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International Musician, Recent News

Dozens of Ontario Newspapers Cease Operations

A swap deal between Postmedia and TorStar will see 36 newspapers shuttered—all but two of them in Ontario. The two organizations are swapping a total of 41 daily and weekly newspapers. Postmedia will close 23 of the 24 publications it takes over, putting 244 people out of work by mid-January. TorStar will immediately shut down 13 of the 17 newspapers it acquired from Postmedia and lay off 46 staff.

Communication Workers of America (CWA) Canada President Martin O’Hanlon called it a “dark day for local journalism” and said it is a “deathblow to local newspaper competition in many communities.” O’Hanlon added, “it’s bad for local journalism and bad for municipal democracy.”

CWA Canada represents workers at the Peterborough Examiner, which will continue to operate under TorStar, and at Northumberland Today, one of three dailies that will shut down immediately. With the exception of Exeter Times-Advocate/Weekender, Postmedia plans to close all of the community newspapers it acquired. Of the 17 newspapers acquired by TorStar, only four dailies will survive.

International Musician, Recent News

Hospital Ratifies First Union Contract

Nearly four years after the initial voting took place to join the Service Employees International Union (United Healthcare Workers West in 2014), more than 500 employees at Parkview Community Hospital Medical Center in Riverside, California, ratified their first contract.

The hospital initially contested the vote, but was forced to recognize the union in November 2016. Among the goals of the workers was to improve patient care by having a voice in decisions affecting them every day. The contract will also allow the hospital to attract and retain quality workers.

International Musician, Recent News

Graduate Students Fear Reversal on Unionization

Graduate student unionization efforts at private colleges have become more urgent following the election of President Donald Trump.

Even though in 2016 the National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) ruled that students may unionize, many fear that they will eventually lose that very right due to Trump’s appointment of two Republicans to the NLRB. The NLRB has a history of flip-flopping on the issue over the past two decades.

International Musician, Recent News

Farmworker Unions Ensured Contracts Through Mediation

The California Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, upheld a law that aims to get labor contracts for farmworkers whose unions and employers cannot agree on wages and working conditions.

The law prevents the employers from stalling contract talk until the workers lose their enthusiasm to organize. Under the law, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board can order mediation to achieve a contract and gives mediators the authority to set the terms of the agreement if there is a stalemate. Unions can seek mediation 90 days after demanding to bargain.

International Musician, Recent News

Disney Workers Want $15 an Hour

The 38,000 unionized Disney workers remain without a new contract. Disney representatives have agreed the employees deserve a raise, but they have been unable to agree with the union as to the amount.

Currently, new Disney employees earn $10 per hour, but the union wants to raise average worker pay to above $15 per hour. Disney’s offer of a 5% raise over two years has been rejected by the union.

International Musician, Recent News

Convicted Ex-Coal Boss Runs for Senate

Don Blankenship, who was CEO of Massey Energy Co. during the 2010 disaster at its Upper Big Branch Mine that killed 29 miners, is running for Senate in West Virginia.

Following an extensive government investigation, Blankenship was convicted of conspiracy to violate federal mine safety laws and served a year in prison in California. He unsuccessfully appealed the conviction all the way to the Supreme Court. Blankenship is currently under federal supervision as a condition of his conviction and is prohibited from leaving the state of Nevada until May 2018.

Blankenship will face West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Representative Evan Jenkins in the Republican primary. If he successfully wins the GOP nomination, he will face incumbent Democrat Joe Manchin, who was governor at the time of the disaster and was a leading figure denouncing Blankenship.

International Musician, Recent News

Walmart Stops Sale of Controversial Ts

Walmart has stopped selling a controversial T-shirt urging violence against journalists, which was available through its website, at the request of the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA).

The tee read: “Rope. Tree. Journalist. SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED.”

The T-shirts “simply inflame” the passions of people who don’t like or understand the media, explains RTDNA Executive Director Dan Shelley. “At worst, they openly encourage violence against journalists. We believe they are particularly inflammatory within the context of today’s vitriolic political and ideological environment.”

According to US Press Freedom Tracker, nearly three dozen journalists have been assaulted in 2017, while the Committee to Protect Journalists shows that at least 48 journalists have so far been killed in other countries this year.

International Musician, Recent News

Steely Dan Co-Founder Sues for Control of Band

Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) member and Steely Dan co-founder, Donald Fagen, is suing the estate of his late, longtime musical partner Walter Becker in order to maintain control of the group and its name.

In 1972 when the band was formed, they signed an agreement that, upon the death or departure of a Steely Dan band-member, the group would purchase that member’s shares. Since around 1975, the group had fundamentally been a duo of Becker and Fagen accompanied by session musicians.

A few days after Becker’s death, Fagen received notice that the 1972 buy/sell share agreement was “of no force or effect.” He demanded that Becker’s widow, Delia, be appointed director or officer of the group, meaning she was also entitled to 50% ownership.

Fagen is seeking a ruling to uphold the buy/sell agreement as well as to require Becker’s estate to sell his shares of the group, along with damages.

 

International Musician, Recent News

New Occupational Health and Safety Rules Protect Alberta Workers

For decades, Alberta has suffered higher worker injury rates than other jurisdictions in Canada. Bill 30 updated Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act for the first time since its introduction back in 1976.

“These long overdue Occupational Health and Safety changes will put workers at the center of the workplace health and safety equation by building an OHS system on three fundamental worker rights: the right to know about workplace hazards, the right to participate in workplace health and safety programs and policies, and the right to refuse unsafe work,” says Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan.

Other key changes in the new legislation include broader workers compensation coverage for workers who are either injured or killed on the job, as well as the continuation of pay and benefits when stop-work orders are issued.

International Musician, Recent News

Legislation Ends Ontario College Faculty Strike

A five-week college faculty strike in Ontario was ended when the government passed back-to-work legislation. The strike, which began on October 16, brought 12,000 workers from 24 colleges to the picket line in hopes of gaining job security.

About 80% of college faculty members are part-time workers being paid less than their full-time colleagues with far fewer benefits and little job security. Collectively represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), the workers were demanding academic autonomy and longer contracts.

OPSEU is challenging the Ontario government’s Bill 178 back-to-work legislation in court, and disputing this blatant trampling of labor rights that forced the faculty back to work on November 21. Ironically, on November 22 the government passed Bill 148, which improves certain labor standards.