Tag Archives: unions

Aleksei Navalny died at the age of 47, days after appearing in court. His crime: opposing Putin. Navalny had survived multiple attacks and poisoning, including a near-fatal 2020 poisoning. Even after extended treatment for that attempt on his life, he returned to Russia in 2021. Putin imprisoned him immediately, eventually transferring him to a cold, isolated prison north of the Arctic Circle. In that prison, he was repeatedly confined to a 7×10-foot, unheated punishment cell. He died in that punishment cell, “after a walk,” according to authorities. The New York Times published Navalny’s description of those “walks:” 

“In a letter from prison last month, Mr. Navalny described how he could walk a total of 11 steps from one end of the open-air space to the other, noting that the coldest it had been so far on one of his walks was -26 Fahrenheit.

“’Even at this temperature, you can walk for more than half an hour, so long as you have time to grow a new nose, ears and fingers,’ he wrote. ‘There are few things as invigorating as a walk in Yamal at 6:30 in the morning. And what a wonderful fresh breeze blows into the yard, despite the concrete enclosure, wow!’

“While walking there on a recent day, he said he was freezing and thinking about how Leonardo DiCaprio climbed into a dead horse to escape the cold in the wilderness survival movie ‘The Revenant.’ A dead horse would freeze in that part of Russia within 15 minutes, Mr. Navalny surmised.

“’Here we need an elephant — a hot, fried elephant,’ he said.”

After initially refusing to release Navalny’s body to his mother for burial and threatening to bury him inside the prison in an anonymous grave if she did not consent to a secret burial, officials finally agreed to release his body.

Read Navalny’s obituary here and his 2021 interview from prison here. 

Nex Matters

Nex Benedict was a 16-year-old high school sophomore in Oklahoma. Loved and supported at home, they were bullied at school because they were non-binary. Then the bullying escalated to a physical fight in a school bathroom, leaving Nex “badly beaten with bruises over their face and eyes, and with scratches on the back of their head.” The school suspended Nex, but not their attackers. The next day, Nex collapsed and died. 

Local police insist that the beating was not the cause of Nex’s death, though without evidence. The coroner’s report has not been released.

Bullying extends far beyond the students who attacked Nex. Popular Information reports: 

“Oklahoma’s top education official, Superintendent Ryan Walters (R), has instituted a number of policies targeting trans and LGBTQ+ students. … 

“Walters is not the only Oklahoma official elected official targeting LGBTQ people. According to a report by the ACLU, members of the Oklahoma legislature have introduced 54 anti-LGBTQ bills in 2024, the most of any state. …

“Walters has also enlisted the help of right-wing extremist Chaya Raichik. Raichik runs the X account Libs of TikTok, which routinely promotes anti-LGBTQ rhetoric to its 2.8 million followers. Raichik’s posts have, on numerous occasions, inspired violent threats, including bomb threats to schools and children’s hospitals across the country.” 

“[Raichik]  does not have a professional background in education and has never worked as a librarian. She is a former real estate agent based in New York, and does not even live in Oklahoma.” 

Before her appointment, Raichik repeatedly targeted schools, students, and teachers in Oklahoma and elsewhere, with her posts followed by bomb threats, harassment, and firings.  

Judge Frees Right Wing Terrorist 

A right-wing federal judge in California dismissed criminal charges against a right-wing white nationalist who organized violence at protests and attacked a police officer.  In doing so, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney wrote that ““There seems to be little doubt that Defendants, or at least some members of RAM, engaged in criminal violence.” But, he claimed, the government “selectively prosecuted” right-wing terrorists and did not prosecute left-wing protesters. 

This was the second time that Robert Rundo was charged—after the same judge dismissed the 2018 indictment, Rundo fled the country and posted photos of himself traveling around Europe. He was eventually extradited from Romania after the federal appeals court reinstated the indictment.

The Los Angeles Times reported: 

“The federal indictment against Rundo alleged he and other defendants recruited new members to the organization, coordinated training in hand-to-hand combat, and traveled to political rallies to attack protesters at events across the state.

“The indictment alleged that various members participated in attacks at political rallies in Huntington Beach on March 25, 2017; in Berkeley on April 15, 2017; and in San Bernardino on June 10, 2017. Afterward, they allegedly trained for future events and celebrated by posting photos online of RAM members assaulting people.

“Rundo was accused not just of organizing the violent confrontations, but also of attacking protesters and police officers.”

Nursing Home Strike

Nancy Poll worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant and a scheduler in a rural MN nursing home. Writing in the Minnesota Reformer, she eloquently describes chronic short-staffing and too-low pay:

“Picture this: you’ve been rushing around all morning to get your nursing home residents bathed, dressed, and ready for breakfast, and you receive an alert that there’s an emergency in the next hall. You must assist, but that means you’ll have to cut short your time with Mr. Larsen, who enjoys recounting the plays from the Vikings game the night before, and skip checking in with Ms. Peterson to see how she’s doing with her daily crossword puzzle.

“This is the third time this week you’ve been pulled away to help cover a staffing gap. You feel heartsick, disempowered, and pulled in a thousand directions. Your residents crave connection and a routine. But you and the other workers at your nursing home are stretched thin, and one absence or challenge sets off a cascade of problems that affects the quality of care you and your coworkers are able to provide.”

More than 600 unionized workers at seven Twin Cities nursing homes voted to authorize a one-day strike on March 5. They want $25 an hour, more affordable health insurance, a pension and higher staffing levels. Why?

[MN Reformer] “’Last year I worked 23 straight days. And unsurprisingly, I ended up tearing my biceps,’ said Teresa Brees, a nursing home worker at The Estates of Roseville. ‘I know so many nursing home workers who face stress and injury because of overwork and understaffing.’ …

“Nursing home workers suffer the highest rates of workplace injuries and illnesses of any industry — more than three times the rate of the labor force as a whole, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

The nursing homes affected by the strike vote are Saint Therese of New Hope, Estates of Roseville, Estates of Fridley, Estates of Excelsior, Villas at Robbinsdale, Cedars at St. Louis Park, and Cerenity Senior Care Humboldt in St. Paul. But they could be anywhere. Short-staffing, low pay, and under-appreciation are endemic in nursing homes across Minnesota and the entire country. 

Part-time Work

Sure, there are jobs available. Many employers struggle to find workers. But a big part of the problem is created by employers who deliberately keep workers on irregular part-time schedules, with hours low enough to avoid paying benefits, including health insurance. Adelle Waldman, a writer who worked at a big box store in 2018, writes about the problems faced by involuntarily part-time workers. As of December, more than four million U.S. workers were involuntarily part-time: wanting full-time work, but only able to find part-time. That means even when companies—like Target, WalMart, TJ Max, Starbucks—pay $17 or $18 an hour, most of their workers still may be below poverty level because they do not have anything near full-time work. 

“The unpredictability of the hours made life difficult for my co-workers — as much as, if not more than, the low pay did. On receiving a paycheck for a good week’s work, when they’d worked 39 hours, should they use the money to pay down debt? Or should they hold on to it in case the following week they were scheduled for only four hours and didn’t have enough for food? …

“Many of my co-workers didn’t have cars; with such unstable pay, they couldn’t secure auto loans. Nor could they count on holding on to the health insurance that part-time workers could receive if they met a minimum threshold of hours per week. While I was at the store, one co-worker lost his health insurance because he didn’t meet the threshold — but not because the store didn’t have the work. Even as his requests for more hours were denied, the store continued to hire additional part-time and seasonal workers.”