USA- US Unions regain strengh as Starbucks werkers strike in mo re then 100 stores

Members of the Starbucks Workers Union are picketing outside more than a hundred stores across the country on what they say is the group's largest single-day strike. The walkout falls on what's known as Red Cup Day, when the coffee giant hands out limited-edition holiday reusable cups. They're considered collector's items and customers line up at the crack of dawn to get their hands on a decorated cup. It's one of the coffee giant's most profitable days on the calendar. 

Read more at: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/17/1137296597/starbucks-strike-red-cup-day

May Day rallies celebrate workers arlound the world and in Germany

Traditional rallies for May 1, also known as International Workers' Day, have taken place in Germany. Revelers, laborers and dissidents took to the streets around the world.

May 1 Labour Day . Celebrated around the world except for a few countries. I

n the US it is celebrated on the first Monday in September.

Unfortunately, today in our Capitalist society, as a result of corporate dominance over the political system, only one in five workers now belong to a labour Union. The result has been stagnant minimum wages and declining social benefits for the poor.

Bottom line, the disparity between rich and pooronly getting larger by the day.

Read more: May Day rallies celebrate workers in Germany and abroad | News | DW | 01.05.2018

Denmark: Copenhagen unions call for 30-hour week for municipal workers

The Copenhagen Waterfront

Eight of the unions representing Copenhagen Municipality employees want a pilot project set up to try out a 30-hour working week.

The unions claim this would prevent many employees developing stress, cut absences due to sickness, and help people balance their work and family lives better, reports DR Nyheder.

“We know from a trial in Sweden that a 30-hour week helped both employees and the institutions to cope better with the pressure of work,” said Henriette Brockdorff, the head of BUPL, the union representing pedagogues in Copenhagen.

As well as the pedagogues, the eight unions represent health and social assistants, social workers, teachers, office personnel, kitchen employees and cleaners.

Brockdorff agrees that the present 37-hour week is already rather short by international standards, but contends that the pressure on workers these days is extreme due to overly-high productivity demands.

As well as a shorter working week, the unions also want workers to be compensated salary-wise. That would mean an increase in costs of around 20 percent, so the unions would like to see Copenhagen Municipality setting aside 12 million kroner for the project.

However, the group chair for Socialdemokratiet at Copenhagen Municipality, Lars Weiss, rejects this idea.

“We have a ‘Danish model’ through which agreements are made on salaries and employment conditions every second year, and I’m not going to start negotiating on these matters in the run-up to a local election.”

Weiss also said that calculations made by the municipality’s finance department suggest that a 30-hour working week would cost 3.6 billion kroner per annum.

“This would severely impact our service levels. We would see higher numbers in school classes and kindergartens, and that would put even more pressure on the employees.”

Note EU-Digest: Is this for real? Municipal workers having too much stress in Denmark and now want to work 30 hrs per week?   As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet: "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark".

Read more: Copenhagen unions call for 30-hour week for municipal workers – The Post

France Labor Laws: Macron government launches overhaul of France's labour laws - by Kim Willsher

Emmanuel Macron’s government has announced a “major and ambitious” transformation of France’s complex labour laws aimed at tackling mass unemployment and making the country more competitive in the global market.

Five decrees have been issued, containing what ministers said were “concrete and major measures” to overhaul and simplify the weighty Code du Travail, which covers every aspect of working life in France.

In an interview before the measures were unveiled on Thursday morning, the French president said the country was “turning the page on three decades of inefficiency”.

Read more: Macron government launches overhaul of France's labour laws | World news | The Guardian

Brexit: EU referendum: Jeremy Corbyn warns of workers' rights 'bonfire' if UK leaves

To Be Or Not To Be

Jeremy Corbyn has warned there could be a "bonfire" of workers' rights if the UK votes to leave the EU in June.

The Labour leader claimed the Conservatives would "dump" equal pay, annual leave and maternity pay rights.

And he did not think "too many people" had come to the UK from inside the EU.

David Cameron said they disagreed on "lots of things" but welcomed Mr Corbyn's backing for EU membership - as Leave campaigners said the Labour leader "does not really mean it".

Making his first major speech of the EU campaign, Mr Corbyn stood by past criticisms of the EU but said Britain had to remain in to fight for social reform.

Read more: EU referendum: Jeremy Corbyn warns of workers' rights 'bonfire' if UK leaves - BBC News

Britain: Why Brexit Would Be Bad For Employment Rights

Imagine a country in which there is no statutory right to paid holiday, no legal limit on the number of hours employees can be required to work, no right to a daily rest period, no laws to prevent employers discriminating against workers who are disabled or who have particular religious beliefs, and no right for employees to take time off work to look after a sick child.

This was the UK before the New Labour government was elected in 1997. Since then a substantial number of employment rights have been introduced – most of which have their roots in EU legislation.

Thanks to the EU, employers cannot treat part-time workers less favourably than full-time workers, working parents have a right to take leave to look after their children, and temporary agency workers and workers with fixed-term contracts are entitled to the same basic conditions as comparable workers with permanent contracts.

Employees also have rights to paid holiday and rest periods, as well as the right to be informed and consulted about matters that directly concern them at work. Employers, meanwhile, are forbidden from discriminating against their employees on grounds of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.

There’s strong reason to believe that many of these rights would be lost should Britain leave the EU.

Read more:n Britain: Why Brexit Would Be Bad For Employment Rights