. Sen. Edward Markey speaks at a webinar to help non-traditional tax filers better access tax benefits and launch of the FindYourFunds.org website at noon. Rep. Ayanna Pressley hosts a virtual press conference to announce the STRONG Support for Children Act at 1 p.m. Auditor Suzanne Bump presents at the National State Auditors Association at 3:25 p.m. Former Rep. Joseph Kennedy III and state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz speak at the Latino Stem Alliance 2021 Showcase and Celebration at 4 p.m. Bostons public-safety unions hold a virtual mayoral forum at 4 p.m. moderated by Boston Herald reporter Sean Philip Cotter. Rep. Katherine Clark joins the NAACP Mystic Valley Area Branch for a discussion on the history of the Black reparations movement at 6 p.m. Clark is also a guest on GBHs Greater Boston. Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Ben Downing and possible contender Danielle Allen join the Bridgewater Democratic Town Committees virtual meeting at 6 p.m.

Active COVID cases decline to 3,480 statewide as 55% of Massachusetts is now fully vaccinated, by Tanner Stening, MassLive.com: The number of active COVID-19 infections in Massachusetts continued to decrease on Wednesday, now down to 3,480 from the 3,805 reported the day before. Massachusetts health officials reported 116 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. Officials also reported another 5 COVID-related fatalities, bringing the death toll from the pandemic up to 17,559.

Massachusetts Legislature overwhelmingly advances proposed tax on top earners to 2022 ballot, by Matt Stout, Boston Globe: Massachusetts lawmakers overwhelmingly voted Wednesday to advance a sweeping change to the state tax code to the 2022 ballot, kickstarting whats expected to be a bruising political debate over whether the wealthiest residents should pay more in taxes. In a 159-41 vote, the House and Senate gave its approval to a proposed constitutional amendment that would impose a 4 percent surtax on annual personal income above $1 million. More from CommonWealth Magazines Shira Schoenberg.

Public Health Council Rescinds State Emergency Mask Order, by Diane Adame, GBH News: The Massachusetts Public Health Council has voted to rescind the states emergency mask order. Although the states emergency mask order will be lifted, the governors most recent set of mask regulations are still in effect.

They already had the air mattress: Facing fewer options, DCF has planned for kids to sleep in the office, by Matt Stout, Boston Globe: As Massachusetts strained child welfare system emerges from the pandemic, attorneys and staff say the long-standing challenge of finding beds for at-risk children is reaching new levels of desperation, stressing DCF in ways they say they have rarely, if ever, seen. Staff in at least three offices in Eastern Massachusetts have been forced at times to draw up plans to house children on site, going as far as to schedule staff or solicit volunteers in case a foster home cant be found, according to social workers and e-mails reviewed by the Globe.

Healey writes rules for egg, meat producers, by Christian M. Wade, CNHI/Salem News: The attorney generals office has issued regulations banning eggs and meat from cage-confined animals to comply with a 2016 referendum, as the food industry warns of shortages and higher prices on the horizon. Egg producers say the law, which mandates cages of 1 square feet per bird, is unworkable because most cage-free systems use a 1-foot standard. When the law goes into effect next year, producers supplying the state won't be able to meet its tougher requirement, they say, which will mean empty shelves and price spikes.

ICYMI: Mental health patient died in 2018 after discharge to Boston streets, by Shira Schoenberg, CommonWealth Magazine: Three weeks after CaSonya King entered High Point Hospital in Middleborough for mental health treatment in 2018, she remained severely ill disoriented, delusional, and talking to herself. But instead of continuing to care for her or discharging her to another facility, the hospital dropped her off in Boston near a homeless shelter, against her will and without the consent of her mother and legal guardian Angela King, according to the Disability Law Center, a private, nonprofit agency that has a mandate under state and federal law to investigate abuse and neglect of people with mental illness. Thirty hours after her discharge, the 44-year-old was dead.

Boston City Council gives itself ability to strip Kim Janeys power, by Sean Philip Cotter, Boston Herald: The Boston City Council is flexing its political muscle, giving itself the authority to strip Acting Mayor Kim Janey of her power though not actually moving to do so. The council by a 10-1 vote Wednesday approved a change in its own rules that would enable the body to remove its president by a two-thirds vote.

After Dennis White, Boston could launch its first external search for a new police commissioner in 15 years. It wont be easy, by Danny McDonald and Ivy Scott, Boston Globe: It has been 15 years since the city launched an external search for a new commissioner, and after the ill-fated [Dennis] White appointment, the stakes are high. But with police departments across the country under intense scrutiny and the proper role of law enforcement in sharp debate, finding the right candidates will be no easy task.

Boston School Committee member to temporarily lead board after previous chairs abrupt resignation, by James Vaznis, Boston Globe: Boston School Committee member Michael ONeill temporarily will take over the leadership of the board, following a text messaging scandal that caused the abrupt resignations of the chair and another member. ONeill, who was serving as vice chair, previously led the seven-member board from 2013 to 2017.

West Roxbury residents press Boston mayoral candidates on recent school committee resignations, by Alexi Cohan, Boston Herald: Upset West Roxbury residents let mayoral candidates know racism of any kind has no home in Boston.

Amid turmoil at Boston Pride, embattled president will resign as boycott brings change, by Stephanie Ebbert, Boston Globe: The embattled president of Boston Pride plans to resign this summer to make way for new leadership in response to activists who have boycotted the group to protest its lack of inclusion. Pride board president Linda DeMarco had previously been reluctant to step aside, instead saying the board would fill vacancies and expand its number to boost diversity.

Two city councilors want Boston to consider issuing reparations for slavery to Black residents, by Christopher Gavin, Boston.com: City Councilor Julia Mejia wants Boston to talk about the how. The why, she says, is already clear: The average net worth of a Black family in Boston is $8, while white families hold an average of $247,500. Black homeownership in the city is nearly half of that for white residents.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: City Councilor Michelle Wu has nabbed the endorsement of the Massachusetts chapter of the Sierra Club in the Boston mayoral race. We strongly support Councilor Wus goal of achieving 100% clean electricity by 2035 and city-wide carbon neutrality by 2040. Her Green New Deal for Boston is an astonishingly thorough and strategic plan that provides solutions specific to the city and its diverse neighborhoods Massachusetts Sierra Club Director Deb Pasternak said in a statement through Wus campaign. Wu will hold a press conference to announce the endorsement at 11:30 a.m. at 66 Long Wharf, Boston.

NEW OVERNIGHT: The AFSCME Council 93 Boston Presidents Committee has endorsed City Councilor Annissa Essaibi George for mayor of Boston. AFSCME Council 93 is the largest non-public-safety union representing city workers, per the Essaibi George campaign. More from the Boston Heralds Sean Philip Cotter.

New MBTA board picks up some momentum, by Bruce Mohl, CommonWealth Magazine: The move to replace the expiring MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board with a new oversight agency appears to be picking up steam, as a House spending plan released on Wednesday follows the governors lead in creating a new seven-member, permanent oversight board. The proposed Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Board would include the secretary of transportation, five members appointed by the governor, and one named by the MBTA Advisory Board, which represents all of the cities and towns that support the T with funding.

Former Correia chief of staff Gen Andrade asks judge for no prison time, by Jo C. Goode, Herald News: Jasiel Correia's former chief of staff Gen Andrade, who is set for sentencing in a Boston federal courtroom on Thursday is asking Judge Douglas P. Woodlock to follow a plea deal she made with prosecutors and not order that she spend any time in prison. But a pre-sentencing report by the federal Probation Department submitted to the court is recommending that Andrade be sentenced from more than six to seven years in federal prison.

Our Republican Party Is in Shambles': Growing Rift on Display at Mass. GOP Meeting, by Alison King, NBC 10 Boston: The scene that unfolded outside Apex Entertainment in Marlboro was a picture of anger and division. Our Republican Party is in shambles right now, said longtime Republican Arete Pascucci. It's beyond talking about.

The Boston police commissioner controversy appears to be following former Mayor Marty Walsh to Washington after all. The Labor secretary was grilled about now ex-commissioner Dennis White by GOP Rep. Bob Good of Virginia during a hearing yesterday.

"Given the fact that you seemed to ignore the critical information and appointed a person with a documented violent history to the highest rank of the PD in Boston, do you feel like you should resign?" Good asked.

I didnt ignore anything, Walsh replied. I wasnt aware of the situation quite honestly after I appointed him. More from the Boston Globes Christina Prignano.

NEW THIS MORNING: State Rep. Tami Gouveia (D-Acton) is rolling out endorsements from some of her legislative colleagues in her bid for lieutenant governor. Gouveia is endorsed by state Sen. Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton), and state Reps. Nika Elugardo (D-Boston), Natalie Higgins (D-Leominster), Jim Hawkins (D-Attleboro) and Dan Sena (D-Acton).

Healey mum on gov run during Chamber address, by Amy Sokolow, Boston Herald: With yet another clue into a possible run for governor, Attorney General Maura Healey asked attendees at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce event to steer their donations away from candidates seeking to limit voting rights.

Mayoral races taking shape in Northampton, Holyoke, by Dusty Christensen, Daily Hampshire Gazette: A preliminary election is now a certainty in Holyoke, where three candidates have already submitted nomination papers: at-large city councilors Michael Sullivan and Rebecca Lisi, and the academic and educator Gloria Caballero-Roca, according to the city clerks website.

Long lines of officers pay respects to Enmanuel Familia, fallen Worcester officer, by Craig S. Semon, Worcester Telegram & Gazette: A seemingly endless sea of blue sparkling with silver badges shrouded in black poured into St. John Church Wednesday to pay their respects to a local hero who died in the line of duty while trying to save a young boy from drowning.

TRANSITIONS Brandeis Dean David Weil is poised to join Labor secretary Marty Walsh in Washington as President Joe Bidens nominee for wage and hour administrator in the Department of Labor. Lucy Byrd is now marketing and communications manager at private equity firm Spectrum Equity. She previously did comms for the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and is a U.S. News and World Report and Atlantic alum. Boston-based Tremont Strategies Group has added Khushbu Webber as vice and general counsel and Alexandra Eby as government affairs associate, and promoted Tristan Thomas to senior government affairs associate.

SPOTTED at a Zoom party Tuesday night celebrating Peter Canellos new book, The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, Americas Judicial Hero: Sasha Issenberg, Adam Willis, John Harris, Joe Schatz, Teresa Wiltz, Ken Vogel, Alex Thompson, Ann Carrns, Alan Khazei, Farah Stockman, Alec Ward, Brakkton Booker, Kevin Baron, Luiza Savage, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, Priscilla Painton, Thanassis Cambanis, David Halbfinger, Marty Kady, Mike Zapler, Michael Crowley, Michael Schaffer, Adam Cancryn, Elizabeth Ralph, Katie Fossett, Josh Green, Juliette Kayyem, Joanne Kenen, Clea Benson, Chris Suellentrop, Ben Schreckinger and Aaron Zitner.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to state Sen. Adam Hinds and David Ball, president and founder of Ball Consulting Group.

Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause youre promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: [emailprotected].

Read more from the original source:

MASSGOP FISSURES on DISPLAY MILLIONAIRES TAX heads to BALLOT Union HITS BAKER over HOLYOKE - Politico

The final days of a Louisiana legislative session are always filled with political intrigue and hijinks. Last-minute deal-making on important legislation happens behind closed doors and in hushed tones. Majorissues often fall through the cracks, and only a handful ofinsiders know what's really happening in real time.

This year saw lots of that and some new wrinkles in the sausage-makingprocess. The Republican majority in the House and Senate pushed through theoperating budget early more than 10 days before the June 10 final day of thesession to force Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards to make line-itemvetoes before lawmakersadjourned. He used his veto pen to punish a few GOP adversaries, and no one made a move to override him.

Other hallmarks of this years session included deep divisions within the GOP caused by Rep. Ray Garofalos good, bad, ugly commentabout slavery; several new gambling measures won easy approval; conservative lawmakers pushed punitive measures aimed at transgender students; and the Legislative Black Caucus flexed its muscleto forceGarofalos ouster as chair of the House Education Committee.

Theres much more, of course, but one thing never changes: After adjournment, political carnage filled the Capitols marbled halls. Which brings us to our annual compilation of the victors and the vanquished: Da Winnas and Da Loozas. Heres a closer look, starting with

1. LABI & Tax Reformers The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) scored some huge wins this year, most notably by securing passage of a package of sales, income and corporate franchise tax reforms. The centralization of sales tax reporting and collections doesnt change what consumers pay, but it significantly simplifies things for businesses taking the state from 58 sales tax collectors to one. Its subject to voter approval of a constitutional amendment in the fall. Lawmakers also lowered personal and corporate income tax rates in exchange for giving up deductions for federal income taxes paid (which can vary significantly depending on Congress whims) if voters approve a separate constitutional amendment. The corporate franchise tax likewise will phase out under another measure. The package, designed to be revenue neutral, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. That took a lot of work.

The house always wins.

2. Gamblers and Gambling Interests How do lawmakers love gambling? Let me count the ways. They gave final authorization to sports betting, which will be available in casinos, racetracks, truck stop casinos, bars, restaurants and online. They approved a local option vote in St. Tammany Parish for a proposed casino in Slidell, and they okayed a new (to Louisiana, at least) form of gaming called historic horse racing. Its basically video poker with ponies instead of cards and with proceeds benefiting Louisianas horse racing industry by fattening racetrack purses. Note that the Slidell casino is hardly a done deal; Mississippi casinos will likely pour money into the St. Tammany referendum trying to kill it.

Puff puff didn't pass legalization.

3. The Cannabis Industry Someday, weed will officially be big business in Louisiana. Lawmakers approved bills to allow smokable medical cannabis and to decriminalize, but not legalize, possession of less than 14 grams. A bill to fully legalize it for personal use cleared a House committee, which is a first. Many conservative leges quietly concede its only a matter of time before Louisiana legalizes and taxes cannabis.

4. Infrastructure Advocates Everybody wants mo betta infrastructure, which makes one wonder why it took so long for lawmakers to find a way to finance it. This year, they opted to just raid the general fund. Leges hijacked Rep. Tanner Magees bill imposing a sales tax on smokable medical marijuana and turned it into an infrastructure financing measure. The reconstituted bill could ultimately dedicate up to $300 million a year in vehicle sales taxes to infrastructure projects with about $150 million a year dedicated to leveraging bonds for specified large-scale projects. The bills effective date was pushed back a year to give lawmakers and the governor time to gauge its impact on the state general fund, which currently receives vehicle sales taxes. Meanwhile, smokable medical cannabis wont be taxed at all. Dude!

That's the sound of da police.

5. Criminal Justice Reform Lawmakers passed several significant criminal justice reform measures, even as they killed others that deserved passage. In addition to decriminalizing possession of small amounts of cannabis, lawmakers passed a bill making citations rather than arrests the presumptive option for low-level offenses, unless an alleged offender poses a public safety threat. They increased the amount that can be paid to people who have been wrongfully convicted, from $25,000 to $40,000 for each year spent in jail, with a cap of $400,000. And they approved a measure requiring sustained complaints filed against a police employee or law enforcement officer to remain in personnel files for at least 10 years. Much remains to be done, particularly in the areas of expungements, solitary confinement, qualified immunity for cops and relief for persons convicted by non-unanimous juries.

House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales.

6.Speaker Clay Schexnayder I dont recall ever making an individual lawmaker even one in a leadership position a Winna or Looza, but House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, earned the accolade this year. Schexnayder held the line against Chalmette Rep. Ray Garofalos defiant, racially divisive antics after his good, bad, ugly comment about slavery and then pushed through the long-sought sales tax consolidation reform. He did all that even as the head of the state GOP blasted him, and some in the House sought to undermine his leadership, for holding Garofalo accountable.

7. The Legislative Black Caucus Black legislators flexed their collective muscle by holding out on key votes to force the ouster of Garofalo, R-Chalmette, as House Education Committee chair after his racist claims that slavery was good. Garofalo aided their cause by openly defying the Speaker, who had asked Garofalo to make a sincere apology and to refrain from chairing the committee for the remainder of the session. Garofalo did neither, giving the caucus the political as well as moral high ground.

State Rep. Ted James

8. Collegiate Sexual Abuse Victims Its too late for past victims, but lawmakers rallied behind a bill that imposes much stricter reporting requirements on colleges and universities for sexual assault and sexual harassment complaints. This measure was a direct result of hearings by the select committee on women and children, which heard heart-rending testimony from collegiate victims of sexual assault in recent months amid the sex abuse scandal at LSU.

9. New Orleans This may have been the best-kept secret of the session. Though lawmakers outside the city seriously dont like Mayor LaToya Cantrell, the citys delegation particularly the senators succeeded in bringing home money for City Park, the Morial Convention Center, the Lakefront Management Authority and various municipal agencies. They even helped the Superdome find a work-around after the House cut $90 million promised in prior years for dome renovations.

It took the sexual assault scandal that continues to rock LSU and state politics to galvanize legislators will to advance a passel of bills a

10. Education and Educators K-12 teachers got $800-a-year raises, which is less than they wanted but more than Gov. John Bel Edwards proposed, and college faculty got raises as higher-ed saw increased funding overall. Thats a refreshing change, but its more a reflection of the state being flush with cash than lawmakers suddenly recognizing the importance of education. Community and technical colleges also scored a big win with adoption of a scholarship program named for the late Gov. Mike Foster, a huge supporter of comm-tech colleges. One glaring loss: Early childhood education got table scraps at best.

Chooglin'.

11. Children and Youths This Winna didnt win them all, just many of the ones that counted. The biggest loss was lawmakers decision to cut early childhood education out of the operating budget, opting instead to carve out a portion of the proceeds from sports betting but theres no telling what that might be. The good news: Lawmakers made kindergarten mandatory statewide; adopted a Foster Youth Bill of Rights including rights to privacy, a safe and supportive environment, access to ongoing care information and more; extended the states Earned Income Tax Credit through 2030, which greatly helps working class families with children; approved the pink tax exception for diapers and feminine hygiene products; approved tax credits for companies that hire youths 18-24; and eliminated court fees in juvenile courts statewide.

12. Mississippi River Pilots River pilots associations are perennial powerhouses in state politics. They convinced lawmakers to kill a pair of industry-backed bills that would change the way Mississippi River pilots are regulated. They even scuttled a House resolution to study pilot regulations. Efforts to trim their sails are becoming perennial showdowns.

People look over the Ochsner Community Health Brees Family Center.

13. Ochsner Health System The states largest private hospital system beat back attempts by other hospitals and the state medical society to limit the use of its physician non-compete clauses in hospital contracts. This, too, could become a perennial battle.

14. New Orleans Homeowners A proposed constitutional amendment would cap the rate at which property assessments could increase on owner-occupied homes in New Orleans at 10% a year. If approved by voters statewide and in Orleans Parish next year, the amendment would ease the sticker shock felt by local homeowners after quadrennial reassessments. Thousands saw their home assessments spike by more than 50% in the last two years.

15. Public Defenders Lawmakers killed a bill that would have eliminated the state Public Defender Board and replaced it with a governor-appointed czar over the states public defender system and its funding.

Republicans didn't further undermine voting rights this year.

16. Early Voters A new law will expand in-person early voting for presidential elections to 11 days from the present 7 days.

17. College Athletes College athletes in Louisiana will soon be able to earn compensation for the use of their names, images or likenesses subject to some restrictions. Which brings us to

Rep. Ray Garofalo, R-Chalmette, failed to pass his racist education bill.

1. The Republican Delegation Their successes were overshadowed by internal strife over Rep. Ray Garofalos good, bad, ugly comment in the course of touting his bill to outlaw the teaching of critical race theory a decades-old academic term that has become a rallying cry for right-wingers who oppose accurately teaching the history and legacy of slavery in America. At one point, the head of the state GOP railed against House Speaker Clay Schexnayder for ousting Garofalo as Education Committee chair after Garofalo openly defied the speaker. Not a good look for the majority party.

2. Women In a year dominated by headlines about sexual abuse and domestic violence, women deserved to fare much better. While some bills benefitting women did pass, others failed to make it through the process. Most notably, the Senate Finance Committee killed a bill to extend Medicaid coverage for qualifying pregnant women for a year postpartum. They currently receive benefits for only two months. Elsewhere, a bill to create a unified definition for domestic violence failed on the sessions final day. Also killed was a measure that would prohibit employers from requiring prospective employees to consent to pre-dispute arbitration of a sexual harassment claim as a condition of employment.

In the early days of the Trump era as the breadth and depth of his nationalist America First agenda were just becoming clear, The Atlantics

3. Laid-off Workers A last-minute deal will end Louisianas acceptance of the federal $300-a-week boost to jobless benefits as of July 31. Under the deal, the states regular unemployment benefits will increase $28 a week starting next year. Many employers have complained for months that the federal enhancement has caused a worker shortage. Worker advocates say employers should pay a living wage. Employers won that debate.

Polluters once again won in Baton Rogue.

4. Environmentalists Lawmakers adopted several fox-in-the-henhouse measures, including one that allows polluters to report and correct their own violations in exchange for reduced fines and keeping some information under wraps. The same measure also allows the state Department of Environmental Quality not to hold public hearings on applications for new permits for major source polluters, or for amendments to existing major source permits if no one asks for public hearings. Lawmakers also approved a bill that allows employees of major polluters in the Baton Rouge area to serve on the local groundwater commission without facing ethics violations, even though they are regulating their employers.

5. Abortion Rights Advocates Lawmakers passed several anti-abortion measures, which is not unusual. One bill requires doctors to advise women taking a pair of abortion pills that the process could be halted midway through the process. Another makes it more difficult for teens who seek to bypass required parental consent to find a judge legally eligible to hear her case.

Transgender and gender-nonconforming citizens have long been at the forefront of fights for human rights, equality and freedom in the United S

6. Transgender Students Its not enough that they get bullied at school almost daily. Lawmakers had to get into the act by passing a bill that bans transgender girls and women from participating in sports based on their gender identity. The measure literally attempts to solve a problem that doesnt exist, because the Louisiana High School Athletic Association already has rules in place to address the issue. Moreover, the NCAA has threatened to pull events from venues that dont guarantee equal rights to all students and New Orleans is set to host the Final Four next year.

7. Solar Power Advocates Lawmakers passed a concurrent resolution which has the force of law but cannot be vetoed blocking solar projects from being eligible for industrial tax breaks. At the urging of farmers, they also passed a bill that will delay implementation of a rural solar lease program.

Gov. John Bel Edwards was a small 'l' looza this year

8. Audubon Park Audubon used to be the fair-haired child of governors and lawmakers, but no longer. Its request for state funding was significantly cut this year again.

9. Gov. John Bel Edwards The guv is a small l looza this year, mostly because his agenda wasnt very ambitious. It lacked a defining Big Idea or centerpiece, and on lots of major issues he remained behind the scenes if not on the sidelines. Lawmakers largely agreed with him on how to spend the federal pandemic relief money, and his early vetoes went unchallenged but otherwise his agenda was a gallimaufry of proposals on which others, not Edwards, did the heavy lifting. He proposed a $400 pay hike for teachers, but the GOP majority gave them $800. He favored funding for early childhood education, increasing the minimum wage and closing the gender pay gap, but lawmakers balked at all three.

Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser made a bigger push for early childhood education than did Edwards, in fact. A bigger challenge may yet await: If he vetoes some of the controversial bills enacted by the GOP majority in the final days, will they convene a veto override session? And if they do, will they succeed? On that front he could yet become a winna, but for now not so much.

Overall, I have to agree with Edwards when he said this session, for all its sideshows, accomplished a lot. Thats probably why I count more Winnas this year than ever. Congrats to them all. And to the Loozas: Dont take it personally. Theres always next year.

State lawmakers seem determined to prove that no one is safe in life, limb or property as long as they are in session. Even as they take the r

Go here to see the original:

Clancy DuBos: Calling Da Winnas & Da Loozas of the 2021 legislative session - NOLA.com