Dictionary definition of ‘McJob’
Welcome to the world of “McJobs,” defined by the latest Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary as “low paying and dead-end work.” The entry is one of 10,000 additions to the latest version of the dictionary.
McDonald’s is furious. Jim Cantalupo, the company’s chief executive says in an open letter sent to US news organizations, that it is a “slap in the face to the 12 million men and women” who work in the restaurant industry.
A McDonald’s spokesman said the word “McJob” closely resembles McJobs, the company’s training program for handicapped people. “McJobs is trademarked, and we’ve notified them that legally that’s an issue for us as well,” he added.
As of Nov. 9 there was no word from Merriam-Webster. (Independent UK)

Metal workers stage massive protest in Rome
More than 200,000 metal workers took to the streets of Rome Nov. 7 as they pressed their demands for a new contract, union officials said.
The leftist Italian Federation of Metal Workers (FIOM) said between 40 and 50 percent of the workers at carmaker Fiat’s main plant in Turin heeded a call for an eight-hour strike. But Fiat management said only about 17 percent of the company’s workers joined the stoppage.
The federation, which is affiliated with the powerful Italian General Labor Confederation, represents about half the workers in the metal and mechanical sectors.
It opposes earlier agreements signed by two smaller labor organizations, the Catholic-inspired Federation of Mechanical Industries, and the moderate Italian Union of Metal-Mechanical Workers.
Those union organizations agreed on a 4.5 percent pay increase while FIOM is demanding an 8.5 percent increase. (Agence France Presse)

Strike shuts Kenyan universities
All Kenyan public universities have been closed indefinitely, with some 60,000 students ordered to leave their campuses on Nov.10.
The government took the decision after 3,000 lecturers went on strike.
The university teachers are demanding salary raises which they say they were promised by the government.
The government says the strike is illegal. and that it had promised to increase salaries for lecturers early next year but the lecturers say they cannot wait that long.
Ten years ago, university lecturers went on strike for months in a failed attempt to achieve trade union recognition from former President Daniel arap Moi’s government. (BBC)

Illegal immigrants at Wal-Mart
Federal agents raided 60 Wal-Marts on Oct. 23 and arrested 250 other janitors for illegal immigration. On Nov. 4, the company acknowledged that it had received a target letter from federal prosecutors accusing it of violating immigration laws and saying that Wal-Mart faced a grand jury investigation.
The 21-state raid last month exposed an unseemly secret about Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer which had $245 billion in revenues last year: hundreds of illegal immigrants worked at its stores, and its subcontractors appear to have violated overtime, Social Security and workers’ compensation laws.
Company officials deny having known that illegal immigrants worked in their stores. But two federal law enforcement officials said in interviews that Wal-Mart executives must have known about the immigration violations because federal agents rounded up 102 illegal immigrant janitors at Wal-Marts in 1998 and 2001. In the October raid, federal agents searched the office of an executive at Wal-Mart’s headquarters, carting away boxes of papers. Federal officials said prosecutors had wiretaps and recordings of conversations between Wal-Mart officials and subcontractors.
Many people, from janitors to federal investigators, said Wal-Mart store managers and officials at headquarters knew about widespread use of cleaners who are illegal immigrants. (New York Times)

Nine immigrants file lawsuit against Wal-Mart
Nine Mexican immigrants who worked as janitors at Wal-Marts in New Jersey sued the company on Nov. 5, accusing Wal-Mart and its cleaning contractors of failing to pay overtime, withhold taxes and make required workers’ compensation contributions.
The plaintiffs, who face deportation for being in the country illegally, also accuse Wal-Mart and its contractors of discriminating against them by giving them lower wages and fewer benefits than other workers because of their national origin.
The nine Mexicans were among 250 people arrested in an Oct. 23 federal immigration raid on 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states.
The plaintiffs have asked Wal-Mart and its contractors to pay more than $200,000 in back pay they say they are owed for overtime. The nine say they worked seven days a week, at least 56 hours a week, and were not paid time and a half for overtime hours, those over 40 a week. The immigrants say they were paid $350 to $500 a week.
The lawsuit said that Wal-Mart, “knowingly and with the intention to defraud the United States government and the plaintiffs and in order to save money on cleaning service contract contractors,” employed certain cleaning contractors, “with full knowledge” that these contractors would pay the illegal immigrants far less than they would have paid legal workers. (New York Times)