#sean o’brien

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Two Democratic U.S. senators announced Thursday they plan to introduce a piece of legislation that would require large companies to disclose quota practices to workers and prevent those quotas from interfering with a worker’s health.

“The Warehouse Worker Protection Act would put an end to the most dangerous quotas that plague warehouses,” Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, a sponsor of the bill, said.

There is no published bill text yet.

Markey said the bill would require companies to notify workers of the quotas they need to meet and ban quotas that rely on 24/7 surveillance or are likely to lead to violations of health and safety laws. He added that companies that don’t comply would be investigated by the Department of Labor and could face fines and penalties.

INJURIES AT AMAZON

Markey was joined outside the U.S. Capitol by workers who shared their stories of being injured on the job at Amazon warehouses, along with Democratic Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith and Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Smith said that big companies like Amazon care about “efficiency and cost savings and maximizing their profits.”

“They’re experiencing record profits at the same time that the people whose labor they are earning profits on the backs (of), are experiencing completely unacceptable levels of injuries,” she said.

The speakers singled out Amazon for quota practices that endanger workers, though Markey said the Seattle-based e-retail giant is not the only company that engages in a quota system that harms workers.

“Amazon may be at the front of the pack with an injury rate double the national average, but the rest of the big warehousing companies are close behind,” he said.

Some of Amazon’s quota practices include constant monitoring to measure how many items a worker scans, with automatic flags for workers below a certain percentile, and monitoring how long employees take on bathroom breaks and other “time off task,” according to a Thursday report by the National Employment Law Project.

The Amazon warehouse injury rate is “twice that of the private-sector average for all industries and tens of thousands of warehouse workers each year experience serious injuries requiring medical treatment,” according to the report.

O’Brien said that Amazon’s business model “pushes workers to the brink and creates a culture of fear.”

“Warehouses can be very dangerous places to work if safety isn’t made a priority,” he said.

Wendy Taylor, an Amazon worker in Missouri who is organizing for a union, was injured at work in March.

“I was injured at work because of Amazon’s inhumane work rates, because of the exhausting pace in the physical work me and my coworkers do,” she said.

Taylor said she fell and hurt her knee, but when she went to the company medical center, she said “they (refused) to let me see a doctor when I asked, sending me back to work.”

She eventually went to her own doctor, who diagnosed her with a torn meniscus in her knee.

“This experience (shows) how hard it is to get timely, adequate medical treatment from a company that breaks down my body and speeds up my aging for shareholder profits,” she said.

In a written statement, a spokesperson for Amazon pushed back against some of the comments from senators, including claims that workers lack adequate bathroom breaks and see fixed performance quotas.

“It’s a common misperception that Amazon has fixed quotas, but we do not,” the spokesperson said. “Our Time Logged In policy assesses whether employees are actually working while they’re logged in at their station. Our employees can see their own performance at any time and can talk to their manager if they’re having trouble finding the information.”

The spokesperson also said claims that the injury rate at Amazon is double the industry standard are misleading.

“Many large companies that should be included in these comparisons—companies like Walmart, Target and Costco—report almost all of their injuries under different OSHA reporting categories,” the spokesperson said.

Brian Wild, a spokesperson for the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, said in a statement that the industry group does not support the bill, arguing that it could lead to delays and price hikes.

“The bill includes provisions that inappropriately tip the scales to union bosses at the expense of employees and employers by inviting labor organizations to participate in investigations, essentially granting union leaders access to potentially coerce or harass worksites under the guise of ‘worker safety,’” Wild said.

SEEKING BIPARTISAN SUPPORT

Markey said there is bipartisan support in the Senate for the bill, as well as the House.

“We just want to build this out,” Markey said. “It should not be a Democrat or Republican thing, it’s a worker safety bill.”

A warehouse protection law went into effect in Minnesota last year, but advocates have raised concerns that Amazon is not complying with the law.

Several other states, including California, New York, Oregon and Washington, have passed legislation similar to what Markey and Smith are proposing.

[tomorrowusa]

« Republicans are challenging labor leaders to fights and allegedly physically assaulting one another. Donald Trump says he will abolish reproductive rights entirely and is openly calling for the extermination of his detractors, referring to them as “vermin” on Veterans Day. The Republican Party has emerged from its corruption cocoon as a full-blown fascist movement. »

— Laura Clawson at Daily Kos writing about the state of the Republican Party.

If anything can possibly be both blood-curdling and laughable at the same time, it's the current GOP.

We all know about Trump's demented Hitlerian rantings and the failure of most Republicans to condemn them. But perhaps some of us missed news of the GOP on Capitol Hill getting personally hot-headed.

Tempers flare at Capitol as McCarthy denies elbowing colleague, senator challenges witness to fight

And that bizarreness doesn't include the latest hysterics from Marjorie Taylor Greene or indictments related to George Santos.

The next thing may be Chip Roy placing a Whoopee Cushion on the Speaker's chair to protest the temporary government funding extension.

GOP = Group Of Psychotics. It's certainly not a bunch of people you want running the country and messing up your life.

[n14-4cko]

The squad rolls up and is better than you at everything magic related (they are winging it and will probably make a house blow up)

Kitana Killherway (Kitana Kellaway)

Doran Kickass (Doran Purcell)

Sean The King (Sean Mackin)

Elsie O’Brien (my beloved cariad)

This is how I’ve pictured the 4 17 yr olds, who argeddion gives power to, in kingdom of the wicked. Kitana is that popular girl that is unfairly pretty. Doran’s a thug and a bit of a prick. Sean’s there. And Elsie is that one girl at the back of class listening to ‘My Chemical Romance’, and not only will she lend you anything, she will listen to you info dump. I love her sm she’s so kind to everyone no matter what a true champ.

I love to hate kitana. The boys are good too, LOVE the part where ghastly rips Sean a new one for being a dick to Elsie. And Elsie! What a sweet pea, her kindness towards Sean because she believes in him so much (and a mini crush) is so good in the book. Good on her for not being corrupt and literally not using her powers at all 👍 also early 2000’s casual goth/emo Elsie my beloved.

[texaschainsawmascara]

‘Dirt’ Alice In Chains (1992)

[doyleloyal]

The Summer Before My 50th.

I'm hoping that I'll be healed up enough from my surgeries to go on a solo trip to St John's Newfoundland.

The idea is to take pictures and videos of all of the places where the two-part series finale of Republic of Doyle was filmed.

I really want this to happen. I don't care how long it takes.

[mandoreviews]

📽️ Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004)

I LOVE Josh Duhamel! Seriously, give me a movie with Josh Duhamel and I will pretty much watch it without question. He was definitely the best part of this movie. I really enjoyed the whole thing, though. I enjoy movies where nothing bad actually happens to make the girl choose one guy over the other; she just realizes which one is better for her. All of the actors are good, even though the script is a little corny and the storyline is a little worn-out. I would watch this again.

Sex/nudity: 2/10 (some kissing and sexual references)

Language: 1/10 (mild)

Violence: 1/10 (threats but no actual violence)

Overall rating: 7/10

[ramascreen]

Official Teaser For Season Two Of HBO Original Drama Series PERRY MASON | Debuts March 6

Official Teaser For Season Two Of HBO Original Drama Series PERRY MASON | Debuts March 6

Season two of the HBO Original drama series PERRY MASON debuts MONDAY, MARCH 6 (9:00-10:00p.m. ET/PT) on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max. Check out the official teaser here below!   Season 2 logline: Months after the Dodson case has come to an end, the scion of a powerful oil family is brutally murdered. When the DA goes to the city’s Hoovervilles to pinpoint the most obvious of…

[toomuchlovereviews]

Isolation (2005)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SICK!! That’s what I have to say about this feature presentation! SICKENING!!

Full Disclosure, I wasn’t going to watch this movie but then I saw it was an Irish film and thought: When in Rome. I was pleasantly surprised by the plot, and how easily it was able to create dread with scientific diagrams, physical symptoms and ominously foreboding sentences. Foreshadowing goes insane in this flick. If I was in this situation, I would have dipped, but loyalty to the farm rings true. 🫡

Absolutely crazy first body find. Especially accompanied by the drastic tone changes of the … *checks notes*

infomercial.

Science was cool enough for me to follow along, but not so broad that I grew bored. But hearing quarantine in a film from the aughts was crazy. Another insane aspect was how easily the characters got themselves into trouble, makes it super hard to root for them.

Such a cool scoring. Very sporadic and terror inducing, which was so well done when considering method of filming. Being somewhat of an audio nerd, I actually really adored it.

You should watch if:

You like a good creature feature, with a twist of biology

Saying “Damn, that’s crazy” every time a man with a gun does something stupid

Similar Titles:

Stranger Things (2016-present) (Parasitic entity)

Under the Dome (2013-2015) (Not sure if I can tell you why exactly, but very similar sense of dread as the people on the ground are trying to figure out what is happening)

[cherryjamandtoast]

UPS TEAMSTERS-UNION WON !!!!!!!!!!!

From the article:

[(WASHINGTON) – Today, the Teamsters reached the most historic tentative agreement for workers in the history of UPS, protecting and rewarding more than 340,000 UPS Teamsters nationwide. The overwhelmingly lucrative contract raises wages for all workers, creates more full-time jobs, and includes dozens of workplace protections and improvements. The UPS Teamsters National Negotiating Committee unanimously endorsed the five-year tentative agreement.

“Rank-and-file UPS Teamsters sacrificed everything to get this country through a pandemic and enabled UPS to reap record-setting profits. Teamster labor moves America. The union went into this fight committed to winning for our members. We demanded the best contract in the history of UPS, and we got it,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. ... This contract sets a new standard in the labor movement and raises the bar for all workers.”

“UPS came dangerously close to putting itself on strike, but we kept firm on our demands. In my more than 40 years in Louisville representing members at Worldport — the largest UPS hub in the country — I have never seen a national contract that levels the playing field for workers so dramatically as this one....” said Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman. “We stayed focused on our members and fought like hell to get everything that full-time and part-time UPS Teamsters deserve.”

“Rank-and-file members served on the committee for the first time, ... “Our hard work has paid off — from those members and leaders negotiating for more at the table to my sisters and brothers building a credible strike threat around the country. Our union was organized and we were relentless. We’ve hit every goal that UPS Teamster members wanted and asked for with this agreement. It’s a ‘yes’ vote for the most historic contract we’ve ever had.”

Highlights of the tentative 2023-2028 UPS Teamsters National Master Agreement include:

Historic wage increases. Existing full- and part-time UPS Teamsters will get $2.75 more per hour in 2023, and $7.50 more per hour over the length of the contract.

Existing part-timers will be raised up to no less than $21 per hour immediately, and part-time seniority workers earning more under a market rate adjustment would still receive all new general wage increases.

Wage increases for full-timers will keep UPS Teamsters the highest paid delivery drivers in the nation, improving their average top rate to $49 per hour.

New part-time hires at UPS would start at $21 per hour and advance to $23 per hour.

All UPS Teamster drivers classified as 22.4s would be reclassified immediately to Regular Package Car Drivers and placed into seniority, ending the unfair two-tier wage system at UPS.

Safety and health protections, including vehicle air conditioning and cargo ventilation. UPS will equip in-cab A/C in all larger delivery vehicles, sprinter vans, and package cars purchased after Jan. 1, 2024. All cars get two fans and air induction vents in the cargo compartments.

All UPS Teamsters would receive Martin Luther King Day as a full holiday for the first time.

No more forced overtime on Teamster drivers’ days off. Drivers would keep one of two workweek schedules and could not be forced into overtime on scheduled off-days.

UPS Teamster part-timers will have priority to perform all seasonal support work using their own vehicles with a locked-in eight-hour guarantee. For the first time, seasonal work will be contained to five weeks only from November-December.

On July 31, representatives ... will meet to review and recommend the tentative agreement. All UPS rank-and-file members will receive a list of improvements in the contract. ... Member voting begins August 3 and concludes August 22.

The UPS Teamsters National Master Agreement is the single largest private-sector collective bargaining agreement in North America.]

Check the article for the full list; but ho ho holy shit.

This is huge. It shows the collective bargaining WORKS. The Teamsters sent a message to UPS and this win will send a message to Corporate America that unions can WIN for rank-and-file workers!!!

[iww-gnv]

(WASHINGTON) — Around 4 a.m., UPS walked away from the bargaining table after presenting an unacceptable offer to the Teamsters that did not address members’ needs. The UPS Teamsters National Negotiating Committee unanimously rejected the package. Following marathon negotiations, UPS refused to give the Teamsters a last, best, and final offer, telling the union the company had nothing more to give. “This multibillion-dollar corporation has plenty to give American workers — they just don’t want to,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “UPS had a choice to make, and they have clearly chosen to go down the wrong road.”

[mariacallous]

Things have been looking up for the labor movement these days.

More workers are trying to unionize their workplaces. Employees have been going on strike in numbers not seen in years. And unions have been notching some major organizing breakthroughs, including in the anti-union South.

So what could undermine this hopeful moment for organized labor as it tries to rebuild after decades of decline? Another Donald Trump presidency.

As a protectionist, Trump could end up pursuing trade policies that benefit certain unions and their members. His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has at least visited a picket line in his short Senate career. And Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who addressed the Republican National Convention on Monday night, seems to think Trump is open to hearing ideas from labor leaders like himself.

But anyone who thinks Trump wouldn’t be hostile to unions should review the actions of his first stint in the White House.

He placed anti-union officials in critical roles at labor agencies. He stripped away basic workplace protections that labor advocates had fought for. He shaped a conservative majority on the Supreme Court that made the entire U.S. public sector “right-to-work.” And he tried to dismantle government job protections and crush federal employee unions.

Unions are more popular than they’ve been in decades, with a record high of Americans now believing they should have greater influence over the economy. Yet Trump has given no sign he would change tack from his first term when it comes to collective bargaining. Here are just a few ways Trump could squeeze organized labor once again.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

On Monday evening, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien made history by speaking at the Republican National Convention—the first time a Teamsters Union President has ever done so. The move, however, didn’t come without controversy. Union Vice President John Palmer called the decision “unconscionable.”

O’Brien then stirred more debate by tweeting in support of an article by Republican Senator Josh Hawley, which criticized corporate initiatives supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and transgender workers. The situation then erupted when the official Teamsters Twitter account posted a statement condemning O’Brien’s endorsement, which was swiftly deleted. “Unions gain nothing from endorsing the racist, misogynistic, and anti-trans politics of the far right, no matter how much people like Sen. Hawley attempt to tether such bigotry to a cynical pro-labor message. The message this sends to Teamsters of color, Teamster women, and LGBTQ Teamsters is that they are not welcome in the union unless they surrender their identity to a new kind of anti-woke unionism. You don't unite a diverse working class by scoffing at its diversity,” said the now deleted tweet.

O’Brien’s support for Hawley’s views received swift backlash. “We get it. He promised you Secretary of Labor,” read a response by transgender writer Parker Molloy. “If you're a Teamster of color, are LGBTQ+, Sean O'Brien has just said he doesn't give a fuck about you,” said the Daily Union Elections account. “Scab,” said American journalist and labor activist Talia Jane. O’Brien’s speech at the RNC puzzled many observers. He used the platform to advocate for unions while also praising Donald Trump, calling him “one tough SOB.” Throughout much of the speech, the applause was tepid to nonexistent. Reports even indicated that at least one audience member shouted “right to work,” reflecting anti-union sentiments in the Republican Party.

Meanwhile, other labor union leaders were critical of O’Brien’s appearance at the RNC. Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, responded, “Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are on the bosses’ side… We won’t be fooled.” These critiques were echoed by members of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, and other union leaders. Even John Palmer, the Teamsters Vice President, weighed in: “A speaking engagement at the Republican National Convention by Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, regardless of the message, only normalizes and makes the most anti-union party and president I’ve seen in my lifetime seem palatable.”

[...] O’Brien’s support for a senator’s explicitly anti-diversity and anti-LGBTQ+ views runs contrary to Teamsters Union’s official documents and policies. One document on the Teamsters website states, “We are pro-union and pro-equality. In keeping with the labor movement motto, ‘an injury to one is an injury to all,’ we support a strong and progressive labor movement that promotes full equality and respect for LGBTQ workers and their families.”

Teamsters leader Sean O’Brien urinated on Teamster ethos of “an injury to one is an injury to all” by not only speaking on the RNC stage Monday but also giving praise to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO)’s anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-DEI comments. #RNC2024 #RNCinMKE

[zvaigzdelasas]

UPS offered the Teamsters “a revised counterproposal with significant movement on wages and other economic language” Friday afternoon, the union said in a statement, though it said it was not enough to win the support of Teamsters leadership.

UPS also asked the Teamsters to continue negotiations until July 5, the union said. “UPS came back with real movement, but it isn’t enough,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement. “After they left the room, our national committee had a long dialogue and the universal consensus was to continue our leverage campaign.”

30 Jun 23

The union’s current contract expires on July 31 and any new contract must be agreed by July 5 to be ratified before the end of the month. If no contract is reached by July 5, workers will strike when the contract ends, Teamsters president Sean O’Brien said. “Our administration has made it clear. We will not be working beyond the expiration date without the contract our members have demanded, and more importantly without the contract our members deserve,” O’Brien said at a press conference Saturday.[...]

UPS has agreed to add air conditioning to its trucks, but the parties are split on hiring and compensation policy. “(UPS can) concede to our demands and give us what we deserve and we will go out there and ratify this agreement. Or they can take the other road where they don’t ratify our demands, they stay loyal to Wall Street and forget about Main Street,” O’Brien said. “If they do that, they are making a choice to strike themselves. We will put 340,000 strong Teamsters on the streets until we get what we want and then UPS will be responsible for stopping supply chain solutions through this company,” he added. [...] “This is the largest bargaining agreement in any private sector union. We have the opportunity, because of the courage and conviction of our rank-and-file members who go to work every single day, to set the tone, to set the standard high for labor. Not just for Teamsters, but for the entire labor movement.”

1 Jul 23

[doyleloyal]

Hi everyone

My name is Celeste aka doyleloyal and I'd like to use this opportunity to welcome you to my Tumblr page about Republic of Doyle, the TV show that launched the careers of actors like Allan Hawco, Sean McGinley, Lynda Boyd, Rachel Wilson, Krystin Pellerin, Mark O'Brien, and Marthe Bernard. As well as the returning favourites such as Paul Gross, and Gordon Pinsent.

You can watch Republic of Doyle Saturdays from 1:00-4:00 AM Eastern Time on CBC, 12:00-3:00 Newfoundland Time on CBC Television. Just +/- for your time zone.