Category Archives: Wage Slavery

Channeling the spirit of workplace reform, the Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations on Wednesday favorably moved two bills by Sen. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans one to ultimately increase the states minimum wage to $8.50 an hour and the other to enact a non-discrimination policy for Louisiana employees who identify as LGBTQ.

Senate Bill 153, which was approved for full Senate debate on a 4-2 vote, would increase the states minimum wage from the federal minimum hourly wage of $7.25 to $8 an hour starting Jan. 1, 2018, and $8.50 beginning Jan. 1, 2019.

Senate Bill 155 carried 3-1, with committee chairman Neil Riser opposing. It would enact the Louisiana Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would add language to existing law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.

Carter said the minimum wage has not been increased since 2009, though the cost of goods has continued to rise some by as much as 35 percent.

Jan Moller, Louisiana Budget Project director, said 42 percent of Louisiana households struggle to meet a survival budget. He reported only 10 percent of minimum wage workers are teenagers, two-thirds are women and half are African-American.

Gov. John Bel Edwards in a statement issued Wednesday expressed his support for the measure.

If we say that family values are critical to our way of life here in Louisiana, its time to start valuing the hardworking families who contribute a great deal to our communities.

We have a crisis in Louisiana a crisis of systemic poverty, said former Rep. Melissa Flournoy, who chairs Louisiana Progress Action and spoke in support of the bill.

While Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, lamented that moving from $7.25 to $8 really just isnt enough, Sen. Barrow Peacock, R-Bossier City, fumed at a bill supporter who attacked Walmart for not providing its employees a livable income.

I cant believe you would single out a corporate company that is very generous, Peacock said, arguing Walmart is the biggest contributor to the Louisiana Food Bank. Peacock voted against sending the bill to the Senate floor.

Louisiana Association of Business and Industry head Jim Patterson argued the minimum wage is an entry-level starting wage and is not intended to be a living wage.

Similarly, Dawn Starns of the National Federation of Independent Businesses said it is never a good time to increase the cost of doing business, which she said is what the minimum wage increase implies.

In his closing, Carter chided opponents who said his legislation might cripple the American system of free-market capitalism.

Our American system was to build our country on free labor, Carter said. We dont call it slavery anymore, but we might as well.

Senate Bill 155 proved a much quicker debate, with Dylan Waguespack from Louisiana Trans Advocates testifying on behalf of the proposed act.

Waguespack, who is a transgender male and works in the Capitol, said he had to decide whether he should come out to the lawmakers he saw on a regular basis.

Nobody should have to leave in fear of being fired because of who they love or who they are, said Sarah Jane Guidry, director of the Forum for Equality.

Read more:

Bills upping minimum wage, protecting LGBTQ advance - The INDsider

Last updated11:26, May 24 2017

Seven Sharp

You can't escape it in the US, but Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett is keen on it becoming more common here.

OPINION: Deputy PM Paula Bennet has called for Kiwis to tip hospitality staff more often, to improve the quality of service, and the 'hospitality industry' apparently agrees.

The problem is that a culture of tipping creates a different, and entirely inequitable economy; it's not the answer on any level, it's not even the right question.

I've been in almost every imaginable role in hospitality for over 20 years, even waiter of the year and industry judge that specialised in service, and the co-founder of a fine-dining waiter school millennia ago. I've been an owner, a lecturer, a COO and a dishy; not in that order, and I deeply disagree with a tipping culture.

HANNAH PETERS/GETTY

Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett is calling for Kiwis to tip hospitality staff more often, in an effort to increase the quality of service (file photo).

As a young buck, during a study trip on international service standards in Europe and America, I had a sort of epiphany.

READ MORE: *Deputy PM Paula Bennett calls for more tipping *American in New Zealand weighs in on tipping

DEAN KOZANIC/FAIRFAX NZ

Hospitality industry veteran James O'Connell says a culture of tipping creates a different, and entirely inequitable economy (file photo).

When a hospitality business is run well, and the team is put first, all parties win; and I mean all parties, customers, suppliers, leaders and owners. I deliberately call employees 'the team' because that is how they should be treated. It must always be the business owners who have the responsibility for their team, and they need to love and appreciate them a great deal. This is no less true for hospitality as it is for all business, but in hospitality the way we do business is written on our sleeve.

Happy employees mean happy customers, and unfortunately 'tipping' doesn't solve problems of systematic failure, inequity, sexual harassment, employment liability issues, and it doesn't do much for the bottom line of the business either. A tipping culture heightens conflict within a team and creates a need that shouldn't be there in the first place.

Put simply, a tipping culture doesn't significantly solve the 'quality of service' problem, and it creates a whole set of new problems because it is inherently inequitable. A restaurant is run by a team in the back of house, as well as the front of house, and the owner will always be responsible for ensuring that all is fair. Fairness within a tipping culture is a hornet's nest.

My wife spent last month in New York studying this very issue. The tipping culture has been shaken in recent years due to subminimum wage increases. Her report is detailed and practical. The Deputy PM is an open-minded person so we'd like her to read our report; or at least let us put her in touch with some knowledgeable people in the U.S who have a different point of view.

The United States does not have a comfortable tipping culture, it never has. The level of service is varied, with more of the extremes at both ends in comparison to New Zealand. In fact, the tipping culture is debated widely. Many grass-roots labour organisations are horrified by the practice and rightly remind everyone of its roots in slavery. There is no denying the history, it is a practice deeply rooted in slavery and the underpaid, and often, abused servants of Europe.

Tipping has held back minimum wage reform, and for no good reason.

It worries me that hearts are not always in the right place when some in the industry vocally support liberalising immigration law. I hope it's genuine compassion that is the motivation.

I'm sure it mostly is, but I don't believe a steady stream of workers who are prepared to work for minimum wage is the answer for the hospitality industry. Tips or no tips.

Incidentally, there is a lot of angst in the United States because it's the 'white men and women' who gain the most in a tipping culture, not the immigrants who are forced to work for a restaurant economy that has learnt to rely on tips, and live in a subminimum wage state.

A tipping culture is a false economy and it doesn't do anyone any favours. We are New Zealanders, we are privileged to have dodged some of the complexities that burden the United States and Europe. Let's learn from their mistakes, by at least debating the tipping issue with all its warts. I, for one, am horrified that we appear to be heading in a tipping direction. We should be talking about business leadership, the living wage, performance share and work-place culture.

The debate in the States is lively and many of the most successful, and ethical, restaurants are moving away from tipping, and that's not easy to do once entrenched, almost impossible once used by law as an escape route.

Once the economy of a restaurant, and a nation, relies on a tipping culture, it's like having to re-build the economy; like a micro version of the British Empire after the abolition of slavery.

I beg each restaurant owner, no matter how hard-working, to stop and consider automatic tipping, before it becomes too hard to change. Every restaurant counts because increasing numbers create a cultural shift.

When restaurants like recently named number one in the world, Eleven Madison Park eliminate tipping and great restaurateurs like Danny Meyer of Union Square Cafe,

Gramercy Tavern and Shake Shack call tipping, "one of the biggest hoaxes ever pulled on an entire culture" then we should at least take notice.

Issues of fairness aside, I have another concern which is for the restaurant owners themselves.

If restaurant owners do not ask the right questions they are unlikely to get the right answers for their business. I believe the answers have more to do with understanding how to create a restaurant economy that puts your team first, that creates a work-place culture that deeply values genuine hospitality and service.

Tipping doesn't make the world a better place; but great businesses who value their team and focus on great hospitality and service together changes a great deal including the bottom line. Customers adore businesses who make them feel important; it takes a whole team who look after one-another to achieve that, and it's not as hard as you think.

Not everyone in the hospitality industry agrees with a tipping culture; many take their responsibilities extremely seriously and fully understand how important it is that they create an ethical economy in their business.

James O'Connell is a Hospitality Business Educator and Coach and can be contacted at http://www.thehospitalitycompany.co.nz.

-Stuff

More here:

To tip or not to tip, that isn't the question - Stuff.co.nz

The tipping point: Getting rid of gratuities has proved tough in US restaurants Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Hmmm, was the considered opinion of a member of the wait staff at Manhattans Union Square Cafe last week when asked about working for a set wage, not tips. Its good to know how much is coming in, the staff member later reconsidered. Not so good if you need to make cash fast.

A little over 18 months ago, restaurateur Danny Meyer announced that the famed cafe as well as other full-service restaurants in Meyers Union Square Hospitality Group would phase out tipping, ending a practice that Meyer said has roots in slavery. The news sparked a national discussion on tipping in a country where gratuities have embedded themselves in the national culture.

To date, seven of Meyers 14 restaurants have made the transition to hospitality-included. But in the restaurant business at large, the change has yet to be widely adopted, challenging, as it does, restaurant economics and deeply entrenched conventions of hospitality and service in the US.

Others describe hospitality-included as a well-meaning effort to address longstanding inequalities, including wage disparities between kitchen staff and servers but say it adds a level of bureaucracy and bookkeeping to businesses already struggling under increasing real estate and wage costs.

Efforts to rid the industry of its tipping habit have been further complicated by the impending raises in minimum wage in many states, including New York, following a campaign fueled primarily by service industry workers such as food servers. Many restaurants are waiting to see how that plays out on the industrys stressed economics.

We found that tipping stood in the way of being able to reward our backhouse staff and our managers, says Union Squares chief restaurant officer, Sabato Sagaria. If we eliminate tipping we can compensate all our workers.

To accommodate the transition, the group immediately put up prices by 25%, a shock that restaurants less well-supported by the expense account trade. Sagaria says hospitality-included costs brings the restaurant business into line with other, tip-dependent businesses that been transformed.

People have seen the convenience with the all-inclusive pricing model of Uber and some of the food-delivery services, Sagaria says. Plus customers dont have to dust off their high school math.

In addition, says Sagaria, restaurants and wait staff no longer need to read the appreciation of their performance through tips the group invites diners to direct their comments directly on a card provided with the check.

Last week, customers said they did not object to hospitality-included since it took the mathematical guesswork out of paying the check but, as veterans of waiting tables, recalled the disappointment of being tipped badly.

Tori Campbell, a publishing executive who previously worked as a waitress, said it was shameful that the restaurant jobs often pay barely enough for workers to survive in a city such as New York. But wait staff, she said, are often doing it as a means to and end, while the lower paid kitchen staff are often learning a career trade, so the inequalities are in some senses justifiable. Its the system that works but unless youve been in it, its hard to understand, she said.

Rival managers say that while everyone would like to pay their staff more, killing the tip doesnt work under the current model.

Chef Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin told the Daily Meal last year that the vast majority of my employees prefer tipping and therefore I will not change the policy. The tipping policy is beneficial to everyone in my opinion, including waiters, customers, and owners. Only the government benefits from no tipping.

Other well-known chefs have experimented with hospitality-included, including New York stars Gabriel Stulman at Fedora and Tom Colicchio at Craft, only to reverse course. Stulman explained to Eater New York hed have to raise prices or cut wages, neither of which he felt comfortable doing.

Sagaria concedes that the transition from a tipping to no-tip model can be fraught.

There are a lot of subtle nuances that come into play. It requires a big shift, new learning and musculature to operate. But we see the benefits in the long term for our employees, guests and stakeholders. Even the timing makes a difference.

In addition to a set hourly wage, the Union Square group brought in a revenue-share program thats distributed to the team according to their position and hours worked. In the past, only the wait staff was incentivised by sales. This way, everyone is ... one team, one goal, and everyone working together to achieve that.

Another restaurant that has been successful with hospitality included is Dirt Candy on New Yorks Lower East Side.

Its tough to go against the flow this way, but its the only way to pay my staff a fair wage, says chef and owner Amanda Cohen, who says she decided to get rid of tipping because she needed to pay her back of house higher wages to keep them.

Theres a real staffing crisis in New York with kitchen positions, and I wanted to make sure as many people as possible moved with me and stuck around for a long time so I wanted to pay a better wage.

Last week, Cohen described tipping as a scam that New York restaurant owners have developed over the years to hide their actual costs by tacking on this surcharge to their customers and making it seem voluntary but, lets face it, whos the jerk who doesnt tip when they eat out?

At Dirt Candy, pay for front of house staff starts at $25/hour, and back of house at $15/hour. Cohen concedes that her servers will never have the excitement of getting a $400 tip from a drunk customer again but nor will they have the disappointment of leaving with $50 during a snowstorm when few customers came in.

In terms of how its working out, I think everyone who actually is affected by it is doing great. My staff loves it, and I have much less turnover than most restaurants my size. And my customers like knowing that the people serving them and making their food are being paid a living wage.

At the same time, Cohen has received an education in how emotive the tipping debate can be. Shes experienced staff who dont want to interview because they view it as a scam and customers who view it through the lens of religious intolerance.

Cohen says shes received an extraordinary quantity of hate email and fake reviews trashing us because of what they perceive as abuse of my staff because I eliminated tipping. Its been eye-opening to see how much of this hatred been antisemitic.

The issues around tipping and service may not be resolved anytime soon, but Dirt Candy hostess Jackie Carson-Aponte says she is grateful for a regular wage. Its a different pace. It may be less exciting because its more like a salary but ultimately it helps to create stability.

Read more:

No tip for you: restaurants move toward hospitality-included menus - The Guardian

So the pope, the president, a Muslim and a Jew walk into a bar ...

Surely, I'm not the only one to tighten the frame around President Trump's wildly ironic and ambitious foreign odyssey to promote "tolerance." Which, let's face it, would seem to be the joke. The most candidly intolerant president in history set out Friday on a Napoleonic expedition not to conquer the world but to advance a cause he apparently embraced yesterday.

Meanwhile, the many possible outcomes -- from monstrous, Earth-tilting gaffes to World Peace In Our Time (and lots in between) -- are riveting to consider. And, all hinges on the performance of the most unpredictable, unlikely emissary ever to cross the threshold of Air Force One.

That's my inner cynic speaking. My inner Pollyanna has a different take: Maybe he has had a Damascus moment and fallen from his high horse. He had a brutal week, to be sure. Maybe he has received grace, discovered humility, found the key to his cloistered empathy and is embarking upon a historic pilgrimage of repentance and reconciliation.

While these two forces wage war in my head and the media take bets on Trump's first faux pas, I'll give the president's advisers this: brilliant idea. During his nine-day trip, Trump is touching base with three of the world's largest religions, visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel and Vatican City. He's also scheduled to attend a NATO meeting in Brussels and a G-7 conference in Sicily. His itinerary is almost too large to grasp, but grandiosity demands grand plans. And, really, what could possibly go wrong?

The president's mission includes advancing religious unity and beseeching other nations to join the United States in ending religious persecution and human trafficking, as well as putting an end to the Islamic State. The agenda is complicated by more than a few confounding factors. Trump meets with NATO after having questioned its legitimacy. And Saudi Arabia, ostensibly our ally, is a chief funding source and exporter of Wahhabism, Islam's most virulent and fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. Speaking around such inconsistencies is tough turf even for the most experienced diplomats.

Most fascinating and compelling, to me at least, is the slated May 24 meeting between Trump and Pope Francis, the figureheads of the secular and spiritual worlds. The two men have been exchanging potshots since before Trump's election, with Francis criticizing Trump's immigration policy, his attempted travel ban and The Wall. He also suggested that Trump isn't very Christian, which prompted Trump to fire back that no one should question another's religious belief.

With their meeting on the horizon, Francis has said he always tries to find "doors that are at least a little bit open." Maybe if Trump sticks to script, he'll be on solid ground with the topics he intends to discuss.

The U.S. has long recognized that where religious freedom is restricted, terrorism and extremism flourish and minorities suffer. And Francis has made human trafficking, which he has called "a plague on the body of contemporary humanity," one of his key issues. There are today more people living in slavery than at any other time in history, with estimates as high as 27 million.

Trump can make the case that not only is slavery evil in its own right but human trafficking is intricately interwoven with terrorism and religious persecution. This overlap can be seen in the persecution of religious minorities in the Middle East, such as the Islamic State's Palm Sunday slaughter of more than 40 Coptic Christians in Egypt during worship services. Other intersections are seen in the theology of rape practiced by members of the Islamic State, who, in between prayers, have sexually assaulted women and young girls from the Yazidi community as religious ritual.

In other examples of slavery, just from Myanmar: Ethnic Rakhine civilians have been forced by the army to dig graves, porter guns and perform other manual labor. Child soldiers are drafted in to military and forced labor. Ethnic Kachin women are trafficked to China, where they're forced into marriage or work.

One needn't be aligned with Catholic theology to recognize the inherent evil of such practices. One only needs to be human. Out of respect for the purposes of Trump's trip, we should only wish the president godspeed and, if you believe in a higher power, lend him your prayers.

And may your cynic and your Pollyanna make peace.

Kathleen Parker's email address iskathleenparker@washpost.com.

(c) 2017, Washington Post Writers Group

Link:

Good Luck, Mr. President? - Sunshine State News

Saturday, 20 May 2017, 12:51 pm Press Release: ITUC

Jobs, Wages, Refugees and Workers Rights in Global Supply Chains top G20 Labour Ministers agenda: G20 leaders must drive action

Brussels, 19 May 2017 (ITUC OnLine): The L20 (Labour 20) has welcomed commitments from the G20 Labour Ministers, meeting in Bad Neuenahr this week, to clean up global supply chains, provide decent work, ensure living wages and integrate migrants, women, refugees and young people into the workplace.

ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow said labour markets need to work for working people, and the Ministerial Declaration is a basis for a global economy that works for everyone. Global supply chains are based on a model of low wages, insecure and unsafe work with increasing informal work and modern slavery. We would like to see every country mandate the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights for workers in global supply chains, with due diligence and grievance procedures that enable remedy against exploitation for the millions of workers on whom multinationals rely on for their products and services.

Legislation in France to hold companies accountable for treatment of workers in their supply chains and the Dutch Compact in the Netherlands demonstrate leading actions by national governments. The non-judicial complaints mechanism of the OECD Guidelines must be strengthened with consequences for companies that refuse mediation, and in every country there must be a minimum living wage as the floor that allows families to live with dignity, she added.

Globalisation is failing people with 80 percent of people in the ITUC Global Poll saying that the economic system favours the wealthy rather than being fair to most people, and 85 percent saying its time to rewrite the rules of the global economy.

The commitment from G20 Labour Ministers, who account for 80 percent of worldwide trade, that violations of human and labour rights are not part of competition between businesses in global trade underscores the need to bring a stop to the system of labour arbitrage in supply chains.

Globalisation is in trouble because the worlds workforce is in trouble. G20 leaders must endorse commitments to taking exploitation out of competition and mandate due diligence for major corporations. Thats how we will see that globalisation works for all working people, said Ms Burrow.

John Evans, General Secretary of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD, welcomed the Ministers recognition that the rights of workers including collective bargaining need to be protected in new employment relationships in the digital economy.

We need a Future of Work where the value of work is not diminished. We are facing persistent issues in the real economy that need to be resolved including high job gaps since the 2008 crisis, rising levels of income inequality and 60 percent of the global workforce in non-standard work. The G20 needs to take steps now to ensure that the digitally driven economy of the future builds on quality employment, universal social protection and effective training programmes for all age and social groups. Some of todays online platform businesses ignore international labour standards and employment relationships. Here, governments need to step in with regulatory measures to put the brakes on practices that rely on lowering labour costs and increase the number of precarious work, he added.

G20 Labour Ministers made commitments to:

Clean up global supply chains: - We reaffirm our commitment to international guidelines and frameworks such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UN Guiding Principles). (Paragraph 22) - We will encourage initiatives to improve occupational safety and health across global supply chains. (Paragraph 25) - We emphasise that wages should take into account the needs of workers and their families, the cost of living and economic factors. In this respect, minimum wage legislation and collective bargaining in particular can set income floors to reduce income inequality, eliminate poverty wages and achieve sustainable wage growth. (Paragraph 27) - We underline the importance of providing access to remedy. (Paragraph 28)

Eradicate modern slavery and forced labour:

- We also commit to take immediate and effective measures, as called for by SDG 8.7, both in our own countries and globally, towards eradicating modern slavery, forced labour and human trafficking, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms. (Paragraph 23)

Fundamental rights at work:

- The inclusion of fundamental principles and rights at work and decent working conditions in trade agreements. (Paragraph 24 b)

Decent Wages:

- We emphasise that wages should take into account the needs of workers and their families, the cost of living and economic factors. In this respect, minimum wage legislation and collective bargaining in particular can set income floors to reduce income inequality, eliminate poverty wages and achieve sustainable wage growth. (Paragraph 26)

Future of Work: - Priorities on the future of work (ii) promoting adequate social protection and social security coverage for all workers (iii) respect for fundamental principles and rights at work is a foundation for social dialogue and collective bargaining in a changing world of work. (Annex)

G20 leaders meeting at the Hamburg summit in July must endorse the commitments of labour minsters and implement national action plans on due diligence and grievance procedures for remedy against violations of workers rights in global supply chains in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

The ITUC represents 181 million workers in 163 countries and territories and has 340 national affiliates.

Scoop Media

The rest is here:

Jobs, Wages, Refugees and Workers' Rights - Scoop.co.nz (press release)

ALondon-based Nigerian couple were yesterday convicted by a Southwark Crown Court in London for trafficking a slave nanny into the UK from Nigeria.

Judge Martin Beddoe warned that Ayodeji Adewakun, a 44-year-old medical doctor and wife, Abimbola Adewakun, a 48-year-old nurse, face a significant sentence of immediate imprisonment.

They were granted bail until June 16 when they will be sentenced.

Husband and wife had lured the woman to the UK from Nigeria with promises of a salary of 500 per month.

The couple confiscated her passport as soon as she arrived in February 2007 and subjected her to constant demands and verbal abuse.

She managed to escape two years later after finally receiving just 350 the equivalent of a wage of 15 a month.

Jurors were unable to reach a verdict in relation to Dr Adewakun on a charge of trafficking a second alleged victim. Her husband was cleared of that charge.

The couple were said to have persuaded the woman to come and care for their two children in Erith, south-east London, years earlier in 2005.

The 37-year-old victim told Southwark Crown Court she was later forced to work all day cleaning the house, cook for the family and was even woken if the doctor got home late and wanted a snack.

She met the Adewakuns during their visits back to Nigeria where her father was employed in a similar role by Adewakuns parents.

The jury heard she was promised 500 per month in a similar arrangement before she too was subject to constant demands and verbal abuse from Mrs Adewakun.

She described a typical working day involving cleaning the house, cooking for the family, preparing the children for school, running errands and sometimes working through to midnight before being allowed to finally go to bed.

After being threatened, she was lucky not to be beaten like the last girl, she finally demanded payment in February 2009 after two years without receiving any money.

A bank account was then opened with a 50 deposit followed by further payments of 100, prompting her to flee the home.

When she finally managed to get her passport back, she sought help from a charity and an investigation was opened into the Adewakuns.

Dr Adewakun, based at the Abbey Wood surgery, told the court the woman was brought to the UK from Nigeria for a better life.

The GP insisted she paid each the same wages as she did to her previous European au-pair, who was hired from a website.

She claimed to have used contract template from Google and denied the suggestion the maid was used because no European woman would take (her) physical and verbal abuse.

The couple, both of Erith, denied two counts of trafficking a person into the UK for exploitation. Both were convicted of one count.

Investigating Officer Detective Sergeant Nick Goldwater said: This couple deceived the victim by promising her a regular wage, which was far higher than her earnings in Nigeria. She hoped that she would be able to send money home and improve her familys standard of living.

In reality, she was made to work day and night and barely paid anything. She was subject to intimidating behaviour by Dr Adewakun, who exerted control over her by keeping her socially isolated and withholding her passport.

Here is the original post:

Nigerian couple convicted in London for 'slavery' - The Nation Newspaper

So the pope, the president, a Muslim and a Jew walk into a bar.

Surely, Im not the only one to tighten the frame around President Trumps wildly ironic and ambitious foreign odyssey to promote tolerance. Which, lets face it, would seem to be the joke. The most candidly intolerant president in history set out Friday on a Napoleonic expedition not to conquer the world but to advance a cause he apparently embraced yesterday.

Meanwhile, the many possible outcomes from monstrous, Earth-tilting gaffes to World Peace In Our Time (and lots in between) are riveting to consider. And, all hinges on the performance of the most unpredictable, unlikely emissary ever to cross the threshold of Air Force One.

Thats my inner cynic speaking. My inner Pollyanna has a different take: Maybe he has had a Damascus moment and fallen from his high horse. He had a brutal week, to be sure. Maybe he has received grace, discovered humility, found the key to his cloistered empathy and is embarking upon a historic pilgrimage of repentance and reconciliation.

While these two forces wage war in my head and the media take bets on Trumps first faux pas, Ill give the presidents advisers this: brilliant idea. During his nine-day trip, Trump is touching base with three of the worlds largest religions, visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel and Vatican City. Hes also scheduled to attend a NATO meeting in Brussels and a G-7 conference in Sicily. His itinerary is almost too large to grasp, but grandiosity demands grand plans. And, really, what could possibly go wrong?

The presidents mission includes advancing religious unity and beseeching other nations to join the United States in ending religious persecution and human trafficking, as well as putting an end to the Islamic State. The agenda is complicated by more than a few confounding factors. Trump meets with NATO after having questioned its legitimacy. And Saudi Arabia, ostensibly our ally, is a chief funding source and exporter of Wahhabism, Islams most virulent and fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. Speaking around such inconsistencies is tough turf even for the most experienced diplomats.

Most fascinating and compelling, to me at least, is the slated May 24 meeting between Trump and Pope Francis, the figureheads of the secular and spiritual worlds. The two men have been exchanging potshots since before Trumps election, with Francis criticizing Trumps immigration policy, his attempted travel ban and The Wall. He also suggested that Trump isnt very Christian, which prompted Trump to fire back that no one should question anothers religious belief.

With their meeting on the horizon, Francis has said he always tries to find doors that are at least a little bit open. Maybe if Trump sticks to script, hell be on solid ground with the topics he intends to discuss.

The U.S. has long recognized that where religious freedom is restricted, terrorism and extremism flourish and minorities suffer. And Francis has made human trafficking, which he has called a plague on the body of contemporary humanity, one of his key issues. There are today more people living in slavery than at any other time in history, with estimates as high as 27 million.

Trump can make the case that not only is slavery evil in its own right but human trafficking is intricately interwoven with terrorism and religious persecution. This overlap can be seen in the persecution of religious minorities in the Middle East, such as the Islamic States Palm Sunday slaughter of more than 40 Coptic Christians in Egypt during worship services. Other intersections are seen in the theology of rape practiced by members of the Islamic State, who, in between prayers, have sexually assaulted women and young girls from the Yazidi community as religious ritual.

In other examples of slavery, just from Myanmar: Ethnic Rakhine civilians have been forced by the army to dig graves, porter guns and perform other manual labor. Child soldiers are drafted in to military and forced labor. Ethnic Kachin women are trafficked to China, where theyre forced into marriage or work.

One neednt be aligned with Catholic theology to recognize the inherent evil of such practices. One only needs to be human. Out of respect for the purposes of Trumps trip, we should only wish the president godspeed and, if you believe in a higher power, lend him your prayers.

And may your cynic and your Pollyanna make peace.

Kathleen Parker is a columnist for Washington Post Writers Group.

Published May 20, 2017, midnight in: Donald Trump, Israel, nine days, religion, Saudi Arabia, vatican

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Godspeed, Mr. President, on your world tour - The Spokesman-Review

Its sheer slavery By our reporters 19 May 2017

As the Amazon corporation grows exponentially, its distribution centres around the world have mushroomed in order to meet demand.

By the end of this year Amazon, with a market capitalisation of US $430 billion, will have opened a further four distribution warehouses in the UK, bringing the total to 16. There are currently nine in England, two in Scotland and one in Wales.

Amazons warehousing operations have become a byword internationally for ultra-high levels of exploitation. Its largely minimum wage workforce endures demanding physical work.

A worker at Amazons Manchester operation spoke to the World Socialist Web Site about the sweatshop conditions at the site. He spoke anonymously, due to the likelihood of reprisals from Amazon management:

The wages are pathetic7.65 an hour and if you last out a year you get a pay increase of 10p an hour. Amazon could easily pay a half-decent wage to its workforce, because of the huge profits they make. The chief CEO [Jeff] Bezos earns billions. Why would anyone need billions? This kind of exploitation has been going on for decades by Nike and Adidas in Thailand, with their sweatshops.

Last Christmas, the companys UK operations attracted public outrage after revelations that Amazon workers at Dunfermline in Fife, Scotland were sleeping in tents near the facility. They told reporters they could not afford the travel costs from home to work.

The Dunfermline fulfilment centre is Amazons largest single site in the UK, the size of around 14 football pitches. Throughout the year, 1,500 staff work there up to 60 hours a week on the minimum wage4,000 extra temporary workers are hired during the busy Christmas/New Year period.

The Amazon worker said, At peak times, from halfway through November to January, overtime is compulsory, which means an eleven-and-a-half hour day, five days a week.

During peak periods, some poor devils who arent working hard enough just disappear. The job is very tiring; I keep falling asleep on my way home. I got carpal tunnel syndrome in my hand due to repetitive strain injury from the workwe just do the jobs the robots cant doits sheer slavery.

The worker described dictatorial conditions on the shop floor: Discipline is very strict. If youre sick and dont phone in you get three penalty points, but if youre absent and phone in sick, you get one point. You have to ring in every day of sickness, and youre also penalised for being late.

In September 2016, Amazon opened a new fulfilment centre with over 1 million square feet of space over three floors near Manchester airport. The warehouse is located in a recently established Enterprise Zone, known as Airport City. The Zone offers five million square feet of development over 150 acres, including an advanced manufacturing cluster. Firms including Amazon and DHL employ over 20,000 workers at various sites.

Airport City was established in 2012mainly through 800 million of Chinese investmentfollowing the Conservative governments launch of new Enterprise Zones. China is involved in a joint venture in Airport City, with the Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG) taking a 20 percent equity stake in the project. BCEG is backed by the state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of Chinathe worlds largest bank.

Others in the joint venture are Carillion PLC and the Greater Manchester Pension Fundwith over 13 billion in assets in 2014. Manchester Airport Group is another investor, part owned by Labour Party-run Manchester City Council.

The council speaks of the development in glowing terms: Airport City is designed to attract national and international enterprises that can take advantage of its location in the heart of the North West and the UK, along with the international connectivity provided by the airport.

Speaking at Airport City on his state visit to the UK in 2015, Chinas President Xi Jinping said, Airport City Manchester is the first project to have materialised since our two countries signed an MoU [memorandum of understanding] on infrastructure cooperation in 2011. It is also the first major infrastructure project in the UK with the involvement of a Chinese company in the form of equity investment.

There are now 24 Enterprise Zones in the UK, with a total of 48 planned. Like their counterparts in India and China, they offer corporations massive concessions, including tax and business rate breaks and the exploitation of a workforce often paid at the minimum wage rate of 7.65 an hour.

The Manchester Enterprise Zone advertises attractive terms for investors, including, an accelerated planning system so that developments can happen quicker. By locating your business at Airport City Manchester, you can claim up to 100% Business Rates relief (worth up to 275,000) over a 5-year period.

Around 1,500 staff work at Amazon in Airport City, with the firm employing up to 3,000 staff at peak times. The work is difficult, long, and closely monitored.

I work a ten-and-a-half hour shift, the worker explained to the WSWS. This includes two paid 15 minute breaks and a half-hour unpaid dinner break. From leaving your workstation however it could take four minutes to get to the break room.

I now do a different job, working in a cage; the pods come to you, then you have to pick the orders. I cant speak to my workmate opposite because it would mean shouting above the noise. And youre not allowed to sit down.To reach your target of 300 picks an hour you have to work fast all day, you cant even daydream. You have two seconds to look at the screen, then you scan the item and pick it, nine seconds in all.

Workers are forced to undergo a humiliating disciplinary program for the slightest infractions:

If you fail to reach your target you undergo a five-step disciplinaryone supportive conversation, two counselling, three warnings, then the sack, the worker said.

Despite these dictatorial policies, the company treats workers like cattle, forcing them to prove they deserve a full-time job with months of temporary work:

When you start work at Amazon you are employed on a temporary basis by one of two agencies, which are housed in the warehouse. To get the job in the first place you have to do a breath test for alcohol and a saliva test for drugs.

The agencies are completely incompetentthey cant sort your wages out. I heard that an agency worker didnt get a days pay in November, and it took a month for them to sort it. They had to involve the shift manager and Human Resources to get it sorted.

After three months probation, you may be made permanent, but if the agency make a mistake, and it wrongly appears youve had time off because theyve missed paying you a day, you have to wait for the next round.

The worker expressed concern over Amazons expansion plans: Amazon will be opening in Londonhow will workers survive there on the wages with high rent costs and travel?

Whats [Labour leader Jeremy] Corbyn doing about this? The worker asked. I heard him mention the living wage, but only in a half-hearted way.

Conditions like those faced by this Amazon worker are commonhundreds of thousands labour under the Amazon dictatorship worldwide, in the US, China, Brazil, India, Germany, Japan, Mexico, France, and elsewhere.

In the UK, Amazon and a long list of major corporations can impose such conditions only due to the active collusion of the trade unions and Labour Party in destroying workers rights.

At the same time, successive governments have handed massive tax breaks and other concessions to big business. Amazon received 3.6 million in subsidies from the Scottish National Party government since 2007. It set up in Fife after being handed a taxpayer-funded grant from Scottish Enterprise, Scotlands main economic development agency.

To all intents and purposes, Amazon operates as a law unto itself in the UK. In 2014, it paid just 9.8 million in tax on UK profitsdespite its sales in Britain totalling 6.3 billion.

The author also recommends:

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Amazon warehouse worker in Manchester UK enterprise zone ... - World Socialist Web Site

Senate Bill 153, which was approved for full Senate debate on a 4-2 vote, would increase the states minimum wage from the federal minimum hourly wage of $7.25 to $8 an hour starting Jan. 1, 2018, and $8.50 beginning Jan. 1, 2019.

Senate Bill 155 carried 3-1, with committee chairman Neil Riser opposing. It would enact the Louisiana Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would add language to existing law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression.

Carter said the minimum wage has not been increased since 2009, though the cost of goods has continued to rise some by as much as 35 percent.

In a statement, Gov. John Bel Edwards expressed his support for the measure: If we say that family values are critical to our way of life here in Louisiana, its time to start valuing the hardworking families who contribute a great deal to our communities.

State Sen. Wesley Bishop, D-New Orleans, said he wished more legislators had the cojones to pass the minimum wage bill, which he said takes a wrong turn every session it is brought up. The vast majority of individuals who live here know that this is the right thing to do, Bishop said, citing a Louisiana Budget Project survey that found 70 percent of Louisianans support a higher state minimum wage. (Louisiana is one of five states that has no minimum wage law, instead following federal guidelines.)

The fight for $15 an hour in New Orleans

A march and protest in New Orleans demanding a $15 minimum wage joins a growing chorus among U.S. workers.

By Alex Woodward

The Latest

We have a crisis in Louisiana a crisis of systemic poverty, said former Rep. Melissa Flournoy, who chairs Louisiana Progress Action and spoke in support of the bill.

While Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, lamented that moving from $7.25 to $8 really just isnt enough, Sen. Barrow Peacock, R-Bossier City, fumed at a bill supporter who attacked Walmart for not providing its employees a living wage. I cant believe you would single out a corporate company that is very generous, Peacock said, arguing Walmart is the biggest contributor to the Louisiana Food Bank. Peacock voted against a favorable send to the Senate floor.

Louisiana Association of Business and Industry head Jim Patterson argued the minimum wage is an entry-level starting wage and is not intended to be a living wage.

Similarly, Dawn Starns of the National Federation of Independent Businesses said it is never a good time to increase the cost of doing business, which she said is what the minimum wage increase implies.

In his closing, Carter chided opponents who said his legislation might cripple the American system of free-market capitalism. Our American system was to build our country on free labor, Carter said. We dont call it slavery anymore, but we might as well.

Senate Bill 155 was a much quicker debate, with Dylan Waguespack from Louisiana Trans Advocates testifying on behalf of the proposed act. Waguespack, who is transgender and works in the Capitol, said he had to decide whether he should come out to the lawmakers he saw on a regular basis.

Nobody should have to leave in fear of being fired because of who they love or who they are, said Sarah Jane Guidry, director of the Forum for Equality.

Speaking in opposition, Will Hall argued Carters bill did not fit existing law because the U.S. Supreme Court determined sexual orientation was an immutable characteristic.

N.O. Council passes 'living wage' law

City contract workers to get $10.55 per hour

By Alex Woodward

I-10: News on the move

The rest is here:

Bills on minimum wage, LGBT non-discrimination move to full state Senate for consideration - bestofneworleans.com

Thousands of girls from all over Ethiopia are trafficked to Addis Ababa to work in domestic service, some ending up in conditions comparable to slavery

By Tom Gardner

ADDIS ABABA, May 16 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - It was the promise of education in Addis Ababa that led 11- year-old Eleni to take the fateful decision to leave home.

The young girl from a small town in Ethiopia's Amhara region, packed up and left for the capital in the company of her older neighbour, who said that her relatives there would welcome her into their home, pay her 200 Ethiopian birr ($8) a month to look after their young children, and send her to school.

"I thought I would enjoy Addis," said Eleni, tearfully. "The woman told me fancy things about it. I thought everything would be okay."

But it wasn't. Despite the promises, Eleni was never paid by her neighbour's relatives, and she was never sent to school. She slept on a mattress in the living room, was barely fed, and suffered abuse at the hands of her employers.

"I had to do everything," she said, including cleaning, cooking, and looking after the family's young children."

After two months living with the family, Eleni, who did not want to give her real name, fled - walking the streets of Addis Ababa until she was found and taken to the local police station.

Her story is far from unusual: she is one of thousands of girls from all over Ethiopia who are trafficked to Addis Ababa to work in domestic service, some ending up in conditions comparable to slavery.

More than 400,000 Ethiopians are estimated to be trapped in slavery, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index by human rights group Walk Free Foundation.

The industry is fed by one of the world's highest rates of human trafficking. Each year, upwards of 20,000 Ethiopian children, some as young as 10, are sold by their parents, according to Humanium, a children's charity.

It is a trade driven by poverty.

Despite a state-led industrial push that has transformed Ethiopia, known for famine, into one of Africa's fastest-growing economies, a third of its 99 million citizens still survive on less than $1.90 a day - the World Bank's measure of extreme poverty.

Addis Ababa's population is now thought to be close to 4 million, and growing at a rate of nearly 4 percent per year propelled by land shortages which force rural families to send their children to the capital to earn wages to send back home.

A World Bank study in 2010 found that 37 percent of Addis Ababa's residents were internal migrants, the vast majority of whom were drawn by the city's educational or employment opportunities. Wages in the cities are higher than in rural areas, sometimes as much as double.

But young children in particular often fall victim to exploitation.

"Deception is an important part of trafficking," said Lynn Kay, country director of Retrak Ethiopia, an organisation that rescues street children in Addis Ababa and reunites them with their families.

"Children are lured with the promise of a better education in Addis."

"NO FOOD"

Though Eleni dreamt of a good education in Addis Ababa, her family - a mother and stepfather, who works as a farmer, as well as four brothers and three sisters - wanted her to find employment.

Before being sent to the capital she spent two months working for another family in a town nearer her home in Amhara, where she was babysitter to a two-year-old boy.

But the work was hard and she missed her schoolso she ran away and returned to her family, only to be sent to Addis Ababa when it became clear that her parents could not afford to look after her.

"Things weren't as I expected when I arrived back," Eleni told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "There was no food and my mother was having another child."

Under Ethiopian law, it is illegal for a child below the age of 14 years to be engaged in wage labour. But laws against child labour, especially domestic service, are rarely enforced.

"The problem is that the whole economy of a city like Addis Ababa is dependent on being able to access domestic labour - so that parents can go off to work," said Kay.

Whereas most of the street boys that Retrak rescues are runaways who come to Addis Ababa voluntarily, girls are more often victims of human trafficking.

Despite a wide-ranging anti-trafficking law introduced by the Ethiopian government in 2015, the U.S. State Department's 2016 Trafficking in Persons report found that girls as young as eight were working in brothels around Addis Ababa's central market.

The report also noted that while the government was making efforts to curb cross-border trafficking, there was "little evidence of investigation or prosecution of sex trafficking or internal labor trafficking."

Part of the problem is that "traffickers are often respected members of the community," said Kay. Parents pay them to take their children to Addis Ababa and find them employment.

"It can be a very open, public thing." she said. "They are often known as 'brokers' and it is almost like it is an acceptable job."

Some, like Eleni's neighbour, are close to the family.

"But what happens is that these children are brought to Addis Ababa and then abandoned," said Kay. "They can come to Addis Ababa and just disappear."

(Editing by Ros Russell.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)

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FEATURE-Trafficked into slavery: The dark side of Addis Ababa's growth - Thomson Reuters Foundation