The ugly side of Uber revealed its ugly head. Ads on the side of New York City MTA buses promise that drivers who leave their current taxi jobs will earn $60,000 per year with Uber. The spin is that with Uber drivers will own their own existing vehicles. However, over the summer, it was revealed that the company’s scheme included locking drivers into high-interest, high-payment car leases. What were basically unaffordable subprime loans—for example, $1,000 monthly payments at 22.75% interest—locked drivers into Uber. Under scrutiny, Uber’s subprime financing relationship ended, but not before many drivers were sucked in.

In 2016, EMI will lose the rights to the most performed Christmas song of all time, “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” Covered by musicians ranging from Bruce Springsteen of Locals 399 (Asbury Park, NJ) and 47 (Los Angeles, CA) to Lynyrd Skynyrd to Justin Beiber of Local 418 (Stratford, ON), the rights to the song will revert to the heirs of J. Fred Coots, who co-wrote the tune with Haven Gillespie in 1934. The song would have gone to public domain if not for copyright law amendments and term extensions that will protect the song until 2029.

Since the penning of the tune, the Coots family and EMI have made various agreements. Coots granted renewal rights in 1951 and made a $100,000 rights deal in 1981 that allowed the publisher to continue to exploit the song. The latter deal came after Coots attempted a termination, which was never officially recorded. EMI argued the 1951 deal was still active and the family couldn’t terminate the renewal period of a pre-78 grant.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, however, ruled that the parties made it clear that the 1981 agreement was meant to replace the 1951 agreement, and failure to record a termination notice in 1981 was “irrelevant.”

California recently became the third state in the country to pass a law that requires police to get a court order before they can search through messages, photos, and other digital data stored on phones or company servers. Maine and Utah have passed legislation similar to the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Digital rights groups, the American Civil Liberties Union, news organizations, and tech companies have been pushing for similar legislation nationwide under the Email Privacy Act. In general, authorities only need a subpoena to request the information in 47 states.

Joni Mitchell Honored with Polaris Award —Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA) member Joni Mitchell’s fourth album Blue (1971) was selected as the inaugural winner of Canada’s Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize, representing the time period of the 1960s through 1970s. “This is the Polaris version of a hall of fame. As with the main Prize, we hope this award will lead to more discussion and discovery of timeless recorded art from our history,” says Polaris Founder and Executive Director Steve Jordan.

The annual Polaris Music Prize began 10 years ago to honor the best Canadian album of the year. The brand new Heritage Prizes are designed to answer the question of which album would have won the Music Prize had the honor existed in the 1960s through 2005.

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a bill last week that would make is easier for workers to band together and demand better pay and treatment. “Right to work” laws are the right-wing’s favorite way to eliminate the power of unions. Sanders bill, the Workplace Democracy Act, would make “right to work” a thing of the past, no longer allowing states to pre-empt federal labor laws. It  would rectify current laws that deny American laborers the right to elect people to represent their best interests and negotiate the “terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection” on their behalf. Sanders would like to make it easier to form a union, including eliminating the current two-ballot process.

The bill would also make it harder for corporations to take advantage of vulnerable, unprotected workers in countries like China. Under Sanders’ bill, employees of US companies in other countries could file labor complaints against the company if they were treated unfairly.

Quebec’s Common Front provincial unions have confirmed they are planning 10 days of rotating strikes in October and November, followed by a three-day general strike at the beginning of December. The unions say the strikes can still be avoided if the government shows good faith in bargaining contract negotiations. Nonetheless, provincial unions may strike.

The Common Front of employees consists of teachers, health care workers (not including nurses), and civil servants in many fields. They are pressing for higher wages, namely a 13.5% pay hike over three years, while the provincial government says it can only afford a 3% pay hike over five years, as it attempts to reduce Quebec’s public debt. The government also wants to raise the age when workers become eligible for their pensions from 60 to 62.