14 minute read
News
from Nov. 29, 2012
Unions back Walmart workers
Workers from local labor unions marched at Truckee Meadows Walmart stores on Thanksgiving, saying they were speaking for Walmart workers who risked firing if they spoke out themselves.
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Similar protests took place at Walmart stores across the nation. The mammoth chain is noted for low wages and benefits.
“I’m out here to support the workers, not just in Reno but nationally,” said Judy Jensen, a member of the Communications Workers of America local.
Jensen also said, “There’s a lot of intimidation going on. I think Walmart can do a much better job of paying their people. ... You know, they say they give them health care, but there have been at least three studies that show that their workers—because of the wages—are having to live on public assistance.” Ron Schoenherr, a member of the Operating Engineers union, also pointed at poor health benefits as a factor in the Raley’s grocery strike. He said Walmart’s poor wages and benefits force other stores to have similar policies in order to compete—a “race to the bottom,” he called it.
“Raley’s wants to reduce their medical benefits because their overhead is too high,” He said. “They can no longer compete with Walmart.”
Jensen urged shoppers to do research on Walmart and then go to other stores.
“If you take their newspaper ads, a lot of other stores will match their prices.”
Walmart claimed its best “Black Friday” sales ever, though the statistics it released—nearly 10 million transactions—included sales on Thursday evening.
In a prepared statement, Walmart CEO Bill Simon said, “Only 26 protests occurred at stores last night, and many of them did not include any Walmart associates.”
But unions said there were more than a thousand protesters who participated in events in 42 states.
“We estimate that less than 50 associates participated in the protest nationwide,” Simon said. “In fact, this year, roughly the same number of associates missed their scheduled shift as last year.” His comments conflicted with a statement from his own corporation that the number of workers who did not appear for a scheduled shift declined by over 60 percent compared to last year.
In Paramount, Calif., three Walmart workers were arrested at a protest.
In Arizona, a Catholic charity—Tucson’s Casa Maria Free Kitchen—rejected a $2,000 donation from Walmart, calling it “blood money.” Charity overseer Brian Flagg told the Arizona Daily Star, “We feel that even though Walmart has low prices, they pay lousy wages, they’re anti-union, and they have a detrimental effect on the survival of small businesses.”
One Reno labor activist noted that the protest at the Glendale Avenue Walmart took place across the street from the Grand Sierra Resort, which is unionized.
Weighty info
Thanksgiving Day editions, packed with holiday shopping ads, are reportedly the largest of the year for daily newspapers. The Nov. 22 edition of the Reno Gazette-Journal weighed 3.91 pounds.
If it were ground beef, it would have cost $9.73, according to Raley’s grocery prices on Monday of this week. If it were crab, it would have cost $19.51.
Although it was a weekday and although that particular edition was revenue-rich, the Gazette-Journal raised the price for it to $3. The normal weekday price is $1.
Repeal
Nevada reconsiders a remnant of the past
State legislators will consider whether to repeal a Nevada law that currently by allows employers to engage in job disDennis Myers crimination against communists. The Legislative Commission—a body that handles some legislative business when the full Nevada Legislature is out of session—is having a bill drawn up to repeal Nevada Revised Statute 613.360. The lawmakers go into session on Feb. 4. The 47-year-old law doesn’t necessarily allow discrimination against all communists. It allows it in the cases of communists who are members of a Communist Party and may allow it in other instances. It reads:
“Actions permitted against member of Communist Party or related organization. As used in NRS 613.310 to 613.435, inclusive, the phrase ‘unlawful employment practice’does not include any action or measure taken by an employer, labor organization, joint labor-management committee or employment agency with respect to an individual who is a member of the Communist Party of the United States or of any other organization required to register as a Communist-action or Communistfront organization by final order of the Subversive Activities Control Board pursuant to the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950.”
The Subversive Activities Control Board was created by the U.S. Internal Security Act of 1950, which was sponsored by U.S. Sen. Patrick McCarran of Nevada, a right wing Democrat. Title II of the same law provided for concentration camps in the United States, a number of which were constructed but never used. (Democratic Sen. Paul Douglas of Illinois, who coauthored Title II, was later placed on an FBI list of people to be rounded up for the camps.)
The Nevada law was enacted by the 1965 Nevada Legislature as section 15 of that year’s Assembly Bill 404, sponsored by Assemblymembers Mel Close and Vernon Bunker, both Democrats.
Bunker, who was the Democratic floor leader in 1965 and later moved down to the state Senate, is deceased.
Close, who later became Assembly Speaker and also eventually moved to the Senate, is a Las Vegas lawyer. He has no memory of the legislation.
In February the Nevada Legislature will be faced with the ticklish task of repealing an anti-communist law.
An examination of legislative records does not provide any indication of why the section was in the bill. Most of the committee discussion dealt with how the state law meshed with federal law, and some concern was expressed over disallowing sexual discrimination. Some legislators thought it might mean businesses would be subject to equal pay for women or might have to hire women as ditch-diggers. The committee minutes say Gov. Grant Sawyer signed off on the language.
The bill passed the Assembly 34-2 on March 18 and the Senate 21-8 on April 2.
The language of the law is a reflection of the times when it was enacted. The word “communist” was usually capitalized, even when not used as a proper noun, a practice that dwindled as red-baiting receded into the past.
Would legislators today run a political risk by voting to repeal the law?
He said that with the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that the threat both inside and outside the United States was always from the right.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, business leaders in the U.S. were able to use both money and force—sometimes U.S. military force—to put economic theories like Marxism, communism, socialism and social democracy permanently outside allowable discourse in the nation, unlike Europe where socialism and social democracy are still vigorous and often successful movements and even communism is a credible faction.
Lokken acknowledged that there’s always the possibility that a fringe figure might accuse a Nevada legislator in the next election of being pro-communist, but he said there are ways for the lawmakers to protect themselves.
“It would be wise to combine it in a bill with a number of other ridiculous laws,” he said.
It may come as a surprise that it is legal for employers to inquire into the political beliefs of job applicants. It is, with some exceptions and some ambiguous risk points for employers.
There are federal court cases that protect public employees from scrutiny of their political views.
In some states there are laws that protect private sector job applicants
from political probes, but Nevada isn’t one of them.
One lawyer at an online legal advice site, William Wilson, suggests that a federal law, 42 USC 1985(3), could be used in this field. He wrote that it “prohibits conspiracies to deprive persons of equal rights and privileges that has been raised in various contexts. The statute, which is a Reconstruction era law, is broadly drafted to correct some of the abuses that arose after the Civil War for blacks trying to exercise their rights. However, it addresses ‘any person or class of persons of the equal protection of the laws’which could include party affiliation, or a particular political viewpoint. The ‘class’must be one that is sufficiently defined, so it is more likely to apply to party affiliation, such as Democrat, rather than an amorphous group, such as liberal.”
There are other, similar Nevada laws that are still on the books but have not been marked for revision and will apparently stand as is. Among them: • NRS 613.370, which allows job discrimination for a job applicant who is adjudged by federal officials to be a threat to “national security”; • NRS 203.115, which makes “criminal anarchy”—that is, holding the opinion that the government should be overthrown by force or violence—illegal even without action to put that opinion into practice; • NRS 203.117, which makes “criminal syndicalism”—that is, holding the opinion that “political or industrial reform” should be carried out by force—illegal even without action to put that opinion into practice; • The Nevada Constitution at article two, section five, which requires teachers at all levels to take loyalty oaths.
Syndicalism laws in some other jurisdictions have been overturned by the courts and in 1969 they were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brandenburg v. Ohio, a case involving a member of the Ku Klux Klan who was convicted of holding officially disapproved opinions.
Surprisingly, none of these laws is the product of the McCarthy era of the 1950s, when Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin became known for accusations of subversion against liberals. McCarthy launched that movement with campaigns swing of speeches around the nation for Republican candidates that began in Wheeling, W. Va., and included stops in Reno and Las Vegas.
The language in the Nevada Constitution requiring loyalty oaths was written in 1864 when suspicions of the loyalty of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and of Confederate sympathizers were at issue.
The syndicalism laws were written during the early 20th century when business practices were challenged by labor and reform movements. According to NRS, they were already on the state’s lawbooks in 1911 when a revision of state laws took place. Ω
Sign of the season
Workers in downtown Sparks install a tree for a holiday lighting on Nov. 30. That will be followed on Dec. 1 by a Christmas parade on Victorian Avenue.
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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21
CHRISTMAS WITH AARON NEVILLE
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15
UPCOMING SHOWS
12/22 – ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL
12/28 – KARL DENSON’S TINY UNIVERSE / ROBERT RANDOLPH & THE FAMILY BAND
12/29 – THE FAB FOUR
1/05 – TAINTED LOVE
1/12 – JONNY LANG 3/09 – JOSE FELICIANO
Tickets available at Ticketmaster.com or SouthShoreRoom.com
See box office for details and age restrictions. Shows subject to change or cancellation. Must be 21 or older to gamble. Know When To Stop Before You Start.® Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-522-4700. ©2012, Caesars License Company, LLC. RNR-112912
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Sunny days for Nevada tribes
Nearly 1 million photovoltaic panels were approved for construction on the Moapa River Indian Reservation in Southern Nevada. The solar plant will help supply power to Los Angeles, resulting in economic growth for the Moapa Band of Paiutes. According to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, it’s the largest solar plant on tribal land in the country. Los Angeles and the tribe have a “$1.6 billion, 25-year pact,” the report said.
The power generated by the plant will provide energy for more than 100,000 homes in Los Angeles, and Moapa Band of Paiutes will oversee the plant and supply gravel and sand. Response to the solar plant has been positive as tribes throughout the state have been developing renewable energy resources onto reservations. The Moapa Band of Paiutes has been active in opposing the Reid Gardner coal plant, notably staging a protest at the Clean Energy Summit, held earlier this year in Las Vegas.
Warnings from the World Bank
A few degrees in temperature change here or there may seem like a mild fluctuation, but researchers at the World Bank fear major environmental consequences for rising global temperatures. Last week, the World Bank released a report called “Turn down the heat: Why a 4 degrees Celsius warmer world must be avoided,” which looks at the environment’s reaction to a severe increase in temperature. Until recently, scientists and organizations, including the United Nations, have stressed the importance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. 4° However, the focus has shifted to 3 degrees Celsius and, in a worst case scenario, 4 degrees Celsius. The report begins with a foreword by World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, who writes, “It is my hope that this report shocks us into action. Even for MAXIMUM INCREASE those of us already committed to fighting climate change, I hope it causes us to work with much more urgency. … The 4°C scenarios are devastating: the inundation of coastal cities; increasing risks for food production potentially leading to higher malnutrition rates; many dry regions becoming dryer, wet regions wetter; unprecedented heat waves in many regions, especially in the tropics; substantially exacerbated water scarcity in many regions; increased frequency of high-intensity tropical cyclones; and irreversible loss of biodiversity, including coral reef systems.”
The report looks at each of these ecosystems in depth, and also investigates impact on human health and populations. View the whole report at http://bit.ly/4Celcius.
—Ashley Hennefer
ashleyh@newsreview.com
ECO-EVENT
The Backcountry Film Festival will showcase independent and professional films on Dec. 2 at Cargo at CommRow. Proceeds from the festival will benefit the Snowlands Network, a non-profit organization which advocates for sustainable winter recreation and also maintains wildlands in Nevada and California. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the films start at 8 p.m. $10 in advance, $12 at the door. VIP tickets are $18 and include a goodie bag. All tickets can be purchased online at www.commrow.com.
Got an eco-event? Contact ashleyh@newsreview.com. Visit www.facebook.com/RNRGreen for more.
