union | Common News Update

Apr112021 by adminNo Comments

Amazon defeats historic Alabama union effort

Technology

Getty ImagesAmazon has defeated activists hoping to establish the company's first unionised warehouse in the US.Workers at the Bessemer, Alabama warehouse voted 1,798 to 738 against the effort, labour officials said. That represented a majority of votes cast in the contest, which was seen as a key test for Amazon after global criticism of its treatment of workers during the pandemic.The union said it would challenge the results.It accused Amazon of interfering with the right of employees to vote in a "free and fair election", including by lying to staff about the implications of the vote in mandatory meetings and pushing the postal service to install a mailbox on company grounds in an effort to monitor the vote."Amazon has left no stone unturned in its efforts to gaslight its own employees...

Apr82021 by adminNo Comments

Vote counting underway in Amazon union election

Technology

Vote counting in the union push at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, is underway, but hundreds of contested ballots could muddy the outcome if it’s a close raceBy JOSEPH PISANI AP Retail WriterApril 8, 2021, 10:11 PM• 3 min readShare to FacebookShare to TwitterEmail this articleVote counting in the union push at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, is underway, but hundreds of contested ballots could muddy the outcome if it's a close race.The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which is organizing the Bessemer workers, said that 3,215 votes were sent in — about 55% of the nearly 6,000 workers who were eligible to vote. The union said hundreds of those votes were contested, mostly by Amazon, for various reasons such as the voter didn’t work there or doesn’t qualify to...

Mar162021 by adminNo Comments

WXV: ‘Landmark’ global women’s rugby union competition launched

Sports

A "landmark" global women's rugby union competition has been launched by the sport's international governing body.World Rugby is investing £6.4m in the WXV tournament, due to begin in 2023.The competition will have three tiers, offering consistent international Test-match opportunities to 16 teams to help them prepare for the 2025 World Cup.World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont hailed a "landmark moment" and said the plan would "accelerate the development of the women's game".The announcement comes a week after the 2021 World Cup - for which three teams are yet to qualify because of postponements caused by the coronavirus pandemic - was pushed back to 2022.The WXV competition will be played in a global window from September to October, except in World Cup years.World Rugby says the aim of...

Feb72021 by adminNo Comments

Moussa Faki Mahamat re-elected as African Union Commission head

World

Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Former Chadian prime minister Moussa Faki Mahamat won a second term as chair of African Union Commission Saturday. Faki ran unopposed and received support from 51 of 55 member states in the vote, which opened a two-day virtual summit. Advertisement Also Saturday, Monique Nsanzabaganwa, who until recently served as the Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda, was elected as the African Union Commission Deputy Chairperson, and H.E. Felix- Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was voted in as the new Chairperson of the African Union for the year 2021. The African Union Commission, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is the AU's executive body and handles the day to day activities of the organization. The theme of the AU summit is "Ar...

Feb52021 by adminNo Comments

Trump shares pride over Home Alone 2 appearance as he quits actors union

Entertainment

Donald Trump has resigned from an American actors' union, boasting about his work on films including Home Alone 2 and Zoolander, and telling the organisation: "You have done nothing for me."The former US president quit the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) to avoid the risk of being pushed, as the Hollywood-based union was considering expelling him over his role in the attack on the US Capitol. In his letter to the union's president Gabrielle Carteris, he addressed the issue of his possible expulsion, saying: "Who cares!" Image: Mr Trump had a cameo in Home Alone 2, alongside Macaulay Culkin He went on: "While I'm not familiar with your work, I'm very proud of my work on movies such ...