Alternative Visions – Communications Workers’ Historic Strike Against Verizon to Save Jobs – 05.13.16

Jack Rasmus welcomes CWA Local 1400 president and union bargaining committee member, Don Trementozzi, to report the facts about the current Verizon strike, now in its fifth week, by 40,000 CWA union members, from New England to Virginia. Don explains the main issue, and union demand ,to save 20,000 union call center workers’ jobs that Verizon wants to offshore from the US to the Philippines and elsewhere, where the company pays workers only $1.78/hr., despite having made $18.6 billion in profits last year. Violence by replacement-scab workers hired by the company in the US and in the Philippines are described by Trementozzi. Jack notes the recent Pew Study showing incomes of middle class US workers now falling in 203 of 226 regions in the US, and how the ‘triple onslaught’ by companies—job offshoring, creating tens of millions of part time-temp-contract low pay jobs, and now the ‘gig’ economy—has been devastating US jobs and middle class incomes, that have been declining the past six years as companies like Verizon have been distributing $5 trillion in dividends and stock buybacks to their wealthy investors since 2010. Trementozzi describes the growing support for the strikers throughout the northeast and internationally, in this historic strike to save jobs and call a halt to the ‘triple onslaught’ destroying US middle class incomes.

Guest: Don Trementozzi is president of CWA local 1400 in New England and a member of the union’s regional bargaining committee. For more information about the strike and negotiations go to www.cwa.org or to www.cwalocal1400.org websites.

Terri LaPoint – Non-Vaccinating Parents Found Guilty After Child Died – Exonerating Evidence Ignored

Canadian parents David and Collet Stephan were found guilty this week of “failing to provide the necessaries of life” for their 18 month old unvaccinated son. The verdict stunned the couple and supporters alike, especially after there was expert testimony and evidence presented during the trial that showed that the child would most likely be alive today were it not …

Peter Koenig – Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) – Planned Sterilization of Humanity?

Severe health risks of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are not new. Studies by scientists among others in France, Germany, Austria, since at least the 1990s, pointing to several levels of health dangers to mankind abound. A recent study released by Egyptian researchers found that rats fed a GMO diet suffer from infertility, among other health issues. In the US similar studies were …

El Nino Is So Last Year, Here Comes La Nina to Wreak More Havoc

As the effects of the most severe El Nino in almost 20 years still reverberate around the world, preparations are already under way for La Nina. Indonesia is set to distribute water pumps to farmers and assessing its rice stockpiles in anticipation of the weather event materializing in October, Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday. La Nina, sometimes …

Errors, fraud, lies, and William Saletan – GM papaya: Saviour or health risk?

In Part 1 of this series we saw how Saletan used his Slate magazine piece to blame the critics of golden rice for the blindness and death of countless malnourished children, without making it clear that the real reasons this GMO crop is still unavailable are: 1. it has failed its field trials; 2. it hasn’t been safety tested; 3. it hasn’t …

The Looming US-China Crisis in the South China Sea by MEL GURTOV

The long-running, multi-party dispute over control of islets in the South China Sea (SCS) is worsening both in rhetoric and provocative activity. Meeting in late May at the Shangri-La Dialogue on regional security, US and Chinese defense officials sparred over responsibility for the increased tension, though they stopped short of issuing threats.  In fact, all sides to the dispute say …

China Jams US Spy Drones Over Disputed South China Sea Islands – RALPH TURCHIANO

China tried to electronically jam US drone flights over the disputed South China Sea in order to prevent surveillance on man-made islands Beijing is constructing as a part of an aggressive land reclamation initiative, US officials said. Global Hawk long-range surveillance drones were targeted by jamming in at least one incident near the Spratly Islands, where China is building military …

Early men and women were equal, say scientists – Hannah Devlin

Our prehistoric forebears are often portrayed as spear-wielding savages, but the earliest human societies are likely to have been founded on enlightened egalitarian principles, according to scientists. A study has shown that in contemporary hunter-gatherer tribes, men and women tend to have equal influence on where their group lives and who they live with. The findings challenge the idea that …

Move Over Mexico: China Now Sends Most Immigrants to US – RALPH TURCHIANO

China has replaced Mexico as the top country of origin for immigrants to the United States, according to a new review of 2013 immigration data. The American Census Bureau study, conducted primarily by statistician/demographer Eric Jensen, was based on annual immigration data collected from the years 2000 through to 2013. It found that of 1,201,000 immigrants in the US, 147,000 …