March 21, 2023

Federal Employee Union Membership is Up 20%

Since implementation of a number of pro-labor policies a year ago, federal employee unions gained 80,000 new dues-paying members.

By ERICH WAGNER , http://govexec.com | MARCH 20, 2023 05:21 PM ET
UNIONS


Vice President Kamala Harris’ office last week touted early progress in the Biden administration’s effort to strengthen the federal workforce by improving worker empowerment, boasting a sizeable increase in the number of federal employees who are dues-paying union members.

In February 2022, the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, chaired by Harris and then-Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, issued its first report, which contained more than 70 recommendations for federal agencies to make it easier for employees in both the federal and private sectors to organize or join a union.

The task force asked federal agencies to foster collaborative relationships with their union partners, involve labor organizations in predecisional policy discussions, and remove barriers from unions trying to increase their membership or organize new bargaining units. The group recommended that the Office of Personnel Management instruct agencies to provide information on whether job openings are represented by unions and encourage agencies to provide unions more opportunities to communicate with new hires.

In a blog post last week, the vice president’s office announced that just a year after agencies began implementing the task force’s recommendations, the initiative is already paying dividends: over the last year, nearly 80,000 federal employees have joined a union, increasing the total number of dues paying union members at federal agencies by 20%. And in the private sector, petitions for union representation increased 53% from fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2022, while overall union membership grew by 273,000 last year.



More: https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2023/03/federal-employee-union-membership-20/384205/

February 27, 2023

AFN Leader dies after heart attack

(Note: U.S. Department of the Army Civilian employees in Japan were cut off earlier this year from US MILITARY MEDICAL CARE in Japan. Congress ordered the change- but US Military civilian employees are now dying from lack of care in Japan- Japanese Hospitals won't let them in. )



Longtime AFN leader dies of heart attack at US air base in Japan

By SETH ROBSON
STARS AND STRIPES • February 27, 2023

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Robert Hawthorne, chief of the American Forces Network Pacific technical services division, died Thursday at this base in western Tokyo after suffering a heart attack, according to a Facebook post by the network Saturday.

His wife, Kim Hawthorne, in a message posted Sunday to the Yokota Civilian Medical Forum Facebook group, said her husband died at the Urgent Care Clinic.

She blamed the clinic’s inability to provide lifesaving treatment in serious health emergencies and a lack of guaranteed care at Japanese medical facilities for U.S. military personnel for contributing to her husband’s death.

“The Yokota [Urgent Care Clinic] has no capacity to treat any life altering events,” she wrote in her post. “It matters not whether you are [active duty] or civilian — BOTH are at extreme risk.”


more:
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/asia_pacific/2023-02-27/yokota-afn-civilian-heart-attack-death-9267967.html

January 29, 2023

Holy Cow! New book

On the Chatfields. Michigan’s own bizarre story

https://read.amazon.com/sample/B0BT8499XB?f=1&l=en_US&r=ea49d15c&rid=TAMQJMWGNDFNTDMVVEAH&sid=132-5811726-9044866&cid=AL2ZFYF7TX3AK&ref_=litb_m

This one is one I’m going to get.

January 21, 2023

State Department Opens Up Refugee Sponsorship to Individual Americans

The Biden administration is launching new opportunities for individual Americans to house and support refugees as it seeks to fulfill its promise to drastically increase the number of foreign nationals it admits through the program.

The departments of State and Health and Human Service announced on Thursday it is standing up the Welcome Corps, an initiative through which vetted Americans who make certain promises can sponsor refugees coming into the country. State has historically only relied on nonprofit organizations to resettle refugees and officials called the change the most significant update to the program in 40 years.

President Biden has pledged to welcome 125,000 refugees into the country annually in fiscal years 2022 and 2023, but has consistently fallen short of its goals. State has cited the Trump administration’s cuts to its own workforce and efforts to dismantle the nonprofit resettlement community as cause for its shortfalls, but has vowed to rebuild the entire system. The Biden administration resettled just 25,000 refugees in fiscal 2022, far short of its goal but an improvement on the 11,000 it welcomed in fiscal 2021. In the first three months of the current fiscal year, State has resettled less than 7,000 individuals, putting it on pace to once again fall well shy of its target.

“We have a lot of rebuilding to do because the program was decimated by the previous administration,” Brian McKeon, the department’s deputy secretary for management and resources, told lawmakers in May. “The president has given us an ambitious target. We’re not going to hit it this year but we’ve got to make progress so we can hit it in the next couple years.”

More:
https://www.govexec.com/management/2023/01/state-department-opens-refugee-sponsorship-individual-americans/381967/

(You’re chance to work with others locally and sponsor a family).

January 15, 2023

A passenger plane with 72 people on board has crashed in Nepal, killing at least 32

Source: NPR Radio

KATHMANDU, Nepal — A 72-seat Nepali passenger aircraft crashed into a gorge while landing at a newly opened airport in the central resort town of Pokhara on Sunday, killing at least 32 people, an official said.

Rescuers were scouring the crash site near the Seti River, which is nearly a mile (1.6 kilometers) away from Pokhara International Airport, and were expecting to find more bodies, said Tek Bahadur K. C., a senior administrative officer in the Kaski district.

It was not immediately clear what caused the plane to crash.

The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft operated by Nepal's Yeti Airlines was carrying 68 passengers, including 15 foreign nationals, and four crew members, Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. The foreigners included five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/15/1149322420/a-passenger-plane-with-72-people-on-board-has-crashed-in-nepal-killing-dozens

---

There were 72 on board. There are no reported survivors.

January 4, 2023

Here is what I think-

I’m ok with nothing being able to be done- at least until we hit the debt ceiling in April or so. That’s the next time we really need the House to do anything.

How many votes can McCarthy lose between now and April? Anybody?

December 27, 2022

Elon Musk says around 100 Starlinks now active in Iran

Elon Musk says around 100 Starlinks now active in Iran

Dec 26 (Reuters) - SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Monday that the company is now close to having 100 active Starlinks, the firm's satellite internet service, in Iran, three months after he tweeted he would activate the service there amid protests around the Islamic country.

Musk said, "approaching 100 starlinks active in Iran", in a tweet on Monday.

The billionaire had said in September that he would activate Starlink in Iran as part of a U.S.-backed effort "to advance internet freedom and the free flow of information" to Iranians.

More:
https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musk-says-around-100-starlinks-now-active-iran-2022-12-26/?fbclid=IwAR0_hP6fndEOIJYfgF1y3qa_Il3vDy6MOsZpxflOsqdA7DFxGZ9HOr1PE2k


This is significant, if they start getting lots of STARLINK terminals inside Iran.

December 17, 2022

New Basic Needs Allowance for Military Families Begins in 2023

(This is a brand new, additional stipend for military families. It’s an allowance to bring their pay up to 130% of poverty level.)


New Basic Needs Allowance for Military Families Begins in 2023

From https://www.military.com/benefits/military-pay/basic-needs-allowance-military-families.html/amp

The military has announced a new Basic Needs Allowance for military families that will begin on Jan. 1, 2023.

What Is the Basic Needs Allowance?

The new allowance was announced by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a Sept. 22, 2022 memo. It is designed to assist military families who are struggling financially in the current economic situation.

The Basic Needs Allowance, or BNA, will only be available to military members stationed in the U.S. who have dependents and whose gross household income is below 130% of the federal poverty guidelines.


More:
https://www.military.com/benefits/military-pay/basic-needs-allowance-military-families.html/amp

December 14, 2022

Minimum Wage/ Tipped employees

The Michigan Appeals Court case had arguments today.

Unless overturned, the tipped minimum wage increase and the sick leave provisions would go into affect in a few months. (February) .

From tomorrow’s Detroit Free Press:


“ A panel of Court of Appeals judges in Detroit heard arguments over a July court ruling that would see Michigan’s minimum wage rise to $13.03 an hour and raise the tipped minimum wage to $11.73 an hour starting in mid-February.


At issue is whether the Michigan Legislature has the constitutional authority to adopt petition initiatives as law and amend the initiatives in the same legislative session.

Court of Claims Judge Douglas Shapiro previously ruled the Michigan Legislature acted unconstitutionally in 2018 when it adopted legislation created through a petition initiative originally intended to enact the wage changes, but in the same session amended the language to put in lower wage thresholds that increased the minimum wage to $12.05 by 2030 instead of 2022 and kept the tipped minimum wage at 38% of the standard one. The tipped minimum wage is the pay rate given to employees who are expected to make the bulk of their earnings through tips, like restaurant servers and bartenders.”

More:

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2022/12/13/michigan-minimum-wage-sick-time-law/69720116007/

December 8, 2022

The new NDAA bill is 4,408 pages long.

I found the new NDAA final bill-


Believe it or not- this bill contains authority
TO PROMOTE General Ulysses S. Grant to be a Five-Star general.

Really??

Yup!!!


“Sec. 583. Posthumous appointment of Ulysses S. Grant to grade of General of the Armies of the United States. “

I kid you not!!

It is 4,408 pages long, and promotes Grant!



https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-117HR7776EAS-RCP117-70.pdf