Must see video: Immigrant Slave Labor at Hershey’s Strike Back

[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-h8EBP0JSs&feature=player_embedded]
This is a must see video about how chocolate company Hershey used debt and deportation threat to use immigrant student workers as slave labor. The students -from Eastern Europe and Asia- had to pay 3 000$ to participate in a visa program called J-1 giving them the opportunity to come in the USA to work in a factory. In the end this program was a way to provide cheap labor in United-States. The student workers were paid about 3 to 5$ per hour. Those students unionized with the NationalGuestworkerAlliance and made a sit-in to something about it. Then have strong support from the community. Learn more about Justice at Hershey’s campaign and on Democracy Now! report
Here’s an open letter the workers made to the Hershey’S CEO john Bilbrey
[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1WaubnAR2o&feature=youtu.be]

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United States: more profit, less pay

Deux petits faits montrent bien que les patrons sont farouchment déterminés à faire payer le prix de la crise aux travailleurs, aux pauvres, aux sans-emploi dont le nombre de cesse de croître au sud de la frontière: la baisse du salaire horaire réel moyen, et l’accaparement, par les profits, des fruits de la maigre reprise économique.

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Hochelaga celebrates is back for a second consecutive year Saturday 27 August!

[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTtEoBy1E5Q&feature=youtu.be]

It will be the 27 August 2011 what will take place the second edition of the festival Hochelaga celebrates, at Hochelaga Park, at the corner of Davidson and Adam streets. This neighborhood party, which took place for the first time on 24 July 2010 is an initiative of the BAILS committee. Following the success of this event, the organization has decided to embark on the organization of a second edition.

On the menu, a list of the most eclectic music groups that will appeal to reggae lovers, pop, punk, rap, jazz, electro, folk and more. You can read the complete program on the blog ofHochelaga celebrates II , to the following address : http://bit.ly/hmenfete.

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The CWA at Verizon strike ends in the US

ÉTATS-UNIS: L’affilié de la FIOM Communications Workers of America (CWA) et le syndicat International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), sont parvenus à un accord avec Verizon le 20 août sur la poursuite des négociations et sur la restructuration. L’accord sur la négociation collective entre CWA et Verizon était arrivé à expiration le 6 August.

source: International Metalworkers’ Federation – IMF

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Canada Post: Profits recall 443 million $ from the exploitation and intimidation of union-e-s

« Tout ce que nous voulons maintenant, is that Canada Post can remember when it will present at the negotiating table. In the same way that the public deserves a good financial performance from its Crown corporation, workers jobs and people deserve their fair share of the profits. »

-Denis Lemelin, président du Syndicat des travailleurs et travailleuses des postes (sttp)

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Boston IWW Joins Verizon Workers’ Strike. The Most Important Labor Battle Going On Today

[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCtIUGqJreo&feature=share]
[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_exrP5iUcg&feature=youtu.be]

Originally posted the 9th of July.
Members of the Boston IWW joined striking Verizon workers for their second day of pickets at the regional headquarters in downtown Boston. Striking members of IBEW local 2222 were pleased with the show of solidarity as we marched together in the sometimes driving rain. The strikers were in good spirits as they walked the all-day picket line and confronted scabs at the local Verizon Headquarters.

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PBS ‘Land of the Free, Home of the Poor’ video shows dramatic wealth inequalities in the U.S.

“[In the US] we’re high for a poor country, in terms of inequality, and we’re a rich country. We’re about the same level of inequality as China. And, of course, China, half the population are rural peasants who are not part of the modern world.

And if we were to compare US with African countries, dictators in different places, you know, taking a lot of the wealth from normal people, we would be among the top half of the African countries of inequality. So, the U.S. really has reached an extraordinary level of income inequality.”

-Economist Richard Freeman

[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = YnQwTS-K6jI&feature=player_embedded]

Thanks for Boing Boing for posting that video and comment

On PBS NewsHour Thuesday night, correspondent Paul Solman went to the line outside the Letterman show in NYC and showed people three different pie charts representing the possible distribution of wealth in three different countries. Most people figured the most equal of those was the US. It wasn’t. The US was the most unequal: the top 20% own 84% of the wealth in America, and the bottom 40% have only 0.3%. Land of the increasingly screwed, more like it.

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