Clear It with Sidney | Hillman Foundation

Clear It With Sidney

The best of the week’s news by Lindsay Beyerstein

Clear It with Sidney

October 14, 2022

Sidney's Picks: Biden Helps Gig Workers; Cannabis Industry Exploits Workers

Photo credit: 

Spurekar, Creative Commons.

Sidney’s Picks:

  • Gig workers would get federal minimum wage and other protections under a proposed rule by Biden’s Labor Department. (TAP)
     
  • Meat industry giants start tracking workers like cattle using new body-worn app. (Investigate Midwest) 
     
  • Unlicensed cannabis farms in Oregon are exploiting undocumented workers. (Politico)
     
  • Investigators confirm that a Nevada gold mining company broke safety rules, contributing to miner’s fatal fall. (High Country News)
     
  • Buffalo Starbucks organizers allege that the company sabotaged service to turn customers against striking workers. (Newsweek)
September 30, 2022

Sidney's Picks: Newsom Signs Farmworker Card-Check Bill

Photo credit: 

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News:

  • California governor Gavin Newsom relents, signs card-check bill for farmworkers after big push from the UFW, the California Federation of Labor, and Joe Biden. (Cal Matters)
     
  • As union drive picks up steam, GEICO urges workers to call the police on union canvassers. (Labor Notes)
     
  • Veteran Nintendo game tester says she was fired for asking about a union. (Axios)
     
  • Digital sleuths make a breakthrough in the search for origins of the QAnon cult. (QOrigins)
September 23, 2022

Sidney's Picks: Philly's Black Labor History; Project Veritas Defeat

Photo credit: 

Philadelphia, Matthew Colo, Wikimedia Commons. 

The best of the Week’s News:

  • The Philadelphia Inquirer examines the roots of systemic racism through institutions founded in Philadelphia, including itself.  
     
  • Dirty tricksters of Project Veritas lose in court, jury awards $120,000 to victims. (NYT)
     
  • Independent labor unions flourished because big unions weren’t meeting workers’ needs for organizing. (ITT)
     
  • Union officials say they will request a union vote for 3000 JetBlue flight service workers. (NBC)
September 19, 2022

Sidney's Picks: U.S. Open Workers Get Paid; Clean Water Restored to Jackson

Photo credit: 

Jeremy Brooks, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News:

  • Clean water restored to Jackson, MS, but the fate of the water system remains uncertain. (MS Today)
     
  • U.S. Open workers finally get paid after Documented blows the whistle on wage theft. (DocumentedNY)
     
  • Biden averts rail strike by brokering a tentative last-minute deal, now it’s up to the rank-and-file to vote on it. (NYT, NP Bulletin, Trains)
     
  • Clearwater Confidential: How Scientology basically killed an affordable house project in Florida. (TB Times)
     
  • Over 5000 minor league baseball players voted to unionize after a lightening organizing campaign that took just 17 days. (Marketwatch) 
September 9, 2022

Sidney’s Picks: U.S. Open Workers Allege Wage Theft; Big Lie Boosters Train MI Poll Workers

Photo credit: 

Stan Weichers, Creative Commons.

Sidney’s Picks:

  • U.S. Open workers say their wages were stolen. (DocumentedNY)
     
  • How did Trump manage to take so many top secret documents from the White House? (LATimes)
     
  • MI GOP official/election conspiracist tells poll workers to be “undercover agents” and break the rules. (CNN)
     
  • Pregnant women in Alabama can be jailed for months to “protect” their fetuses from drugs. (AL.com)
September 2, 2022

Sidney's Picks: Sectoral Bargaining for California Fast Food Workers?

Photo credit: 

Brian Wallace, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News:

August 26, 2022

Sidney's Picks: MI Chipotle Workers Join Teamsters; Starbucks Broke the Law

Photo credit: 

Thomas Hawk, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News:

  • Chipotle workers in Michigan vote to join the Teamsters. (AP)
     
  • NLRB says Starbucks illegally denied raises to union members. (NYT)
     
  • Facebook brings the hammer down on the Proud Boys for trying to sneak back onto the social network. (Tech Crunch)
     
  • Mega-drought threatens the Colorado River, the lifeline of the West. (ProPublica)
     
  • Another challenge for abortion travel funds: Making sure clients take each pill in a state where it’s legal.  (WaPo)
August 19, 2022

Sidney's Picks: Starbucks Baristas to be Reinstated; “Equality” Boss Crashes to Earth

Photo credit: 

mr hodgson, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News:

August 12, 2022

Sidney’s Picks: Trump’s Terrible Secrets; Abortion Defense in KS

Photo credit: 

Steve Rotman, Creative Commons.

The Beest of the Week’s News:

August 5, 2022

Sidney’s Picks: The Race to Pass a Fast Food Organizing Bill in CA; Kentucky Floods

Photo credit: 

Jon Bunting, Creative Commons.

The Best of the Week’s News:

  • The race is on to pass a landmark bill to help fast food workers organize in California. (Politico, Voice of OC)
     
  • Starbucks is telling workers that trans health benefits are at risk if they unionize, a far-fetched scenario designed to chill organizing. (In These Times)
     
  • Senate Dems introduce legislation to protect the federal workforce after Trump vowed to reinstate Schedule F if reelected. (Government Executive)
     
  • Neighbors help neighbors in flood-ravaged Kentucky. (WKMS)
     
  • Florida governor Ron DeSantis takes the unprecedented step of suspending an elected Democratic prosecutor and installing a Fed Soc Republican in his place. (Bolts)

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