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California employers paid 38 percent more for workers' compensation insurance this year than those in the second most expensive state, Alaska, a new study shows. The nationwide survey said the gap between California and the rest of the country widened further in the past two years. In 2002, the state's employers, while still facing the highest rates in the nation, paid 16 percent more than the No. 2 state of Florida. On average, employers in January 2004 paid an average of $6.08 per $100 of payroll for premiums - $1.69 more than Alaska companies, according to a biennial survey of...

PARIS, Dec 9 (AFP) - French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on Thursday announced a major relaxation of the controversial 35-hour working week, the key socialist reform that has come under attack for helping create the country's stubbornly high unemployment.     At a televised news conference in Paris, Raffarin unveiled a government action plan dubbed "Contract France 2005", whose main provision is to make it easier for staff and companies to get round the last left-wing administration's compulsory cut in working hours.     Introduced in 1998 by then prime minister Lionel Jospin, the law is blamed by the ruling Union for a Popular...

A judge who can't handle "deadlines, attorneys' and parties' harassment and conflicts (with) angry, hostile litigants" probably ought to find another line of work. But a state workers' compensation judge – actually, an arbiter of money and medical benefits in workers' comp cases – has filed a workers' comp claim for, according to The Sacramento Bee, "injuries to the heart and psyche." And hers is hardly the most glaring case of judges working the workers' comp system to their personal advantage. More's the pity that it's lawful. In fact, the cost of workers' comp as a percentage of payroll at...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

British aid workers are expelled from Sudan By David Blair, Africa Correspondent (Filed: 30/11/2004) The Sudanese government ordered senior members of Oxfam and Save the Children to leave the country yesterday, accusing them of backing rebels in the war-torn region of Darfur. The action against the two British-based aid agencies, which are helping hundreds of thousands of refugees, followed a report by Save the Children of a government air raid on one of its feeding centres, and critical press statements issued by Oxfam. Save the Children is a large distributor of food in Darfur Sudan pledged three weeks ago to...

Turkish workers a mistake, claims Schmidt By Hannah Cleaver in Berlin (Filed: 25/11/2004) Helmut Schmidt, the former German chancellor, has inflamed the country's debate on immigration by saying that multiculturalism can only work under authoritarian regimes, and that bringing millions of Turkish guest workers to Germany was a mistake. "The concept of multiculturalism is difficult to make fit with a democratic society," he told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper. He added that it had been a mistake that during "the early 1960s we brought guest workers from foreign cultures into the country". Mr Schmidt, 85, who was the Social Democratic chancellor...

A death threat threw workers' compensation Judge Ruby Theophile into such an emotional tailspin that she filed her very own workers' comp claim. Even one of her doctors remarked on the irony. The situation "seems unusual if not unique," psychiatrist Warren Jones wrote in his evaluation of the Pasadena judge. It was not unique - nor even unusual. California's 150 workers' compensation judges are six times more likely to file on-the-job injury cases than their judicial counterparts in state government, a Bee investigation has found. These gatekeepers of cash and medical benefits for injured workers have claimed injuries from rearranging...

...Greg Casey, a former U.S. Senate sergeant-at-arms who headed what he calls business' "below-the-radar" national effort, said it resulted in 30 million electronic contacts with workers, about 700,000 the day before the election. He said 812,000 workers downloaded voter registration forms from the Web sites. ... "Prosperity Project" had a big impact in Ohio, citing research suggesting that for every 10 employees who scanned company Web sites, one was motivated to vote. He said Ohio companies made 1.3 million employee contacts, more than nine times Bush's 136,483-vote victory margin in the state. Former Michigan governor John Engler, the new president...

"...After sharply criticizing President Bush for the invasion of Iraq and his post-war policies, delegates at the APWU convention on Aug. 23-27 approved a resolution that stated: "Resolved, the AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION, AFL-CIO calls for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the implementation of a plan to turn over sovereignty to the people of Iraq as soon as possible, and the return of U.S. troops to their homes and families."...

The No. 2 official at the San Francisco Department of Public Works threatened workers under contract to clean city streets with loss of pay if they didn't campaign for Gavin Newsom for mayor, according to sworn testimony in a city attorney's investigation. City attorney's investigators looking into allegations of election abuses made by the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners, or SLUG -- a nonprofit group under contract with the city for street-cleaning services -- were told by the street cleaners that they had been directed by Deputy Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru to walk precincts for the Newsom for...

No Mail or Telephone Calls for Troops? Communication Workers & Postal Workers Oppose War in Iraq

France agrees with "U. S. Labor Against the Law"-- Supports Trade Freedom in Iraq THE FOURTH WORLD CONGRESS of EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL Asks that all restrictions to trade union freedom in Iraq be lifted immediately, in conformity with ILO Conventions 87 and 98; Recommends to its member organizations that they support this demand; SUPPORTS THE EFFORTS OF IRAQI TEACHERS TO BUILD AND STRENGTHEN THEIR TRADE UNIONS, so that their right to collective bargaining is recognized and that necessary measures be taken to grant all Iraqi students free and universal access to quality public education....

nine million! -- Americans currently work for U.S. subsidiaries of foreign-owned companies.

This is from the Peace Action Group, they are planning a rally in DC which I bet will be an Anti-Bush Rally, here is an e-mail from a NJ Group.On Sunday, October 17, 2004 , IBEW and CWA supporters of the MWM will be sponsoring a bus to Washington , DC . We are also inviting community friends and workers from other industries to join us.  No matter who wins the November elections, working people in this country must “get  organized” to fight for our interests. The million worker march can be a big step forward in that process. Only...

An amendment offered by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, in the House of Representatives yesterday that would have remove from an appropriations bill a new mandatory mental-health screening program for America's children failed by a vote of 95-315. Paul's amendment would have removed the program from the Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2005. Ninety-four Republicans and one Democrat sided with Paul, while 118 Republicans, 196 Democrats and one Independent voted against the amendment. As WorldNetDaily reported, the New Freedom Initiative recommends screening not only for children but eventually for every American. The initiative came out of the...

NEWTOWN, Conn., Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a letter sent to Sen. John Kerry from National Shooting Sports Foundation President Doug Painter: National Shooting Sports Foundation President Doug Painter today criticized presidential candidate John Kerry for betraying union workers whose pleas for help he ignored earlier this year in a vote that would have protected union jobs. Kerry was also taken to task for accepting as a gift a hunting gun that could be banned under Kerry-sponsored legislation. The strongly worded letter delivered to Capitol Hill today emphasizes the Senator's hypocrisies. On Labor Day, Kerry claimed to be...

From 2000 to 2003, California workers' compensation insurance premiums posted double-digit percentage increases -- helping to flat-line the state economy. Now, four months after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 899 to reform workers' compensation, premiums are dropping by double digits -- facilitating the California recovery. Bipartisan cooperation between the governor and the Legislature produced workers' compensation reform that is delivering results. (snip) Even though some of the most important reforms do not take effect until January, the early results show a system already on the mend, and it is worth looking at how far we have come. The State...

Reversing a trend that has been cutting costs for many small employers, a key workers' compensation bureau said Wednesday that it plans to recommend that insurers increase premium rates by 3.5 percent next year. The recommendation comes just months after state lawmakers enacted reforms in the workers' compensation insurance system that they promised would cut costs for employers complaining of sky-high premiums. The bureau and others said employers may still get relief in their insurance bills in January, if a state agency charged with setting new disability-rating rules can do so by year end. The new rules are expected to...

French power workers have cut around 3% of state-owned energy group Electricite de France's (EdF) generation capacity, according to union leaders. The action is timed to coincide with a vote by the French Senate to transform Edf and its sister firm Gaz de France (GdF) into limited liability companies. Unions believe the move will eventually lead to the privatisation of the firms.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - An extraordinarily high percentage of California public safety workers retire with special disability retirement benefits, qualifying them for half their last annual salary for life, tax-free. Two out of three retirees in the California Highway Patrol receive the medical pensions, as do nearly half of retirees from local police and fire departments. Among recipients are a state nurse who suffers anxiety about sick people; a prison guard who hurt his knee carrying a large coffeepot upstairs; and a Department of Motor Vehicles investigator who qualified for two consecutive disability pensions, both for the same heart condition, found...