Labor

Electrical and communications workers have been on strike for two weeks following an unsuccessful contract negotiation. The dispute centers around a phone company's hedge fund owners who remain intractable. "...[W]e're negotiating with wolves of Wall Street."

A California tech company has been fined and ordered to pay back wages after an investigation by the Department of Labor showed Indian workers had been paid a despicable $1.21 an hour for 120-hour work weeks. The company hired Indian workers to assist with Information Technology services and paid them their regular salaries in rupees, plus an additional bonus. DOL officials say that the wages are historically the lowest they were aware of.

Had the Connecticut General Assembly not stripped Gov. Dannel Malloy's anti-union provisions, 1,000 - 1,500 public school teachers, in up to 25 mostly poor schools across the state, would have lost their rights to collective bargain. Even scarier: Malloy is Connecticut's least anti-union candidate for governor.

In Pennsylvania, the State Senate voted against an amendment to an unrelated bill that would have disallowed unions from automatically deducting dues from paychecks. The amendment failed on a 20-28 vote.

At the FedEx Freight Terminal in East Philadelphia, a group of 47 drivers have made history by voting to join Teamsters Local 107. The final result of the vote was 26-18 in favor of joining the union.

Mitch McConnell visits Briggs and Stratton factory in Murray, Kentucky and only 40 of the 1000 employees attended. Television stations and newspaper crews were reportedly not allowed access to the event.

“Mariah” is a small woman with an unexpectedly intense stare. All of us in the hotel conference room crane our necks to see her as she rises to address the table of advocates and NGO representatives gathered for a meeting on safe migration.