breitbart--2019-11-01--Italian Unemployment Rises to Nearly 10 Per Cent Under Leftist Coalition

The Italian unemployment rate is on the rise according to new statistics that put the rate up to 9.9 per cent under the leftist coalition of the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the Democratic Party (PD).  The Italian National Institute of Statistics has reported that the unemployment rate grew by 0.3 per cent in September and that youth unemployment, those aged 15 top 24, is now at a staggering 28.7 per cent, Italian newspaper Il Giornale reports.  “After the employment growth recorded in the first half of the year and the peak reached in June, starting from July the employment levels are in slight but constant decline, with the loss of 60,000 employed between July and September,” the report states.  The vast majority of employment growth took place under the previous coalition government of the Five Star Movement with Matteo Salvini’s League (Lega) which ended in mid-August when Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned as Prime Minister.  Italy has one of the highest unemployment rates in the European Union, behind only Spain and Greece according to Eurostat figures released in early October.  Italy has also seen a “brain drain” of medical professionals in recent years as over 10,000 doctors and around 8,000 nurses have travelled overseas, further impacting the Italian economy as a whole.  During the previous coalition, Mr Salvini attempted to pass a flat tax in order to boost the economy and reduce unemployment but was unable to secure the legislation before the fall of the government in August.  Italy is not the only country in the EU to see a rise in unemployment numbers, with Sweden having also seen increases in unemployment and migrants having a far higher rate than native-born Swedes. The Scandinavian country now rivals countries like France and Italy in terms of joblessness.  Even Germany, the economic powerhouse of Europe, saw a rise in jobless numbers in July, with the German Federal Employment Agency noting a five per cent unemployment rate as some fear that Germany may have already entered a recession in September.


channel4uk--2019-04-16--UK unemployment at its lowest since 1974

New figures show unemployment is at its lowest since 1974, with more people either in work or looking for work. Ministers say it’s a sign of the “underlying resilience” of the British economy. And wage growth is rising too.


chicagosuntimes--2019-02-14--US unemployment claims rise by 4000 to 239000

US unemployment claims rise by 4,000 to 239,000

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week but remains at levels low enough to show that most workers enjoy job security.  The Labor Department says claims for unemployment checks increased by 4,000 to 239,000. The four-week average, which does not bounce around as much, rose 6,750 to 231,750. That’s highest level since late January 2018.  Jobless claims are a proxy for layoffs. They are at low levels consistent with a healthy job market.  Employers last month added 304,000 jobs, the most in nearly a year. Unemployment is at 4 percent, near what economists consider full employment.  The economy has stayed strong despite a 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government, higher interest rates, and trade disputes with China and other U.S. trading partners.


cnsnews--2019-01-04--Hispanic Unemployment Rate Hits Record Low in December

The national seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for Hispanics and Latinos in the U.S. labor force hit its lowest level on record in December of 2018, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data released Friday show.  In December, the unemployment rate for Hispanics and Latinos, aged 16 and up, was 4.4%, down from 4.5% in November - tying its record low of 4.4% set in October of this year. BLS began tracking Hispanic-Latino employment data in 1973.  The number of Hispanics employed, participating in the workplace, and civilian population all rose in December, as Hispanics' labor force participation rate increased from 66.8% to 67.0%, recording its fourth straight monthly increase.  · Unemployment rate: 4.4%, down from 4.5% in November  · Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population (16+ years old): 43,234,000 up from 43,146,000 in November  · Number Participating in Labor Force: 29,963,000, up from 28,820,000 in November  · Number Employed: 27,701,000, up from 27,524,000 in November  · Number Unemployed: 1,261,000, down from 1,296,000 in November


crikey--2019-08-02--For some in Australia unemployment is worse now than during the Great Depression

For some in Australia, unemployment is worse now than during the Great Depression

Can we really say Australia has "good" unemployment rate when 21% of Indigenous Australians can't find jobs?  In 1932, at the peak of the Great Depression, Australia’s unemployment rate hit 20%. Today, that’s about the unemployment rate in Fairfield, where around one in five people who want a job can’t find one.  When we hear about unemployment, the picture too often focuses on the national rate, currently 5.2%. This hasn’t changed much over recent years, so it’s easy to miss the fact that other countries are doing much better. When she visited Australia, Jacinda Ardern was polite enough not to mention that New Zealand’s country’s unemployment rate is around 4%. That’s also the rate in Britain and the United States. Countries that underperformed Australia during the Global Financial Crisis are now outperforming us -- and by a significant margin.


jerusalempost--2019-11-25--Israel’s unemployment rate at 3.4%

Israel’s unemployment rate at 3.4%

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abcnews--2019-10-16--Workers celebrate deal with GM, show union power in industry

On the picket lines at a General Motors transmission plant in Toledo, Ohio, passing cars honked and striking workers celebrated a tentative contract deal by munching on 10 pizzas dropped off by a supporter.  They had carried signs for 31 days and demonstrated the muscle the United Auto Workers union still has over Detroit's three manufacturers.  Details of the four-year pact weren't released, but GM's latest offer to end the monthlong strike included wage increases and lump-sum payments, top-notch health insurance at little cost to workers, promises of new products for many U.S. factories and a path to full-time work for temporary workers.  That's a big difference from what GM wanted going into the talks: to slash total labor costs at its factories, which are about $13 per hour higher than at foreign automakers in the U.S.  Terry Dittes, the UAW's chief bargainer with GM, said the deal offers "major gains" for 49,000 union workers who have been walking picket lines since Sept. 16. They'll stay off work for at least a couple more days while union committees decide if they will bless the deal. Then workers will have to vote on it.  The deal shows that the union, with less than one-third of the 1.5 million members it had at its peak in 1979, still has a lot of clout with GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler.  "I think economically the UAW will do just fine in this agreement," said Art Schwartz, a former GM negotiator who now is a labor consultant in Michigan. "The union certainly still has power in this industry."  President Donald Trump called UAW President Gary Jones on Wednesday night, but union spokesman Brian Rothenberg said he did not know what the men discussed.  The strike immediately brought GM's U.S. factories to a halt, and within a week, started to hamper production in Mexico and Canada. Analysts at KeyBanc investment services estimated the stoppage cut GM vehicle production by 250,000 to 300,000 vehicles. That's too much for the company to make up with overtime or increased assembly line speeds. Analysts say the costs to GM will hit around $2 billion.  Workers, on the other hand, lost north of $3,000 each on average, the difference between their base wages and $250 per week in strike pay from the union.  "It's nice to see there's a deal, but without knowing the details I'm a little skeptical because we don't know the highlights or the lowlights," said worker Nick Kuhlman, who was among the strikers huddled around a burn barrel on a blustery, gray Toledo afternoon.  "I just hope it gets done," said Toledo worker Mark Nichols, who thought the strike would last only a week or two and was ready to get back to work because his savings are running low.  GM apparently was able to close three of four factories that it wanted to shutter to get rid of excess capacity in slow-selling cars and components. The Detroit-Hamtramck plant will get a new electric pickup truck and stay open, but factories in Lordstown, Ohio; Warren, Michigan; and near Baltimore are to be closed. The Lordstown area will get an electric vehicle battery factory, but it won't have nearly as many workers as the assembly plant that for years made compact GM cars.  The deal now will be used as a template for talks with GM's crosstown rivals, Ford and Fiat Chrysler. Normally the major provisions carry over to the other two companies and cover about 140,000 auto workers nationwide. It wasn't clear which company the union would bargain with next, or whether there would be another strike.  Schwartz said depending on the contents, the GM contract could influence wages and benefits in other industries. But he said foreign automakers with U.S. factories, mainly in the South, will give modest pay raises regardless of the GM contract, and shouldn't be affected much.  Clarence Trinity, a worker at GM's engine and transmission plant in the Detroit suburb of Romulus, Michigan, said the deal sounds good, "but I have to see it in writing or hear from the leaders."  Trinity said he can't figure out why it took 31 days for the strike to end. "I don't understand what General Motors was expecting to get out of us. Maybe they didn't expect us to strike. Maybe they didn't expect us to strike this long."  If all of the committees bless the deal, it's likely to take several days for GM to get its factories restarted.  Matt Himes, a worker at the GM plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, heard news of the deal in Ohio, where he's trying to help his wife sell their house after the Lordstown GM plant where he used to work was shuttered.  He hopes good news keeps coming. If they can sell their house, his wife can finally move south with him.  "I'm proud that we stuck our ground and everybody stuck together," Himes said of the union workers during a phone interview. "And I'm relieved that hopefully it worked out, got us a good contract and we can move on and get back to work making cars like we should be."  Wall Street investors liked news that the strike could end. GM shares jumped 2.6% just after the news broke, but eased back to close up 1% at $36.65.  GM and the union have been negotiating at a time of troubling uncertainty for the U.S. auto industry. Driven up by the longest economic expansion in American history, auto sales appear to have peaked and are now heading in the other direction. GM and other carmakers are also struggling to make the transition to electric and autonomous vehicles.  Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's trade war with China and his tariffs on imported steel and aluminum have raised costs for auto companies. A revamped North American free trade deal is stalled in Congress, raising doubts about the future of America's trade in autos and auto parts with Canada and Mexico, which last year came to $257 billion.  Amid that uncertainty, GM workers have wanted to lock in as much as they can before things get ugly. They argue that they had given up pay raises and made other concessions to keep GM afloat during its 2009 trip through bankruptcy protection. Now that GM has been nursed back to health — earning $2.42 billion in its latest quarter — they wanted a bigger share.  The union's bargainers have voted to recommend the deal to the UAW International Executive Board, which will vote on the agreement. Union leaders from factories nationwide will travel to Detroit for a vote on Thursday. The earliest workers could return would be after that.  In past years, it's taken a minimum of three or four days and as long as several weeks for the national ratification vote.  This time around — with a federal corruption investigation that has implicated the past two UAW presidents and brought convictions of five union officials — many union members don't trust the leadership. But they're also tired of striking and may return before they vote on the deal themselves.  The strike had shut down 33 GM manufacturing plants in nine states across the U.S., and also took down factories in Canada and Mexico. It was the first national strike by the union since a two-day walkout in 2007, and the longest since a 54-day strike in Flint, Michigan, in 1998 that also halted most of GM's production.  Associated Press writers Mike Householder in Detroit, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.


abcnews--2019-10-31--Ford, auto workers union reach tentative contract agreement

The United Auto Workers union has reached a tentative contract agreement with Ford after three days of intense bargaining.  The union said the deal was reached Wednesday night but didn't give details.  The deal still has to be approved by committees of national union leaders and local officials who will meet in Detroit Friday. Then it will be sent to Ford's 55,000 union workers for a ratification vote.  The tentative agreement "preserves job security and rewards UAW Ford members for their quality work," Union President Gary Jones said.  The agreement likely will mirror the pact approved last week by General Motors workers after a 40-day strike.  The GM contract has a mix of pay raises and lump-sum checks, a quicker path to full wages for new hires and assurances that temporary workers can become full-time. It also includes $7.7 billion in investments at U.S. factories.  UAW Vice President Rory Gamble, the chief negotiator with Ford, said bargainers were talking during the GM strike.  The union's "pattern bargaining strategy" won unspecified salary and benefits gains with Ford and secured over $6 billion in product investments in American facilities, Gamble said in a statement. The investments will create or keep over 8,500 jobs, but no precise number of new jobs was given.  Ford confirmed that the agreement had been reached on a new four-year contract but said details would be provided later.  On Friday, the day GM workers approved their contract, the UAW picked Ford as its second company to bargain with. While talks began in earnest Monday, bargaining had been going on since last summer.  If Ford workers approve the contract, bargaining will then focus on Fiat Chrysler, which may not be as open to granting the terms of the GM contract.  The GM deal also includes an $11,000 signing bonus and scraps a cap on annual profit sharing based on the company's North American pretax income. But GM got the ability to close three U.S. factories including a large assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio.  GM did agree to build an electric vehicle battery cell factory in the Lordstown area, but it won't employ anywhere near the 4,500 who worked in Lordstown just two years ago. Also, the battery plant will be run by a joint venture that won't pay as much as the $30 per hour now made by assembly plant workers.  Analysts have said Ford may be less likely to agree to a signing bonus as large as GM's, and it may want to trim some engine and transmission factory capacity. The company may also have been reluctant to agree to paying new hires full wages within four years as GM did. Ford has about 18,500 workers hired after 2007 who would get big pay raises, compared with GM's 17,000.  The GM deal would be expensive for Fiat Chrysler because it has over 20,000 union employees hired after 2007.  The GM deal also didn't change the top-notch health insurance that the company provides for workers. Union workers pay only about 3% of their health care costs compared to around 30% for most U.S. employees. Going into the talks, Ford had wanted to trim health care and other labor costs so they were closer to costs at U.S. factories run by foreign automakers.  Ford's total labor costs including benefits are $61 per hour, compared with the average foreign automaker plant's costs of about $50 per hour, according to the Center for Automotive Research, an industry think tank.


breitbart--2019-12-22--Labor Unions Come Out Strong to Support Trump Trade Deal: 'Huge Win for Working People in America'

The nation’s most prominent labor unions are coming out strong to support President Trump’s United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade deal that will replace the job-killing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  Last week, the lawmakers in the House passed the latest version of USMCA, garnering major support from labor union leaders such as the AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka and the United Steelworkers.  “Because of our patience and perseverance, the USMCA now includes strong labor rights and a viable mechanism to enforce them,” Trumka wrote in an op-ed for CNN, praising the trade deal. “We also secured a separate enforcement mechanism that allows for inspections of factories and facilities that don’t live up to their obligations. This was an important priority for the labor movement because it ensures that working people in all three countries have greater protections under this new agreement.”  Trumka wrote that the deal “isn’t perfect,” but that it is “a far cry from the original NAFTA, and that is a huge win for working people in North America.”  United Steelworkers President Thomas Conway said in a statement that USMCA is “certainly better than NAFTA,” with its provisions demanding Mexico change its labor laws so that American workers are not forced to compete against vastly low-wage Mexican nationals:  The revised deal is better than the original USMCA and certainly better than NAFTA. It should be adopted. The leaders of all three countries must diligently enforce the provisions, however, and we intend to hold them accountable to ensure that workers, the environment and consumers are protected. [Emphasis added] Outsourcing won’t end as companies continue to search the globe for places where they can profit off of the hard work of others, spoil the environment to improve their balance sheets and raise prices for basic needs. The fight for fair trade won’t end with this agreement, but it’s an agreement worth passing. [Emphasis added]  The left-wing Public Citizen organization, which tracks globalization’s impact on American workers, even released a statement noting that trade deals such as USMCA are where trade negotiations should start rather than deals such as former President Obama’s failed Trans Pacific-Partnership (TPP).  “The unusually large, bipartisan vote on the revised [USMCA] shows that to be politically viable, U.S. trade pacts no longer can include extreme corporate investor privileges or broad monopoly protections for Big Pharma and must have enforceable labor and environmental standards, in contrast to the 2016 Trans-Pacific Partnership, which never got close to majority House support,” Public Citizen’s Lori Wallach said.  As Breitbart News has chronicled, decades-long free trade deals, NAFTA, and China’s entering the World Trade Organization (WTO) eliminated about five million American manufacturing jobs and 50,000 U.S. manufacturing plants since 1994. American manufacturing is vital to the U.S. economy, as every one manufacturing job supports an additional 7.4 American jobs in other industries.  Free trade advocates, such former Vice President Joe Biden, claimed at the time that NAFTA would create a million U.S. manufacturing jobs in the first five years. Instead, nearly a million American jobs have been certified by the federal government as being lost directly due to NAFTA, according to data gathered by Public Citizen. These are only the U.S. jobs that the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program recognizes as being lost to free trade and does not indicate the actual number of jobs lost.  John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.


abcnews--2019-12-12--US labor board rules for McDonald's in unionization case

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled in McDonald's favor in a long-running case filed by 20 workers who were fired or faced retaliation for trying to unionize.  The board said Thursday that it favors a settlement that will require McDonald's franchisees to pay $171,636 to the affected workers. The franchisees must also notify current and recently departed employees about the settlement and set up a $250,000 fund to handle future claims.  The workers were seeking a ruling that would consider McDonald's a “joint employer” with its franchisees. That would have increased the company's liability and potentially made it easier for McDonald's 850,000 U.S. workers — and workers at other franchised restaurants — to unionize.  But Chicago-based McDonald's insists it doesn't directly employ the workers. Around 95% of its 14,000 U.S. restaurants are owned by franchisees.  An administrative law judge with the labor board rejected the proposed settlement in July 2018, saying it was unlikely to end the dispute and didn't require McDonald's to enforce the settlement.  Judge Lauren Esposito also noted that even though McDonald's said it didn't employ the workers, evidence showed that it coordinated the fight against unionization efforts.  McDonald's appealed to the full board and a three-member panel agreed with the company. The case will now return to Esposito, who has been directed by the board to approve the settlement.  Fight for $15, a group that is trying to unionize U.S. fast food workers, said Thursday it will appeal the board's decision to a federal appeals court.  “The settlement is not valid. McDonald’s is walking away with a get-out-of-jail-free card after illegally retaliating against low-paid workers who were fighting to be paid enough to feed their families," Fight for $15 said.  The group noted that one of the three board members who participated in the decision, William Emanuel, is a Trump administration appointee whose former law firm represented McDonald's in labor disputes.  McDonald's said it is pleased the settlement was approved.  “Current and former franchisee employees involved in the proceedings can now receive long overdue satisfaction of their claims," the company said.  The case dates to 2012, when McDonald’s workers in multiple cities filed complaints with the labor board. Three workers alleged that McDonald’s franchisees fired them for their unionizing efforts. Seventeen others said they were suspended or had their work hours reduced.  In 2014, under the Obama administration, the cases were consolidated and the labor board’s general counsel determined that McDonald’s could be considered a joint employer if it wasn’t able to reach a settlement with the workers. But in 2017, President Donald Trump selected a new general counsel who delayed the court proceedings to work out a settlement with McDonald’s.


businessinsider--2019-09-10--Americans have a very favorable view of almost all labor unions

Union representation in the US has been dwindling for decades, but according to a new Insider poll, Americans are still largely in favor of them.  Insider found that Americans support nearly every kind of labor union, from trade worker unions to artist guilds, more than they dislike them.  The poll — which included responses from 1,165 adults surveyed nationwide — presented participants with two identical lists of 20 different types of organized labor.  Respondents were asked to check off the types of unions they had a favorable opinion of, and then to do the same with the types of unions they had an unfavorable opinion of. In both cases, they also had the option of checking "none of these."  To calculate the net favorability for each union category, Insider took the difference between the results of these answers, finding that the numbers — and thus the sentiment — were positive in almost every case.  Nurses' unions were the most highly-regarded and least controversial form of organized labor overall, with 28.25% percentage points more favorability than lack thereof.  Teacher unions technically had the most votes, with 39% of respondents saying they had a favorable opinion of them — but a 13.4% unfavorability rate edged them out of the top spot.  Most polarizing were film industry unions, such as actors' and directors' guilds, which 24.3% of those surveyed supported and 20.8% opposed.  Those polled by Insider were also asked to select their political inclinations, choosing from options that ranged from "slightly liberal" to "very liberal" and "slightly conservative" to "very conservative." In a separate question, survey-takers indicated whether they plan to vote in their state's Democratic or Republican primary or caucus.  Respondents who self-identified as slightly-to-very liberal differed in perspective on organized labor from those who self-identified as slightly-to-very conservative. Liberals were more keen on every type of union than their conservative counterparts — favoring teacher, nurse, and blue-collar unions the most.  Conservatives, on the other hand, viewed 14 out of 20 of the union types unfavorably — especially film, artist, journalist, and federal employee unions. Of the unions favored by right-leaning respondents, police and nurse unions were the most popular.  Among party-registered voters, both Republicans and Democrats were both slightly less partial to organized labor. Those who said they plan to vote in their state's Republican primary of caucus viewed unions more unfavorably than those who simply identified as conservative, while Democratic voters were less staunchly pro-union than liberal-leaning respondents as a whole.  Only one type of union drew unanimous skepticism from survey-takers: On both sides of the political aisle, and for Americans at large, identity-based unions — such as religious unions and women's unions — were deeply disliked.  SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weight its sample based on race or income. Total 1,165 respondents collected August 30 to August 31, 2019, a margin of error plus or minus 3.01 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.  America's labor movement is finally waking up after a 30 year slumber  The decline of US labor unions over the last 30 years  The labor-rights activist who helped win 2 million US caregivers higher wages warns that robots aren't the real threat to workers


dailybeast--2019-12-11--Disney Sued by Labor Union for Failing to Pay Living Wage: Employees Have to ‘Live in Their Cars’

There’s an old Walt Disney quote, a favorite of workplace morale posters and business self-help books, that goes: “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.” These days, there are a lot of people making the Disney dream a reality—a study of the Disneyland Resorts last year found that 27.2 million people visited the California theme park in 2016 alone, thanks to the 30,000 workers who keep the place up and running.  But a new class action lawsuit, filed Friday in California Superior Court and announced in a press advisory Monday, argues that the Walt Disney Company, worth approximately $130 billion as of this year, failed to pay hundreds of those workers a living wage. The complaint was filed by five Disney employees on behalf of more than 400 hospitality workers, accusing the Walt Disney Company and several affiliates (Walt Disney Parks and Resorts U.S. Inc., Sodexo Inc., SodexoMagic, LLC, and 100 unnamed Does) of “unlawful conduct and unfair business practices.” The plaintiffs are asking for back wages, restitution, and damages, which their attorney, Randy Renick, said may be significant. “With the back pay,” Renick said, “we’re talking millions of dollars.”  “A lot of [workers] have to live in their cars, or on people’s couches, because they can’t afford the rent on that wage in the City of Anaheim,” said Kathleen Grace, a plaintiff in the case and a Starbucks barista employed by Sodexo, which Disney contracts to operate its backstage food and beverage services. “It’s really sad to see. A lot of times, they’re choosing to feed their families or put gas in their car to come to work.”  The case concerns an initiative called Measure L, which Anaheim voters passed in November of 2018. The ballot measure requires resort employers that received tax rebates from the city to pay their employees a $15 living wage. The new wage was supposed to go into effect Jan. 1, 2019, and increase by one dollar each year until Jan. 1, 2022. By 2023, the code states, the wage increases would change to reflect rising costs of living. The ballot measure was backed by the Coalition of Resort Labor Unions, a group of 11 local unions representing 17,000 workers, or more than half of Disney employees. In a press advisory Monday, the CRLU came out in support of the workers’ class-action case.  The complaint argues that Disney and its contractors took “massive” subsidies from the City of Anaheim, but did not alter their wages or overtime pay to reflect the new law. Grace, who came out of retirement in August of 2016 to work for Sodexo, said she makes $14.25 an hour. Many of her co-workers, including food servers, banquet servers, bellhops, and doormen at the three Disney hotels, earn as little as $12 an hour. Other plaintiffs in the case include Thomas Bray, a bell person at the Disneyland Hotel, who earns $12.25 an hour; Regina Delgado, a cashier at the Plaza Inn restaurant inside the Disneyland theme park who made $12 an hour until October; Alicia Grijalva, a make-up stylist at the park who earned $12 an hour until July; and Javier Terrazas, a banquet event server who makes $12 an hour.  “We shouldn’t have to struggle living paycheck to paycheck,” Grace said. “We all are trying to pay our rent, feed our families, get gas to drive here and there. We shouldn’t have to make the choice between putting gas in our car to get to work and feeding our family.”  When Measure L was first drafted, Disneyland Resort fell squarely among the employers it would affect. At the time, Disney had two deals with the City of Anaheim which would have qualified them for the living wage law: a $267 million tax rebate to build an additional luxury hotel; and a 30-year entertainment tax break in exchange for investing $1 billion into their existing resorts. Just one month before the measure passed, however, Disney terminated both agreements, leaving their status under Measure L uncertain. At the time, the Los Angeles Times noted that the last-minute pull-out effectively ensured the billion-dollar corporation would not have to pay workers a living wage.  But those weren’t the only deals Disney has made involving public money. A Los Angeles Times investigation from 2017 found that the company had secured rebates and other incentives from the city worth more than $1 billion (Disney disputed the estimate). In the lawsuit, the workers specifically point to a subsidy from 1996, when Disney received over $500 million in tax rebates from Anaheim to help build California Adventure, the second Disney-owned theme park after the original Disneyland. The bulk of that money came in the form of municipal bonds, borrowed from the Anaheim Finance Authority, which were used to construct a $108 million parking facility. Since its construction, Disney has kept all the revenue from the garage, which low estimates put at around $35 million annually, but leases the garage from the city for just one dollar a year. “Disney got a rebate of the best kind,” the complaint states. “It got its taxes back before it paid them.”  Still, the case hinges on the definition of “rebate.” In a report from October 2018, the Anaheim City Attorney argued that “rebate”—though not defined in Measure L or set at a fixed legal definition—meant “discount.” Under that definition, he wrote, the 1996 transaction did not qualify, rendering Disneyland exempt from paying a living wage. Disneyland spokesperson Liz Jaeger echoed the findings in a statement: “The union coalition is well aware that the City Attorney has previously looked at this issue,” Jaeger wrote, “and clearly stated that Measure L does not apply to the Disneyland Resort."  The theme park also alleged that all non-tipped workers already earn a minimum of $15 an hour and can get overtime pay. Grace and Renick disputed that claim, pointing out that two of the plaintiffs made just $12 an hour, and that many workers who make less than $15 an hour do not receive tips. “We are not tipped employees,” Grace said. “Sodexo doesn’t allow tips. I was told that was a Disney policy, but I’m not clear. We do not receive tips.”  “It’s important to know that the law doesn’t distinguish [between tipped or non-tipped employees],” Renick said. “You have to pay the minimum wage, or in this case the living wage, to all employees—whether tipped or not. California Constitution actually requires that… There are quite a number of folks in the class who are not tipped employees who are making less than $15 an hour.”  The 2018 survey of Disneyland Resort workers, or “cast members” as they’re called, found that 73 percent of employees “do not earn enough money to cover basic expenses every month.” Conducted by the Occidental College Urban & Environmental Policy Institute and underwritten by the CRLU, the report surveyed more than 5,000 Disney Resort employees. More than half reported concerns of being evicted from their homes or apartments; two-thirds said they were food insecure; and 11 percent said they had been homeless in the past two years. In the latter category, 13 percent were living with young children.


drudgereport--2019-04-29--Labor union concern over AMAZON move to one-day shipping

Labor union concern over AMAZON move to one-day shipping...

Amazon.com Inc.’s move toward one-day free shipping may be good news for Prime subscribers, but not necessarily for those who work in Amazon’s warehouses.  The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a longtime critic of Amazon’s workplace practices and a backer of unionization at Amazon warehouses, said in a statement Friday that it worries the increased workload could be bad for fulfillment-center employees.  “With two-day Prime shipping, Amazon fulfillment workers currently face speeds of 200-300 orders per hour in 12-hour shifts. They struggle already to maintain that pace,” RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum said. “If Amazon plans to effectively double the speed, it must also address existing workforce needs and ensure its workers are safe. Increasing fulfillment speeds means they need to hire more workers, under more sustainable speeds that don’t put workers’ lives in jeopardy.”  Amazon dismissed the concerns in a statement of its own Friday, calling them “misguided and self-serving.” Dave Clark, senior vice president of Amazon Worldwide Operations, said the company has used 20 years of business experience to build “a positive, safe environment in our facilities.”  “This enables Amazon to deliver orders faster and more efficiently — not by working harder but by working smarter based on decades of process improvement and innovation,” he said in the statement.  Productivity at Amazon’s fulfillment centers were highlighted in a separate report last week, as The Verge reported Amazon workers are tracked by automated systems that rate each employee’s productivity, and the software reportedly recommends warnings or firings if they don’t handle enough packages. The Verge said between 2017 and 2018, about 300 workers were fired for inefficiency reasons from a Baltimore warehouse that employs about 2,500 people; extrapolating that rate suggests about 10% of Amazon’s 125,000 warehouse workers in the U.S. lose their jobs every year for not being productive enough, according to the report.  Amazon announced the shift toward free one-day shipping last week in its quarterly earnings report, in which is said operating profit doubled, for a fourth straight quarter of record earnings. The company said it expects to spend about $800 million this quarter to shorten the Prime delivery period.  Amazon stock AMZN, -0.47%   is up 30% year to date, compared to the S&P 500’s SPX, +0.21%   17% gain.


foxnews--2019-07-26--Labor complaint charges Bernie Sanders campaign retaliated against employees for union activity

Labor complaint charges Bernie Sanders’ campaign retaliated against employees for union activity

A former campaign employee from the 2020 presidential bid of Sen. Bernie Sander filed a labor complaint this week, alleging that some employees faced retaliation for involvement in organizing for a collective bargaining agreement.  The employee, who has not been publicly identified, filed the complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Tuesday, according to a redacted copy of the charge obtained by Bloomberg Law.  The complaint alleges that Sanders’ campaign made unionized employees work additional days without commensurate days off, thus violating the terms of their collective bargaining agreement.  Campaign management "retaliated against me when I organized the bargaining unit and sent an email requesting compliance with the [collective bargaining agreement],” the individual wrote in the charge.  The charges, if true, could be yet another ironic blow for the self-proclaimed Democratic socialist senator, I-Vt., who has portrayed himself as an ally of organized labor.  Sanders made history earlier this year after announcing that his campaign employees would be represented by a union. But The Washington Post reported last week, that campaign staffers have been “battling with … management, arguing that the compensation and treatment they are receiving does not meet the standards Sanders espouses in his rhetoric, according to internal communications.”  An agreement on that dispute was reached earlier this week, with Sanders announcing that pay would be raised from $36,000 to $42,000.  The unfair labor practice charge filed on Tuesday alleges that some employees were not notified of their collective bargaining agreement before being hired and made to believe they were “at-will.”  “The campaign leadership, from Senator Sanders on down, respects the rights of all of its employees to speak collectively and bargain about their terms and conditions of employment, and it supports the mission of the NLRB to enforce worker and union rights," Sanders' campaign said in a prepared statement to Fox News. "That is exactly why the Bernie 2020 campaign voluntarily recognized the employees’ chosen union and engaged in good faith bargaining that resulted in a historic collective bargaining agreement."  The campaign declined to discuss the specifics of the matter "in order to maintain the integrity of the NLRB process."  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP  The NLRB’s office in Indianapolis is now investigating the allegations, The Hill reported. If the claims are proved to be true, and if the National Labor Relations Act and involved parties are unable to bring about a resolution, the case will be sent to an NLRB administrative law judge.


nationalreview--2019-12-09--Labor Union President Confirms Trump and House Democrats Have Reached Deal on USMCA: Report

The president of the largest federation of unions in the country said Monday that the Trump administration and House Democrats had reached a deal on President Trump’s landmark USMCA trade deal after months of negotiation.  AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who represents a key party in negotiations, told the Washington Post in an email that a deal was in place and he planned to meet with his executive committee later Monday to review the agreement.  “We have pushed them hard and have done quite well,” Trumka said. Last month, the labor union leader said that “until the administration can show us in writing that the new NAFTA is truly enforceable with stronger labor standards, there is still more work to be done.”  The AFL-CIO, which represents over 12 million workers, opposes the existing North American Free Trade Agreement and blames it for destroying millions of domestic manufacturing jobs. In recent months, Democrats have pushed on behalf of unions for tighter labor enforcements in USMCA to avoid the same criticisms. AFL-CIO’s approval likely earns support for USMCA from a majority of House Democrats if the deal is brought up for a vote.  While Republicans have accused Democrats of inaction on the deal, which Trump has called “great for all countries,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has remained staunch in her requirement for labor adjustments, but optimistic of an eventual agreement.  “I do believe that if we can get this to the place it needs to be, which is imminent, that this can be a template for future trade agreements. A good template,” Pelosi said last month.  On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported that both sides were nearing a deal, with an administration official saying “we are very, very, very close to completion,” and suggesting that the deal could be finalized by Christmas.  Update 12:50 p.m.: Trumka is expected to meet with Trump before addressing his committee, according to Bloomberg.


vox--2019-05-01--Workers in Mexico just won the right to organize real labor unions Trump helped

Workers in Mexico just won the right to organize real labor unions. Trump helped.

May 1 is International Workers’ Day, and employees in Mexico have good reason to celebrate: They just won the right to organize and negotiate their own pay.  Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador enacted a labor reform bill Wednesday that for the first time gives workers the legal right to bargain collectively with employers through independent labor unions, without fear of retaliation or harassment. The bill sailed through the House of Representatives earlier this month, and senators unanimously passed the bill Monday.  “This is a huge advancement for Mexico’s workers,” López Obrador said during his daily press conference Tuesday morning in Mexico City. “Before this reform, workers couldn’t vote freely, by secret ballot, to elect their union representatives. Now workers can choose.”  It is indeed a huge victory for workers in Mexico, and ironically, US President Donald Trump helped them get it.  As part of the new trade deal Trump negotiated with Mexico and Canada in November, known as the USMCA, then-Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto promised to overhaul its labor laws. And Mexico’s new populist president, López Obrador, agreed.  The USMCA, if approved by lawmakers in all three countries, would replace the current NAFTA deal, which Trump has long blamed for decimating the US manufacturing industry. The point of including labor reform in the new trade deal was to improve working conditions in Mexico, so that US manufacturers have less financial incentive to move factory jobs across the border.  But not everyone in Washington is on board yet. Trump is getting resistance from US labor unions and House Democrats, who think the USMCA doesn’t do enough to make sure Mexico enforces its new labor laws. Regardless of what happens next, Mexican workers have already scored a major victory from the new trade deal.  It’s hard to overstate the potential impact of Mexico’s labor reform bill.  Until now, Mexico was the only country in Latin America (and one of the few left in the world) that did not give workers the right to organize freely and engage in collective bargaining. Mexico has many labor unions, but businesses and government officials have long controlled them, rarely giving workers any input in negotiating labor contracts. That’s one major reason Mexico has the lowest wages in the developed world — a setup encouraged by US companies that have set up factories there.  The average wage for factory workers in Mexico is just over $2 an hour, and the country’s minimum wage is roughly $4.15 for a full day’s work. These low wages have motivated US companies, such as Ford and General Electric, to move operations south of the border.  In Mexico, US manufacturers — and most other companies — end up dictating the terms of their contracts with labor unions to their own benefit, without any input or approval from employees. Workers have also reported retaliation from employers when they try to create a labor union.  But under the new law, Mexican workers are getting many of the same rights available to workers in the United States. That includes the right to vote by secret ballot to organize a labor union, and to pick their union representatives.  All of Mexico’s main political parties had endorsed the changes, a rare moment of unity in Mexico City. But many Mexican businesses are not thrilled about losing leverage.  Gustavo de Hoyos, president of the powerful business lobby group Coparmex, said it was shameful that Mexico let the United States dictate legislation.  “It won’t bring growth and doesn’t incentivize investment,” de Hoyos said Tuesday in an interview with El Universal newspaper.  Trump’s threat of ending free trade with Mexico and Canada, though, was enough to get most of Mexico’s elite on board with the overhaul. As part of the bill, Mexico will create a government agency to enforce workers’ right to unionize, similar to the US National Labor Relations Board.  That’s a crucial part of the package, considering that enforcement will likely be the biggest challenge.  When NAFTA was signed in 1994, it included labor protections for workers in all three countries: the US, Mexico, and Canada. Basically, each country agreed to enforce its own labor laws and follow standards set by the United Nations’ International Labor Organization.  But labor complaints filed through the NAFTA labor dispute process have led nowhere.  About two dozen complaints of workers’ rights violations were filed against all three countries in NAFTA’s first decade — the vast majority in Mexico, according to Human Rights Watch. Companies accused of violating local labor laws include General Electric, Honeywell, Sony, General Motors, McDonald’s, Sprint, and the Washington state apple industry.  In Mexico, those complaints included allegations of retaliation against workers who tried to unionize, denial of collective bargaining rights, forced pregnancy testing, mistreatment of migrant workers, and life-threatening health and safety conditions. None has led to any sanctions; workers’ rights groups say this is because there are no rules about how to resolve these disputes and government mediators have chosen to take a hands-off approach.  “Our research shows that agreements on labor will never work without the active support of the countries involved. In the case of NAFTA, these three countries have actually worked to minimize the impact of the labor provisions,” the HRW report stated.  The new labor rules in Trump’s pact with Mexico are supposed to remove the incentive to keep Mexican workers living in poverty. Under the new deal, the United States can use the same dispute system to resolve labor complaints that NAFTA previously allowed only for commercial trade violations (such as exceeding trade quotas).  Now that Mexico passed the promised overhaul, López Obrador said it’s up to the US to get the USMCA ratified.  “Mexico made a commitment, and we followed through with it,” he said Tuesday. “Now it’s up to members of Congress in the US to finish it.”  Workers in Mexico celebrated, as they took to the streets Wednesday for the annual Workers’ Day parades.  A former senator from Mexico City, Carlos Sotelo García, put the milestone into perspective on Twitter Wednesday.  “Decades of struggles, murders, harassment, and jailings are the precedent for this historic conquest,” he tweeted.  Correction: A previous version of this article mistakenly stated that Harley Davidson had a factory in Mexico.


bbc--2019-01-10--NBA James Harden takes basketball to the face from Giannis Antetokounmpo

NBA: James Harden takes basketball to the face from Giannis Antetokounmpo

Houston Rockets star James Harden is on the receiving end of a very wayward pass from Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo in the Bucks' 116-109 win on Wednesday.  Harden was not seriously hurt and continued in the game, scoring 42 of the Rockets' points.  Available to UK users only.


bbc--2019-02-17--Basketball Africa League Professional competition to launch in 2020

Basketball Africa League: Professional competition to launch in 2020

The National Basketball Association and the International Basketball Federation are to launch a professional league in Africa in January 2020.  The Basketball Africa League (BAL) will feature 12 teams from at least six African countries.  Fiba Africa's executive director, Alphonse Bile, said the league will help players compete in the "best possible environment".  Charlotte Hornets' Bismack Biyombo is one of 13 African players in the NBA.  Bile said: "The implementation of this league is vital to our young up-and-coming players in Africa as it gives them something to take aim at."  Fiba secretary general Andreas Zagklis added: "It's a huge joy to see our partnership with the NBA enter unchartered territory as we work together for the first time to maximise the potential of professional basketball in Africa."  Former US president Barack Obama has backed the plans, while NBA legend Michael Jordan, who is now the Charlotte Hornets chairman, was at the launch event in North Carolina.  The NBA and Fiba will conduct qualification tournaments to identify which teams from several African countries, including Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia, can compete in the league.  No more than two teams from the same country will be eligible to play in the league.  The NBA has seen 80 current and former players from Africa or with family links to the continent compete, including Hall of Famers Hakeem Olajuwon from Nigeria and Dikembe Mutombo from the Democratic Republic of Congo.


bbc--2019-04-01--Watch Basketball-shooting robot beats professionals at three-pointers

Watch: Basketball-shooting robot beats professionals at three-pointers

Watch as a 6ft 10in robot, called Cue 3, beats two professional players in a three-point shooting contest in Tokyo.  Japan's men's basketball team will compete at the Olympic Games for the first time in 44 years at Tokyo 2020.


bbc--2019-09-11--USA stunned by France in Basketball World Cup

Holders the United States suffered a shock 89-79 loss to France in the quarter-finals of the Basketball World Cup in China on Wednesday.  The US had won the past two World Cups and not lost in 58 international games, a run stretching back to 2006.  France were 51-41 ahead in the third quarter before the United States moved into a 72-65 lead, but the French fought back to take the victory.  France will play Argentina in the semi-finals on Friday, with Spain taking on either Australia or the Czech Republic in the other match.  This will be the first time the United States have failed to win a medal at the World Cup since 2002, when they finished sixth.  As well as winning the past two World Cups, they have also won the past three Olympic titles.


bbc--2019-01-07--The toughest job in world football

The toughest job in world football?

Reaching the Asian Cup finals for the first time would be no small achievement for Yemen at the best of times. But doing so as war and famine push the poorest country on the Arabian peninsula into the abyss has made it a minor miracle.  This is no ordinary tale of footballing success against the odds. Yemen's story includes players kidnapped by extremists. Some can be found fighting in the mountains. Others are dead.  As Yemen prepare to get their campaign under way in the United Arab Emirates - they are outsiders in a group featuring Iran, Iraq and Vietnam - the tournament offers a small degree of respite for a nation ravaged by war and famine.  When they kick off against Iran in Abu Dhabi on 7 January they'll be serious underdogs. Their opponents are ranked 29th in the world by Fifa; Yemen sit 135th. But as Syria and Iraq have illustrated in recent years, turmoil can raise a team's game.  Football has ground to a halt in Yemen. The league is suspended and the infrastructure has all but collapsed. Stadiums are turned to rubble, clubs disintegrating.  It is all a direct consequence of war. The 2015 escalation of the conflict between the internationally-recognised Hadi government and Houthi rebels has engulfed Yemen in unspeakable torment. Tens of thousands have been killed in the fighting; hunger and disease compound the tragedy.  The numbers are so large as to lose all meaning. Estimates suggest 85,000 children under five have died of starvation; 14 million people are at risk of famine.  The country has been sliced in two by this proxy war. The UK and US have been criticised for their support of the Saudi-led coalition that backs President Hadi, and for supplying the bombs that rain down mercilessly.  Iran backs the Houthi, who control the mountainous north-west, including the capital Sanaa. Al Qaeda and other local factions only cloud the picture further.  Yet despite shattered families and homes, Yemenis also press on with their lives. According to sports journalist Bashir Senan, they have little inclination to pick through the geopolitical stew in which their country is simmering, but they are looking forward to that first meeting with Iran in Group D of the Asian Cup.  The players are also keen to focus on football, but that's not easy. Some have managed to find clubs outside Yemen, many in Qatar, but for those still based at home, international games have been their only competitive matches for the past four years.  Even when the few clubs still functioning manage to arrange local tournaments the war is always lurking. Chilling video shows rockets lighting up the sky at one such match as spectators perch on grubby plastic chairs by the side of the pitch.  For new coach Jan Kocian, the challenges of preparing his team for a major international tournament are stark - and varied.  Those still lucky enough to be attached to functioning clubs earn pocket money at best, forcing them to drive taxis or work in supermarkets to make ends meet. Others have joined the fighting; several international players have died in the conflict.  "I have to think about doing something else to earn money," Ammad Amr Talal told a camera crew recently on the side of the dusty patch of waste ground on which Al-Tilal, one of Yemen's biggest clubs, now train. "Maybe I'll join the army."  One member of Kocian's team says that despite a full-time job he still struggles to earn enough to live. Despite that, he says he had to fund his own journey to join the national squad's Asian Cup preparations in Saudi Arabia.  Complaints against Yemen's Football Association are rife, although players are wary of making waves. The FA walks a fine line between the country's warring factions and is struggling to organise the Asian Cup campaign.  The training camps should have been up and running before November, say critics, but the finances and logistics are daunting. A coalition-enforced air embargo means there are tales of risky trips to cross the few land borders still open and voyages in ships transporting cattle for slaughter.  One player was kidnapped by extremist groups as he returned home from a game during the qualification campaign. "I had been left to a 48-hour road trip through some of the most dangerous territory in the country," he claims, preferring to remain anonymous.  Politics continued to play havoc with Yemen's preparations as the Asian Cup approached. In early December, Saudi Arabia reportedly blocked the team from travelling to Qatar for a training camp and several friendlies, sending them instead on a hastily-arranged jaunt to Malaysia.  Yemen does not have a glorious footballing history. Fans have spent decades honing a philosophical approach - avoiding a drubbing has often been cause to celebrate.  They have never won an Arabian Gulf Cup match despite having played 27 times in the regional tournament, but triumphed twice and drew four times during the qualification campaign for the 2019 Asian Cup.  Just a few hundred Yemeni fans were in the stands in Qatar to cheer the team's "home" appearances, but enthusiasm back home among a population desperate for good news rose alongside the points tally. The excitement peaked in March, when Abdulwasea Al Matari scored the two goals that beat Nepal and sealed a berth in the finals.  However, Abraham Mebratu, the Ethiopian coach who steered Yemen through the campaign, was gone within three months, complaining about a lack of financing and keen to take up an opportunity to lead his home nation.  In addition to the victory over Nepal, Yemen's underemployed team played just three friendlies in 2018.  "I've played three top-level matches in 2018," says Fouad Al Omeisi. The 29-year-old midfielder is lucky - his club, Al Ahli Sanaa in the capital, still has its head above water. However, the "transportation allowance" he is paid is not even enough to fund regular gym visits.  One team-mate struggles to fit training around a 10-hour shift driving a bus. He earns $6 (£4.70) a day.  "The emotional and psychological stress caused by the war" only makes the effort to stay fit and sharp harder, Al Omeisi adds.  Slovakian manager Kocian knows a thing or two about how political upheaval can impact on football.  He won the last of his 26 international caps just months before Czechoslovakia dissolved. However, 1993's Velvet Divorce bears no comparison to the horrors stalking this Yemen team.  Kocian arrived in Saudi Arabia in November to start preparing the squad selected by the FA to take its bow on the world stage. Tall, lean and enthusiastic, he brushes aside suggestions he may have taken on the toughest coaching job in the world.  "The political situation makes for some unusual conditions for training a national team," he admits. "For one thing, I won't enter the country; that's in my contract. But it's an honour to lead this team."  Favouring a technical, passing style, Kocian could prove a perfect fit for Yemen's young squad. The former centre-back never played for Slovakia, but during a stint in 2006-08 managing his home nation he did blood a 20-year-old Marek Hamsik, Slovakia's talisman ever since.  Kocian says his players are keen and focused, and avoid talking about the problems at home, just as the break-up of Czechoslovakia "was never a topic among footballers".  But that does not mean the devastation is not on their minds. Offering Yemenis a glimpse of hope, an escape from the horrors in which they are trapped, pushes the team to raise its game, according to veteran goalkeeper Mohammed Ayash.  "This tournament is a way to give people a little joy and relief," adds sports journalist Omar Al Masri. "It's a big deal. People are trying to survive and find food for their families, but during the tournament they'll be filling the cafes to watch."  Those players still based in Yemen also hope the Asian Cup could offer a literal escape. "Their dream is to get a professional contract abroad," says Kocian.  No one is going to tour a war zone to scout for talent, so the players will have no shortage of motivation when they take on Asia's biggest teams.  "Yemen won't be pushovers but they will rely on the counter attack against the likes of Iran," says Al Masri. "But they're there to prove themselves, and if they can beat Vietnam then all the better!"  Kocian adds: "We know we're the outsiders in the group, but in football a small country can dream of big victories, and we're all aware that qualification for the Qatar World Cup begins in March."  Given the challenges, just taking the field on 7 January will be a startling achievement.


bbc--2019-01-09--When calling for a medical cart goes wrong for footballer in Brazilian youth cup

A medical cart runs over an injured player's foot during a match between Trindade and Flamengo in the Brazilian Under-20 Copa Sao Paulo.  Trindade's Bernardo was on the ground struggling with back pain when the injury cart was called on, but the vehicle drove over his foot by mistake.  Available to UK users only. There is no commentary in English.


bbc--2019-01-11--51-year-old footballer gets new deal

51-year-old footballer gets new deal

He may have started his career way back in 1986 but there's no sign of Kazuyoshi Miura slowing down yet - the 51-year-old has signed a new contract with Japanese side Yokohama FC.  The striker, who won the last of his 89 Japan caps some 19 years ago, will now play in the Japanese second division until at least the age of 52 - an age he reaches next month.  "I will not waste it for one minute, one second," he said.  "I think that I want to go face to face with football and go to daily training with maximum power."  Miura was born in the same month as Italy legend Roberto Baggio, who retired in 2004, and broke Stanley Matthews' record as the oldest professional to score a goal in 2017.  He failed to score in nine appearances in the 2018 season, which saw Yokohama lose in the play-offs.  Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


bbc--2019-04-18--BBC Womens Footballer of the Year 2019 Lindsey Horan profile

BBC Women's Footballer of the Year 2019: Lindsey Horan profile

We are profiling each of the five nominees for the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year 2019 award. You can vote for your winner on the BBC Sport website until Thursday, 2 May at 09:00 BST (08:00 GMT). The result will be revealed on Wednesday, 22 May on BBC World Service.  Qualifying for the World Cup was probably the most important thing. Last season was hard because we [Thorns] lost the Championship final but I won the MVP award and I was very proud of myself.  Any underdog story in a sporting event, or any sentimental movie. I cried three times at A Star is Born and cried at least four times during Crazy Rich Asians...so pretty much any film!  Who is your ideal dinner guest?  I have always wanted to meet Pep Guardiola. Not with my family because I don't know what they'll ask. Just me and him, talking football.  On being nominated for the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year...  I'm truly honoured. When I look back at the last few years I've really looked at every detail of my game and how I can improve. All of it came together when my confidence and mentality did. I've had the best season of my career and I feel so grateful to my team, the staff and everyone who's helped contribute to this.  Finish this sentence: football for me is...  Everything. It's my life and my love and it's the first thing I fell in love with.


bbc--2019-04-18--BBC Womens Footballer of the Year 2019 Pernille Harder profile

BBC Women's Footballer of the Year 2019: Pernille Harder profile

We are profiling each of the five nominees for the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year 2019 award. You can vote for your winner on the BBC Sport website until Thursday, 2 May at 09:00 BST (08:00 GMT). The result will be revealed on Wednesday, 22 May on BBC World Service.  The titles I won with Wolfsburg, the Championship and the cup. Being named Uefa's best player in Europe - that was really big for me; it's something I dreamed of. Then playing in my first Champions League final, even though we lost. I scored and that was a highlight for me.  Golf, tennis, handball. When there's a ball, I like it.  Who would be your ideal dinner party guests?  I would invite the ones I love the most and have the most fun with: my friends and family and girlfriend. I don't see them so much. Usain Bolt could come and Lionel Messi too... but not sure I'd have fun as I would be shy.  On being nominated for the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year...  Individual awards like this are a big thing. The team titles are the biggest and if you don't win them you'll never win individual awards, but it's good to be recognised.  Finish this sentence: football for me is...


bbc--2019-11-16--Women's football: Spain's top players to strike this weekend

Women footballers in Spain's top division will strike this weekend in a dispute over pay.  Almost 200 players from 16 clubs voted to strike in October after more than a year of failed negotiations.  They are demanding a professional agreement that regulates minimum working conditions, rights to minimum wages and measures for maternity.  UDG Tenerife did not to travel for their game at Espanyol on Saturday and will not field a team.  The squad were set to fly to Barcelona on Friday, but after their flight was delayed by technical problems they decided to not to make the trip.  In a statement on their website, the club said they "respect the position of the players to support the strike", adding that they hope an agreement can be reached "for the sake of women's football and generations to come".  There are eight matches in the top league which could be affected, two on Saturday and six on Sunday.  Teams must be able to field seven players in order for games to go ahead.  A video featuring top players, including Athletic Bibao goalkeeper Ainhoa Tirapu and fellow Spain international Silvia Meseguer of Atletico Madrid, was promoted on social media by the Association of Spanish Footballers, which is the players' union.  On the video, they say they are fighting for former players, current players and "for those who will one day be in our place".  The action was supported by 93% of players employed by 16 clubs at a meeting in Madrid on 22 October.  Clubs are proposing a minimum wage of 16,000 euros (£13,700), but unions representing the players are asking for at least 20,000 euros (£17,000).


theguardianuk--2019-02-08--Chief medical officer to become first female Trinity College master

Prof Dame Sally Davies is to leave her post as England’s chief medical officer to become the first female master of one of Cambridge University’s most prestigious colleges, it has been announced.  Davies, who has held the position of chief medical officer for nine years, has been appointed by the Queen as master of Trinity College, Cambridge University, the Department of Health and Social Care said.  It is the first time the job has gone to a woman. Davies was also the first female chief medical officer for England. She will quit that role at the end of September and take up her new position in October.  Davies previously worked for 30 years in the NHS as a consultant haematologist. She was also the director general of research and development for the NHS and helped to create Genomics England.  She said: “I want to pay tribute to the outstanding clinicians, scientists and public servants who have supported me in this role – men and women who are working tirelessly to improve the health of the nation.  “It has been an honour to be the first female chief medical officer. I have enjoyed it from the start and I will continue to do so right up until I finish. I am delighted to be appointed as the master of Trinity College following a distinguished list of predecessors and as the first woman.”  She added: “I can assure everyone that I will continue contributing to the global fight against [antimicrobial resistance] from my new role.”  The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said Davies had been a dedicated public servant and a driving force in health.  “She has led the fight against antibiotic resistance and public health risks, and has pioneered world-leading action across a whole range of areas,” he said. “She’s been not just England’s chief medical officer but led thinking around the world. Sally has been an inspiration to us all and I’m sure has a huge amount still to contribute in the future.”  Trinity, which was founded by Henry VIII, is one of Cambridge’s wealthiest colleges.


theindependent--2019-05-28--NHS doctors like me are working for free just to stay afloat The government is exploiting our profe

NHS doctors like me are working for free just to stay afloat. The government is exploiting our professionalism

"Headline it for me." As a GP, this is a stock phrase I use if you come in to my surgery and say you have four problems to discuss. At least you have given me a heads up that there are four problems, but now I want a list of one-word titles so I can judge what I can manage in the time.  Literally everyone expresses amazement when I reveal appointments are scheduled to last 10 minutes only. Apparently, this is a very well-kept NHS secret. I can talk to you about anything you like for 10 minutes: hair loss, mood problems, toe nails…. If you walk in with a limp, or a red eye then I know early on what we are going to be talking about. Sometimes I am kept in breathless suspense: "I’ve had this problem for more than two weeks, and I’m really worried about it as it’s so painful, my mum said I should definitely come and talk to you about it…" So what is it? What are we talking about? It could be anywhere in the body until the roulette ball falls.  Of course I see the lip curling annoyance when I say, after nine minutes spent discussing something else, that the heartburn, tiredness or aching knee you're also experiencing are "a whole other problem. I would be rushing you if I tried to do it today, and I wouldn’t be able to do it properly."  It’s a drag for the patient to have to come back another day, book another appointment, wait again in the waiting room and I experience the time pressure the other way around when I see my own GP. I always pick the oldest GPs; I am not looking for a good bedside manner, I want their experience. But even I was a bit surprised at my own doctor’s brusque opening gambit. As I stepped into the room, he introduced himself, and as I walked across the room he checked my name. By the time I was seated he had already asked, "How can I help today?"  I laughed at the time, but now I do the same thing and save 30 seconds which is, after all, 5 per cent of our allocated consultation time.  I strain to keep to time. Every extra five minutes spent on one person’s appointment accumulates. You, my last patient, end up waiting 30 minutes or more.  As a doctor, I can cope with a life of 10 minute appointments because I do not work full time. I can manage my work with this level of intensity, and have room for the work I miss out on to slop over into the afternoon (for which, of course, I am not paid). I have also taught myself to touch type, which gives me an edge over other doctors.  All of GP training is geared to the 10 min appointment, but new registrars have to be weaned down to this level of case work slowly. They start at 30 minutes per patient and really enjoy the work. They are then cut down to 20 minutes, and then 15. Usually they spend quite a while at 15 minutes getting used to the work before they are finally ratcheted down to 10 min and their morning’s patients are built up to 15 or 18 and then they realise why everyone else has been looking less relaxed than them.  I am now so used to working this way that it surprises me to even question the idea. That there could be a world of 15 min consultations seems strange, luxurious and totally out of the question. Yet if the UK really cares about its health care staff and genuinely respects them it should not be depending on the charity of its workers for the system to run properly. And it's not just GPs like me who are expected to work like this.  The ratio of doctors to patients in this country is low (2.8 per 1000 patients, compared to a European average of 3.0), but of more concern is the ratio of nurses to patients. Of all the groups in the country why is the NHS relying on the charity and goodwill of nurses in order to run? They are being expected to work in circumstances where they cannot do their work safely and properly and then expected to work overtime as well.  To put a nurse to work in a ward which is not properly staffed is nauseating. The minimal number of nurses left to work on a ward of 24 elderly patients with a 99 per cent bed occupancy rate should be at least six. Four nurses for a ward of this size (as has recently been reported by Unison) is simply not enough. Those nurses wishing to care for patients with kindness and dignity are forced to work in a place where this is physically not possible. They must complete ordinary care such as washing, toileting, feeding, then they must address medical issues such as dressings, temperatures, medication and only then might they find the time to notice – or, worse, to not notice – that one patient's condition has deteriorated.  The government and the public complacently call healthcare workers heroes and yet continues to expect them to work in these circumstances. I am not a hero. I have been carefully trained for the job I carry out and I have accrued experience in doing so. And I try to be kind, always. But I am well aware that the government uses that interest, and my professionalism, to pay for eight hours of my work and receive 12. Every extra five or 10 – or even 20 – minutes spent with a patient is our personal, charitable gift to you and to the government. The majority of nurses, meanwhile, work an additional six hours each unpaid every week. They never get that time back.  I am prepared to continue my 10 minute appointment schedule in general practice. I’ve done it for 15 years and I’ll probably do it for my remaining 20. Like an old timer in a prison cell, I can’t imagine life any other way. It's not right, but I’m used to it. The idea of the government paying for 50 per cent more consultation time is never going to happen.  Yet there’s something materially different from me having a long day seeing extra patients, to patients daily stuck in their own urine in a hospital bed and no one having the time to care for them.  I want to spell this out: the government is running the NHS on the good will, free time and charity of its healthcare workers and its morally wrong to keep on asking for that. No one minds a one-off push when times are tough; what we mind is that casual assumption that unpaid work is essential to patient safety. Nurses are essential to healthcare and do the hardest job of us all. Why are they being used like this?  Are we going to continue to slap people on the back and call them heroes or should we fork out the cash and up the staffing levels for the healthcare workers that all of us need?


sottnet--2019-04-18--Opioid sting US federal prosecutors charging medical professionals for health care fraud and pushin

Opioid sting: US federal prosecutors charging medical professionals for health care fraud and pushing opioids

Updated at 11:25 a.m. ETFederal prosecutors are charging 60 doctors, pharmacists, medical professionals and others in connection with alleged opioid pushing and health care fraud, the Justice Department said Wednesday.The charges came less than four months after the Justice Department dispatched experienced fraud prosecutors across hard-hit regions in Appalachia.The cases involve more than 350,000 prescriptions for controlled substances and more than 32 million pills - the equivalent of a dose of opioids for "every man, woman and child," across Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and West Virginia, said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski.Those charged include 31 doctors, seven pharmacists, eight nurse practitioners and seven other licensed medical professionals, the Justice Department said The idea for the department's Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force was formed last autumn to assist areas suffering from high numbers of opioid overdoses and deaths.Justice Department leaders ultimately approved sending 14 health care fraud prosecutors to several different federal districts to help build cases. They started in January, sifting through data analysis to find the biggest outliers.Then, the prosecutors used traditional law enforcement methods, including search warrants, confidential informants and surveillance, officials say.It's not yet clear how many of the defendants ensnared in this round of prosecutions may fight the charges in court.In some examples, authorities pointed to "inordinately large quantities, 100 prescriptions per day," or other suspicious facts - such as prescriptions with no evidence of a patient having been physically examined.In another episode, one doctor had a pharmacy operating outside his own waiting room."This is extreme outlier behavior," Benczkowski said. "We're targeting the worst of the worst doctors in these districts."Authorities said they are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human Services and local public health officials so that patients who arrive at the doors of medical offices that have been shuttered will receive information and other options for medical treatment."In my view, if we can save one life, this will have been worth it," Benczkowski said. "We're not going to just come out and try to arrest our way out of the problem."The CDC has reported that 130 Americans die every day of an opioid-related overdose, and federal law enforcement officials have been tasked with trying to stanch the flow of some of those drugs."The opioid epidemic is the deadliest drug crisis in American history, and Appalachia has suffered the consequences more than perhaps any other region," Attorney General William Barr said. "But the Department of Justice is doing its part to help end this crisis."The efforts will continue, officials say - the strike force is expected to expand into a new area, the Western District of Virginia, starting this week.


sputnik--2019-06-17--Doctors Strike Indian Health Ministry says Govt Mulling Law for Medical Professional Protection

Doctors’ Strike: Indian Health Ministry says Gov’t Mulling Law for Medical Professional Protection

Following almost a week-long doctors' agitation, which erupted in the Indian state of West Bengal and gradually spread across India over inadequate safety measures in medical institutions, India's Health Minister Dr Harshvardhan Singh on Monday said the government is mulling a proposal to introduce a law for doctors' protection.  The agitation has gone viral on social media.  "The government is mulling over introducing a law to protect doctors. We are asking the state governments to make specific laws to protect the doctors", said the Indian health minister.  "These legislations can't be done overnight, they will take some time. We are studying the existing situation, looking at past records, incidents etc. What we have to do is ensure that such incidents never happen in this country again", he said.  Dr Singh's statement came even as a delegation of junior doctors in Kolkata in India's West Bengal state were closeted in a meeting with the state's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, making a representation to her that they would be happy to resume their duties and training, provided their security and safety is held paramount and assured.  As of now, Chief Minister Banerjee has agreed to create grievance redressal cells in hospitals, appoint a nodal police officer to look after the security of the hospital and its staff, appoint public relations teams to deal with the families of admitted patients, prevent the filing of false cases against doctors and other medical staff, that no more than two relatives be allowed inside an emergency environment, as well as set up reinforced gates at all emergency departments.  She has also agreed that bail will not be granted to the attackers of junior doctors Paribaha Mukhopadhyay and Yash Tekwani, who were thrashed and injured at the NRS Medical College last week following the death of an aged patient.  Satisfied with the chief minister's assurances, the junior doctors are expected to suspend their strike later this evening.  So far, five people have been arrested in connection with the beating up of the doctors.  Doctors had earlier demanded that their meeting with the chief minister take place before the media; however, the state government ruled it out, but assured that the proceedings of the meeting would be recorded.


theirishtimes--2019-02-20--Health professionals will have to declare overseas convictions

Doctors and other healthcare professionals will have to declare any convictions or criminal sanctions they have before being allowed to register in the State, under new legislation published today.  Disciplinary inquiries in other jurisdictions can be used as admissible evidence in Irish fitness-to-practise proceedings, under the new proposals.  However, fitness-to-practise committees will also be given the power to order that some or all of the information at a hearing not be published.  All disciplinary sanctions imposed on doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists and other regulated health professionals will be published to ensure the public has access to this information, under the Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2019.  Practitioners will have the right to appeal to the High Court even minor sanctions of advice, admonishment or censure against them. Currently there is no right of appeal for these sanctions.  The Bill addresses issues relating to professional qualifications that are likely to arise after Brexit. Presuming the UK leaves the EU in March, the professional qualifications directive, which provides for the mutual recognition of qualifications, will apply to it as a third country rather than as a full member state.  As a third country it will no longer report restrictions on practice on health professionals as happens now under an alert system of the directive. Irish authorities are concerned about the potential information vacuum this could create, given the volume of movement of health workers between Ireland and the UK.  To ensure Irish regulators are aware of any restriction applying to a particular health worker, the Bill provides for practitioners to declare any such issue when registering here.  Restriction or prohibitions on practice are also being included as a ground for complaint under fitness to practise.  Welcoming the publication of the Bill, Minister for Health Simon Harris said it was an important piece of legislation both for the public and for health professionals.  “It will offer patients reassurance knowing they have information about all sanctions imposed on health professionals they are seeing, while also giving health professionals the right to appeal minor sanctions.”  The Bill, which has been approved by Cabinet, also includes amendments designed to speed up disciplinary processes for doctors, nurses and midwives, and reduced delays in establishing interview panels for consultant posts, which is having a knock-on effect on recruitment.


latimes--2019-07-16--California doesnt have enough doctors To recruit them the state is paying off medical school debt

California doesn't have enough doctors. To recruit them, the state is paying off medical school debt

Bryan Ruiz’s hands were still shaking an hour after he learned the $300,000 in medical school loans he took out to become a dentist were being wiped away by California taxpayers.  A year out of medical school, Ruiz thought it would take decades to pay off the debt, particularly since he had accepted a less lucrative position at a community health clinic that primarily serves low-income Medi-Cal patients.  “This really is life-changing,” he said.  Ruiz was among the first physicians and dentists told this month that their medical school debt was being paid off by the state. In exchange, doctors must pledge that at least 30% of their caseloads will be devoted to Medi-Cal patients for five years.  “He’s committed his life to this kind of service, and that’s what our loan repayment program is about,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said of Ruiz at a news conference last week touting healthcare investments in the newly enacted California budget. “If you support providing quality care to Medi-Cal patients, we are going to support your journey by providing a little bit of relief on these loans.”  Federal, state and local governments have increasingly turned to loan forgiveness programs as the competition for doctors has become more aggressive nationwide. Two-thirds of physicians finishing their training said they’d been contacted more than 50 times by job recruiters, according to a 2019 survey by physician staffing firm Merritt Hawkins.  California will spend $340 million paying off doctors’ debts using Proposition 56 tobacco tax revenue. This month, the state offered its first awards — 40 dentists received $10.5 million in debt relief while 247 physicians received $58.6 million.  California’s program is aimed at increasing the number of doctors who see Medi-Cal patients in a state experiencing a shortage of healthcare providers. The number of physicians who accept Medi-Cal patients — and the low reimbursement rate that comes with them — hasn’t kept pace with the rapid expansion of the state’s healthcare program for the poor, which covers 1 in 3 residents in the state.  “The loan repaying program is huge,” said Sandra R. Hernández, a physician and president of the California Health Care Foundation. “You have a lot of young physicians who graduate from medical school with tremendous debt. We think this is a good long-term win for getting physicians to serve in under-served areas.”  As California’s doctor shortage has grown, the state’s residents are growing older, with an aging baby boomer population increasing the need for healthcare workers. And one-third of the state’s doctors and nurse practitioners are baby boomers who are reaching retirement age, further depleting the workforce.  Those trends led healthcare, education and business leaders to form the California Future Health Workforce Commission in 2017 to study the state’s impending healthcare crisis, with the task force ultimately proposing a $3-billion plan over the next 10 years to address it.  Newsom included $300 million in new money to address the provider shortage in the budget he signed last month for the fiscal year that began July 1. Much of that money was allocated to training and recruitment programs recommended by the commission, including an additional $120 million for loan forgiveness incentives that’s meant to ensure physicians and dentists take on Medi-Cal patients.  But some costly and politically fraught recommendations by the commission will not be tackled this year, which could slow the state’s efforts to fix gaps in healthcare access. Among the commission’s recommendations was legislation to allow nurse practitioners, who undergo more training than registered nurses, to care for patients on their own without a physician’s supervision.  Commission member Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) authored the bill that would have allowed nurse practitioners more autonomy. But it stalled in May amid pushback from the California Medical Assn., the lobbying arm of doctors in the state. Wood said he would revive the bill next year.  The commission’s report said the state would have seen an immediate, substantial increase of nurse practitioners working in rural areas in 2020 had the bill moved forward and, over time, would have saved hundreds of millions of dollars by treating conditions that otherwise result in trips to the emergency room.  “California is facing a perfect storm — elderly who will need care and a lack of healthcare providers,” said Karen Bradley, president of the California Assn. for Nurse Practitioners. “This bill would have allowed nurse practitioners to be part of the solution.”  Many more doctors will need to be trained in California if the state wants to meet the healthcare needs of residents, said Janet Coffman, a professor at Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at UC San Francisco.  More than 60% of California’s students who attended medical school in 2017 left the state for their schooling, according to the commission’s report. The national average of medical school students per 100,000 people is 30.3; California has 18.4 students per 100,000. That’s the third-lowest rate among the 45 states that have at least one medical school.  Despite this, California has made relatively few investments in increasing enrollment at medical schools in the state. The only new public medical school to open in California in the last four decades is at UC Riverside.  “And it’s relatively small,” Coffman said. “We’ve expanded class sizes in other medical schools some but not much.”  State Sen. Richard Roth (D-Riverside) introduced a bill this year to give UC Riverside $80 million to construct a new facility for its medical school, allowing the campus to double its enrollment from 250 students to 500 students. But the money was not included in the recently signed budget, and the bill was amended to exclude the funds. Instead, the budget promises only a future bond to pay for the construction.  Lawmakers have approved spending some $115 million for residency training positions, which the health commission says have historically been underfunded. Included in that is $33 million for California’s Song-Brown Program, which funds residency programs that increase diversity among students studying to be doctors or that serve high-needs areas of the state.  The budget made the funding for that program permanent for future years, a key priority for the commission.  “A significant down payment has been made with this budget,” said David Carlisle, president of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles and a member of the healthcare commission. “It represents a significant realization and response to the challenges that exist. We have to continue to work on this topic, because there is more work to be done.”  Follow @MelodyGutierrez on Twitter and sign up for our Essential Politics newsletter.


latimes--2019-12-02--More than 400 UCLA medical school students get a free education thanks to major donation

Medical school had put Allen Rodriguez in debt before he was even accepted.  The testing, applications and interviews alone cost Rodriguez thousands that he’s still paying off on his credit cards. So it was a relief — and a deciding factor — when his 2014 UCLA medical school acceptance came with more good news: a full scholarship, funded by a $100-million gift from billionaire David Geffen.  The UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine announced Monday that the DreamWorks co-founder, who gave the school $100 million in 2012, has donated an additional $46 million to continue to fund merit-based scholarships so medical students do not have to take on weighty loads of debt. His UCLA donations total nearly half a billion dollars in the last two decades, much of it to the medical school.  The scholarships cover tuition and expenses, and students are told of the award when accepted to the medical school. The school expects that the $146 million will fund 414 scholarships — 20% to 30% of each class for a decade, ending with the class of 2026.  For Rodriguez, the scholarship meant he could focus his time in medical school on finding “what’s going to make me happy, not necessarily what’s going to make me money,” though he realizes he will earn more than his parents ever did regardless of specialty. The 32-year-old doctor, who graduated last year, is in his second year of residency at Scripps Mercy San Diego, in a family medicine program that offers training for doctors in both English and Spanish.  Last year, 75% of U.S. medical school graduates had accrued debt that averaged almost $200,000, according to an Assn. of American Medical Colleges survey of graduates from 150 medical schools. For California residents, tuition and fees alone at UCLA’s four-year program cost upward of $42,000 annually.  Free from the financial burden of his education, Rodriguez said, he helped raise money to fund scholarships for undocumented medical students at UCLA and advocated for statewide policy changes that would make undocumented medical students eligible for loan forgiveness.  He still has some debt, though — about $20,000 from his undergraduate years at UC Berkeley, plus about $10,000 in credit card debt and loans accumulated mostly from applying to medical school and residency programs.  “It takes so much money and time to apply that many people are priced out of it,” Rodriguez said. Medical students do tend to have higher-income parents who are more likely to have college degrees, according to surveys from the Assn. of American Medical Colleges.  Rodriguez’s parents did not attend college. Now retired, his mother owned a sign company and his father worked his way up from a warehouse job to middle management at Raytheon Co. They had some savings to help fund college, but Rodriguez and his three siblings were largely on their own. He believes diverse life experiences like his help create a workforce that can better understand and treat patient needs.  “The Geffen Scholars program is life-altering for our students and their future patients,” Dr. Kelsey Martin, dean of the Geffen School of Medicine, said in a news release. “Mr. Geffen’s generosity has remarkable ripple effects.”  Although many recipients like Rodriguez do need the financial aid, Geffen’s gift could be more socially beneficial if scholarships were based on need rather than merit or if they encouraged recipients to treat underserved communities for a period of time, said Phil Buchanan, president of the nonprofit Center for Effective Philanthropy and author of the book “Giving Done Right: Effective Philanthropy and Making Every Dollar Count,” which offers advice on donating.  “The competitive pressures among institutions of higher education have led them to emphasize merit aid, because they’re trying to win in a competition against each other rather than thinking about what is best” for society from an equity and opportunity standpoint, Buchanan said.  Geffen declined to comment on the donation via a university spokesman. The medical school bears his name after a $200-million gift in 2002, and in addition to this scholarship he donated $100 million in 2015 to start a private school meant in part to serve the children of UCLA faculty members.  UCLA is not the only school to seek out large donations for its medical students. Last year New York University’s School of Medicine announced that it was raising $600 million from private donors to cover tuition for all students.  Most medical school students who gain acceptance have one to three schools to choose from, said Geoffrey Young, senior director of student affairs and programs for AAMC. As a former admissions committee member at three schools, including the Medical College of Georgia, he said, “If we could use scholarship money to entice someone to come to that school, I would. That’s a free market.”  Geffen was clear that he wanted to use merit-based scholarships to attract the best potential doctors to the school, said UCLA Health Sciences Vice Chancellor Dr. John Mazziotta. Other students do have access to need-based scholarships, and Mazziotta said his ultimate goal is to start an endowment that would fund UCLA medical school for all students “forever” — an endeavor that would take upward of $1 billion, he said.  Rodriguez said he would still have pursued medical school without the scholarship — but probably not at UCLA. He might have found a program in a city with a lower cost of living, or would have chosen a M.D.-PhD program, which takes double the time to complete but offers more funding for students.  And although family medicine is among the less lucrative specialties, Rodriguez feels he has made the right choice.  “I just want to go where the need is high and where my work will make a difference,” he said, “where if I wasn’t there, it wouldn’t be as good.”


theguardianuk--2019-06-19--Women outperform men after Japan medical school stops rigging exam scores

Women have outperformed their male counterparts in entrance examinations for a medical school in Japan that last year admitted rigging admission procedures to give men an unfair advantage.  Juntendo University in Tokyo said that of the 1,679 women who took its medical school entrance exam earlier this year, 139, or 8.28%, had passed. The pass rate among 2,202 male candidates was 7.72%.  It was the first time in seven years that the pass rate among women was higher than among men, the Asahi Shimbun reported.  The university attributed the exam results to its decision to “abolish the unfair treatment of female applicants” after last year’s revelations.  Juntendo was one of several medical schools that were found to have manipulated exam results to give first-time male applicants an advantage over women and others who had previously failed the exam.  The dean of the medical school, Hiroyuki Daida, initially attempted to justify the practice, saying women matured faster than men and had better communication skills. “In some ways, this was a measure designed to help male applicants,” he told reporters.  The sexist admissions policy drew widespread criticism after the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper revealed in August last year that Tokyo medical college had rigged exam scores for more than a decade to favour male candidates, citing concerns that women who went on to become doctors would leave the profession to have children.  Last month, the medical school said female applicants had performed slightly better than men this year after gender-based anomalies in the admissions procedure were removed.  The pass rate among women at Tokyo medical school was 20.4%, 0.4 percentage points higher than among male candidates, the university said, according to the Japan Times. The success rate the previous year, when the discriminatory marking practice was still in place, was just 2.9 % for women and 9% for men.  In 2016, women accounted for just 21.1% of all doctors in Japan, the lowest level among nations belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Among G7 countries, Britain had the highest proportion, at 47.2%, followed by Germany, France and Canada.  The medical school scandal reinforced claims of institutional sexism in the Japanese workplace and education, frustrating efforts by the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to create a society “in which women can shine”.  While women’s representation in the workplace is rising, Japan compares poorly with other countries in promoting women to senior positions. Many female employees face discrimination when trying to return to work after giving birth.