NYPD settles discrimination case

New York authorities have agreed to pay $26.8 million to settle a class-action suit by Hispanic police officers. The officers brought the case in 1999, arguing that officers from all minorities faced discrimination in their jobs.

Bringing the action, Hispanic officers argued that their working environments were hostile; they were more severely punished than white officers in cases of disciplinary action; and they faced retaliation if they argued that their treatment was unfair. Black and Hispanic officers have also alleged that they are regularly sent on the most dangerous assignments in the city.

The settlement means that about 12,000 Hispanic and Black officers could now be eligible for damages. The city’s police department has also agreed to make a series of internal changes to its operations. The terms of the deal — which are subject to final approval — were unsealed on Jan. 31. (BBC)

Record number to run out of unemployment benefits

A record-high 375,000 jobless workers will exhaust their unemployment insurance this month and an estimated 2 million workers will find themselves in the same predicament during the first half of the year, according to an analysis of Labor Department statistics by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The jobless recovery has become an issue in this presidential election year, and the report shows the jobless benefits will run out for large numbers of workers in several key states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina and South Carolina.

While the unemployment rate dropped to 5.7 percent in December, down from 6.3 percent in June, businesses added only 1,000 jobs that month. The country has lost more than 2.8 million manufacturing jobs in a steady erosion over the past 41 months.

Congress voted in 2002 to give unemployed workers an additional 13 weeks of benefits and extended the program twice. But it expired just before Christmas. Congressional Republicans said another extension wasn’t necessary because the economy was gaining strength and job growth was near at hand. (Washington Post)

Religious leaders join grocery workers in protest

In a tactic that labor and religion experts say is a growing phenomenon, on Jan. 31 two dozen Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Jewish, Presbyterian, and Lutheran clerics joined the country’s largest labor dispute and the longest supermarket strike in state history.

Along with 50 grocery-store workers, the clerics boarded a bus for an eight-hour, multistop journey to the East Bay home of Safeway CEO Steve Burd. Once there, they joined a contingent of 200 protesters and marched to Burd’s palatial estate, where they delivered 10,000 letters appealing to him to resume negotiations in the deadlocked strike.

The idea to visit Burd’s house came from activists who felt the old-style protests would not bring the necessary public attention to the extended strike, in which thousands have already picketed over 3,000 stores. It is not an unusual move these days: Activists are increasingly taking public demonstrations and dissent beyond the usual public venues outside corporate buildings, parks, and other staging areas, and going directly into the neighborhoods of targeted business people. (Christian Science Monitor)

Urban League study: Jobless recovery impossible

On Jan. 29, National Urban League President and CEO, Marc H. Morial released a new report showing that despite the improving economy, African-Americans and other low-income Americans are still being hurt more than whites by the jobless recovery.

“The National Urban League’s Jobs Report,” by the League’s Institute of Opportunity and Equality found that the African-American unemployment rate is double that of whites, they are more likely than whites to endure long-term unemployment; more college-educated and high-skilled African-American workers are unemployed than their white counterparts; and African-Americans have suffered disproportionate job losses in manufacturing.

The December 2003 unemployment rate for African-Americans of 10.3 percent, sustained in double digits for the past 14 months, makes the current recession the worst turnabout in the labor market faced by African - Americans in more than 25 years. College-educated and highly skilled African-American workers suffered greater job losses than their white counterparts, as the number and proportionate share of jobs held by African-American managers has declined, and the unemployment rate for blacks with college education has been at least one and a-half times that of their white counterparts.

Some 70 percent of workers receiving the federal unemployment extension of benefits are dropping off benefit roles because their time has elapsed, not because they are finding other jobs. Minorities represent a higher share of long-term unemployed: 29.5 percent African Americans versus 21.1 percent whites. (National Urban League)

Prostitutes’ union faces uphill battle in Argentina

Women who practice prostitution in Buenos Aires, Argentina, have organized a union and demanded the decriminalization of prostitution so that they can be treated like other workers.

Their pleas, however, have sparked political opposition led by the Catholic Church. And on the streets, they have run up against the police, who, the women say, demand a cut of their profits and who stand to lose if prostitution laws are repealed.

On Jan. 28, Sandra Cabrera, a 33-year-old leader of the union, was found dead with a bullet through the back of the neck in the red-light district of Rosario, Argentina’s second-largest city.

According to provincial Interior Minister Alberto Gianneschi, “There are suspicions of police involvement” in the killing of Cabrera, who in recent months reported numerous death threats against herself and her 9-year-old daughter.

In 1995, sex workers organized the Association of Women Prostitutes of Argentina, known by its acronym AMMAR — the word amar means “to love” in Spanish — and have appealed for government recognition as an official union. It would be the first such union in Latin America and one of a handful in the world.

In September, Cabrera accused the police of protecting illegal brothels and of harassing and extorting sex workers, which led to the dismissal of two officers.

Two other prostitutes belonging to the union were killed in suspicious circumstances last year, although neither had the stature of Cabrera, who ran the organization in Santa Fe province and was a public figure in Rosario.

Cabrera’s body was found a block from the street corner where she worked, but an autopsy did not reveal any evidence of a struggle. (Houston Chronicle)

Critical mass supports striking workers

Los Angeles cyclists participated in a “critical mass” rally in support of striking grocery store workers on Feb. 1. About 20 bicyclists entered a Vons store and proceeded to ride down the aisles, chanting “Don’t shop at Vons, support the strike!” Employees and customers alike stood dumbfounded as the group, with helmets on and lights blinking, made their way out of the store and back into the parking lot.

The mass pedaled its way to the next closest Vons. Doors were blocked by the strike-breaking employees and the cycling group was kept from entering the store. The group headed to a Pavilions store, also owned by Safeway, for a short visit.

This time, about a dozen people on bike were stranded inside. Employees and even customers tried to grab the cyclists as others called the police. Meanwhile, in the front of the store, critical massers and strikers pounded on the doors and chanted, “Let them out!” demanding that the scabs stop unlawfully detaining the strike supporters. Another group from the inside had managed to sneak out by the time.

A police helicopter and numerous police cars arrived and the situation intensified. However, the protesters were eventually let out of the store, no questions asked. One person was handcuffed, taken away and charged with battery. (Infoshop.org)