labor

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Day After Mass Layoffs, a Suit Against the Messenger

'Business malpractice and human cruelty at an epic scale,' media veteran says of news site's shuttering

(Newser) - Just a day after finding out they were getting laid off en masse, staffers at the Messenger are suing. Politico reports that a class-action complaint was filed Thursday on behalf of ex-producer Pilar Belendez-Desha "and all others similary situated," claiming that Belendez-Desha and the 300 or so other...

Inmates Sue Alabama Over 'Modern-Day Slavery'

Current and former prisoners say the state is illegally profiting from their work

(Newser) - Current and former inmates announced a lawsuit this week challenging Alabama's prison labor program as a type of "modern-day slavery," saying prisoners are forced to work for little or no pay in jobs that benefit government entities or private companies. The class-action lawsuit also accuses the state...

After Long Fight, Google Workers Due $20 Apiece

Settlement is the culmination of a 2016 lawsuit filed over 'evil' workplace policies

(Newser) - Google will pay $27 million to settle a lawsuit alleging it silenced employees through "evil" and illegal policies. It's "the largest agreement of its kind," per Semafor . But it's "a drop in the bucket" for Google, whose parent company "turned almost $20 billion...

Think UPS Workers Will Be Overpaid? Think Again
Think UPS Workers Will Be
Overpaid? Think Again
OPINION
Aug 17, 2023 2:26 PM CDT

Think UPS Workers Will Be Overpaid? Think Again

Wife of driver says long hours, challenging conditions make pay raise deserved

(Newser) - As UPS workers mulled a tentative contract, some white-collar workers went on the offensive, suggesting full-time drivers would be overpaid with an average of $170,000 in annual pay and benefits within five years. Now, the wife of one such driver in Rhode Island is hitting back at "the...

CNN Anchor's Baby Arrived in Most Surprising Way

Kasie Hunt's 'sudden' 13-minute labor meant she had to give birth to daughter Grey in her bathroom

(Newser) - While most of us were marking the first of March with salutations of "rabbit, rabbit" and thoughts of spring, Kasie Hunt was having an even more exciting day. The 37-year-old CNN anchor was set to head to the hospital Thursday for a scheduled C-section for the birth of her...

Massachusetts Has Creative Fix for Crippling Shortage

National Guard to fill in on school bus routes

(Newser) - Schools are finally opening again; the next challenge is getting kids into the buildings. There are school bus driver shortages all over the country for many reasons. Massachusetts has a solution—at least a temporary fix. Up to 250 members of the Massachusetts National Guard who already have commercial driver’...

Short-Staffed Restaurants' Solution? 14-Year-Olds

With adult workers scarce, they're turning to young teens

(Newser) - With fast food restaurants across America short of workers—some switched jobs while on furlough; others are reluctant to return during the latest COVID wave—many are trying to attract employees who were too young to work when the pandemic began. A sign reading "Do you have a 14...

This Pit Stop Wasn't in Pregnant Woman's Birth Plan

Florida woman in labor made husband stop so she could vote on their way to hospital

(Newser) - "Florida Woman" definitely trumps "Florida Man"—at least in the case of a pregnant woman in Orange County who wasn't about to miss her chance to vote in this election. While some people have flown hundreds of miles to exercise their right to vote, this unidentified...

UK Employers Get Ominous on New Immigration Rules

British businesses worry that keeping 'low-skilled' workers out will adversely affect various industries

(Newser) - Vegetables rotting in the fields, food going unprocessed, the elderly and disabled left without care. That's the alarming picture painted by some British employers about the impact of new UK immigration rules set to be introduced in less than a year, per the AP . Farms, food factories, and care...

GM, Workers Hit a Big Snag —and Mexico Plays a Role

United Auto Workers want commitments for US factories

(Newser) - Contract talks aimed at ending a 21-day strike by the United Auto Workers against General Motors have taken a turn for the worse, hitting a big snag over product commitments for US factories, a union official wrote in an email to members, the AP reports. The letter from UAW Vice...

Amazon Lobbied for This. Now Its Workers Know

A bill moves through the Washington state legislature

(Newser) - Many of Amazon's Seattle-area employees would be exempt from new labor protections in a bill passed by the state Senate after lobbyists for the tech giant pushed to change a key threshold in the rules, the AP reports. The protections would partially prohibit non-compete clauses—controversial agreements used by...

Dad Celebrates Daughter's Birth in Chick-fil-A Restroom

Gracelyn Mae Violet Griffin will get free food for life and a job when she's 16

(Newser) - A Texas family knew they had a new addition on the way, but they had no way of knowing where the baby girl would make her first appearance: in a Chick-fil-A bathroom. Per KENS5 , Robert Griffin and his wife were on their way to the hospital in San Antonio when...

Mom Feared She'd Die in Labor—and Did, but Survived

Stephanie Arnold wants others to listen to their intuition

(Newser) - When Stephanie Arnold suffered an amniotic fluid embolism (which happens in only one in every 40,000 pregnancies) mere seconds after the birth of her second child in May 2013, she died. Amniotic cells had entered her bloodstream and caused her to go into anaphylactic shock, she reports on Yahoo...

Chipotle Hiring Blitz: 4K Workers, One Day

Chain hopes to recruit thousands during 'National Career Day' on Sept. 9

(Newser) - In the restaurant industry's continued "war on talent," Chipotle is fighting back against a tight labor market with a single-day blitz next month in which it hopes to hire 4,000 workers in one fell swoop, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Sept. 9 "National Career...

Scientists Learn Why Labor Contractions Grow Stronger

They call the phenomenon 'hypoxia-induced force increase'

(Newser) - The general course of child labor is well documented, but many mysteries—such as what starts labor in the first place—persist. Now scientists at the University of Liverpool say they've discovered what causes contractions to strengthen during labor, even though the tightening uterine muscle squeezes blood vessels, thereby...

San Francisco OKs 'Bill of Rights' for Retail Workers

Now employee schedules must be set 2 weeks in advance

(Newser) - San Francisco has moved to help workers stymied by uncertain schedules: Under what's being called the " Retail Workers Bill of Rights ," employers must solidify their employees' shifts at least two weeks in advance—or pay their workers extra in the form of "predictability pay," Politico...

Happiest State Is Also Deadliest, for Workers

That would be North Dakota, with 17.7 deaths per 100K

(Newser) - With the nation's fastest-growing economy and lowest unemployment rate, it's no wonder North Dakota is the happiest state in the country—but it's also the deadliest for workers. According to a new report from the AFL-CIO, oil and gas workers are six times more likely to die...

Why a $15 Minimum Wage Will Be a Disaster

Jordan Weissman doesn't expect Seattle's experiment to go well

(Newser) - Seattle's plan to raise its minimum wage to $15 will be great for economists—the city will become a "gigantic laboratory for one of the most ambitious, and quite possibly misbegotten, labor market experiments in recent memory," observes Jordan Weissmann at Slate . But it probably won't...

When Did Americans Stop Dreaming of Leisure Time?
When Did Americans Stop Dreaming of Leisure Time?
OPINION
Apr 11, 2014 12:39 PM CDT

When Did Americans Stop Dreaming of Leisure Time?

In the 1950s, we thought we'd have 30-hour workweeks by now: Matt Novak

(Newser) - "Tell your children not to be surprised if the year 2000 finds 35 or even a 20-hour work week fixed by law." That prediction was made by the AP in 1950. In 1967, Walter Cronkite predicted we'd also be enjoying month-long vacations by the year 2000. Today,...

Why Labor Lost Its Crucial VW Vote

 Why Labor Lost Its 
 Crucial VW Vote 
OPINION
Feb 18, 2014 1:35 PM CST

Why Labor Lost Its Crucial VW Vote

Pundits weigh in on what the UAW needs to do now

(Newser) - On Friday, the United Auto Workers union lost what had been hyped as a make-or-break vote for the future of the labor movement, as Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., rejected a company-backed plan to unionize. Why did that happen, and what does it mean for unions? Here's what people...

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