21stcenturywire--2019-09-20--Surveillance State Blacklisting and the Secret Habit Employers Cant Seem to Kick

Surveillance State: Blacklisting and the Secret Habit Employers Can’t Seem to Kick

While we’ve seen other reports of this type of state agency behaviour before, this one is still particularly disturbing, as it reveals a state security apparatus which acts as a law unto itself, very clearly in the service of an unelected oligarchy.  This article is part of a series we are publishing from the ‘State of Surveillance’ report written by BigBrotherWatch, the civil liberties organisation. Much of the mainstream media have completely ignored its findings. Regular readers of TruePublica know we have published many reports and articles over the last four years relating to state surveillance (database) as we regard it to be a crucial battleground of our civil liberty. Today, it is a very serious worry that our entire mechanism of democracy is being undermined by excessive and uncontrolled state surveillance. This disproportionate obsession by the government and its agencies inhibits the fundamental ability of democratic rights to be exercised and amply demonstrates the thin ground Britain’s democracy stands on.  Phil Chamberlain is the Head of Department of Film & Journalism at the University of the West of England where he is responsible for more than a dozen undergraduate and postgraduate programmes as well as the Digital Cultures Research Centre. He teaches investigative journalism and his research interests cover surveillance, corporate discourses and court reporting. Phil has 20 years’ experience as a freelance journalist with working for newspapers, magazines and NGOs providing investigative news and feature stories. He co-authored Blacklisted: the secret battle between big business and union activists and is the author of Drones and Journalism: how the media is making use of unmanned aerial vehicles. Here is his report on state surveillance, employer blacklisting and the consequences of a state often out of control.  In 1987, Conservative MP Ken Warren wrote to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher attaching a list of 270 names of alleged members of the left-wing organisation Militant. He demanded the security services investigate to ensure that none of those on the list were placed in sensitive positions in the civil service. Warren’s McCarthyite intervention piqued the interest of a secret Whitehall committee called Subversion in Public Life (SPL).  Made up of senior civil servants from different departments along with MI5 and Special Branch representatives, SPL analysed the supposedly subversive threat to the machinery of government. While Warren may have worried about 270 alleged Militant members, the committee noted that his list “added little to our present knowledge; indeed it contains a number of known inaccuracies.” A report from the committee the previous year had estimated there were 50,000 potential subversives in the country and identified 1,420 who worked in the civil service.  The majority of these were members of left-wing organisations but far-right supporters were also listed along with members of anarchist groups and “black and Asian racial extremists”. The Department of Health and Social Security recorded the biggest number of subversives within its ranks with 360 (including six fascists). The perceived infiltration of civil service unions by these groups was a constant source of concern.  Margaret Thatcher asked that the SPL also look into local government, education and the NHS which proved more problematic because of the devolved nature of those organisations. One solution was that education inspectors were asked to supply MI5 with details on teachers. The SPL was not merely a bureaucratic exercise but a blacklist. Departments were encouraged to not only record these individuals but ensure they were not put in sensitive roles or moved to posts where they could be isolated. There is no indication the individuals were ever informed about their status; indeed the chairman of the SPL warned of the intense embarrassment if its activities became public knowledge.  In 1985, the same year the SPL began its work, it had been revealed that theBBC was running a secret political vetting operation with MI5. Meanwhile, the Economic League, again with close links to the security services, was at the height of its powers even if its veil of secrecy was slipping. It was paid by corporations to keep files on hundreds of thousands of people deemed subversives and to ensure they could not get employment.  The SPL was apparently wound up in 1988 and the Cabinet Office has refused to comment further other than to say that it is an historical matter. But blacklisting is the employment habit the UK cannot seem to kick. Building firm boss Cullum McAlpine was keen not to let blacklisting resources go to waste. He paid £10,000 to the Economic League for several thousand personal files covering the construction sector and set up one of the league’s investigators and an admin assistant in a discrete office in the West Midlands.  Until it was exposed in 2009, his organisation the Consulting Association was taking thousands of pounds in fees from the country’s biggest building firms to run a secret blacklisting operation.  Engineer Dave Smith was one of the workers on the firm’s files and his experience is typical. What initiated his file was taking part in action to recover unpaid wages and becoming a safety representative – in other words, legitimate trade union activity. The file details what car he drove, his family members, as well as jobs he applied for. The result was immediate and catastrophic; work dried up and Dave was eventually forced to leave the industry. He never knew his file existed until the Information Commissioner raided the Consulting Association, seized some of its material and then made it available to the subjects. Dave’s story is repeated many times over but often with worse results. Marriages broke up under the strain of financial insecurity, people were forced to move abroad and their health was affected.  It appears that one feature of such operations is their tendency to expand. Just as the SPL was asked to look into local government and schools, the Economic League had considered keeping lists of football hooligans and people with HIV. The Consulting Association was not limited to the construction sector but had files on people working in local politics, academia, journalism, the railways and the offshore oil industry. The latter sector had a notorious policy called ‘Not Required Back’ which was stamped on the files of many a trade union member who had spoken out.  The Consulting Association also had files on several hundred environmental activists and here the overlap between the private sector and the state was most explicit. Along with anti-fascist activists, environmental activists were of particular interest to the security services. An officer in one of the police’s surveillance units even gave a presentation on its work targeting animal rights groups to the Association. The files, along with evidence from police whistleblower Peter Francis, have revealed that undercover police officers infiltrated trade unions, black justice campaigns and environmental groups among others.  Francis was a member of the Special Branch’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) set up in 1968 and which only folded after being exposed in 2008. Some SDS officers had sexual relations with activists and even children in the course of intruding on and manipulating activists’ lives. After reviewing evidence from the files and other sources, the Blacklist Support Group complained to the Metropolitan Police in 2012 with six specific allegations about collusion between the state and the private sector.  In 2018 the Metropolitan Police finally admitted, “Sections of the policing community throughout the UK had both overt and covert contact with external organisations, including the Economic League, for reasons stemming from crime reporting and the maintenance of public order and the prevention of terrorism.” This statement only acknowledged what had become incontestable. However, the Metropolitan Police rejected other complaints and specifically exonerated the Special Demonstration Squad from colluding with blacklisters.  The police’s statement deployed a well-worn defence for blacklisting operations – that they are about crime or terrorism.  The Cabinet Office files on the Subversion in Public Life committee explicitly separated out actions to counter terrorism from its remit and made no claim to tackle illegal behaviour. An analysis of the Consulting Association files shows that time and again, the first activity to trigger monitoring was an individual raising health and safety concerns. It was legitimate union activity that resulted in people being surveilled – criminal activity was mentioned in only a handful of the more than 3,000 files it held.  It is worth noting that the activities of the SDS, the Consulting Association and the Economic League only ended after public exposure. There is little sense of a culture that sees such operations as wrong; only in getting caught. It took seven years for blacklisted construction workers to win a financial settlement and only one person was ever punished by the courts for their role in the scandal.  The SDS’ activities are currently the subject of a judge-led inquiry which is into its third year but yet to even begin taking evidence. Without an effective inquiry that the people affected can trust, there is little chance of change or indeed justice. Meanwhile, the monitoring of workers, unionists and especially whistleblowers continues.  In 2015, Sir Robert Francis QC produced “Freedom To Speak Up”, a report into whistleblowing in the NHS. Francis reported that many people spoke of fears that whistleblowing would have a detrimental effect on their career and that there was evidence of “vindictive treatment” of people who raised concerns.  Dr Minh Alexander worked for 14 years as a consultant psychiatrist and had raised concerns over certain medical practices. She was made redundant in 2013 and reached a settlement with her employer. Alexander is one of many NHS staff who fear their careers have been ended because their decision to raise concerns has been recorded and shared. “The suppression of staff who speak up is a very old problem and will not go away until decision-makers truly accept that it is better to run a service in which staff and patients have a voice,” Alexander said.  Similarly, Eileen Chubb was forced to quit her job as a care assistant after raising concerns about patient safety. She now runs Compassion in Care which campaigns for better care for the elderly.  Official figures for 2017/18 showed that more than 350 whistleblowers in the NHS experienced repercussions after coming forward, including negative effects on their careers. Meanwhile, the Care Quality Commission, which helps regulate the sector, has been accused of revealing the details of dozens of whistleblowers to employers – a claim it denies.  Far from an historic concern and one limited to particular trades, the monitoring and blacklisting of workers remains the dirty secret of UK labour relations.  In one of the final acts of the Brown government, blacklisting was made illegal in 2010. As with pretty much every other state attempt to deal with the issue, it was a failure. Employment expert Professor Keith Ewing from King’s College London set out at length why the regulations are full of holes.  A key flaw is that it is a civil rather than criminal offence with the onus on the victim to prove their case; and since the victim is often up against a corporation, the balance of power is firmly against them. Blacklisting is a stark reminder of that imbalance of power but also that there is often no line between state and private, corporate and civil. The undercover police officers manipulating female activists into relationships were often seeking to protect corporate interests rather than prevent criminal wrongdoing. Indeed, in some cases, it is alleged they acted as agent provocateurs to incite wrongdoing.  There are three areas that desperately need improvement in order to tackle this scandal. Firstly, we need a properly funded public inquiry that can tease apart the links between the various people involved in blacklisting. Too much of the information has had to be pieced together by a few journalists, lawyers, MPs and many campaigners. Theresa May launched the judge-led Undercover Policing inquiry following revelations about the Special Demonstration Squad broken first by The Guardian. It has been little more than a disaster with no evidence heard in its first three years and participants boycotting the process because of a lack of trust. It is not expected to report until 2023.  Secondly, organisations charged with protecting personal information need better resourcing. Without the Information Commissioner’s Office, the secret blacklist files would not have been made public. The ICO needs the toughest tools if it is going to take on the biggest state and corporate interests and their digital archives. Thirdly, we need to see the delivery of justice.  It is worth pointing out that only one person was ever convicted for their part in the scandal. The company directors, human resources managers, police officers, civil servants and regulators who authorised, ignored or participated received no sanction. A survey by Building magazine found that 78% of human resources officials named as complicit in blacklisting were still employed four years after their role was revealed. There is a culture of acceptance that secret political surveillance and the sharing of information has always been with us and always will. Changing that culture will require a change in how power is distributed in society. It sounds too ambitious an objective. However, in 2009 a few dozen people affected by the blacklist gathered in a room by Parliament and decided that they wanted to do something about it. Seven years later they forced a multi-million-pound settlement from transnational construction firms. Where do we want to be in the next seven years?


abcnews--2019-01-15--On Day 25 of government shutdown 800000 federal employees are without pay

On Day 25 of government shutdown, 800,000 federal employees are without pay

It's Day 25 of the longest-ever government shutdown – with no end in sight to the political standoff.  Some 800,000 federal workers are ensnared in the shutdown showdown and many missed their first paycheck on Friday. On Monday, another one-third missed a paycheck, the American Federation of Workers estimated, and on Tuesday, the last batch of federal workers missed theirs – including, for the first time in history, members of the Coast Guard.  Here's a look at how different parts of the country are being affected.  Tuesday marked the first time members of the armed forces missed paychecks because of a government shutdown.  Commandant of the Coast Guard Adm. Karl Schultz issued a stark warning over Twitter: "Today you will not be receiving your regularly scheduled paycheck. To the best of my knowledge, this marks the first time in our Nation’s history that servicemembers in a U.S. Armed Force have not been paid during a lapse in appropriations," he said.  In a message to the men and women of the Coast Guard, Schultz also announced some good news: USAA,a financial services company for members of the military and their family, will donate $15 million that will be distributed to the military and civilian workforce in need of assistance.  The money will be distributed by the Coast Guard Mutual Assistance and the American Red Cross.  "Stay the course, stand the watch, and serve with pride. You are not, and will not, be forgotten," Schultz wrote.  A federal judge on Tuesday denied requests from unions representing air traffic controllers and other employees required to work through the government shutdown that they either be paid or have the option to skip work while missing paychecks.  U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled to keep the status quo, saying that an order allowing employees considered essential to skip work would be "chaotic" in a best-case scenario and "catastrophic" at worst.  Lawyers representing the National Air Traffic Controllers Association had sued the Trump administration to get their controllers, thousands of whom continue to work and just missed a paycheck, be paid while working during the shutdown in order for them to remain "laser-focused" on their job guiding more than 40,000 flights through the nation's airspace every day.  Lawyers for the labor unions, including National Treasury Employees Union, argued withholding pay while forcing labor is unconstitutional and violated U.S. labor laws.  Leon said only Congress can appropriate the funds to pay federal workers and would not force the Treasury Department to allocate funds to the furloughed employees.  With President Donald Trump and Democratic congressional leaders stalled over talks on a border wall, the president invited rank-and-file members of Congress to meet with him Tuesday over lunch at the White House.  But no rank-and-file House Democrats took the president up on the offer. Trump's move was seen on Capitol Hill as an effort to split House Democrats and pressure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to make concessions in her standoff with the president over funding his proposed border wall. Democratic leaders warned members Trump could use them as props.  White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said House Republicans invited would be there.  “Unfortunately, no Democrats will attend. The President looks forward to having a working lunch with House Republicans to solve the border crisis and reopen the government. It’s time for the Democrats to come to the table and make a deal,” Sanders said in a statement.  Read more from ABC News' Jordyn Phelps and Benjamin Siegel.  In an effort to keep U.S. airspace safe, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is making a dramatic move and calling an additional 1,700 FAA aviation safety inspectors back to work this week.  According to an FAA spokesperson, there were 500 safety inspectors working without pay as of last Friday. With the recall, the number of inspectors will be up to 2,200 by Friday Jan. 18.  FAA aviation safety inspectors investigate and enforce safety regulations and standards, which includes inspecting aircraft and related equipment for airworthiness. After proactively conducting a risk assessment, the FAA determined that it was appropriate to recall inspectors and engineers after three weeks of the shutdown, a spokesperson told ABC News.  Including the recalled engineers, the number FAA safety employees working without pay by this Friday will total 3,113.  The Food and Drug Administration confirmed this week that hundreds of food inspectors will go back to work after the agency missed some routine inspections of high-risk facilities during the shutdown.  FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb tweeted that about 400 staff were coming back to work, mostly inspectors and support staff that will resume inspecting high-risk food production facilities and facilities that manufacture drugs and medical devices.  Days ago, Gottlieb called the shutdown "one of the most significant operational challenges in FDA’s recent history.”  Food banks around the country near military bases or in cities with a lot of federal government employees have been stepping up to help the furloughed or unpaid workers during the government shutdown.  Over the weekend in Washington, a local food bank said 2,200 furloughed federal employees received produce and other items at pop-up locations. In Dallas, a local church is handing out gift cards to furloughed employees.  In cities like Tampa, Chicago, Rochester, Minnesota and Ogden, Utah, food banks are setting up pantries or expanding hours so federal employees can pick up groceries or even pet food.  Dozens of immigration courts remain shuttered across the country this week and tens of thousands of hearings were canceled because of the ongoing government shutdown, a situation that is likely to add hundreds of cases to an already crushing backlog, according to analysts.  It's an ironic twist in Trump's desire to secure the U.S.-Mexico border by building a $5 billion wall and send people through established ports of entry.  The number of asylum and other immigration-related cases facing U.S. judges has skyrocketed in the past two decades, creating a backlog of more than 800,000 active cases before the shutdown began, according to data compiled by Syracuse University, based on Justice Department records.  Syracuse University estimated on Monday that nearly 43,000 immigration court hearings on a variety of matters, including evidence examination and basic scheduling, have been canceled. As many as 100,000 people could be impacted if the shutdown continues through the end of the month.  Aaron Reichlin Melnick, a policy analyst with the American Immigration Council, said that he estimates for every day the shutdown continues, another 500 immigration court cases that would have been completed are compounding the backlog.  Transportation Security Administration officials are closing more security lanes amid increased callouts from officers not being paid during the government shutdown.  The absence rate at TSA on Monday was 7.6 percent, up from 3.2 percent on the same day last year, according to TSA spokesperson Michael Bilello. Major airports in cities such as Atlanta and Houston "are exercising their contingency plans to uphold aviation security standards." That means condensing TSA officers into fewer checkpoints and screening lanes to uphold security standards at the cost of longer lines.  Queues at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport security extended more than an hour long on Monday morning, causing travelers to miss flights, according to ABC-affiliate WSB.  Airport screeners, air traffic controllers and many FAA inspectors and engineers did not get paid this week despite going to work.  ABC News' Jordyn Phelps, Elizabeth McLaughlin, Stephanie Ebbs, Quinn Owen, Jeffrey Cook and Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.


abcnews--2019-01-17--Shutdown hits US diplomats overseas even as State Department calls employees back

Shutdown hits US diplomats overseas, even as State Department calls employees back

The State Department announced Thursday it was calling back nearly all staff next week and paying them for a two-week period, but a growing number of U.S. diplomats are frustrated by the partial government shutdown and the damage it’s inflicting on their jobs and America’s standing abroad.  While they’ll be paid for this pay period, several diplomats are calling on the administration to fully reopen the government, as they struggle to interact with counterparts abroad and pay their own bills. Employees have been either furloughed and sent home or are working with no pay and limited in what kind of work they can conduct.  “Morale is pretty rock bottom,” said a Foreign Service officer based in Europe, “And this is among a really dedicated, really patriotic bunch of people who are unfortunately getting these messages that what they’re doing is not important or that they’re not valuable enough to have somebody figure out how to get them paid.”  Amid an eight-country tour of the Middle East, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sought to assure his department’s rank and file serving at missions overseas and working to support his trip while not being paid because of the government shutdown.  “We’re doing our best to make sure it doesn’t impact our diplomacy,” Pompeo said of the shutdown while in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.  “Morale is good,” he added, and said, staff “understand that there are squabbles in Washington, but their mission remains, their duties continue, and they’re executing them.”  While the plan to pay staffers has changed for the next two weeks, the uncertainty of what could come after that -- if the shutdown continues for that long -- has unnerved diplomats and their foreign counterparts.  “It is an embarrassment to the country. I have had multiple [foreign counterpart] contacts asking how does this happen in the U.S.,” said another Foreign Service officer.  Approximately 23 percent of U.S. employees overseas and 40 percent in the U.S. have been furloughed, according to a State Department spokesperson. But because of the shutdown, employees have been limited in their ability to meet with foreign counterparts or provide assistance to U.S. companies working in their host country. They’ve been forced to cancel or decline invitations to events or meetings.  “You don’t sort of put diplomacy on hold, and I think that we’re going to look back at this period with a lot of regret for sort of missed opportunities,” said the diplomat based in Europe.  That’s because the department is forced to prioritize “the protection of the United States’ critical national security interests and the safety of U.S. citizens abroad” over other functions, according to the spokesperson, who is among those still working but without pay. Even with the new pot of funding for salaries, department activity will be limited to this scope, with limits on employee travel and engagement.  That pay will also only run for the next two weeks before the department will have to consult with Congress on moving additional funds to cover salaries. In addition, employees will not yet be paid for the first month of the shutdown -- until fiscal year 2019 appropriations are approved and back pay can kick in.  While the department could have taken this step to pay employees as soon as the shutdown started, it didn’t largely because no one anticipated the shutdown to last this long.  "It has become clear as the lapse has continued to historic lengths that we need our full team to address the myriad critical issues requiring U.S. leadership around the globe and to fulfill our commitments to the American people," a State Department spokesperson told ABC News. "We are also deeply concerned about growing financial hardship and uncertainty affecting Department employees whose salaries and well-being are affected by the unprecedented length of the lapse."  Even amid the shutdown, staff had to support Pompeo’s week-long Middle East tour while not being paid -- a trip that required more staff than usual to work for his wife Susan, who traveled with him and had her own schedule of meetings and activities. The secretary said his wife was on "an important mission ... trying to help the State Department be better" by touring embassy facilities and living conditions and making recommendations for improvements.  Consular operations like visa and passport services have remained open because they are supported by the fees folks pay for them, but some could be at risk of closing or scaling back hours if they do not have sufficient fees.  Certain operations within the agency have also remained open because of residual funds, including Diplomatic Security, Overseas Buildings Operations, and International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.  But with fewer employees in the office, staff have had to pick up more work. Conversations have been turned to what tasks should be prioritized, instead of getting that greater amount of work done with less staff, one official in Washington said, adding, “People are starting to snap at each other in meetings.”  Diplomats sometimes spend a year in language training ahead of a new posting, but those classes have also halted -- even though diplomats will ship out to post at the same time. That means they will be less prepared when their position starts later this year.  While some federal employees in the U.S. have turned to side gigs, those based at U.S. missions abroad are not allowed to do so.  The shutdown could also start to pose a security risk, some have warned.  “We have tens, if not thousands of USG [U.S. government] employees with security clearances not getting a paycheck. Can only imagine that the Russians, Chinese and others are licking their lips at the prospect of there being a lot of people in need of cash,” said one U.S. diplomat based in Eastern Europe.  “USG employees are so incredibly dedicated and patriotic, and here our own government is putting them in a precarious situation,” they added.  Department employees are expected to receive back pay after the shutdown ends.  One U.S. diplomat quipped that even quitting would be difficult because the shutdown means that there is no one working to fund moving families home -- something guaranteed to all diplomats.


abcnews--2019-01-17--Tens of thousands more federal employees called back to work during shutdown

As the longest-ever government shutdown reached Day 27 Thursday, the number of federal employees working without pay stood at 450,000 -- and that number could top half a million in the coming days, as the Trump administration continues to recall tens of thousands of workers after almost four weeks of shuttered doors at vital agencies.  The negative impact on the U.S. economy, which the White House now says will be double its original projections, is already affecting places like Colorado, where craft breweries are awaiting government approval on beers, and businesses such as private contracting firms, some of which are now without work because they were on projects with government agencies. Unlike furloughed federal workers, private contractors aren't guaranteed any back-pay.  The effect on contractors, Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett said Tuesday, was one reason the White House upped its new estimate of the shutdown's cost.  On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed a bill requiring back-pay for furloughed federal workers and those called in during the shutdown.  There are no high-level talks between the president and Congressional leadership planned for Thursday, but during public events, both Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have traded barbs. The impasse over the president's demand for billions to fund his proposed border wall, which Democrats reject, continues.  Here's a look at the effects.  800,000 federal workers are going without pay during the shutdown. Some 450,000 are now required to report to work, and tens of thousands more will be returning after recent announcements from the Trump administration.  At the IRS, 36,000 employees were asked to return to deal with tax season, About 1,700 FAA aviation safety inspectors were told to return after the agency ran preliminary safety tests and about 2,500 employees at the Agriculture Department will briefly return to process farm loans.  Why don't they strike? Federal employees are prohibited from doing so and can get fired if they don’t show up. What’s more, many federal employees like their jobs and think the work they do is important. But they can call in sick, which appears to be the tactic by many TSA workers. Agency officials there told ABC News they think the sickouts aren’t because of illness or politics, but dealing with financial hardship.  Trump promotes border wall and blasts Pelosi in speech at the Pentagon  Speaking at the Pentagon Thursday, in a speech that was billed to be about missile defense strategy, the president also pushed his border wall and blasted Congressional Democrats.  “The federal government remains shut down because Congressional Democrats refuse to approve border security," Trump said. "We're going to have border security."  Trump specifically went after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and accused her of refusing to let Democrats negotiate.  “While many Democrats in the House and Senate would like to make a deal, Speaker Pelosi will not let them negotiate. The party has been hijacked by the open borders fringe within the party, the radical left, becoming the radical Democrats,” he said.  But Democrats have generally remained united behind Pelosi in their refusal to negotiate the president’s border security demands until the government is reopened -- despite permission from Pelosi for her rank-and-file members to have direct discussions with the White House.  During a closed-door meeting with Democratic leadership Monday night, Pelosi even jokingly encouraged the encounter, according to an aide in the room.  “They can see what we’ve been dealing with. And they’ll want to make a citizen’s arrest,” Pelosi joked, according to the aide.  On Tuesday, the president invited a group of rank-and-file Republican and Democrat members to the White House for lunch, but no Democrats attended. Then, Wednesday, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers from the House Problem Solvers Caucus sat down with the president at the White House. The seven Democrats who attended the meeting released a statement ahead of the meeting that they accepted the president’s invitation in order to relay their message that the government must be reopened as a precondition for further in-earnest conversations.  Read more related White House coverage from ABC News' Rachel Scott and Jordyn Phelps.  Pelosi says Trump's wall is "imaginary" but her "bills are real"  Groundhog Day came a few weeks early on Capitol Hill, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi again urged Trump to end the partial government shutdown, a day after she threw a wrench into an invitation to the president to deliver the State of the Union on Jan. 29.  “This is directly related to our security,” Pelosi said in a press conference on the 27th day of the lapse in appropriations. “Trump's wall is imaginary but my bills are real.”  “The date of the State of the Union is not a sacred day. That's not constitutionally required. It's not any president’s birthday,” Pelosi said. “It is a date that we agree to. It could have been the week later and it could be the week later it's government is open.”  Asked whether she is trying to deny the president of a platform to make the case for his wall by urging Trump to delay the address until after government is reopened, Pelosi focused on workers who have been denied paychecks.  “Let's get a date when government is open. Let's pay the employees,” Pelosi continued. “He thinks it is okay not to pay people who do work. I don't. My caucus doesn't either.”  Pelosi said she has not received a response to her letter to the president, and said she’d “cross that bridge when we come to it” if Trump insists on sticking to Jan. 29.  “We haven't heard. Very silent more than 24 hours. Have you heard? We haven't heard,” Pelosi said.  On Wednesday, in a closed-press event at the White House, the president signed the "Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019," requiring "the compensation of government employees for wages lost, work performed, or leave used during a lapse in appropriations that begins on or after December 22, 2018."  The bill also allows "excepted employees" to use leave during the shutdown.  TSA chief: Financial hardships from shutdown prompting absences at major airports  The head of the Transportation Security Administration acknowledged to his staff on Wednesday that frontline officers are increasingly calling out of work due to financial hardship caused by the government shutdown, spokesperson Michael Bilello told ABC News.  The agency, tasked with securing the nation's aviation system, reported an unscheduled absence rate of 6.1 percent of the workforce for Tuesday, up from 3.7 percent on the same day last year. Call-outs peaked on Sunday at 7.7 percent compared to 3.2 percent the same day last year.


abcnews--2019-01-23--46000 IRS employees told to work without pay Will they show up

46,000 IRS employees told to work without pay. Will they show up?

Some IRS employees are claiming they can't return to work for the upcoming tax season because of financial hardship, a major union said Wednesday, warning that others could follow in their footsteps if the government shutdown continues much longer.  That legions of IRS workers might refuse to show for work raises the prospect that Americans could see a significant slowdown in the agency's ability to process tax returns this year. It could also ratchet up pressure on President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats as budget talks remain at a standstill. The Trump administration has tried to mitigate much of the impact of the partial government shutdown by recalling workers for popular programs, such as employees who process federal farm loans and tax refunds, and reclassifying them as essential or "excepted."  "There's been a lot of anxiety in my life and the lives of my friends," said Janet Li, an IRS researcher in Washington who before the shutdown began, was working on how the agency would handle the new tax law.  With the spending lapse in its second month and employees facing their second missed paycheck, Li said that if she does receive a notice to return to work without pay, she would consider using sick leave or applying for a hardship exemption. And she knows of others who would do the same. Li was among a crowd of federal workers protesting Wednesday on Capitol Hill.  "It's to be expected," she told ABC News. "It's a bit unfair to demand people come in and not get paid."  The IRS announced last week that it would recall another 36,000 workers to process tax refunds in particular, bringing to 46,000 the number of agency employees required to show up without pay. Under the rules of a government shutdown, any federal workers deemed "essential" could be fired if they don't report to work. They are also prohibited from striking.  The agency declined Wednesday to confirm a report by The Washington Post that "hundreds" of IRS employees have filed hardship claims.  "The IRS is continuing its work in preparation for next week’s filing season," the agency said in a statement. "We are continuing our recall operations, and we continue to assess the situation at this time."  The National Treasury Employees Union said it has told IRS employees not to use the financial hardship claim as a form of protest and that "tens of thousands" of agency workers have taken its advice to "answer the call and return to work" despite the prospect of working without pay. But, the union said, some employees are telling their bosses that returning to work without a paycheck isn't feasible financially.  "After a month with no pay, real hardship does exist for IRS employees including not having the money needed to get back and forth to work or to pay for the child care necessary to return to work right now," said NTEU National President Tony Reardon. "Emergencies can occur at any time so the hardship exemption can be requested during a lapse in appropriations when an employee is suddenly unable to return to work. That is why the exemption exists."  He added: "I believe that IRS management understands the stress that employees are under and is doing its best to accommodate the very real hardships employees are experiencing."  Jenny Brown, head of a local NTEU chapter that represents some 5,000 IRS employees in Ogden, Utah, said she is getting about 10 to 15 calls a day from members asking about hardship leave, which requires a manager's approval.  "Really what we're hearing is people want to get back to work, but they want to get paid," she said.  Even if all 46,000 IRS workers show up for tax season -- which is expected to start officially next week when Jan. 28 begins to process return -- Americans could face some frustration anyway. The 46,000 IRS employees represent less than 60 percent of it's usual workforce.  And while the IRS will be adding staff to answer some questions via telephone, the agency said last week, it's warning Americans to expect "heavier call volume" and "longer wait times." Walk-in assistance centers also will remain closed, including those offices intended to help people who are victims of identity theft and are required to visit an IRS office to establish their identity.  What will remain in effect is the requirement that people pay their taxes on time, although the agency said it won't conduct any audits during the spending lapse.  "During this period, the IRS reminds taxpayers that the underlying tax laws remain in effect, and all taxpayers should continue to meet their tax obligations as normal," the IRS wrote on its website. "Individuals and businesses should keep filing their tax returns and making payments and deposits with the IRS, as they are required to do by law."  The plan comes after the White House on Jan. 7 ordered the agency to still process tax returns starting Jan. 28 and issue tax refunds as planned. A disastrous tax season wouldn't be in Trump's best interest politically. In 2017, he signed into law a massive rewrite of the tax code and Republicans were counting on Americans seeing a bump in their refund checks.  At least one top Democrat, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, has questioned whether recalling so many employees during a shutdown is legal when only the most critical employees should be called on, usually for reasons of public safety.  "The president now is going to order them to do what we think is illegal to do because he wants to act like a dictator," Hoyer told reporters earlier this month. "Federal employees are being deeply damaged by this continuing long-term shutdown."  The IRS has urged people to file electronically and go to its website with questions.  "No live telephone customer service assistance is currently available, although the IRS will be adding staff to answer some of the telephone lines in the coming days," the agency wrote last week. "Due to the heavier call volume, taxpayers should be prepared for longer wait times."  The IRS also noted earlier in the shutdown that appointments related to audits and collections would be rescheduled. The agency also said it would not process applications for groups claiming tax-exempt status.

Anne Flaherty,, Stephanie Ebbs , Quinn Owen


abcnews--2019-01-25--FBI directors angry message to employees Shutdown is unfair

FBI director's angry message to employees: Shutdown is 'unfair'

In an angry video message sent to employees on Friday, FBI Director Chris Wray had a simple message: The government shutdown, now in Day 35, is "unfair" and he knows agents are hurting.  “Making some people stay home when they don’t want to, and making others show up without pay–it’s mind-boggling, it’s short-sighted, and it’s unfair,” he said.  “It takes a lot to get me angry, but I’m about as angry as I’ve been in a long, long time. Sure, I get it. You’re public servants, and I know I can count on you to keep doing everything you can to help others, however you can," Wray said.  "But you’re also people with bills to pay. You’re also moms and dads. You’ve also got rent payments and mortgages, and utilities and car payments and gas and groceries to buy. And you can’t put those worries aside just because you serve the public,“ he said.  Wray avoided taking political sides but wanted to make clear that even as they keep serving their country, FBI employees still have to worry about paying the bills. "In this polarized environment, even seemingly straightforward statements can be hijacked by one side or the other," he said.  Top FBI officials had tried to "think outside the box" to find a way to pay employees, he said, but the effort fell short.  Wray told employees he and other bureau official weren't going to the news media to advocate for them -- but were doing that "at every level."  "I’m seeing that here at Headquarters, and I’m seeing it in the field. You're not only focused on the work. You’re focused on helping each other, in countless ways," he said.  "You’re running food pantries and donation efforts. You’re working flex schedules to take care of your families. You’re sharing job responsibilities with your colleagues. You’re gritting your teeth, getting the job done, and setting the standard for what putting the public first actually means in this environment."  “Director Wray clearly articulated the challenges confronting FBI Agents and all FBI employees. As we have said, the Director and the FBI leadership are doing all they can to fund FBI operations with increasingly limited resources, Tom O'Connor said. " The Director is correct that the FBI family comes together during a crisis, and we look forward to continuing to work with him and FBI leadership to protect the American people from criminal and terrorist threats,” O'Connor said.


abcnews--2019-01-28--Federal employees back at work facing backlogs IT issues

Federal employees back at work facing backlogs, IT issues

Hundreds of thousands of federal government employees headed back to work Monday, and their back pay is on the way, but it could be a while before it's back to business as usual.  For example, congressional sources estimate it will take at least a year for IRS to recover from unanswered taxpayer questions and other work that piled up during the shutdown.  The backlog of unanswered letters to IRS increased to 5 million pieces of mail during the shutdown and IRS is still receiving more than 700,000 pieces of a mail a day. The IRS told members of Congress last week that more than half of employees called back to work to start processing tax refunds those employees couldn't go back to work due to financial difficulties or were unreachable.  The IRS also told members of Congress 25 information technology staff left to look for other jobs every week during the shutdown.  Meanwhile, federal workers are expected to receive back pay from the 35-day government shutdown by later this week, though the exact timeline varies by agency. At some departments, payroll staff worked through the weekend to start processing checks for more than 800,000 employees who were furloughed or worked without pay during the shutdown.  Some of those employees have said they're already worried about the possibility of another shutdown in three weeks, when the temporary budget agreement between the president and Democrats in Congress is set to expire.  Employees at several agencies are being told to expect money in their accounts by Thursday, Jan. 31 -- including the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Coast Guard, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Housing and Urban Development.  National Park Service employees should also get their first paycheck with back pay on Wednesday and the rest on Friday, but many NPS staff were being paid the last several weeks after the agency announced it would tap into reserve funds to keep parks open.  Agency leaders welcomed their employees back on social media and in person as many came back to the office for the first time in weeks.  While the government officially reopened over the weekend, the Smithsonian museums and National Zoo are set to reopen on Tuesday and some national parks in remote areas may need more time to remove snow or ice before visitors can enter safely.  Federal workers will also have some logistical hurdles on their first day back at work. Some agency heads tweeted that extra resources and IT support would be available to help employees who couldn't access their computer or email during the shutdown and may now be locked out due to expired passwords.  ABC News' Anne Flaherty and Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.


abcnews--2019-11-04--McDonald's CEO pushed out after relationship with employee

McDonald's chief executive officer has been pushed out of the company after violating company policy by engaging in a consensual relationship with an employee, the corporation said Sunday.  The fast food giant said former president and CEO Steve Easterbrook demonstrated poor judgment, and that McDonald's forbids managers from having romantic relationships with direct or indirect subordinates.  In an email to employees, Easterbrook acknowledged he had a relationship with an employee and said it was a mistake.  "Given the values of the company, I agree with the board that it is time for me to move on," Easterbrook said in the email.  McDonald's board of directors voted on Easterbrook's departure Friday after conducting a thorough review. Details of Easterbrook's separation package will be released Monday in a federal filing, according to a company spokesman. He will also be leaving the company's board. Easterbrook was CEO since 2015.  McDonald's would not provide details about the employee with whom Easterbrook was involved, and an attorney for Easterbrook declined to answer questions.  The board of directors named Chris Kempczinski, who recently served as president of McDonald's USA, as its new president and CEO.  Two weeks ago, McDonald's reported a 2% drop in net income for the third quarter as it spent heavily on store remodeling and expanded delivery service. The company's share price has dropped 7.5% since, though it's still up 9.2% for the year. The burger chain also has been plagued by declining restaurant traffic.  The leadership transition is unrelated to the company's operational or financial performance, the company said in a news release.  McDonald's decision to act may be a sign of progress on workplace issues that have come to light in the #MeToo era, said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.  "Other companies don't always act on that kind of information or fire their CEO for that, and so it seems like they trying to enforce a pretty strict policy in this situation," Tobias said.  Among other challenges at its restaurants, McDonald's has faced workplace harassment charges. In May, McDonald's said it was enhancing training and offering a new hotline for workers after a labor group filed dozens of sexual harassment charges against the company.  Fight for $15, the group which filed the charges, said McDonald's response to its sexual harassment complaints has been inadequate, and "the company needs to be completely transparent about Easterbrook's firing and any other executive departures related to these issues."  Kempczinski joined McDonald's in 2015. He was responsible for approximately 14,000 McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. He was instrumental in the development of McDonald's strategic plan and oversaw the most comprehensive transformation of the U.S. business in McDonald's history, said Enrique Hernandez, chairman of McDonald's board, in a statement.


abcnews--2019-11-12--Huawei giving employees bonus for coping with US sanctions

Huawei is paying its employees bonuses totaling more than $285 million as thanks for helping the Chinese tech giant cope with U.S. sanctions that threaten its smartphone and other businesses.  Huawei scrambled to remove U.S. components from its products following curbs announced in May on access to American technology after Washington accused the company of being a security risk. It has unveiled a smartphone operating system it says can replace Google's Android if necessary.  Some 90,000 employees will share a 2 billion yuan ($285 million) bonus, or about 22,000 yuan ($3,100) each, according to a company announcement circulated Tuesday on social media. In addition, Huawei's full 180,000-member workforce will receive an additional month's salary.  Huawei Technologies Ltd. confirmed in a written statement the document was genuine but said it had no comment.  The bonuses are to "thank you for your efforts" since the announcement of U.S. sanctions, the announcement said.  Huawei, China's first global tech brand, is the biggest global maker of network gear for phone and internet companies and the No. 2 smartphone brand. The company denies U.S. accusations it is a security risk and might facilitate Chinese spying.  Washington has postponed enforcement of the curbs and U.S. officials say some sales will be permitted. But suppliers of processor chips and other vendors that depend on Huawei for billions of dollars in annual revenue still are waiting for licenses.  The larger bonus to 90,000 employees goes to people who work in chip production, research and development and manufacturing-related jobs. Those units have been most affected by efforts to overhaul Huawei's products.  Huawei can keep using Android in its smartphones but will lose access to Google's music, maps and other services.  Huawei said its sales rose 24.4% over a year earlier in the first nine months of 2019 to 610.8 billion yuan ($86 billion). However, chairman Liang Hua warned in July the company will "face difficulties" in the second half.  The company is a leader in next-generation network technology meant to support self-driving cars and other new applications. Its increased reach makes that more politically sensitive.


abcnews--2019-11-07--Chemical mixture at Buffalo Wild Wings kills 1 employee

Massachusetts police say one person has died and eight others have been hospitalized following a chemical incident at a Buffalo Wild Wings.  WHDH-TV reports officials responded to reports of a chemical reaction in the kitchen area of the restaurant in Burlington on Thursday where they found a male employee suffering from nausea.  Burlington police say in a release they believe that the employee had breathed in fumes from the cleaning agent.  The employee was taken to Lahey Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.  Police evacuated the restaurant and are urging anyone who was inside at the time and believes they may be impacted to seek immediate medical treatment.  The cause of the chemical incident remains under investigation.


abcnews--2019-11-21--Lawsuit alleges McDonald’s puts employees in physical danger

A group of employees from 13 McDonald’s restaurants in Chicago filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that the company’s drive for profits puts workers at “daily risk” of physical attack by dangerous customers.  In the lawsuit filed in Cook County court, the 17 workers say McDonald’s has failed to protect them from what they say is a “citywide and nationwide” pattern of violence and that police respond to more than 20 911 calls every day regarding Chicago McDonald’s restaurants. They cite several examples of the violence, including an incident in which a customer beat an employee with a sign and another in which a customer urinated on a worker.  “McDonald’s has failed, at a systemic level, to protect its workers from violence in the workplace,” said Danny Rosenthal, an attorney for the workers. “Throughout the country, McDonald’s workers are regularly threatened, assaulted, and injured by customers.”  McDonald’s did not respond to the lawsuit’s specific allegations, but it said in a statement that, “McDonald’s takes seriously its responsibility to provide and foster a safe working environment for our employees, and along with our franchisees, continue to make investments in training programs that uphold safe environments for customers and crew members.”  The lawsuit contends that in its effort to increase profits, McDonald’s has taken steps that have made working at its restaurants more dangerous. For example, it alleges that by lowering and tearing down physical barriers at check-out counters, the company has made it easier for dangerous customers to attack workers. McDonald’s has also ignored the “recommended practice” of designing drive-thru windows so that customers cannot crawl through them, according to the lawsuit.  Because McDonald’s does not allow workers to lock bathroom doors when they are sent there to clean them, the company puts workers at greater risk of sexual violence, the lawsuit asserts. One of the plaintiffs “was cleaning inside the men’s bathroom when men entered and exposed themselves to her in a sexual manner,” it states.  The lawsuit marks the latest in a string of legal problems for the fast food giant. McDonald’s has faced protests and dozens of lawsuits over what workers call sexual harassment at its restaurants and the company’s failure to address their complaints. Earlier this month, a former employee sued McDonald’s and one of its Michigan franchisees, alleging that the general manager did nothing to stop a co-worker from groping and physically assaulting her. And just days before that lawsuit was filed, McDonald’s fired its CEO, Steve Easterbrook, for having a consensual romantic relationship with an employee.


usnews--2019-11-15--Antenna Systems Company Promises 100 New Jobs for Maryland

SALISBURY, Md. (AP) — A startup company has announced expansion plans in Maryland that could bring 100 new jobs to Salisbury.  APEX RF Conditioning supplies distributed radio access networks, antenna systems and assemblies. The Salisbury Times reported Thursday on the expansion announced by its CEO David Chambers. His statement says the current push toward 5G deployment means now is a great time to expand.  The new jobs include engineers, technicians and assemblers. The combined payroll for the new jobs is estimated to exceed $8.5 million annually once the expansion is complete. The timeline is unclear. The Salisbury-Wicomico Economic Development Business Expansion Fund provided some financing to the company, which plans to move to Northwood Industrial Park.  Information from: The Daily Times of Salisbury, Md., http://www.delmarvanow.com/  Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


abcnews--2019-12-14--Ex-bank employee accused of taking cash from vault arrested

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Federal authorities are accusing a former Wells Fargo employee of stealing more than $88,000 in cash from the vault of a bank in North Carolina.  An indictment unsealed this week alleges 29-year-old Arlando M. Henderson took the cash from customer deposits on at least 18 occasions throughout 2019 and then rigged the books to try to hide his actions. He is accused of using the money to pay for personal expenses, including a $20,000 down payment on a 2019 Mercedes-Benz.  The Charlotte resident was arrested in San Diego Dec. 4. He faces several charges, including two counts of financial institution fraud and 19 counts of theft.  The Charlotte Observer reports the indictment alleges Henderson regularly posted on social media about his newfound riches, including photos with cash in his hands or all over the floor.  His federal public defender in California did not respond to a request for comment from the newspaper Friday.


abcnews--2019-12-17--Employers post more jobs in October in sign of solid economy

WASHINGTON -- The number of available jobs jumped in October after hitting an 18-month low the previous month, a sign the job market remains strong.  The Labor Department said Tuesday that the number of available positions rose 3.3% to nearly 7.3 million. That suggests that businesses remain confident enough in the economic outlook to create more jobs.  The figures provide the latest evidence that employers have largely shrugged off the uncertainties surrounding the U.S.-China trade war and slowing global growth. While the number of open jobs has declined from a record high of 7.6 million a year ago, they are still at a historically high level. For roughly a year and a half there have been more job postings than unemployed people.  The figures follow a healthy jobs report earlier this month that showed a surprisingly robust gain of 266,000 jobs while the unemployment rate fell to a 50-year low of 3.5%.  “The numbers should calm worries that employer demand for workers is drying up,” said Julia Pollak, labor economist at ZipRecruiter. “Rather than falling substantially, job openings now appear to have remained fairly stable for over a year.”  The number of Americans who quit their jobs also rose, though that figure remains below the peak reached in July. Quits are a good sign for the economy because most workers quit jobs for new, usually higher-paying, positions. Data compiled by the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank show that workers who switch jobs are seeing larger wage gains than those who stay. More quits can also push companies to pay more to retain their staffs.  Job openings jumped 125,000 in the retail sector, likely reflecting strong demand for temporary workers for the holiday season. The government seeks to seasonally adjust the data for those fluctuations but isn't always able to do so perfectly. October's gain was the largest increase in retail job openings since April 2018.  Manufacturers also posted slightly more open jobs after several months of decline. Finance and insurance firms and health care also posted more available positions.


activistpost--2019-01-08--CBS Series NCIS Los Angeles Episode on Microwave Weapons Being Used to Harm Employees

CBS Series, “NCIS:  Los Angeles” Episode on Microwave Weapons Being Used to Harm Employees

Earlier this week, popular long-running series, NCIS:  Los Angeles featured an episode called “The Sound of Silence”  Characters reference the ongoing media coverage of microwave weapons being suspected of harming U.S. employees at the Cuban Embassy.  Microwave weapons are nothing new .  During the 1950s, the Russians aimed microwave weapons at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. This is often referred to as the “Microwaving of the Moscow Embassy.”  “Microwave Sickness” is commonly mistaken for other illnesses.  Exposure to microwave (aka wireless or WiFi) radiation and other sources of “Electrosmog” can cause a variety of symptoms and conditions – whether it’s directed or not.  It sometimes resembles “The Flu.” Many experts strongly recommend eliminating or at least reducing exposure – especially to children and pregnant women.  Despite all of this, some health care professionals continue to ignore and/or dismiss its potential to harm patients including animals.  Wireless implants are also dangerous as they are constantly emitting radiation AND they are susceptible to hacking.  In 2004, former Vice President, Dick Cheney, had the wireless turned off on his pacemaker because he was afraid someone would try to kill him by hacking into it.  Insurance companies have refused to cover wireless radiation exposure risk for many years now.  Residents of Gateshead, England became sick after 5G wireless was installed in street lights and eventually council members were held liable.  Despite this and plenty of research that has already proven harm from exposure, there are still campaigns being promoted (including the “Race for 5G”) to install more microwave radiation emitting devices and infrastructure in the U.S., around the world, and in outer space.  Proponents insist that installing harmful technology is what’s best for humankind and the environment.  Of course, they are also being paid to do so.  For more information, visit the following websites:


activistpost--2019-01-18--Imagine if the Media Had as Much Sympathy for Small Business Owners as it Does for Federal Employees

During this partial government shutdown, it’s become nearly impossible to avoid news articles, and segments on television and radio outlining the many ways that federal employees are apparently suffering financially as a result of the partial government shutdown.  The stories are very diverse in topic. Some take a “human interest story” angle, simply looking at how the daily lives of some of these employees have been affected. Others look at the apparent injustice of the fact that some workers are “being told to work without pay.” Still other suggest that the lack of federal paychecks will drive down economic growth figures. The number of ways to cover the story is quite large, and editors and journalists are apparently looking to see how many different options they can explore.  In truth, of course, virtually no one is working “without pay” since Congress has already approved a plan to provide nearly all affected workers with back pay. Nor is is mentioned that, on average, federal workers earn 17 percent more than private sector workers of similar education levels. Also not mentioned is the fact that the unemployment rate is at a historically low level — and thus changing careers is easier now than usual.  None of this, of course, is emphasized in the many media stories on the topic. Indeed, the usual slant of the articles is that federal workers somehow suffer more greatly than private sector workers.  Just imagine, though, if the media took a similar interest in small business owners and the self-employed in general. Would we then hear about the struggles of how the local Subway franchisee struggles to make payroll in the face of government regulations and taxes? Would we hear about how the local courier company with 23 employees had to cut wages — and thus lose some of his best employees — because tariffs (i.e., taxes) on autos has driven up his costs? Would we hear about how a new increase in the minimum wage forced the local mom-and-pop hardware store to increase prices, thus driving down revenues?  Here are some of the news leads we might see see if this were the case:  EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Small business owners have cut back hours and laid off workers as the result of new minimum wage requirements that went into effect last week. Lisa Cooper, a single mother of three who opened Bob’s Bar and Grille six years ago noted she’ll have to lay off some staff and raise prices on some menu items. “It will definitely take a cut out of our revenues,” Cooper said. “It looks like I’ll have to cancel music lessons for the kids this year.”  Do You Want to Learn How to Become Financially Independent, Make a Living Without a Traditional Job & Finally Live Free?      SEATTLE, Wash. (AP) — Mandatory paid family leave mandates have left some local business owners scrambling for ways to cover employee absences. New mandates passed by the state legislature went into effect last month. Rob Hunnicut, the broker-owner of Oak Realty is unsure how his employees will react. “This is a burden that will fall on all my employees,” Hunnicut said, after a staff meeting Thursday morning. “When some employees take paid family leave, that means everyone else in the office has to pitch in to do the same amount of work. Even worse, since we have to keep paying the employees on leave, we can’t afford to bring in temp workers.” Hunnicut noted he has often provided paid leave in the past when business was brisk. “But now things are different,” Hunnicut said. “With these rigid mandates, everyone who’s left in the office, including me, will just have to do with less, including those of us who already have small children at home.”  You get the idea.  Other possibilities for stories might include:  This isn’t to say that the media never covers these topics. But it is fairly safe to say that beyond publications intended specifically for business readers, ordinary media outlets have rarely showed much interest in examining the plight of small business owners in a way similar to how they’ve been covering the effect of the current shutdown on federal workers. Rarely does mainstream coverage emphasize the daily problems that small business owners face in providing payroll for workers (and themselves), meeting customer demands, and keeping the lights on.  Moreover, business owners face these sorts of problems daily — and every time a government hands down a new regulation tax or mandate — while federal employees rarely face the sorts of uncertainties over income that are common in the private sector.


activistpost--2019-04-10--Busted Thousands of Amazon Employees Listening to Alexa Conversations

Busted: Thousands of Amazon Employees Listening to Alexa Conversations

Amazon employs thousands of people to listen in on what people around the world are saying to their Alexa digital assistant, according to what is sure to be a Congressional hearing-inspiring report by Bloomberg, which cites seven people who have worked on the program.  While their job is to “help improve” NSAlexa – which powers the company’s line of Echo speakers – the team “listens to voice recordings captured in Echo owners’ homes and offices,” which are then transcribed, annotated and fed back into the software in order to try and improve Alexa’s understanding of human speech for more successful interactions. In other words, humans are effectively helping to train Amazon’s algorithm.  The listening team is comprised of part-time contractors and full-time Amazon employees based all over the world; including India, Romania, Boston and Costa Rica.  Listeners work nine-hour shifts, with each reviewing as many as 1,000 audio clips per shift according to two employees from Amazon’s Bucharest office – located in the top three floors of the Romanian capital’s Globalworth building. The location “stands out amid the crumbling infrastructure” of the Pipera district and “bears no exterior sign advertising Amazon’s presence.”  While much of the work is boring (one worker said his job was to mine for accumulated voice data for specific phrases such as “Taylor Swift” – letting the system know that the searcher was looking for the artist), reviewers are also listening on people’s most personal moments.  Occasionally Amazon listeners come across upsetting or possibly criminal recordings – such as two workers who say they listened in on what sounded like a sexual assault.  According to the report, when things like this happen the workers will mention it in the internal chat room to “relieve stress.”  And while Amazon says that it has procedures to follow when workers hear distressing things, two of the Romania-based employees say they were told “it wasn’t Amazon’s job to interfere” when they requested guidance for such instances.  “We take the security and privacy of our customers’ personal information seriously,” said an Amazon spokesman in a statement provided to Bloomberg.  “We only annotate an extremely small sample of Alexa voice recordings in order improve the customer experience. For example, this information helps us train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems, so Alexa can better understand your requests, and ensure the service works well for everyone,” the statement continues. “We have strict technical and operational safeguards, and have a zero tolerance policy for the abuse of our system. Employees do not have direct access to information that can identify the person or account as part of this workflow. All information is treated with high confidentiality and we use multi-factor authentication to restrict access, service encryption and audits of our control environment to protect it.”  That said, Amazon does not mention the fact that humans are listening to recordings of some of the conversations picked up by Alexa. Instead, they have a generic disclaimer in their FAQ that says “We use your requests to Alexa to train our speech recognition and natural language understanding systems.”  According to Amazon’s Alexa terms of use, the company collects and stores most of what you say to Alexa – including the geolocation of the product along with your voice instructions, reported CNBC’s Todd Haselton last November.  Last May, an Amazon Echo recorded a conversation between a husband and wife, then sent it to one of the husband’s phone contacts. Amazon claims that during the conversation someone used a word that sounded like “Alexa,” which caused the device to begin recording.  “Echo woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like ‘Alexa,’” said Amazon in a statement. “Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a ‘send message’ request. At which point, Alexa said out loud ‘To whom?’ At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customer’s contact list. Alexa then asked out loud, ‘[contact name], right?’ Alexa then interpreted background conversation as ‘right’. As unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely.” The wife, Danielle, however said that the Echo never requested her permission to send the audio. “At first, my husband was like, ‘No, you didn’t,’” Danielle told KIRO7. “And he’s like, ‘You sat there talking about hardwood floors.’ And we said, ‘Oh gosh, you really did!’” Alexa does allow people to stop sharing their voice recordings for the development of new features, while a screenshot reviewed by Bloomberg reveals that the recordings provided to Alexa’s listeners do not provide the full name or address of a user. It does, however, link the recording to an account number, the user’s first name, and the device’s serial number. “You don’t necessarily think of another human listening to what you’re telling your smart speaker in the intimacy of your home,” said UMich professor Florian Schaub, who has researched privacy issues related to smart speakers. “I think we’ve been conditioned to the [assumption] that these machines are just doing magic machine learning. But the fact is there is still manual processing involved.” “Whether that’s a privacy concern or not depends on how cautious Amazon and other companies are in what type of information they have manually annotated, and how they present that information to someone,” added Schaub.


activistpost--2019-04-13--Walmart Says Employees are Happy That Robots Are Taking Their Jobs

Walmart Says Employees are “Happy” That Robots Are Taking Their Jobs

Self-checkouts have been replacing human employees for quite some time, and now robots are taking other jobs.  Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Walmart is deploying robots to carry out mundane tasks like mopping its floors and tracking inventory as it seeks to cut down on labor costs after raising wages last year.  Naturally, the mega-retailer wants us to believe that robots taking over certain tasks in their stores is a good thing – a change that will allegedly benefit their human employees. “With automation, we are able to take away some of the tasks that associates don’t enjoy doing,” Mark Propes, senior director of central operations for Walmart US, told The Wall Street Journal. “At the same time, we continue to open up new jobs in other things in the store.”  The company said the addition of a single machine can cut a few hours a day of work previously done by a human, or allow Walmart to allocate fewer people to complete a task, a large saving when spread around 4,600 U.S. stores. Executives said they are focused on giving workers more time to do other tasks, and on hiring in growing areas like e-commerce. Instead, Walmart is spending to battle Amazon.com Inc. and serve more shoppers buying online. Walmart has hired around 40,000 store workers to pick groceries from shelves to fulfill online orders. The company is also raising wages, adding worker training, and buying e-commerce startups. Store workers spend two to three hours a day driving a floor scrubber through a store using the manual machines, said a company spokesman last year. The automatic conveyor belts cut the number of workers needed to unload trucks by half, from around eight to four workers, said executives at a company presentation last June. (source)  In a press release titled #SquadGoals: How Automated Assistants are Helping Us Work Smarter, Walmart refers to the robots as “smart assistants” and claims that the response from associates has been “overwhelmingly positive” so far:  Some employees might be happy now, but what if they eventually end up with robot supervisors? A recent report from The Guardian titled UK Businesses Using Artificial Intelligence to Monitor Staff Activity describes a system called Isaak that is being used to monitor the actions of 130,000 people in the UK and abroad in real time. Isaak “scrutinizes staff behavior minute-to-minute by harvesting data on who emails whom and when, who accesses and edits files and who meets whom and when” and ranks staff members’ attributes, according to the report.  Phil Duffy, innovative vice president of Brain Corp., the company that developed the software that allows the robots to function, told WSJ that machines and humans will work in harmony as “operational partners.” He added that in a tight labor market, it’s difficult for employers to fill some of these low-wage positions.  “It’s very hard for employers to get the workforce they need,” Mr. Duffy said. “None of the customers we’re working with are using our machines to reduce their labor costs; they’re using them to allow their teams, their janitorial teams, to perform higher-value tasks.” Retailers and other companies that hire large numbers of low-skilled hourly workers are increasingly looking to automation as they face higher labor costs and aim to improve retention amid the lowest unemployment in decades. Target Corp. added machines to count cash to backrooms of stores last year, following a similar move by Walmart. Last week Target said it has raised starting wages for store workers to $13 an hour and has previously said it will raise starting wages to $15 next year. Last month, Costco WholesaleCorp. raised starting wages for U.S. and Canadian store workers to $15. Amazon did the same for U.S. workers last year. Walmart raised starting wages for store workers to $11 last year. Executives said at a recent investor conference that Walmart is keeping wages competitive by store and market. (source)  Remember that AI can develop prejudice and hate without human input, and apparently does not have a good sense of humor. Those don’t sound like good qualities to have in coworkers or supervisors.  While Walmart and other retailers may like to spin the impending robot workforce takeover as a positive thing for humanity, in reality it “is an issue of growing concern for many employees across a range of industries,” reports Digital Trends:  Late last year, in an article titled “Replaced by Robots: 10 Jobs That Could be Hit Hard by the A.I. Revolution”, Digital Trends listed professions (including some that will surprise you) that will likely suffer the effects of an AI takeover:  That list includes lawyers, data entry clerks, journalists (I am certainly not happy to hear this), drivers, chefs (like Flippy), financial analysts, telemarketers and customer service assistants, medics, manual labor jobs, musicians, and artists. Retail jobs are disappearing at an alarming rate. A retail apocalypse has been escalating for several years, and job losses have been piling up. Retail has already lost 41,000 jobs this year – and that isn’t including the numbers for March, as SHTFplan.com reports. “This is significant, and marks an acceleration of store closures and job cuts in the near term,” said Mark Hamrick, a senior economic analyst at Bankrate. “Retail is ground zero for seeing the shifts of change in our lives.” Now it appears that remaining retail positions are increasingly at risk of being lost to artificial intelligence. How long until humans are rendered entirely obsolete? The late Dr. Stephen Hawking warned us that robots will eventually take over. In 2014, he told the BBC: The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded. (source) What do you think about this? Do you think robots will eventually replace human workers entirely? If so, how soon do you think it will happen? Please share your thoughts in the comments. Dagny Taggart is the pseudonym of an experienced journalist who needs to maintain anonymity to keep her job in the public eye. Dagny is non-partisan and aims to expose the half-truths, misrepresentations, and blatant lies of the MSM. This article was sourced from The Organic Prepper.


activistpost--2019-07-03--Walmart and Others Train Employees with Virtual Reality Despite Research Proving Harm Caused by It

Research has already proven that Virtual Reality (VR) is not safe.  The goggles expose users to harmful (and sometimes blinding) Blue Light and harmful (and sometimes cancerous) Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) at close-range.  From the Association for Psychological Science (February 2014),  “Virtual avatars may impact real-world behavior”:  “Our results indicate that just five minutes of role-play in virtual environments as either a hero or villain can easily cause people to reward or punish anonymous strangers,” says lead researcher Gunwoo Yoon of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  So companies who force employees to use VR as part of their job training seem to be just begging for lawsuits.  Coincidentally, for many years now, telecom companies have been warning investors that they may eventually be held liable caused by harm from their products (and infrastructure).  In the meantime, though, employers will likely be held liable to employees who become temporarily or permanently disabled from using VR as part of their training.  Obviously, schools who force students to use VR as part of their curriculum have put themselves in the same dumb position.  For more information, visit the following websites:  Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Follow us on Minds, Twitter, Steemit, and SoMee.  Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today.


activistpost--2019-05-02--Caltrans Loses Appeal Must Pay 3M in Employees Perfume Allergy Lawsuit Estimated 55 Million Amer

Caltrans Loses Appeal, Must Pay $3M in Employee’s Perfume Allergy Lawsuit. Estimated 55 Million American Adults have Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS)

Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) has been recognized as a disabling condition by the Americans for Disability Act (See 1, 2).  Within the past decade, chemical sensitivity and diagnosed Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) has increased significantly with an estimated 55 million American adults who now have it.  Last year, University of Melbourne research revealed that 1 in 4 Americans report sensitivity to common chemicals such as inspect spray, paint, cleaning supplies, fragrances, and gas fumes.  Almost ½ of this group was also medically diagnosed with MCS. This seems to indicate that 1/8 of Americans are suffering from MCS.  In March a jury decided that a California company must pay $3M to an employee after ignoring his request for accommodation due to diagnosed chemical allergies.  From the Sacramento Bee:  Caltrans must abide by a jury’s decision to award $3 million to an employee who claimed his supervisors harassed him by ignoring his allergies to perfume and several cleaning products, an appeals court ruled Thursday. The ruling appears to leave Caltrans little room to keep fighting the award, which a Nevada County jury set in May 2017 after a one-month trial. Employee John Barrie, 62, of Grass Valley, filed suit after supervisors repeatedly ignored directives to keep perfumes and cleaning chemicals like Windex and Comet away from him starting in 2010. He said his supervisor called him an “idiot” and a “jerk” and that after his desk was moved he would sometimes find his things soaked in perfume. Caltrans contested the jury’s $3 million figure. A trial court judge sided with the department, ruling the award was “so excessive as to indicate that it was prompted by passion, prejudice, whim or caprice” on the part of the jury. That judge determined that $350,000 would be fair and reasonable, according to court documents. Barrie appealed the judge’s decision, saying the judge didn’t cite sufficient evidence for his decision. The Third Appellate District Court of Appeal agreed with him in its ruling Thursday directing Caltrans to pay him the full $3 million judgment. “I am very pleased at the Third Appellate District Court’s unanimous ruling today,” Barrie said in an email. “This ruling is a major victory for disabled persons everywhere, including those with ‘invisible’ disabilities, such as heart disease, epilepsy, diabetes, and chemical sensitivities. This ruling sends a clear message to employers everywhere: honor the rights of the disabled and ensure they are accommodated.” In addition to the $3 million, the appeal court ruled Caltrans has to pay Barrie about $44,000 in lost income, and it has to pay his attorneys’ fees for the appeal.  According to research posted at Environmental Health Trust, exposure to WiFi and other Electromagnetic Fields increases chemical sensitivity:  …wireless and EMF radiation can synergistically increase the effect of these daily toxic exposures because of the ways in which wireless radiation alters the body’s natural functioning. Wireless radiation has been shown to damage sleep and the blood-brain barrier, which in turn can lead to higher toxic load on the body. …research studies have found that a known carcinogen exposure in combination with wireless and EMF exposure leads to a significantly increased risk of cancer development.  EHTrust.org highlighted several factors along with research to substantiate them including:  Electromagnic Sensitivity (ES) has also been federally recognized as a disabling condition.  It has a long history and was originally named “Microwave Sickness” in the 1950s.  Many people who have MCS also have Electromagnetic Sensitivity.  The EI Wellspring website provides great information about how to cope for those who suffer with both conditions.  In 2010, experts stated that as many as 1/3 of the population is “sensitive” to sources of “Electrosmog” which includes “Dirty Electricity” as well as cell phone and wireless WiFi radiation.”  No one is immune to sources of Electrosmog though some will handle exposure better than others.  Of course after enough exposure it’s possible for anyone to become “sensitive.”  Exposure also affects animals.  Unfortunately many doctors and vets still don’t consider Electrosmog exposure when diagnosing and treating patients.


activistpost--2019-10-07--GE Freezes Pension Benefits For 20,000 Employees To Lower Debt Burden

In what looks like a dry run of the looming pension crisis facing corporate America, GE said on Monday that it would freeze pension plan benefits for 20,000 American employees with salaried benefits, WSJ reports. The company also plans to freeze supplementary benefits for roughly 700 employees who became executives before 2011 in an attempt to shave as much as $8 billion off its long-term pension deficit.  With GE shares down 20% since Larry Culp took over as CEO last year, the CEO who was supposed to rescue the company’s perennially-languishing share price is facing pressure to cut GE’s debt burden amid a downturn in the company’s power-equipment business, Bloomberg reports.  To offset the cuts, the company is planning to pre-fund $4 billion to $5 billion of the retirement obligations it’s anticipating for 2021 and 2022 (the obligations are owed according to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or Erisa).  The money will come from $38 billion GE expects to net from divestitures and savings from the pension freezes.  GE plans to offer 100,000 former employees who haven’t yet started collecting retirement benefits the option of a lump sum, in effect buying them out of the company’s retirement obligations. It expects roughly one-fifth of those offered to accept the buyout.  See: 177 Different Ways to Generate Extra Income  The company’s shares climbed 2% on the news in premarket trading.  The cuts are part of an already-announced net debt reduction plan intended to shave between $9 billion and $11 billion off GE’s debt burden, helping to lower the company’s leverage ratio to roughly 2.5x net debt to EBITDA by the end of next year.  GE closed its pension plan to new entrants at the start of 2012.  While several states, including Illinois and New Jersey, have opted recently to start reducing their pension shortfalls, US corporations are often in even worse shape than the public sector. But these cuts should help forestall the pension nightmare facing the US, if only for a little while.  This article was sourced from ZeroHedge.com  Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Follow us on Minds, Twitter, Steemit, and SoMee. Become an Activist Post Patron for as little as $1 per month.  Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today.


activistpost--2019-10-08--Banking Giant HSBC Set to Fire 10,000 More Employees

The banking sector continues to suffer drastic layoffs as the global economic outlook remains uncertain. The latest financial institution reported to be set for cutting a massive amount of workers is HSBC, which has already announced firing thousands of people just a few weeks ago.  London-headquartered multinational investment bank HSBC is planning to let go of up to 10,000 of its employees as a new cost-cutting measure, British media reported on Monday. The latest round of downsizing will target mostly high-paid roles and will be mainly focused on shrinking the bank’s operations in Europe.  This news comes just a few weeks after the investment bank announced the previous firing of up to 4,700 employees, about 2% of its global workforce. Those cuts were said to be focused on management roles and were in response to a bleak global outlook. They also coincided with the sudden and unexplained exit of HSBC’s former CEO.  “We’ve known for years that we need to do something about our cost base, the largest component of which is people – now we are finally grasping the nettle,” an unnamed HSBC insider told the Financial Times. “There’s some very hard modelling going on. We are asking why we have so many people in Europe when we’ve got double-digit returns in parts of Asia.”  The new restructuring plan at HSBC is being attributed to economic uncertainty due to Brexit as well as the trade war between the U.S. and China hurting global growth. However, it can not be delinked from the historically low interest rates around the world that make it difficult for banks to profit from their traditional loans businesses. Ever since the financial crisis of 2008, investment banks have been hit with limiting regulations and major fines with regards to their trading practices.  As we recently reported, prior to the latest news from HSBC, banks have announced nearly 60,000 job cuts so far this year. The contraction in the banking sector is spread around the world but is most strongly felt in Europe. The top financial institutions by the number of job cuts are Banco Santander, Commerzbank, HSBC, Barclays, Alfa Bank, KBC, Societe Generale, Caixabank, and the National Bank of Greece, with Deutsche Bank leading the pack with 18,000 job cuts.  See: 177 Different Ways to Generate Extra Income  What do you think about HSBC firing so many employees? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.  Avi Mizrahi is an economist and entrepreneur who has been covering Bitcoin as a journalist since 2013. He has spoken about the promise of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology at numerous financial conferences around the world, from London to Hong-Kong.


aljazeera--2019-01-04--Chinas Huawei punishes employees for iPhone tweet blunder

China's Huawei punishes employees for iPhone tweet blunder

China's Huawei Technologies has punished two employees for New Year greetings sent on the smartphone maker's official Twitter account using an iPhone, an internal memo shows.  Huawei, whose P-series handsets compete with Apple's iPhones, on New Year's Day wished followers a "Happy #2019" in a tweet marked sent "via Twitter for iPhone".  The tweet was quickly removed, but screenshots of the blunder spread across social media.  "The traitor has revealed himself," quipped one user on microblog Weibo, in a comment "liked" over 600 times.  In an internal Huawei memo, dated January 3 and seen by Reuters news agency, corporate Senior Vice President and Director of the board Chen Lifang said, "The incident caused damage to the Huawei brand."  The mistake occurred when outsourced social media handler Sapient experienced "VPN problems" with a desktop computer, so used an iPhone with a roaming SIM card in order to send the message on time at midnight, Huawei said in the memo.  Twitter, like several foreign services such as those from Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc, is blocked in China, where the Internet is heavily censored. To gain access, users need a virtual private network (VPN) connection.  Huawei, which overtook Apple as the world's second-largest smartphone vendor by volume in January-September, declined to comment on internal issues when contacted by Reuters.  Sapient did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent via the contact form on its website. Calls to its Beijing office went unanswered.  Huawei in the memo said the blunder showed procedural incompliance and management oversight. It said it had demoted two employees responsible by one rank and reduced their monthly salaries by 5,000 yuan ($728.27).  The pay rank of one of the employees - Huawei's digital marketing director - will also be frozen for 12 months, it said.  It is not the first time the use of the Apple product has given cause for embarrassment.  Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of nationalistic tabloid Global Times, was mocked online last year after he used his iPhone when expressing support for Huawei and domestic peer ZTE Corp.  He later said his actions were not hypocritical as foreign brands should not be discriminated against.


aljazeera--2019-04-18--Jet Airways grounded employees desperate to save jobs

Jet Airways grounded, employees desperate to save jobs

Around 16,000 workers of once India's second-largest airline are hoping to save their jobs.  Jet Airways has grounded all flights because it has run out of money.


anonnews--2019-01-07--In One Year a Full-Time McDonalds Employee Brings Home this Salary

In One Year, a Full-Time McDonald’s Employee Brings Home this Salary

In the United States, we’re actually lucky to not pay worse taxes, compared to a lot of European countries. Still, the taxes are intense, and the pay that is given by a corporate job like McDonald’s is guaranteed to be what they call the minimum wage.  A while ago, it was reported that one person working at McDonald’s made a mere $13,811 in a year: it seems like that’s before taxes too, because it said “YTD Total Gross.” The national minimum wage is indeed low, but the problems are complicated.  Unfortunately the articles about this pretty much gravitated straight toward the idea of raising the minimum wage. It wasn’t just the articles, the organization that originally shared the McDonald’s image, Fight for $15, itself is a campaign to raise the minimum wage in the United States to $15 an hour.  Many people understand that the concept of a minimum wage, is the concept of the government forcing all businesses, large and small, to pay their employees a certain amount of money or not hire them at all. By this point, it should be known that when people are forced to do something, most of the time they find a way to get out of it.  As a result of minimum wage laws, small businesses suffer tremendously. The only way a small business can possibly survive a dramatic increase in the minimum wage is if they only hire people under the table, and that puts them at risk of being shut down, because it’s illegal to pay someone under the table, slightly less than the minimum wage because that’s all the business can afford.  Small restaurants increase their prices as the minimum wage increases, with no choice whatsoever because they have to pay an employee more. Make no mistake, wherever a major minimum wage increase occurs, the small businesses will suffer.  It’s an extremely unnatural influence on society, to position corporations like McDonald’s and Wal-Mart to be able to pay people more than a small, worthy of supporting business can.  An Investors.com article about this cited the Washington Post, and they said: “Increasing the minimum wage increases the costs of hiring workers. As a result, employers must accept reduced margins or customers must pay steeper prices. If employers cannot stay in business while paying their staff more, they will either hire fewer people or give their workers fewer hours. As a result, even if wages per hour increase workers’ total earning could decline.”  That’s right: welcome to fewer hours that your corporate job will pay you. People didn’t think these big corporations would find a way to skirt the law? By any means necessary, people adapt to regulations that are forced on them for the better or for the worse.  People certainly deserve to earn more money, and they deserve to choose what they want to pay taxes for, and what services they want in exchange for their taxes from the government, if any. However, if people think it’s common sense to raise the minimum wage, they don’t understand it’s all proportional, and why should we even be begging for a wage from these companies who don’t care about us?  It was said that no prices had changed after Seattle’s minimum wage hike: no retail prices, from large corporations who can avoid the consequences of the regulations and hire people for less hours, or do whatever they do. Small business prices did change.  The only true, long-term way out of this entire financial situation of working paycheck to paycheck is really to own a small business or do some kind of endeavor like that, capable of making more money than minimum wage. However, if a small business can’t even legally function without paying an amount to employees that perhaps the job doesn’t even require, that business is dead and they are forced into the black market.  If people can sustain their business in the black or grey markets as Agorism would describe, all the power to them. The way out of financial depression is not a change in the law, it’s a change in how people support each other in the community and earn money.