A piece by Phinneas Gage detailing some examples of labour struggles that happened outside of state labour board strategies. This is the first part of a series of concrete examples and very brief summaries of organizations that have some component of direct action and a form of collective bargaining that operate outside the labour relations framework. The first series are entirely owner operator associations in Transportation. There is a conventional argument, bolstered by employers, that these folks are not workers but rather small business people. Of course that's nonsense, being a worker is not determined by the form of wage you take and being paid piece rate is as old as payment itself. Owning your own tools does not make someone a business owner, if that were the case many tradesmen wouldn't be workers. These workers have responded to a unique situation that opens up positive examples for organisers all over and should be watched. 1. Associations in Transportation. a. ) Yellow Cab in Edmonton.
A candidate needs 270 to win. Mr. Cook also said Republicans will lose their majority in the Senate. Republican pollster Whit Ayres said Trump campaign officials are "doing what they should be doing, and it will be helpful. The question is whether that's enough to get out of the hole that they're in right now. " "It's hard to spin the data you're seeing as somehow an advantage for Donald Trump right now, " Mr. Ayres said in an interview. "There are at least twice as many swing states today as there were in 2016. And the additions … are all states that Donald Trump won, usually by comfortable margins, like Iowa, Ohio, Georgia. " Predicting record voter turnout of as much as 150 million this year, up from 137 million in 2016, Mr. Ayres said the president's best hope in the final two weeks of the campaign will be "redefining the race. " "Donald Trump's best scenario was making this contest a choice between Donald Trump and an unacceptable alternative, " he said. "But both he and Joe Biden have done an excellent job of making this a referendum on Donald Trump's leadership.
By David Burnham New York Times January 12, 1984 WASHINGTON, D. C. –A tiny Federal agency with an extraordinary mandate has become a powerful magnet for government officials from all over the world. In just the last year, for example, more than 100 visitors have come to Washington from 25 countries including China, France, Indonesia, Denmark, Egypt, Britain, Brazil and Australia to find out how the agency works and what it produces. The focus of all this international interest is an agency that is largely unknown to the American people, the Office of Technology Assessment. Created over 10 years ago as an arm of Congress, it was given the difficult assignment of trying to anticipate, understand and describe how the world's new technologies will effect the people, environment and institutions of the United States. In a world where dozens of powerful new chemicals, startling scientific discoveries, far-reaching computer systems, earth-shattering weapons and potent drugs present difficult new social problems on almost a weekly basis, the challenge of this job is a major one, apparently of interest to both the democracies and the authoritarian states.
"We've known all along the Democrats are far more likely to vote early. Republicans, because of the president's criticism of mail balloting, are far more likely to vote in person on Election Day, " he said. "Republicans just need to hope that the pandemic doesn't spike so much by then that it discourages particularly Republican seniors from going to the polls in person. " Mr. Kelly, who represents a congressional district in northwestern Pennsylvania where the president held a rally Tuesday night, said he is certain that Trump supporters' enthusiasm will carry the day. "When people take time to paint the sides of their barns, when people take time to paint their cars and park them on the berm, that is more than an enthusiasm gap, " he said. "People love him. This president is stronger than 10 acres of garlic. " Sign up for Daily Newsletters
Democrats are returning ballots at a rate of 36. 5%, Republicans at 28. 4%, the group said. Mr. Stepien has said repeatedly that Democrats are not hitting their goals for mail-in balloting and Republican voters are more likely to turn out on Nov. 3. Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida who runs the Elections Project, made a similar observation in his report Oct. 11. "I predict in the coming weeks the Democratic narrative will change from euphoria over the apparent large leads in early voting to concern that a disproportionately large number of younger voters have yet to return their mail ballots, " he wrote. Ryan Hurst of Florida Forward Action, a political group allied with the Democratic Party, said last week that Democrats in the state had returned more mail-in ballots by Oct. 16 than during the entire 2016 election. But he expressed concern on Twitter that there were "still about 1. 5 Million [ballots] sitting on kitchen tables… Send them in! " Mr. Ayres, the pollster, said Democrats' lead in early voting isn't surprising.
Those trends are encouraging to Trump campaign officials because Donald Trump won all four states in 2016 despite bigger disadvantages in voter registration. The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee continued their ground operations through the COVID-19 pandemic. Democrats largely pulled back in favor of digital outreach. "Republicans' portion of the electorate has swung violently in Republicans' favor since Election Day 2016 in nearly every battleground state, " said Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien. "Importantly, we have seen a surge in registrations in Republicans' favor down the homestretch over the last few weeks and months of the campaign. " The Trump team says tens of thousands of newly registered Republican voters in each state don't show up in polling that has consistently shown Mr. Biden leading. They say the omission contributes to skewing in favor of the Democrat. "First-time voters are not 'likely' voters, as far as the pollsters are concerned, " Rep. Mike Kelly, Pennsylvania Republican, said Wednesday.
That's a far more difficult race to win. " He said the president's relentless attack on Mr. Biden and son Hunter claiming corruption is "the latest attempt" to deflect voters' attention from "the issue that's consuming all Americans, which is the pandemic and its effects on our economy, education system, entertainment and sports life. " "The law-and-order message worked among Republicans only, but not among anybody else, " Mr. Ayres said. "So they might as well try Hunter Biden. " Republican pollster Frank Luntz told a British firm in a briefing this week that Mr. Trump's advisers have "their heads up their asses" if they think Hunter Biden will be a winning issue for them. He said voters are far more concerned about jobs and the pandemic. The Trump campaign and the RNC also are banking on their army of 2. 5 million volunteers, who were on the ground working a year before Mr. Biden was even nominated, to boost turnout in key states. The operation could make a difference in regions such as the Florida Panhandle, a traditionally Republican territory that has been growing rapidly in population.
They were pretty effective at getting concessions and managed to actually engage in some concrete negotiations. Advantages: Managed to be stable and long term. Disadvantages: Pretty similar to Yellow Cab, there seemed to be no visible way of settling smaller disputes. What happened? Still operating, militancy subsided with some concessions granted. Often actions are tied to gas prices so it creates a situation where there is a sort of ongoing collective bargaining around rates. c). Reynolds Diaz Contractors. On three separate occasions the contractors at Canada Post who worked under a subcontractor called Reynolds shut down the mail. Once in 2010 in retaliation for a pay cut, the pay cut was reversed. Once in support of rural contractors who were on strike over a pay cut, that pay cut was reversed and once over a similar attempt at cutting pay and information on this one is spotty but it looked successful by second hand reports. Advantages: They were very successful, have existed for a very long time.
Many workers were afraid of losing pay or felt they couldn't afford this. Some of this is probably bad/sloppy organising on the part of the Teamsters but the advantage of the old association was they could also take job action while at work without being threatened with ALRB fines, unlike the Teamsters. This let them collect fares and take action in the same day. There is still a Taxi association in Fort MacMurray that operates on a similar basis and protests that look similar from a distance in Calgary. b). Alberta Sand and Gravel Haulers. These drivers came from similar groups of new canadians as the Yellow Cab workers and had a similar organisation. They seem to rely on some legal avenues, used more media publicity and there is some evidence they do some lobbying. Near as I can tell they are still around but several years ago they had a series of job actions where they drove around in circles at the Alberta Legislature with their covers off, spraying dust and small particles of gravel everywhere.