What just happened?! Wake up it's Friday edition

With everything going on in the world, did Friday kind of sneak up on you? Let's recap so you can get to thinking about the weekend!

• The Senate shocked everyone by finally voting to actually debate the idea of possibly reforming Wall Street.
• Meanwhile, thousands of union members were joined by religious, community, and civil rights leaders at a rally in Wall Street's backyard, calling for higher taxes on big banks and a beefed up jobs program.
  
• As outrage over Arizona's recently enacted immigration law mounts, with some calling for a boycott of the state, Senator Reid, Schumer, and Menendez unveiled a federal immigration reform proposal. Reactions thus far have been mixed.
  
• And while we're on the topic of Arizona and its wacky laws... the Arizona state legislature sent a bill to Governor Jan Brewer this week banning ethnic studies programs.
  
• Chuck Schumer has been a busy bee this week - in addition to taking on immigration reform, he joined Senators Feingold, Wyden, Bayh, and Franken and Representatives Van Hollen, Castle, Jones, and Brady in introducing new legislation to force disclosure of corporate money in politics.
  
• Here's one out of left field: the House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday requiring Puerto Rico to vote on their relationship with the U.S., enraging Representatives Gutierrez and Velazquez. The bill sets up a two-step vote, first asking Puerto Ricans if they want to change their status, and then (if they favor a status change) asking them if they prefer statehood, independence, or sovereignty. In the event that Puerto Rico votes for statehood, the status change would still have to be approved by Congress. The bill now goes to the Senate for debate.
  
• Health care reform update - part one: today is the deadline for states to elect whether they want to run the high-risk insurance pool for uninsured people with pre-existing conditions, or whether they want Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to do it for them.
  
• Part two: caving to bad PR and pressure from Congress, insurance giants UnitedHealthcare and WellPoint this week officially ended their longstanding practice of revoking health insurance plans when patients gets sick. The law banning rescission doesn't officially take effect until September 23.
• The Department of Labor is set to require employers to develop and implement compliance plans in order to ensure they follow wage, job safety, and equal employment laws. The goal is to replace the “catch me if you can” system with a culture of compliance.
  
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced increased fines for serious workplace safety violations - raising the average fine from $1,000 to between $3,000 and $4,000. Agency officials are working to increase fines even more, but are waiting on legislation currently pending in Congress that would raise the maximum fines for serious violations and willful violation from $7,000 and $70,000 to $12,000 and $250,000, respectively.
  
• Remember the explosion on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana last week that left 11 workers presumed dead and caused a massive oil spill? Well, crude oil from the rig is now beginning to "ooze" ashore, threatening migrating birds and river otters in its path.
  
• Politico is obsessed with the White House Correspondents' Dinner (WHCD for those in the know). They're so excited that they decided to publish a glossy edition of their paper. Bonus points for anyone who can count the total number of articles about the dinner on Politico's website.
  

What just happened?! Stormy Monday edition

• The Senate has yet to reach a deal on financial regulatory reform, but Majority Leader Harry Reid is moving forward with a cloture vote today. Will Republicans follow through on their filibuster threat? Or will Dems strike a deal in the next few hours?
• Representative Chris Van Hollen and Senator Chuck Schumer are planning to introduce legislation in both chambers this week designed to blunt the effects of this year's Citizens United decision. The legislation's major provisions include: requiring corporate chief executives or group leaders to publicly attach their names to ads, like political candidates are required to do; mandating disclosure of major donors whose money is used for "campaign-related activity;" tightening political restrictions on foreign-based corporations; requiring public disclosure of political spending; and barring companies that receive federal contracts worth more than $50,000 from spending money to influence federal elections.
  
• President Obama used his weekly address on Saturday to highlight the auto industry's remarkable recovery, but cautioned listeners not to take this as an indication that Wall Street will police itself back into health. In case you missed the remarkable recovery part: in the first quarter of this year, Chrysler recorded a profit (after having already paid back its loan), and GM paid back its government loan while adding 45,000 jobs.
• The President was also on hand at a memorial service for the 29 coal miners who lost their lives in the recent explosion at Upper Big Branch mine. In his eulogy, President Obama honored the miners as hard workers who were “simply pursuing the American dream.”
• W. Willard Wirtz, "unabashed liberal" and Secretary of Labor under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, died Saturday at the age of 98. He was the last surviving member of the Kennedy cabinet, remembered for his anti-discrimination work.
• Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed what many are calling a reactionary and racially motivated immigration bill into law on Friday, reportedly prompting the Obama administration to consider its options for blocking the law.
• A twister ripped through Mississippi and parts of Alabama this weekend, killing 12 people, and leaving considerable destruction in its wake.
  
• And finally, here's your daily does of bizarre behavior in the Senate: Senator Lindsay Graham, the key Republican architect of both immigration reform and climate change legislation, is angry that Democrats are prioritizing immigration reform (which he championed), so now he is pulling his support for the Senate's climate change bill (which he engineered). ????

Shaw's strike nears two-month mark: company refuses to bargain, seeks permanent replacement workers

On March 7, 300 workers and UFCW Local 791 members at the Supervalu-owned Shaw's distribution center in Methuen, Mass. were forced out on strike in order to protect their job security and their families' affordable health care.

Workers rejected a contract that would have forced them to shoulder skyrocketing health insurance costs. The company is also seeking to subcontract offloading work to part-time, temporary workers -- a change that would lead to a reduction in good-paying, stable jobs.

These workers, many of whom have served Shaw's (a grocery chained owned by the Minnesota-based company Supervalu) for decades, took a stand for their families and for good jobs in their community.

On April 1, Shaw's cut off health benefits for the workers and their families, including young children with chronic illnesses and women with risky, late-stage pregnancies. Shaw's (under the guidance of Supervalu) refuses to come back to the bargaining table, and insists that any possible future deal will be worse than the one workers rejected in the first place. The company remains obstinate, even as respected religious, political, labor, and community leaders urge them to restore workers' health benefits and come to a quick and fair resolution. They even ignored Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's offer to supply a mediator.

Now, as the strike hits the two month mark, the company is advertising for and hiring permanent replacements to try to break the strike, something this historically union-friendly company hasn't done before. This is a bad precedent to set, especially for a company with over 97,000 employees who union members (Supervalu also owns Shaw's, Acme, Albertsons, Bristol Farms, Shoppers.... the list goes on). If it can happen in Methuen, it can happen anywhere.

So what can you do to show your support for these workers and show Supervalu that Methuen matters ?

• Call Supervalu CEO Craig Herkert (former President and CEO of the Americas for Walmart) at (952) 828-4000 and tell him that workers in Methuen deserve to be treated fairly.
  
• Visit http://www.justiceatshaws.org and send a letter to the company's top brass to let them know you are outraged by their treatment of the Methuen workers and to urge them to come back to the table.
  
• Log onto facebook and "like" the We Support the Shaws Methuen Distribution Center page, created and maintained by the striking workers.
• Spread the word! Talk to your friends, family, coworkers, and elected officials about what's going on in Methuen, and at Supervalu's corporate headquarters in Minnesota.
  

Let's show our solidarity and send a message loud and clear to Supervalu - Methuen matters!

What just happened?! TGIF edition

• After a lot of optimism just a few days ago that financial reform was gaining enough momentum to pass this week (what with the SEC suit against Goldman Sach's and the President's speech in New York), the legislation, predictably, stalled in the Senate.
  
• Speaking of the speech, have you read Paul Krugman's latest column ? The one in which he points out that financial reform can be both good for America and bad for Wall Street - and that's OK (maybe even a plus): "A growing body of analysis suggests that an oversized financial industry is hurting the broader economy. Shrinking that oversized industry won’t make Wall Street happy, but what’s bad for Wall Street would be good for America."(Bravo!). If not - get to it!
  
• Back to the news: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is determined to break through the logjam - he filed for cloture today, setting up a cloture vote Monday afternoon. Stay tuned, America!
• Another reform that gained and lost momentum this week: DC voting rights. After a brief glimmer of hope, it seems DC residents will stay disenfranchised for the foreseeable future.
• Yes, reform is a fickle thing. Turning to immigration reform for example, even some of its supposed supporters aren't actually interested in getting it done anytime soon.
• And then there are those who have taken a bit more of a reactionary approach to immigration reform. Like the state of Arizona for example, whose legislature passed a bill Tuesday that would require state police to determine whether immigrants are here illegally - a measure some say will make racial profiling the law of the land.
  
• The law has provoked criticism (ranging from rebuke to outrage) among immigration reform advocates, editorial boards (and not just the "liberal east coast" ones), faith leaders, and Latinos around the country. Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona signed the bill today.
  
• President Obama says the "misguided" bill "threatened to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe." Agreed!
  
• The Times does an in-depth analysis of the widely varied safety practices at two coal mines (yes, Upper Big Branch is one of them).
  
• And, on a different workplace safety topic, is there about to be a revolution in ergonomics?
• Follow up alert! Remember those exploitative unpaid internships we we're so peeved about? The U.S. Department of Labor has issued updated standards dictating when an internship can and cannot be unpaid. Way to put the Fair Labor Standards Act to good use, DOL!
  

UFCW, JBS Win 2010 University of Louisville Labor Management Award

UFCW Local 227 and the JBS meat processing plant in Louisville have garnered some much-deserved recognition of their cooperative and constructive relationship - they've just won the University of Louisville’s 2010 Labor-Management Award.



Some great achievements highlighted by U of L:

• The plant’s annual turnover rate has decreased from more than 100 percent in 2002 to about 9 percent in 2009.
• The plant has one of the best safety records in the nation.
• Workers can attend ergonomics trainings.
  
• Local 227 and JBS have teamed up to bring workers on-site banking and an annual health fair; the opportunity to learn any language at a deeply discounted price; and roundtable discussions for improving the plant.
  

Congratulations to Local 227 and JBS - this is a model partnership workplaces around the country can learn from.

Happy graduation, class of 2010: you might get to keep your health insurance!

This year's batch of college grads will face pretty dim employment prospects, but there is a silver lining: two of the nation's biggest insurers -- United HealthCare and WellPoint -- have announced that they'll be implementing some elements of the new health care reform law sooner than expected.

Starting today, United HealthCare will allow young adults up to age 26 with no employer-based health care to stay on their parents' plans. WellPoint will put the new regulation into effect on May 1st.

Behemoth insurer United HealthCare estimates their preemptive implementation of the law could bring relief to 150,000 families who'd have to find temporary coverage for their unemployable grads until September, when the change becomes mandatory.

So, rest easier, class of 2010. You are way better off than the class of 2009 was a year ago.

What just happened?! Rise and shine edition

It's Monday morning! Do you know what's going on in the world?

• What's the sweeping institutional reform on deck for this week? Financial regulatory reform. And not a moment too soon. A new poll shows that 61 percent of Americans favor increased government regulation of the financial industry.
• That's a surprising statistic, but the public outrage against Wall Street is certainly understandable. It's especially understandable considering that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) just filed suit against Goldman Sachs, the financial industry's golden child, for creating and selling mortgage investments that were designed to fail. In short, for committing securities fraud.
• After reviewing the circumstances surrounding the recent explosion at Upper Big Branch Mine West Virginia, President Obama believes the tragedy, which claimed the lives of 29 miners, was primarily a failure of management, but that poor oversight and weak laws were also at fault. The President has ordered a new round of mine inspections and a far-reaching review of mine safety, including strengthened federal laws and beefed-up investigative powers for the Justice Department.
  
• Over 1,000 government leaders, worker advocates, educators, and community activists, including UFCW International President Joe Hansen, gathered in Houston last week to discuss the unique workplace safety challenges facing Latinos.
  
• President Obama has issued an order requiring all hospitals receiving Medicare and Medicaid dollars to grant gay and lesbian partners the same visitation rights that married heterosexual couples get.
• Did you participate in the census? One in three Americans failed to submit their census forms by the official deadline. Are you part of that 1/3? What are you waiting for? It only takes ten minutes to fill out and send in.
• Danny Glover was arrested as he stood in solidarity with workers last week, protesting Sodexo's policy of firing workers who want a union.
• UFCW and JBS were honored with the University of Louisville Labor-Management Center's 17th annual Labor-Management Award for creating a safe and cooperative workplace at JBS's Louisville plant.
  

How much is Walmart scamming your state?

Today is tax day! You probably already knew that. And if you didn't, you might want to go take care of a few things -- after you read this.

Yep, today regular Americans file their taxes. And what about, say, the biggest employer in America? What is Walmart up to today? As our friends at Wake Up Walmart have so aptly noted, Walmart is "short changing states using tax loopholes and fancy accounting schemes."

"As states face budget shortfalls, firing teachers, public servants, and tightening their belts, Walmart is posting huge profits. Some of those profits are gained at the expense of your state because Walmart uses state tax loopholes, possibly costing states millions in revenues.

"Walmart has been using high-risk tax loopholes to avoid liability for up to $2.9 billion in additional taxes to state, federal, and other governments, as disclosed in the company’s recent SEC filing."

Not very neighborly. And if that's not enough to make you want to fire off a note to your state's tax authorities, take a look at this lovely internal Walmart memo, "Ideas for State and Local Tax ETR Reduction." That translates to, "Tax Loophole Scams," in plain English.

So as you file those tax returns, handing over hard-earned money to the government because you know it's the right thing to do -- and you know the services you get in return (like public schools and social security) are a fundamental part of what makes this a great country to live in -- how does it feel knowing that Walmart, the biggest company in America, is trying every trick they can think of to get out of contributing to our country's well-being?

Are you mad yet? Good. Head over to Wake Up Walmart and send a letter to your state tax authorities calling on them to investigate Walmart to determine which loopholes they’re using to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

Who Should Pay More in Taxes? The Rich, or the Rest of Us?

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No doubt you've heard talk show hosts and media people on TV and radio getting outraged at the fact that only 47% of Americans paid taxes this year. But look closer at that 47 % number, says David Leonhardt of the New York Times. It's not accurate to say that because of the growing gap in income (which is why so many people pay no taxes) the rich are somehow carrying the load for the rest of us in a way that's unfair or overburdening.

As Leonhardt points out:

State and local taxes, meanwhile, may actually be regressive. That is, middle-class and poor families may face higher tax rates than the wealthy. As Kim Rueben of the Tax Policy Center notes, state and local income taxes and property taxes are less progressive than federal taxes, while sales taxes end up being regressive. The typical family pays a lot of state and local taxes, too — almost half as much as in federal taxes.

There is no question that the wealthy pay a higher overall tax rate than any other group. That is an American tradition. But there is also no question that their tax rates have fallen more than any other group’s over the last three decades. The only reason they are paying more taxes than in the past is that their pretax incomes have risen so rapidly — which hardly seems a great rationale for a further tax cut.

So we can we do about our budgeting problems? How can we prevent cutting services in federal programs and military spending? Leonhardt, again:

The answer is that tax rates almost certainly have to rise more on the affluent than on other groups. Over the last 30 years, rates have fallen more for the wealthy, and especially the very wealthy, than for any other group. At the same time, their incomes have soared, and the incomes of most workers have grown only moderately faster than inflation.

So a much greater share of income is now concentrated at the top of distribution, while each dollar there is taxed less than it once was. It’s true that raising taxes on the rich alone can’t come close to solving the long-term budget problem. The deficit is simply too big. But if taxes are not increased for the wealthy, the country will be left with two options...It will have to raise taxes even more than it otherwise would on everybody else. Or it will have to find deep cuts in Medicare, Social Security, military spending and the other large (generally popular) federal programs.

One more question for Leonhardt: why, exactly, do talk show host and big media figures spend so much time talking up this 47% number as if the rich are paying far too much already? As Leonardt points out:

Well, it’s hard not to notice that the talk show hosts themselves tend to be among the very wealthy.

No doubt, like the rest of us, they don’t particularly enjoy paying taxes. They are happy with the tax cuts they have received lately. They would prefer if other people had to pick up the bill for Medicare, Social Security and the military — people like, say, firefighters, preschool teachers, computer support specialists, farmers, members of the clergy, mail carriers, secretaries and truck drivers.

So who should really pick up the bill for these things? The rich, who are making more than ever and paying less in taxes, or the rest of us--barely keeping up with the cost of living in today's tough economic climate? Someone clearly needs to pay their fair share.

UFCW launches new legislative and political site: voteufcw.org

Excitement is in the air at here UFCW - today we launched our new legislative and political website, voteufcw.org.

We wanted to create a new tool workers can use to make sure our elected officials and laws focus on the needs of working families. And thus, voteufcw.org was born.

The site was designed with UFCW members and working families in mind – we’ve stocked it with crucial information and helpful tools to make it easier to stay engaged in the legislative and political processes that affect your life.


Here are some of the things you can do on voteufcw.org:

• Get information on the legislative issues that matter to you—immigration, jobs, food safety, and more.
• Find the latest news and information on UFCW political issues and actions, including information on candidates local unions have endorsed.
• Directly contact your member of Congress to let them know what you think--we even provide a script!
• Watch videos, download flyers, see photos on Flickr, and post your own photos of workers in action.
• Connect and share with other workers, and see how folks like you around the country are taking action every day for good jobs.
• Contribute online to the UFCW’s Political Action Committee (PAC), the Action Ballot Club, and support candidates, organizations, and ballot initiatives that will improve the lives of working families.

Voteufcw.org is one more way to show how strong we are together. So let’s put government to work for working Americans! Check out the new site today, at http://www.voteufcw.org/.

Dear Bob Herbert: We couldn't have said it better ourselves

Bob Herbert's most recent column cracks open our country's unemployment situation with the kind of blunt eloquence that makes his columns must-reads for UFCW members and all working people.

Here are some highlights, though really, you should read the whole thing:

"The crippling nature of the joblessness that has moved through the society like a devastating virus has gotten neither the attention nor the response that it warrants.

[...]

"We need to pay less attention to the Tea Party yahoos and more attention to the very real suffering of individuals and families trapped in an employment crisis that is unprecedented in the post-Depression era."

In an era where a person could literally go mad wading through statistics, the stats Mr. Herbert picks out are comprehensible and poignant, getting to the heart of the issue, and showing why this recession has been a bit more like a depression than most people are willing to admit. For instance:

• "Blue-collar job losses during the so-called Great Recession surpassed 5.5 million, and many of those jobs will never be seen again."
• More than eight million jobs vanished during the recession, a period during which three million new jobs would have been needed to keep up with the growth of the population. “That’s 11 million missing jobs,” said [AFL-CIO President] Trumka.
• Jobless workers who are 55 or older are having a brutal time of it. Thirty percent have been jobless for a year or more.

As Mr. Herbert points out, as we celebrate a historic victory on health care reform, we must remember that there is still so much work to be done. And it's clear that the fight for good jobs has almost never been so important.

What just happened?! Manic Monday edition

Because news doesn't always stop Friday at happy hour:

• Polish President Lech Kaczynski, the Polish first lady, and scores of high-level military, political, and religious leaders from Poland died in a plane crash Saturday in Russia. All 96 people on board perished.
  
• The uproar over unpaid internships continues! California's department of labor has issued updated guidelines on when interns must be paid. In startling contrast to the federal labor department's current position on the subject, the new guidelines give California employers slightly more latitude not to pay interns.
  
• President Obama convened a Nuclear Security Summit in Washington today, bringing together the leaders of 47 nations to discuss how to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists.
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised immigration reform supporters in Las Vegas on Saturday that Congress would start work on comprehensive immigration reform as soon as lawmakers return from recess (that would be today). We'll be watching, Mr. Majority Leader.
  
• Perdue Farms is under fire from the the New York Times and from environmental groups from the Delmarva peninsula region, via the Baltimore Sun.
• Pickets in support of the now six-week long strike by Shaw's warehouse workers in Methuen, Mass. have caught the attention of the Boston media.
• Obstructionists in Congress let unemployment benefits expire last week for hundred of thousands of out of work Americans last week - a 30-day extension is back before the Senate today. Will the Senate pass it?
• Speaking of the Senate, Democrats are confident the President's nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens (who will retire in June) will enjoy a speedy confirmation; Republicans aren't so sure.
  

Tragedy at West Virginia mine shines spotlight on workplace safety issues

Last week's explosion at the Massey Energy-owned Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia - a massive blast that killed 29 miners, with rescue efforts compromised by the build up of explosive gases - put the issue of worker safety, and employer negligence, front and center all week.

The coverage of the worst mining tragedy our country has seen in a quarter century - of the families affected, the rescue efforts, the history of mining disasters - has been pervasive and unceasing. Do a quick scan of the New York Times's online "Times Topic" page for "Mine Disasters" to understand the kind of attention this tragedy has gotten in the news media. On the government side, President Obama will be meeting with agency heads this week to assess the accident and determine how to prevent future ones.

But aside from the usual media frenzy and government scrambling that accompany most tragedies, the Upper Big Branch explosion has shone a spotlight on Massey Energy's terrible safety record, its despicable efforts to skirt regulation, and its hot-tempered, union-hating CEO Don L. Blankenship, and has led pundits to reconfirm what many of us have known for a long time: union mines are safer. Actually, union workplaces in almost any industry are safer, but we'll get to that another day.

The truth is, tragedies like the one(s) West Virginia suffered this week are sucker punches to our nation's collective sensibility. We can't believe such a thing could be allowed to happen. But here's a reality check, courtesy of BraveNewFoundation: 16 workers die on the job every day because of reckless negligence on the part of their employers.




The Upper Big Branch story is a complicated one - implicating a host of players, possibly including the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration - the details of which are still unfolding. But what is painfully clear is that our country's mechanisms for ensuring that workplaces are reasonably safe for workers are broken, and have been for a long time. We can only hope that last week's tragic events will be a wake up call.

What just happened?! Friday funday edition

A day of resignations, regulations, and protestations:

• Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced today that he’ll resign in June, at the age of 90, after serving on the Court for 34 years.


• The announcement was not unexpected, but it set off a new (albeit ritual, and predictable) flurry of speculation on who President Obama will nominate to replace him.


• Also giving notice today was Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak, who was front in center in the recent health care reform debate. Representative Stupak confirmed today that he will not seek re-election, capping his service in the House of Representatives at nine terms.


• Speaking of health care reform, did you know the new law requires insurance plans to include preventive services, including routine immunizations, cancer screenings, and checkups, at no additional out-of-pocket charge? That's a nice TGIF tidbit for anyone who think health care reform doesn't affect them since they already have health insurance.


• Labor is turning up the heat on Wall Street this month (in conjunction with the Senate vote on financial regulatory reform), unleashing a 10,000-person march on the country's financial capital, and planning disruptions of bank shareholder meetings.


• The Environmental Protection Agency is set to implement a long-delayed regulation that holds the construction industry responsible for preventing lead poisoning in children. The regulation is drawing mixed reactions from stakeholders on either end of the issue.


• Immigration reform activists are planning a national day of action for April 10 (that's tomorrow!). Massive rallies will be held in Seattle, Las Vegas, Chicago, Philadelphia, El Paso, Providence, and last but not least, Lakewood, N.J. Get out there and rally for America!


• Linda Greenhouse is also focused on immigration! Today she dissects the Supreme Court's recent ruling that lawyers have a constitutional obligation to warn noncitizen clients about the "potentially disastrous immigration consequences" of pleading guilty to a criminal charge.


• More good work going on at the new-and-improved Department of Labor: the Wage and Hour division has launched "We Can Help," a new campaign to fight wage theft. Information on the campaign is available at http://www.dol.gov/wecanhelp/. The site has some great materials (posters, booklets, etc) as well as instructions on how to file a complaint with the Wage and Hour division.

Unpaid internships: the new frontier of illegally exploiting workers?

Here's a news piece that we think merits its very own post: the New York Times reports that federal and state regulators believe more and more cash-strapped employers are illegally using unpaid internships to extract free labor from America's young workers.

Turns out there are laws regarding the use of unpaid interns. Specifically, employers must comply with six federal legal criteria (which some argue are in need of updating) in order to enjoy the fruits of unpaid labor. These would be good rules for every young job-seeker to keep in mind. And while you may not be able to memorize the rather jargon-y Department of Labor advisory on the subject, here are some highlights:

"Among those criteria are that the internship should be similar to the training given in a vocational school or academic institution, that the intern does not displace regular paid workers and that the employer “derives no immediate advantage” from the intern’s activities — in other words, it’s largely a benevolent contribution to the intern.

[...]

"When the jobs are mostly drudgery, regulators say, it is clearly illegal not to pay interns.

[...]

"The rules for unpaid interns are less strict for non-profit groups like charities because people are allowed to do volunteer work for non-profits."

This trend itself isn't news to high school and college students and recent graduates who are all too familiar with the scarcity of real jobs and paid internships. The thankless unpaid internship has arguably become a right of passage for young people looking to break into the professional world. But the fact that the practice of using unpaid interns to perform "drudgery" at for-profit companies is actually illegal, and the idea that government regulators are trying to do something about it? That's remarkable. And we have one woman in particular to thank (remember her from the Nation?):

"Last year, M. Patricia Smith, then New York’s labor commissioner, ordered investigations into several firms’ internships. Now, as the federal Labor Department’s top law enforcement official, she and the wage and hour division are stepping up enforcement nationwide."

As the Times aptly points out, the rise of the unpaid internship isn't only an issue of exploiting eager young people and displacing regular workers, it can also disadvantage moderate- and low-
income families and make it harder to fight discrimination:

"While many colleges are accepting more moderate- and low-income students to increase economic mobility, many students and administrators complain that the growth in unpaid internships undercuts that effort by favoring well-to-do and well-connected students, speeding their climb up the career ladder.

"Many less affluent students say they cannot afford to spend their summers at unpaid internships, and in any case, they often do not have an uncle or family golf buddy who can connect them to a prestigious internship.

[...]

" 'A serious problem surrounding unpaid interns is they are often not considered employees and therefore are not protected by employment discrimination laws,' [Kathyrn Edwards, a researcher at the Economic Policy Institute and co-author of a new study on internships] said."

The truth is, internships can be a great way to gain experience in an industry and to supplement your education. But there are limits to the things anyone can be expected to do without pay. So if you're slaving away making coffee and cleaning the bathrooms "pro-bono" at a fancy law firm, bank, or Fortune 500 company, know that you have the right to be paid. And if you've noticed your company is trying to cut costs by replacing regular, paid employees with unpaid interns, speak up. America needs good jobs, not new forms of exploitation, in order to recover from the current economic crisis.

_________________________________________________________

UPDATE: Our friends at Mother Jones report that Atlantic Media has decided to start paying their interns - including some retroactive pay for this year and last year's class of interns. This is great news!

What just happened?! Spring has sprung edition

In case you spent the weekend enjoying the lovely spring weather and/or celebrating spring holidays with family and/or obsessively watching basketball, here's what you missed in the news:

• A 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the Baja California peninsula on Sunday, spreading tremors and destruction along the U.S.-Mexico boarder. So far two people are reported dead in Calexico, Calif., and Mexicali, Mexico.
• Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, a few weeks shy of his 90th birthday, has confirmed that he will retire during Barack Obama's presidency, in order to assure that the court's ideological balance is preserved.
• A new report by the Department of Homeland Security shows that state and local police officers who enforce federal immigration laws are not adequately screened, trained or supervised, and that the civil rights of the immigrants they deal with are not consistently protected.
• The Environmental Protection Agency released new water quality guidelines aimed at preventing the kind of damage to Appalachian watersheds that is often caused by mountaintop removal, a controversial mining technique.
• A Missouri-based company called Talx is profiting from the recession by helping employers like Walmart fight unemployment claims.
• 114 men have been rescued after being trapped in a flooded coal mine in China for over a week. The status of about three dozen other miners still trapped is unknown.