crossposted from unbossed

Discrimination against people who suffer from Gender Identity Disorder (GID), that is, transgendered people, is a hot legal topic these days. Title VII does not expressly protect them and expressly prohibits protecting homosexuals. As a result, the courts and the legal theories are all over the place when it comes to dealing with transgender discrimination. The basic legal conflict comes down to a question whether discrimination based on transgender status is discrimination "on the basis of sex" - something that is illegal under Title VII - or whether, since Congress has not spoken by adding protections based on gender identity while amending Title VII to make other changes, means it does not intend to protect GID.

A June 26 congressional hearing covered many of these issues.

crossposted from unbossed

It's an uneven battle for the truth, given Monsanto's money and its stable of people like who will promote Monsanto's profits over our health. Link.  One thing working in Monsanto's favor is that, when things seem complicated, most people will tune out or take the position that the truth likes somewhere between. Another is that Monsanto is well funded, while those who work to publicize the truth are not.

But you can help by being informed and telling others about these shenanigans. And there are other things you can do to support the truth tellers.

crossposted from unbossed

Say you were a blogger and had written, oh, say, 20 or more stories on issues related to the use of Monsanto's rBST in milk. And say each time you wrote about the issue, for example, that the Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture had created a fake consumer committee to assess milk labeling, you were asked: "So what's the story with rBST / rBGH?"

How do you explain why rBST in milk is a problem? Now there is an easy way to explain it all.

crossposted from unbossed

It's been a tough - but exciting - year for workers at the Bay Area News Group-East Bay (BANG-EB) papers. Last August, the company began its anti-union campaign, withdrawing recognition of the union at some locations and using a consolidation to withdraw recognition from all unions.

That was August 2007, but after an NLRB election victory, the workers are gearing up to fight for their rights under a new collective bargaining agreement. It won't be easy. When an employer wants to be anti-union, they can be ruthless, defying the law and even destroying their own companies in the process.

crossposted from unbossed

Let me see. How many ways has Monsanto used front groups, fake "astroturf" groups, and fake science to get people to (a) stop worrying about the effects of using rBST / rBGH / Posilac / recombinant bovine growth hormone to produce milk and (b) buy more milk produced? And now there's a new one that is a real hoot!

Did you know that injecting dairy cows with Monsanto's recombinant hormones will save the planet for global warming?

Well, if Monsanto says so and uses one of its bought and paid for "scientists" and a Monsanto chemist to do the "study", well, it must be true!

crossposted from unbossed

Not just pretty good! Absolutely great! God's gift! According to Citi / Abertis Infraestructuras - the two companies who have formed a partnership to lease the PA Turnpike. And I am assuming that, given all the press releases and the hyper-aggressive marketing by these two, the benefit goes to Citi / Abertis.

It is just amazing what these guys are doing to sell the public on this lease!

crossposted from unbossed

Only a true chickenhawk president and his chickenhawk advisors could have brought the US military so low. The story is just pouring out from GAO this week in report after report. Yep! It's the shame ol' shame'ol!

Crossposted from unbossed

It is all to easy to bash government agencies reflexively. So I want to make it clear that, in my view, all federal agencies are struggling now as a result of Bush administration mismanagement and malmanagement. But well before Bush was elected, these agencies that regulate the workplace have all been underfunded, year after year, and subject to attacks by judges who refused to enforce the law, a subject I discussed in a multi-part series last year. link to part I

That said,

crossposted from unbossed

What a change in oversight hearings when you have a Democratic majority. Pre-2007, all was well in workplace safety - or at least given the dearth of legislative notice you would think that. But now?

It seems as if there is a hearing every week or two, or even less.  Just yesterday I reported on another hearing on Under-Reporting Workplace Injuries and Illnesses.

crossposted from unbossed

The House Education and Labor Committee last week held a hearing on the underreporting of workplace injuries and illnesses and issued a well-researched report on the same subject. There are a number of reasons workplace injuries and illnesses are underreported, and this study discusses them. But among them, I want to pay attention first to willful actions by the Bush administration to prevent reporting and actions to prevent injuries and then to a brief overview of key points.

crossposted from unbossed

Last month I reported on court actions that were taking away our rights to protections from unsafe food, drugs, products, and medical care in a three-part series and one follow-up piece. The links are at the end of this piece, but if you want that background, feel free to be a bottom-reader. As I said in those pieces: This is huge.

Now Senator Patrick Leahy has taken action to address this miscarriage of justice / Bush Supreme Court power grab / payback to industry.

Just because you haven't heard much lately about the Monsanto campaign to take away our right to know how our milk is produced does not mean nothing is happening. In fact, in recent months, in state after state, Monsanto is continuing to push.

This time the state is New York. If you are in New York and want to know whether your milk comes from cows who are not given artificial hormones, then you need to get your comments in immediately. Details below.

crossposted from unbossed

Monsanto is in this picture, as in all things.The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists just awarded John Henshaw one of its highest awards for promoting workplace safety. Of the reasons for this award, they said:

crossposted from unbossed

The US Solicitor General coming down on the side of the weak, sick, and poor? Yes, it's true..

crossposted from unbossed

Longtime unbossed readers will know that highway privatization has been one of our themes. They will remember the 2005 Roads Scholars series (with a link on the right column) that revealed the existence of a noncompete agreement as part of the Denver E-470 deal and laid out issues commonly part of highway privatization. Over the years since then, we have returned to this issue, and now it's time to look at Pennsylvania and the Turnpike privatization deal.

crossposted from unbossed

Who says that Republicans are not environmentally aware and overall friendly people? Take the Family-Friendly Workplace Act (H.R. 6025), introduced by  Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers [R, WA-5] and endorsed by 11 of her best friends in the House. After all, what could be more friendly than being friendly to families. And, best of all, this piece of legislation gets recycled every couple years or so. Though it's been longer than two years since the most recent stab at getting this pick the workers'pockets amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act passed.

crossposted from unbossed

Which matters more? Providing health care to all children, or protecting insurance companies, even if it means poor children have no health care coverage?

crossposted from unbossed

Suppose there was a virulent disease that recently had swept through another country's livestock, forcing it to kill and burn them in the tens of thousands. And suppose that this disease was so contagious that German officials confiscated uneaten food from passengers who arrived on flights from this country, along with any items made from parts of the animals. And suppose just this past year there was another outbreak in that country, with more embargoes and slaughtered livestock. And suppose that this is "the most highly infectious animal disease that is known. Nearly 100 percent of exposed animals become infected." And now suppose that you were a government agency in the US that was doing live virus research on this virulent and dreaded disease and you were making a decision about where to place the laboratory. Would you choose to site it on the mainland US?

And, one more piece of information. Assume that you are the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).