Category Archives: Wage Slavery

Good Friday morning!

Could we see a Brian Stack vs. Nick Sacco Democraticprimarynext year?

Its possible. Even likely.The scenario emerged Tuesday into Wednesday as the redistricting commission met and hammered out a compromise deal between the two sides something tiebreaker Philip Carchman has been getting the partisan commissioners to work towards. It would also allow him to be in the unenviable position that congressional tiebreaker John Wallace found himself in and ridiculed for his reasoning when he selected the Democratic congressional map.

By the time I went to bed late last night, the two sides had largely finalized a consensus map and, last I checked, werewaiting for Carchman to review it. Theres a commission meeting scheduled in the Statehouse today to formalize the maps adoption, though there are several backup meetings scheduled for next week as well.

Stack vs. Sacco would be a hell of a primary if it comes to it.The two neighbors interests have often butted up against each other. They both run formidable political machines. And Democratic politics in Hudson County are, notoriously brutal. This would be an outcome of Democrats abandonment splitting Jersey City three ways, which limited their options in fast-growing Hudson County.

Theres also a district that pits Sen. Nia Gill vs. Dick Codey. Thats a tough one for Democrats. Codeys popular and has been around (almost) literally forever, but does a party that boasts of diversity back a white man against a Black woman?

If this winds up being the map,many of the states competitive districts would probably inch more favorably toward Republicans, giving them a shot at a majority if they have a very good year. For Democrats, that means working a little harder to hold their majorities. For Republicans, it may not be an automatic ticket to the majority, but it would presumably be a better map than the one they currently have.

While a deal was close last night, there were some angry lawmakers out there. So things can always change. Stay tuned.

Read more from me here and from Joey Fox, whos done a great job covering redistricting for New Jersey Globe.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: The utter lack of any detail at all makes these reports useless and toothless. ACLU-NJ Attorney Karen Thompson on how the state reports major police disciplinary cases.

DAYS SINCE MURPHY REFUSED TO SAY WHETHER HIS WIFES NON-PROFIT SHOULD DISCLOSE DONORS: 4

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NJEA's Brian Rock, LD38 aide Jason Bergman. Saturday for Assemblymember Sadaf Jaffer. Sunday for Jewish Federation of MetroWest's CEO Dov Ben-Shimon

WHERES MURPHY? No public schedule

TIPS? FEEDBACK? HATE MAIL? Email me at [emailprotected]

MORE THAN 30 YEARS LATER, THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR COP ROCK CONTINUE TO GO UNPUNISHED Nearly 400 New Jersey cops faced major discipline last year, by New Jersey Monitors Dana DeFilippo, Nikita Biryukov and Sophie Nieto-Munoz: Burlington County Correctional Sgt. Matthew Peer channeled his inner Hulk Hogan when he leaped off a metal table onto inmates to break up a jail fight. Newark Police Officer Tigee Pagan let a civilian drive his police car 'in an unsafe manner' and posted a video of the illicit joy ride to Instagram. Jersey City Police Officer Marvin Leggitts left his loaded gun in a McDonalds bathroom in Hillside. The three were among 389 law enforcement officers who faced major discipline in New Jersey last year, according to data the Office of the Attorney General released Thursday. Nearly three-quarters of those disciplined, including the three officers above, werent fired for their misconduct and instead got suspensions, demotions, or other punishment a trend reformers say shows why more transparency is needed At least 15 officers were punished for drunk driving. At least 20 officers were repeat offenders, racking up more than one major discipline offense last year. At least seven officers were disciplined for domestic violence offenses.

NJ LEADS Youve got mail and a lead pipeline, by POLITICOs Ry Rivard: Nearly 200,000 New Jersey residents will soon get warning letters that their home is served by a lead pipeline. The notices, to be sent out by state water suppliers, come as a result of a 2021 law that required about 600 of the states largest public water systems to figure out how many pipelines made with the toxic metal were still in the ground. The state's water systems have identified 186,830 pipelines likely to have lead in them and another 1,084,258 pipelines of unknown make. The pipelines involved are known as service lines, the smaller pipes that bring water onto customers property and into their homes from water mains.

N.J. POLITICIANS ALREADY FACE A PAPER BAG BAN Murphy open to stock trading regulations for state politicians, by New Jersey Globes Joey Fox: As the United States Congress debates whether to enact a ban on stock trading among its members, Gov. Phil Murphy said [Wednesday] that while he has no specific proposal to do something similar in New Jersey, he isnt opposed to the idea. Would I be open minded to something like that? The answer is probably yes, Murphy said. It seems to me like Congress is going in the right direction, it feels like thats the right thing to do. The proposed congressional ban comes partially in response to reports of a number of congresspeople among them Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) who failed to properly disclose their stock trading activity.

Assembly Speaker: Weve fought for New Jerseys middle-class families for 1,500 days

Murphy administration warns $40M N.J. fund for immigrants is running out of time, money

Disabled veterans decry spotty transportation services

N.J. puts $10M in federal aid in fund to help residents facing foreclosure amid COVID, Murphy says

NJ 4th grade student takes her plea against mask mandates to Gov. Phil Murphy: 'I am only a kid once

Mayor [Kranjac]: Veterans deserve an apology from Murphy

Workers need help facing uncertain future, task force says

NURSING HOMES Residents lives at extreme risk, feds say, as they threaten to essentially shut down troubled N.J. nursing home, by NJ Advance Medias Ted Sherman: Federal regulators are threatening to cut off the troubled Woodland Behavioral Health and Nursing Center in Andover from all Medicaid and Medicare funding in two weeks, in the wake of a damning report citing the nursing home for health care violations that threatened the lives and safety of the more than 450 residents who live there. Those violations placed residents in immediate jeopardy for what was called a substandard quality of care, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, based on multiple deficiencies that officials said were at the most serious level of findings. In a Feb. 9th letter to nursing home administrators, CMS officials said the facility was not in compliance with federal requirements to continue to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid program, giving them three weeks to correct the problems A termination of federal funding would effectively shut down the facility in Sussex County, one of the largest nursing homes in New Jersey.

DUNN SHUNS RUN Dunn decides against congressional run, by New Jersey Globes David Wildstein: Assemblywoman Aura Dunn (R-Mendham), who had been publicly considering a campaign for Congress for the last month, announced today that she will not run for the 11th congressional district against Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) this year. I will not be a candidate for Congress in 2022, Dunn said in a statement. The enormity of support and encouragement for me to enter the race for CD-11 has been incredibly humbling and inspiring. I weighed this decision heavily, as I do with every action I take as a public servant and the assemblywoman for District 25. Dunn added that while she would have relished the opportunity to speak truth to power in Washington D.C., she felt her voice was also important in the state legislature.

SALT IN THE WOUND A lingering piece of bad news for 2022 Democrats, by InsiderNJs Fred Snowflack: There was a sense of deja vu, but then again political issues have a tendency to linger. The six Republicans seeking the partys nod in CD-11 were assembled Wednesday night before a group of Chatham Republicans in nearby Long Hill Township and the talk turned to affordability and taxes. That swung things around to the need to eliminate the $10,000 federal income tax cap on state and local tax deductions, or SALT. All six candidates agreed. The discussion was quite similar to gatherings of a different type four years ago. Around this time in the run-up to the 2018 midterm election, multiple Democrats seeking the partys congressional nod took turns lambasting the SALT cap and calling for its removal. Now its 2022 and the cap is still around.

Robert Menendez, Jr. briefed on Greece, Cyprus in congressional campaign

NOT WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE Black teen restrained by police in NJ mall fight video hires George Floyd's family lawyer, by MyCentralJerseys Suzanne Russell: A nationally recognized civil rights attorney who has represented the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin has been retained to represent the family of Z'Kye Husain, a Black teen who was detained by police at the Bridgewater Commons last weekend. Ben Crump, who has gained prominence representing the families of Black men and women killed by police throughout the United States, has agreed to represent Husain, a Black eighth grade student who was forcefully detained by Bridgewater police last weekend following a fight with another teen at the mall that was captured on a now viral video Crump said the video has prompted questions about the officers' actions in pinning the Black teen but not using any force on the white teen who was also involved in the incident. Z'Kye was defending a younger friend in the 7th grade who was being bullied by a much older 11th grader when this incident unfolded. Z'Kye, an 8th grader, was noble to defend his friend from bullies; however, it is evident that officers immediately assumed that because of the color of Z'Kye's skin, him acting nobly was not event in the realm of possibility. This video says it all, Crump said in the press release.

LARUE S**TLIST Council candidates rally for Trenton clerks dismissal, by The Trentonians Isaac Avilucea:Matthew Conlon had three strikes, and now Jeannine LaRues baseball cap was on backward. The lobbyist and mother of Mercer County commissioner Sam Frisby said her longtime partner put her hat on backward whenever she meant business. To the council in the city of Trenton, my cap is turned around, said the diminutive LaRue, also a domestic violence survivor along with her son. LaRue was joined by about a half-dozen speakers, many of them council candidates running in the upcoming election, who gathered outside of the clerks office to demand that officials oust Conlon from his $122K position, following allegations of sexual misconduct and toxic workplace.

LITERAL CANCEL CULTURE NJ mayor cancels Netflix actors reading time for kids at public library, by NJ 101.5s Dan Alexander: Actor Timothy Ware-Hill said he was uninvited from reading virtually to children for Black History Month at a Bergen County public library because of pressure from the public and police union. Police, however, denied that they pressured public officials to uninvite the actor. The mayor has since taken responsibility for getting the actor's appearance canceled, calling it a distraction. The Peabody Award winner said on the podcast Higher Learning that the Montvale Diversity and Inclusion Committee extended an invitation for him to read a children's book called The Sweet Smell of Roses by Angela Johnson. It's about two young black girls to see a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

MASKNESS Paterson schools to keep COVID mask mandate after statewide requirement ends, by The Paterson Press Joe Malinconico: The Paterson school districts 25,000 students and 4,000 employees will be required to continue wearing masks at least until early May, city education officials announced Wednesday night. The decision will extend the mandate two months beyond the March 7 date on which Gov. Phil Murphy has decided to lift his statewide requirement Shafer said Patersons municipal health office recommended that the mask mandate stay in effect. The superintendent also cited a district survey taken this week in which 2,208 employees and parents or 63% of those who responded said they wanted masks to be mandatory.

MODERN-DAY SLAVERY Moorestown couple face forced-labor charges, by The Courier-Posts Jim Walsh: Moorestown woman is accused of taking the passports from two people who were in the country illegally, then coercing them to provide labor and other services. Bolaji Bolarinwa, 47, allegedly knew that both victims had entered the United States illegally and harbored them from detection for her own financial gain, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey. Bolarinwa also 'abused and threatened abuse of legal process' against the alleged victims, the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement. It also alleged her spouse, 65-year-old Isiaka Bolarinwa, participated in the scheme and financially benefited from the victims forced labor.

Archdiocese to end mask mandate at more than 70 N.J. Catholic schools

Jersey City MUA says they will replace all the citys lead service lines in the next 10 years

With Fisher lawsuit lingering, Hoboken council votes to increase union donation limits, again

[Atlantic City] cop found not guilty in K-9 attack case that resulted in $3 million civil settlement

'Your business is not welcome here': Hunterdon residents oppose marijuana farm proposal

Two undersheriffs leave Bergen County Sheriff's Office, signaling leadership shakeup

UFCW LOCAL 420 N.J. weed workers moving full steam ahead to unionize despite delay in cannabis market, by NJ Advance Medias Suzette Parmley: Union fever is spreading like wildfire among the states cannabis workers even though the adult use recreational market has yet to open up. The workers prepping for that day say they want careers, not just jobs, and thats spurring union drives throughout New Jersey. Earlier this month nearly two dozen budtenders at Ascend Montclair Dispensary signed a new three-year contract offering health benefits and wage increases. But they wont be the only ones for long, predict those who are leading the charge to get cannabis workers unionized. From budtenders to cultivators, to trimmers cannabis workers will be pursuing union representation not only in New Jersey, but around the nation, said Hugh Giordano, cannabis representative of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 360, which represents a large majority of cultivation and dispensary workers in the state.

Judges side with transgender man in protecting privacy of name changes

WHYY has lost at least half its journalists. Many complain about pay, morale and lack of innovation

Travel nurses have rescued N.J. hospitals. But have they come at too high a price?

Police rule out foul play in death of N.J. college student who fell down trash chute

Link:

Redistricting commissioners close in on a deal - Politico

The rush to rebuild staff and grow leadership teams at trade show and event-related organizations continues full speed ahead as companies, associations and CVBs anticipate a more robust 2022. Take a look!

UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, appointed international event management veteran Adeline Vancauwelaert as COO, effective Feb. 22. Working out of the organizations Paris headquarters, she joins UFI from France-based global exhibition organizer Comexposium, where she served as event director and played a leading role in strategic positioning, team management and the international development of the SIAL show.

Prior to Comexposium, Vancauwelaert worked at international communication and marketing agency Sopexa as director of companies and international exhibitions, responsible for promoting and supporting the visibility of French food and beverage brands across international markets.

VISIT DENVER hired Flavia Light as its new vice president of tourism, responsible for leading international sales and marketing efforts while serving as a connector for Denvers cultural community. She is also responsible for overseeing VISIT DENVER visitor centers and assisting with new tourism event generation.

Relocating to Denver from Orlando, Light most recently worked for GoPegasus, a tour operator, DMC and transportation company, where she served as director of strategic growth marketing and sales, overseeing international business development for the leisure and group segments. Prior to that, she spent nine years as marketing and sales director with Walt Disney World, Disney Destinations.

Twenty-year association veteran Artesha C. Moore has been appointed president and CEO of Association Forum, effective Feb. 14. She brings strong financial acumen, a deep understanding of technology strategy, an impressive history of growing membership, the successful amplification of DEI programming and the ability to drive innovation to her new role, according to Association Forum officials.

Moore previously served as vice president, affiliation, engagement and membership of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). In addition to creating meaningful engagement opportunities for members and the broader earth and space sciences community, she focused on developing strategic plans to guide major program overhauls and realignment initiatives.

Exhibit Concepts, Inc. promoted Bradley Livesay to director of NEXT Lab, a creative team dedicated to the strategy and alignment of unique digital and virtual experiences. In his new role, Livesay will be tasked with leading the NEXT Lab teams strategy and alignment with trade shows, museums, education spaces, marketing initiatives and interior permanent environments.

Since joining Exhibit Concepts in 2016, he has held the roles of senior digital producer for NEXT Lab and digital content manager. He previously served as digital marketing manager for Autosoft.

Global events leader Freeman recently appointed Jason Megson as the new managing director of Freeman EMEA. Bringing more than 20 years of experience leading independent and global agencies to his new role, Megson previously worked as managing director of U.K. & Nordics at full-service experience marketing agency George P Johnson. An active sustainability advocate, he was also instrumental in the establishment and launch of event industry body Isla, a nonprofit organization founded by event professionals and industry leaders focusing on a sustainable future.

In addition, Freeman promoted Martin Moggre to chief client officer, responsible for all client solutions and sales for events and exhibit services and audiovisual and event technology. Since coming to Freeman in 1988, Moggre has served as executive vice president client solutions and sales, as well as in additional sales and management roles.

The Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB) recently welcomed a national sales manager and promoted two longtime team members.

As national sales manager, Danielle Appley-Epstein is responsible for selling and marketing Atlanta as a premier destination for group meetings requiring 251-1,200 rooms on peak, focusing on East Coast markets and representing ACVB at events and trade shows. In her previous role as national sales manager at Omni Atlanta Hotel at CNN Center, she managed Midwest markets, working with major trade associations for some of the largest meetings and conventions in the U.S.

Amanda Dyson has been promoted to director, membership, corporate events and visitor services, responsible for leading recruitment and retention programs for current and prospective members. She will also manage industry event planning and is responsible for the daily operations of the visitor information center in downtown Atlantas Centennial Olympic Park. Her tenure with ACVB began in 2004 as marketing manager before holding roles in international and domestic tourism and joining membership in 2017.

As manager, facilities, Janine Douglas will oversee all ACVB facilities, including the visitor information center at Centennial Olympic Park, and manage vendor relations. She joined ACVB in 2009 as administrative assistant, corporate events and development as well as community and governmental affairs, supporting three vice presidents. She was promoted to coordinator in 2005 and has provided support to some of ACVBs major events.

International Market Centers (IMC) hired Caroline Russell as its new design services manager, focused on driving Open Daily and at-market attendance of designers and home retailers to Atlantas AmericasMart, and providing on-site customer service. Besides serving as the direct liaison between the gift, apparel and home dcor marketplace and the local design community, with a specific focus on Open Year Round showrooms, she will also serve as concierge to AmericasMart visitors in the Designer Workspace.

Russell joins IMC with two prior years of experience as a client services representative at Ferguson Enterprises, where she assisted interior designers in selecting lighting, appliances and plumbing.

Switzerland-based Konduko, a pioneer of Intelligent Trade Shows, has appointed two new senior leaders: Ade Allenby as global senior vice president of customer success and innovation and Jeff DEntremont as vice president for business development in North America.

Before joining Konduko, Allenby was global head of data and digital innovation at RX. He brings an extensive knowledge of event technology and technological innovation in businesses as well as delivering on customer success. Allenby has previously worked for brands including United Utilities, Centrica and TalkTalk.

Prior to joining Konduko, DEntremont spent the past 10 years working at U.S.-based Adstrategies, where he oversaw media sales and sponsorship for a consumer event portfolio of more than 100 events. He has worked on a multitude of events during his career and spent 15 years as both a B2B and B2C show producer for Advanstar Communications (now Informa Markets) and Marketplace Events.

Helen Sheppard has been named RXs global sustainability director, a newly created role in which she will focus on RXs commitment to the UFI Net Carbon Zero Event pledge, signed in November 2021. She joins the global show organizer on an 18-month secondment from RELX, where for 10 years she has served on the companys corporate responsibility team, most recently as global corporate responsibility and inclusion manager.

At RELX, Sheppard launched a flagship women in technology mentoring program to improve diversity in the growing technology workforce. She leads RELXs modern slavery statement commitments, including living wage assessments, and is conducting human rights due diligence for the business. Previously she managed RELXs global community program.

Destination DC (DDC) appointed William Adams as its new director of convention sales, responsible for driving convention business and developing sales policies and programs to bring meetings of all sizes to Washington, D.C. Working alongside DDCs vice president of convention sales and services, Melissa A. Riley, he will also oversee the CVBs convention sales team.

Bringing more than 15 years of experience in the attraction, tourism and hospitality industry, as well as a successful career in convention sales to his new role, Adams most recently was national sales manager with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), where he oversaw 800 active accounts and spearheaded the CVAs events, sales missions, site inspections and fly-ins.

His previous roles include national sales manager for Norfolk Convention & Visitors Bureau, where he focused on associations, and leading sales efforts for conventions, meetings and group accounts with the Syracuse Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Conference and Visitors Bureau.

Global experience agency WRG, a division of The Creative Engagement Group, recently unveiled its new leadership team.

Tim Collett has been promoted to managing director after previously serving as global head of live events, responsible for several groundbreaking events and supporting the rapid expansion of WRGs virtual event offering. In his new role, Collett will focus the agency around five priorities: innovation, experience design, sustainability, talent development and DE&I. Prior to joining WRG in 2017, he served as vice president executive producer at Jack Morton Worldwide.

Within the agencys leadership team, Collett will be supported by Head of Environments Mark Jackson, who is focused on leading the growth of WRGs live and virtual environments capabilities. Jackson has been at WRG for 20 years and has overseen some of its award-winning exhibitions.

Additional new members include Gemma Burke, leading the global hybrid and virtual events team; Saira Dickinson, co-head of event production, and David Jones, head of event technical delivery, in the U.K.; and the newly-appointed Rob Fisher as head of hybrid and virtual events and event technical delivery in North America.

Melbourne, Australia-based Delegate Connect, a leading end-to-end hybrid and virtual events platform, made two key appointments: Chris Davies as COO and James Law as chief people officer.

Bringing more than 20 years of experience in customer, digital technology and operations leadership in both growth and more established organizations to his new role, Davies previously led sales, design and customer service at mobile phone and internet provider Belong. He also served as head of operations delivery for Jetstar and brings strategic capability from his time at Boston Consulting Group.

Law brings diverse experience in human resources roles in start-up and scale-up businesses, having served as chief people officer and an executive board member at the construction industry digital platform EstimateOne for nearly four years. Before that, he was chief people officer at Envato; director, human resources, for the betting exchange Betfair; head of human resources at realestate.com; and head of human resources at the online employment site SEEK.

Mark Cascio has joined IMS Technology Services, provider of event staging and systems integration solutions, as director of production management. His primary role will focus on production management for large-scale association meetings and events, with a special emphasis on medical associations.

Bringing extensive technical knowledge and more than a decade of experience with large citywide events and conferences to his new position, Cascio began his career in the live events industry in 2006 as a computer technician and evolved into roles managing large-scale events as a computer and I.T. project manager as well as a meeting room project manager.

VisitPITTSBURGH has named Susan Klein its new chief marketing officer, effective Feb. 14. Bringing more than two decades of brand building and management to her new role, she joins VisitPITTSBURGH after four years as the head of content marketing for marketing and branding agency Doublespace, Inc.

Prior to Doublespace, Klein spent eight years in San Francisco, most recently serving as head of marketing communications and visitor services for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and before that, founded Oculus Marketing, where she served as its chief marketing officer. She has also held marketing and branding roles with Morrison & Foerster LLP, Citibank Consumer Assets Division, Morgan Stanley and Mastercard.

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People News: UFI, VISIT DENVER, Association Forum and More Select New Leaders, Expand Teams - TSNN Trade Show News

In 43 states and on the federal level, tipped workers are paid as little as $2.13 per hour in direct wages, with tips making up the balance of the federal minimum wage, which remains stagnant at $7.25 per hour. Ending the subminimum wage for tipped workers, recent analysis from the Center for American Progress suggests, would help alleviate poverty, sustainably grow the economy, and advance gender, racial, disability, and economic justice.

Ending the subminimum wage would also abolish a shameful relic of slavery. Tipping became prevalent in the United States after the Civil War, when restaurants and railway companies embraced the practice because it meant they didnt have to pay wages to recently freed slaves. The racial biases that created the practice of tipping are still prevalent in the industry today.

Although Black workers represent the majority of the tipped service industry, they are also the ones making the least. A survey by One Fair Wage found that prior to the pandemic, Black tipped workers income, including tips, was already substantially lower than their white counterparts earnings, with 60 percent of them reporting earning less than $15 per hour, compared to 43 percent of white workers. Since the pandemic, 88 percent of Black tipped workers, compared to just 68 percent of all workers surveyed, have seen their tips plunge by half or more.

Ending the subminimum wage would not just benefit workers, but employers as well.

Its not rocket science, said Russell Jackson, a supporter of One Fair Wage and the head chef and owner of Reverence NYC in Harlem. For us, we pay a living wage, we have a fair tip share, and we think about how we treat our staff. [] What we need is legislation with teeth that will help us to be consistent across the board.

Progress has already been made in Washington, D.C., where organizers recently gathered enough signatures to place an initiative to phase out the tipped wage back on the ballot. Similar legislation is making its way through the state houses in Michigan, New York, and Massachusetts, among others. If they are successful, they will join the seven states that have already eliminated the subminimum wage for tipped workers.

On the federal level, the House passed legislation in 2021 that would eliminate the subminimum wage and boost the federal minimum to $15 by 2025, but that bill has stalled in the Senate.

Its time for statesand the policymakers who represent themto follow the lead of millions of workers refusing to work for poverty wages and thousands of independent restaurants raising wages to recruit staff, and permanently raise wages and end subminimum wages once and for all, said Jayaraman. This is the only future for the service sector and the economy overall: wages must go up or there will be no future.

More:

Inside the Campaign to Abolish the Subminimum Wage in 25 States by 2026 - Inequality.org

After working as a bartender in Washington DC for many years, Ifeoma Ezumakis body reached its limit during the pandemic. For Ezumaki and millions of other restaurant employees, working during the pandemic often, in the US, for a sub-minimum wage became a source of immeasurable suffering. Tips went down because sales went down, while customer harassment and hostility went up. Ezumaki and her colleagues had to become public health marshals, in addition to cocktail servers; she was asked to enforce social distancing, mask wearing and even vaccination requirements.

One evening, a customer at the bar asked her to pull down her mask so that he could see her face a request that became so common from male customers during the pandemic that hospitality workers started referring to it as maskual harassment. When Ezumaki refused, he said: Well, I guess youre not going to eat tonight.

The comment exemplified the power that some male customers, managers and even colleagues feel they have over womens bodies in the restaurant industry. While Ezumaki and her colleagues wished to protect their bodies and the bodies of their families by wearing a mask, many male customers made it clear that they believed they had the right to control female waiters bodies, particularly when the waiters were dependent on tips. Many have reported male customers asking them to take off their masks so that they can judge their looks and tip on that basis.

It is not just customers. My campaign group, One Fair Wage, and Survivors Know, an organisation for survivors of workplace sexual misconduct, collaborated on a report that said staff reports of managers requesting sexual favours at US branches of the golf-themed restaurant chain Topgolf had increased in the past two years. Due to the pandemic causing a reduction in tips, workers were more reliant on managers to give them the best shifts and tables, so rejecting such requests or advances could affect their pay.

But the restaurant industry violated womens bodies long before the pandemic. After the emancipation of enslaved people in the US, the restaurant lobby sought the right to hire newly freed Black people, mostly women, and pay them nothing at all, forcing them to live off customer tips. Restaurants are still able to pay tipped workers a federal minimum wage of just $2.13 (1.57) an hour based on the legacy of slavery, forcing them to obtain tips to make up the rest of their wage. Studies have also found that hospitality workers suffer among the highest rates of sexual harassment of any industry because they must tolerate inappropriate customer behaviour in return for essential tips.

That said, there is so much hope. Women are rising up like never before. Restaurant workers are refusing to allow their bodies to be objectified. In response, thousands of restaurants have had to raise wages to recruit staff. Employers are joining forces with those demanding one fair wage a full minimum wage, with tips on top. The question now is whether policymakers will grant Ezumaki and her peers the bodily integrity they have always deserved.

Saru Jayaraman is the president of One Fair Wage and the director of the Food Labor Research Center

Originally posted here:

Living in a womans body: hospitality workers have always suffered abuse. In the pandemic, it got worse - The Guardian

More than three hundred thousand soldiers deserted their posts during the American Civil War. The Confederate forces saw a greater overall percentage of desertions, the Union a greater overall number. Soldiers left their terms of service early for a variety of reasons, including the pecuniary: some soldiers became bounty men, deserting and then reenlisting elsewhere for the cash bonuses offered to recruits.

Historian Jonathan Lande explores why Colored Troops, as they were then formally called, deserted.

Experiencing freedom for the first time, many black soldiers discovered the discipline and racism of the army reminiscent of bondage and reacted angrily. Sometimes they rebelled as runaways had during enslavementthey ran. They deserted the army and its injustices to forge a freedom worth living.

According to Union Army records, 12,400 of the 200,000-plus Union deserters were Black Americans. Around 180,000 Black men joined the Union Army during the war. 146,000 of these men were from slave states, former slaves who had emancipated themselves and moved towards Union forces.

The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, sanctioned the use of Black soldiers by the Union. This was, at the time, of great political controversy because many whites in the Border states as well as in the North feared arming Blacks would inspire slave rebellions and attacks on whites.

The great majority of African American soldiers adjusted to military life and proved courageous, writes Lande, but for many black men military service felt nearer to unfreedom than freedom. Military service was decidedly not emancipatory. It was, in fact, rigorously coercive. The contract of enlistment signaled, in the minds of the white officers of the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT), consent to the conditions of military life, extending to the most draconian forms of army discipline. Former slaves, too familiar with draconian forms of plantation discipline, sometimes had other ideas.

Some questioned their all-white leadership and said that slave masters had been replaced by Union masters. Others protested the lower wages they were paid compared to white soldiers, after being promised the same amount. Others decided their families, living in what we would now call refugee camps, needed them more than the army did: starving children were a stronger draw than the harshness of military discipline.

But under military law, the complexity of resistance was flattened into desertion. Deserters were treated harshly if they were captured, and racism meant Black deserters could be treated more harshly than white onesa tendency repeated in Americas wars in the twentieth century.

Lande notes that most USCT officers were chosen for their abolitionist sympathies. Abolitionists were not necessarily free of racism. Many thought of abolition as a matter of liberalized labor, not social revolution. They assumed that contractual wage labor would replace slavery, in the Army as well as elsewhere in the restored Union. Breaking the contract meant a court-martial, which was, of course, somewhat different from being fired.

Desertion during the Civil War resulted in various punitive sentences. Not uncommon was a drumming out of camp, which was essentially a dishonorable discharge in public, to the tune of The Rogues March. Drumming out could include one side of the head shaved as a mark of shame.

The most extreme sentence for desertion was death. Lande notes that the Army invited two photographers to the June 1864 execution-by-hanging of Private William Johnson, who admitted hed deserted his unit, the 23rd USCT. The execution was in plain view of Union and Confederate lines as shooting across those lines paused for the occasion.

The hanging was of course meant to be an exampleone perhaps taken differently by those who found that military service did not mean existential fulfillment or a place for future black uplift.

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By: Jonathan Lande

Journal of Social History, Vol. 49, No. 3, Changes in Medical Care (Spring 2016), pp. 693-709

Oxford University Press

See original here:

Black Soldier Desertion in the Civil War - JSTOR Daily

One of the hardest questions to bring to any table in any economy remains the issue of the minimum wages of the average worker, let alone a Papua New Guinean.

Whether it be government, private sector, or the humble wage earner, striking an accepted balance in this regard almost seems an impossibility for all parties.

Here recently we had reports of Public Motor Vehicle (PMV) fares rising, and also of businesses of consumer goods being given leeway on the notion that they have had a hard time during COVID-19 and are being allowed by the consumer watchdog ICCC to move within a five per cent increase threshold.

They seem to be given leeway and in all fairness they provide a service that is dependent on returns by way of profits.

While it is understood, the economy has suffered under the ripple effects of a global pandemic and a global economy prior to it; many argue the social issues of today are a direct reflection of the current earning capacity of the average Papua New Guinean.

Assistant General Secretary for the PNG Trade Union Congress Mr Anton Sekum provided a clear view into the world of deciding the minimum wages debate within the circles of government and the employer.

Even with the recent comments made by the current Acting Governor of the Central Bank of PNG on the affordability has long been the last question asked in the face of pressures for revenue of governments to the survival of employers.

Mr Sekum describes the current wage rate, for workers as Modern Day Slavery. Indicating as a former member of the 2013-2014 Minimum Wages Board (nominated by the PNG Trade Union Congress to represent workers)

He indicated the last review that saw the wage rate increased to K3.50 per hour, with the next review to be in three years time, adding that seven years later nothing has been forthcoming.

Seven years on and workers are still stuck with K3.50 per hour and the government is not concerned about this reality at all, he stated.

Sekum argued that while income tax remains the largest earner for the nations budget, it seemed fair that it should have prominence as well when making the next set of determination.

However, businesses still argue that any increases without proper consultation will result in more job losses rather than an increase. Adding the rise in prices (wages) would decrease the availability of jobs.

We think that the issue should be looked at, even if it means government will have to set up another Minimum Wages Board through the Labour Department with the need now squarely in our faces.

At a time when the rise in cost of living, inflation is on a steady rise it is time now the Government also take into consideration its largest earner of income taxes, the average PNG workers.

Seven years is a long time especially when prices continue to rise in the face of a stagnant minimum wage front, because while we agree with businesses that jobs are needed right now, efficient productivity is also key to maintaining those job numbers in the face of rising costs.

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Is a minimum wage increase the answer? - POST-COURIER

In reading Allyson Johnsons column on the Civil War (Hallowed ground? Jan. 19), it occurred to me that she probably received the same education about the war that I was given in school. That knowledge was adequate for me until our son graduated from college and accepted a job teaching and coaching football at a Catholic high school in Mississippi. I then realized that I should know more and was given a three-set volume of that history written by Shelby Foote, the historian featured in Ken Burns documentary on the war.

Forty pages into the book, my opinion of my teachers, President Abraham Lincoln and the war had changed dramatically. Important things had not been taught to me, and I was either required or encouraged to believe things that were untrue.

Example: The war was fought over slavery. You can Google Lincolns First Inaugural Address. He states, I have no lawful right to ... interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists.

Then, No state upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union.

Followed by: The power confided in me will be used to ... (wage war), and A husband and wife may be divorced ... but the different parts of the country cannot do this.

Then came Fort Sumter. It was an incident provoked by Lincoln to arouse anger among Northerners. No Union soldiers were killed. At that point, only seven states had seceded, so Lincoln thought he could raise an army and quickly end the Confederacy. He issued a call to raise 75,000 troops among the remaining states. It was a colossal blunder. Congress was not in session. Four states were appalled and joined the Confederacy. The governor of Tennessee told Lincoln, Tennessee will not furnish a single man for the purpose of coercion, but fifty thousand if necessary for the defense of our rights and those of our Southern brothers. The boundary of the war leaped from more than 300 miles away from Washington to just over the Potomac River.

The first serious battle occurred when Lincoln urged a reluctant general to invade Virginia in force and capture the rail junction in Manassas. Fighting began early and went well for the Union into the afternoon. Then a young Virginia general showed up with his troops, routed the Union forces and earned one of historys most famous nicknames. This would not be a short war.

As things were going poorly, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Its very short. I was taught it freed the slaves. It addresses slaves in the Confederacy, over which Lincoln exercised no control. No mention of slaves in the Union. Those slaves needed to await the Thirteenth Amendment after Lincolns death.

The Union could not conquer the Confederate army, so Lincoln decided to eliminate its support by ravaging southern farms and cities. This was dishonorable at the time. Resentment understandably endured after the war.

Even the name we apply to this conflict is suspect. Civil War typically refers to a struggle where both parties vie for total control of one country. Our sons students used more accurate terms: The Second War for Independence and Mr. Lincolns War.

One benefit of ignorance in reading about this sprawling subject is that it unfolds as something new. One becomes fascinated with colorful personalities, letters from soldiers, inventions such as submarines and ironclad warships, the importance of our geography, attitudes of a suffering public, politics and what interest foreign countries had in the outcome. Foote was a novelist before turning to history. He is a wonderful storyteller whose writing flows beautifully.

Jerry Clements is a Los Altos resident.

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Other Voices: Correcting the record on Lincoln and the Civil War - Los Altos Town Crier

Every Christian knows the great commandments: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27). And in the next verse, the lawyer asks Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Its a question that matters when we think about every aspect of our lives, including what we wear. Clothing is a ubiquitous commodity that almost every culture in the world shares in some form. One of humanitys earliest inventions, it has grown into a massive industry, with pre-pandemic estimates of around $2.5 trillion in global annual revenues.

Lizzy Case

Yet we often have no clue whose hands actually sewed our clothings seams or whose land produced the cotton that goes into even basic garments like t-shirts. In the cotton industry alone, more than 20 million cotton farmers and workers in gins, mills, and garment factories produce the clothing we wear.

This is not only a global problem its a theological one. As followers of Jesus, we aim to observe the two great commandments, love God and love neighbor, with our whole lives. But who is our neighbor when it comes to clothes? Garment workers are the engine driving the global clothing system. Yet they are often dismally compensated for their skilled labor and forced to work in unsafe conditions. If we cannot care for the people producing our clothing, can we truly say we are loving our neighbor?

In many ways, we live in a global village. Through our clothes were connected to cotton-growing fields, wool-producing sheep, farmers harvesting these raw materials, and the many, many hands transforming them into fiber, textiles, then dyeing, cutting, sewing, finishing, and shipping the final garments to the stores we buy from.

In this kind of webbed world, our neighbor is one who is both far and near. According to theologian Larry Rasmussen, our neighbor is, the articulated form of creation to whom justice, as the fullest possible flourishing of creation, is due. Existing in relationship to one another is our primary reality, and in the Christian lens, our neighbor is a person who is, before all else, beloved (by God).

As Jesus-followers, not only are we oriented in love towards our neighbors but we are also called to take action. In Luke 10, Jesus defines the neighbor not in a theological sense, but in a life situation. It is not the person who simply believed they were a neighbor it is the person who, in the words of liberation theologian Gustavo Gutierrez, proved themselves neighbor to the man.

Theologian Sharon Ringe phrases it this way: No one can simply have a neighbor; one must also be a neighbor. The story simply stands as yet another challenge to the transformation of daily life and business as usual, which lies at the heart of the practice of discipleship.

This mandate of our Christian faith stands at stark odds with the current situation of many garment workers. Ongoing research shows that no major brand can prove that all workers in their supply chain earn a living wage, whether fast fashion or luxury apparel. And raising worker wages just $100 per week (about whats needed to reach a living wage in Bangladesh and India), would immediately cut 65.3 million metric tons of CO2 out of the global economy, according to new research. Paying workers more wouldnt break the bank for brands either. One study shows that a living wage in India, for example, only adds 20 cents to the cost of a t-shirt.

Additionally, an estimated 80% of the garment makers in factories are female, compounding the labor violations and gender discrimination these workers face with forced overtime, lack of basic fire and building safety, no maternity leave, and unsafe travel to work. And the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated these conditions. A new study from Traidcraft Exchange and the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre shows that in Bangladesh, Covid-19 inflamed existing vulnerabilities for women, including financial and housing insecurity, and increased exploitative practices like sexual and verbal abuse, mainly from line supervisors pushing garment makers to work faster to achieve unrealistic production targets. While many large brands have returned to profitability after the initial hit of the pandemic, their workers still feel the lingering effects.

To love garment makers as our neighbors, we must stop being indifferent to their needs and circumstances. After all, the opposite of loving your neighbor is not always hating them, but just being indifferent to them writes Jim Wallis. We must advocate for systemic change and protections for workers. Movements like this are gaining ground. In California, the historic Garment Workers Protection Act passed in 2021, which ended the piece-rate system of payment for factories producing goods in Los Angeles and holds brands accountable for wage violations in their supply chains.

Small, independent brands often lead by example. My own brand, Arrayed, partners with a women-owned, worker-led garment collective in Manila to bring our t-shirts to life. As a citizen, support locally made, small-batch production, conscious brands as often as possible or turn to thrift and resale. By consuming less and more mindfully, and advocating for garment workers rights, we can live out our faith with integrity.

In his final sermon, Dr. King expounded on the story of the Good Samaritan saying, I can imagine that the first question which the Priest and the Levite asked was: If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me? Then the good Samaritan came by, and by the very nature of his concern reversed the question: If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him? Let us follow the example of the Good Samaritan and advocate for our hidden neighbors, the garment workers.

Lizzy Case is a writer, theologian, and founder of Arrayed, a liberative people-first, planet-focused Christian apparel brand. She currently lives in southern California.

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Loving Our Neighbor Means Thinking About the People Behind Our Clothes - Word and Way

Artist Jacob Lawrence, himself the son of Southern migrants, said he wanted to paint "the excitement, the crowds, the tension" of the Great Migration. (Jacob Lawrence, The Migration Series, Panel 1: During World War I there was a great migration north by Southern African Americans., 1940 and 1941, C

Fifty years after Black Americans ended a period of unprecedented movement in the United States, their journeys reverberate through U.S. culture and demographics.

The Great Migration which took place from 1916 to 1970 saw 6 million African Americans move from the South to the North and West. It eclipsed the Gold Rush and the flight from the Dust Bowl in terms of population movement within the U.S., according to Allyson Hobbs, a Stanford University historian. Before this period, 90 percent of Black Americans lived in the South, and after, just 53 percent did, she says.

Black newspapers and other media touted a better life in the North and West. Northern factories were short on labor, and there were new opportunities in the West. Black families were pulled by the lure of higher wages, educational opportunities, and more personal freedom away from the segregation practices of the South.

As Richard Wright wrote: I was leaving the South to fling myself into the unknown respond to the warmth of other suns and, perhaps, to bloom.

A book titled with that quote The Warmth of Other Sunsby Isabel Wilkerson tells the stories of three ordinary individuals who uprooted their lives during the Great Migration (as did both of Wilkersons parents) to explain this time in America.

Wilkerson links the migrants actions to President Abraham Lincolns decades-earlierEmancipation Proclamation, which paved the way for abolishing slavery in the United States. By sheer force of will, they were able to make the Emancipation Proclamation live up to its name in their individual lives to the degree that they could, Wilkerson said in an interview with radio show host Krista Tippett in 2016.

In the South, Black people had been subject to what was essentially a caste system that left them without the chance to reach their potential, Wilkerson says.

The Great Migration was an unleashing of this pent-upcreativity and genius, in many cases, of people miscast in this caste system. Its about freedom and how far people are willing to go to achieve it, she says.

It was not necessarily easy, says Marcia Chatelain, a history professor at Georgetown University. For some, there was a gap between the fantasy of moving and how they were treated when they got to new places.

Discrimination followed them north, with areas outside the South reacting to the influx with racial wage gaps and prohibitions on where Black people could live. Chatelains own book on the topic, South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration, looks at the impact of the relocations on young females. Girls embodied the poignancy hoping migration would change everything and the reality they still had to deal with racism, Chatelain says.

But connections among family members split between the South and other areas increased the exchange of ideas among regions of the country. And many Northerners and Westerners sent money home to those who remained in the South.

Southern employers, meanwhile, Chatelain says, faced worker shortages and came to depend more heavily on prison convicts to do tasks during the 20th century.

Descendants of those who made the Great Migration include former first lady Michelle Obama, author Toni Morrison, playwright August Wilson, actor Denzel Washington and jazz musician Miles Davis.

Black people brought their music from the rural South to cities with more venues, recording studios and Black consumer markets. A lot of roots of what we call popular culture today are a direct result of the migration, Chatelain says, citing blues, gospel and R&B music, which still influences hip-hop and rap.

The Great Migration brought a flourishing of literature and scholarship too it informed famous novels likeInvisible Manby Ralph Ellison.

The concentrations of Black Americans in the North, where they did not face poll taxes, literacy tests or other obstacles to voting imposed by Southern states, led to more Black elected officials, long before Barack Obama became the first Black U.S. president in 2009.

Chatelain says there are many books about the impacts of the South-to-North/West migration. Writers have found that regardless of the thread you pull on, youll find something new, she says. We can all relate to the desire for change, the desire to help our families and the desire to imagine a better future.

By U.S. Embassy Tbilisi | 16 February, 2022 | Topics: Art & Culture, Culture, Education, Human Rights, News

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What was America's Great Migration? - US Embassy in Georgia

A Liverpool writer reflects on the differences between feeling powerless in the position of receiving charity and empowered when part of a collective effort.

Recently I started using the Walton Vale Community Shop, in North Liverpool. It was set up due to high levels of poverty in the area, and anyone living in Walton can pay 3.50 or 5, for 10 or 15 items. It appears to be run by volunteers, but is funded by a mixture of the council, charities and the GMB union, while also receiving surplus food.

While the food and toiletries they provide are very cheap, there is some discontent from users around it only being open for two hours a week (during typical working hours) and the fact that it is not unusual to have to queue for over an hour. However, I think there are deeper issues with this model, which calls itself a food cooperative, although I am grateful for the volunteers that make it feasible.

I find using the Community Shop, like most other forms of charity, is a disempowering feeling for everybody involved. As users we seem to have no input (there have not been any surveys of what food we would like, or minutes from meetings, in fact we have had no contact since joining), while I can only imagine volunteering feels exhausting.

The fact that it is heavily linked to the council also guarantees political neutrality, it has to stick narrowly to its parameters or risk defunding, for example the shop couldnt really be used to distribute literature criticising the council, yet you will see plenty of Labour Party merchandise. Dependency on the council also raises the question of what happens if a different party, or faction of the ruling party itself, wins office. These issues are typical of charities, which address the effects of poverty, rather than challenging its root causes.

I was surprised then, when I attended a talk by Cooperation Town, a group which has helped set up several grassroots food cooperatives. They described food cooperatives as being member-led associations, which they advised do not grow larger than 10-20 households, at which point they risk becoming too large to manage democratically. They can still access surplus food, but also collectively spend their membership fees to buy goods in bulk at wholesale prices. Every household is supposed to help out if and how they can in running the co-op (ideally for less than an hour a week), such as ordering or delivering food.

They can be organised geographically, and then split into smaller localities as they grow. However, they could also be set up around specific dietary requirements or preferences, such as being vegan or gluten free, or preferring chinese food. If there were several food cooperatives in one city, they could still work together, while maintaining their autonomy, for example by forming a federation.

In contrast to my local community shop, this model of neighbourhood food coops enables people to act for themselves. It could give people new skills and also the experience of making decisions in a non-hierarchical manner. If autonomous, these co-ops would have the freedom to support social struggles, for example they could donate surplus food to striking workers, or they could form the basis of local campaigns to resist evictions, protect green spaces or oppose austerity measures. They would also be more resilient, since there would be no risk of defunding.

There are of course risks involved in this model. They could end up being co-opted by politicians or developing a bureaucracy, taking control away from members. Likewise they could become too large, or work might not be shared equally, which could lead to them becoming unwieldy and falling apart. But these are risks with any form of bottom-up organising.

Realistically food co-ops wont solve the underlying problems around capitalism. As well as the fact that people go hungry in one of the worlds richest nations, the production process also poisons our bodies and the earth, and wage slavery subjects us to lives of monotony and cruelty. For this reason, I think its worth fighting for a world where food, and everything else, is distributed freely according to need, and where the people involved in this work do so voluntarily. But in the meantime, setting up food co-ops seems like a worthwhile endeavour.

This article comes from the latest issue of Liverpool Anarchist, a monthly newsletter covering local organising and direct action in the city.

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Food Co-ops and the search for autonomy - Freedom News