Hundreds of protesters calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war streamed into Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan on Friday, in one of the largest protests New York City has seen since the start of the conflict three weeks ago.
The demonstration, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, came as Israel ramped up its military operations inside Gaza.
World leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emanuel Macron, expressed their condolences to the families and the Government of India on Saturday over one of the country‘s worst train accidents that killed at least 288 people.
At least 261 people have died in India‘s worst rail accident in over two decades, officials said on Saturday, after a passenger train went off the tracks and hit another one in the east of the country.
(15 July 2016)
The Internet of Things applies unique identifiers to objects, or in the case of Abu Dhabi, people to be followed, and provides large amounts of data on all aspects of an individual’s movements and activities based on the surveillance equipment used. Tools for the collection of data include all manner of devices, from cameras on the street to smart devices connected to the internet.
“Every person is monitored from the moment they leave their doorstep to the moment they return to it. Their work, social and behavioural patterns are recorded, analysed and archived,” a source close to the project told MEE at the time.
With demands for a full inquiry and an end to privatization, protestors marched toward Syntagma Square and the Greek Parliament, where the main body of demonstrators reached the square at around 15:00.
At the same time, the left-wing trade union faction PAME organised a separate rally and march to Parliament over the rail accident at Propylea, attended by labor organizations, federations, unions, students and pupils.
(03.03.2023)
After a train station manager in Larissa was arrested in connection to the collision, Greek authorities on Thursday made public striking dispatch recordings that show one of the train drivers receiving instructions to ignore a red light.
The Hellenic Police estimates that more than 40,000 people marched in central Athens on Wednesday to protest the rail collision at Tempe last week that left 57 people dead. Sources from the Citizen Protection Ministry also pointed out that the march was a mostly peaceful affair.
Downing Street has conceded that today‘s mass strike action will be „very difficult“ for the public.
The prime minister‘s official spokesman said it is „disappointing“ that headteachers do not know fully how many teachers will be available for work until later today.
Downing Street said 600 military personnel as well as civil servants and volunteers across government have been trained to fill the gaps in public services.
Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, said a petition of more than 250,000 signatures opposing new so-called “anti-strike” laws will be delivered to Downing Street.
Dozens of trains and flights were also suspended in northern Japan through Sunday, but services have since mostly resumed, according to the transportation ministry.
„I work for a Class 1 railroad that implemented one of the most egregious attendance policies (Hi-Viz) that requires us to be available to work 92% of the time per month,“ he said. „If we take off one day for a sickness, we are required to [work] 14 days straight to gain points back. That is why we are fighting tooth and nail for sick days.“
Dec 2, 2022
President Joe Biden signed a bill on Friday that prevents 12 rail unions from going on strike next week. The president signed the bill to head off a potentially crippling supply chain disruption in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Join Railroad Workers United (RWU), the Independent Socialist Group (ISG), and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) at a protest outside of Biden’s upcoming appearance in Boston. If you are in an organization that would like to endorse this event and is interested in speaking in support of railroad workers, contact:
Nick Wurst, RWU & ISG: 508-335-8633
Paul Bamberger, DSA: 518-860-9378
Day & Time: Friday 12/2 Picket starting 11:30am, Rally starting 12pm. Estimated end time 1:30pm.
Location: Biden will be visiting JFK Library at University Dr N, Boston, MA 02125 for an event. The picket and rally will be held at the corner of University Drive North and Colombia Point, on the parking lot side.
Devin Mantz: I voted no on the contract because we deserve more.
Adam Smithey: It does not meet the requirements for quality of life that we need. We need time to sleep, we need time to rest, we need to enjoy our lives. We don’t have any of that now.
Matt Weaver: We’re considered essential employees, and we don’t have a single paid sick day to use when we’re off. We worked through the pandemic, we were considered essential, and now it seems like we’re expendable.
Dave Manning: If a person is sick, they shouldn’t have to use all of their paid days that they had to earn the previous year before to take a day off.
Matt Morty Mortenson: We’re constantly coming to work sick and exhausted.
Reece Murtagh: We routinely work 14 hours and longer every day.
Matt Morty Mortenson: We’ve currently lost 2 BMWED members in the past two weeks and they might have been here today with us if they would have just been able to rest and reset.
“The Senate cannot leave until we get the job done, and Democrats will keep working with Republicans to find a path forward that everyone can support,” he announced on the Senate floor.
The Democratic leader began the so-called Rule 14 process on Wednesday evening to put a House-passed bill to avert the rail strike on the Senate calendar.
(29.11.2022)
(30.11.2022)
This overwhelming bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives makes clear that Democrats and Republicans agree that a rail shutdown would be devastating to our economy and families across the country. The Senate must now act urgently. Without the certainty of a final vote to avoid a shutdown this week, railroads will begin to halt the movement of critical materials like chemicals to clean our drinking water as soon as this weekend.
(29.11.2022)
The House has passed legislation to block a nationwide rail strike by imposing a contract that has been rejected by unions representing the majority of freight rail workers.
The deal gives the union members an immediate 14% raise with back pay dating back to 2020, and raises totaling 24% during the five-year life of the contract, that runs from 2020 through 2024. It also gives them cash bonuses of $1,000 a year.
Few other details of the deal have so far been made public. But the statement from Biden indicated that the major issue that had brought the country within a day of its first national rail strike in 30 years had been addressed in the unions’ favor.
Railroad Workers United is an inter-union, cross-craft solidarity „caucus“ of railroad workers, and their supporters, from all crafts, all carriers, and all unions across North America. We urge union railroaders to continue being active in their craft union AND to join RWU in building solidarity and strength among all rail workers. We work with union rank & file railroad workers, but we welcome yet-to-be organized rail workers as well. In addition, we actively work with other labor and community organizations on issues of mutual concern. We do not accept managers or those who oppose our principles.
(May 5, 2022)
Jeff Kurtz: Okay, thank you, Max. I’d like the viewers to imagine that their life is a scorecard, because that’s exactly what these workers are facing. They start off with a score of 30 points that they can never exceed that 30 points. They will get four points allocated back to their score. Say they get down to 20 points. If they work 14 days in a row, they will get four points allocated back to their score. But the points that you can lose are really dramatic. So, I mean, you could lose points for an incident. You could lose 15 points for an incident.
There are specific incidents. If you don’t show up for work for whatever reason. We had a gentleman that was in a car wreck, and it wasn’t his fault. He was about a mile from his terminal and his car was totaled. And the supervisor that came out there told him, she said, you’re not going to work. She said, you could be hurt, and we don’t know it. So they, what we call marked this guy off. They marked him off the job. Well, he initially was saddled with a 15 point deduction for not showing up to work. And eventually, I think that the local supervisor protested this, so they only docked him three points.
But this is exactly what’s going on. I heard of a case where a worker, his mother died while he was en route, and the railroad pulled him off the train, and then they tried to dock him points for it. And the stories just go on and on and on. And Max, what you alluded to as far as things getting worse when people aren’t watching, that’s exactly what’s happening.
More than 115,000 rail workers will be legally allowed to strike on Friday.
“RMT members are leading the way for all workers in this country who are sick and tired of having their pay and conditions slashed by a mixture of big business profits and government policy
“Now is the time to stand up and fight for every single railway worker in this dispute that we will win.”
The week of planned strikes across the country will impact London Underground (Tube), Overground, Elizabeth line and national rail services across the UK between 21 and 26 June 2022. Only around half of Britain’s rail network will be open on strike days, with a very limited service running on lines that will only be open from around 07:30 until 18:30.
This strike action comes as part of separate disputes with both the RMT over pensions, jobs and conditions, and with Unite over pay.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union has told members to prepare to “shut down the rail system” with strikes on 21, 23 and 25 June, after a ballot of 40,000 members last month resulted in staff at Network Rail and 13 train operating companies voting overwhelmingly for full-scale industrial action.
About 10,000 more RMT members in London will also hold a further tube strike on 21 June, in a coordinated move designed to head off possible job cuts at Transport for London and in the national rail network.
A missile hit a train station in eastern Ukraine where thousands had gathered Friday, killing at least 52 and wounding dozens more in an attack on a crowd of mostly women and children trying to flee a new, looming Russian offensive, Ukrainian authorities said.
29 September 2021
Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the maritime, road and aviation industries have called loudly and clearly on governments to ensure the free movement of transport workers and to end travel bans and other restrictions that have had an enormously detrimental impact on their wellbeing and safety. Transport workers keep the world running and are vital for the free movement of products, including vaccines and PPE, but have been continually failed by governments and taken for granted by their officials.
Our calls have been consistent and clear: freedom of movement for transport workers, for governments to use protocols that have been endorsed by international bodies for each sector and to prioritise transport workers for vaccinations as called for in the World Health Organization’s SAGE Roadmap for Prioritizing Uses of COVID-19 Vaccines in the Context of Limited Supply.
Heads of government have failed to listen, to end the blame-shifting within and between governments and take the decisive and coordinated action needed to resolve this crisis.
(29.09.2021)
Seafarers, truck drivers and airline workers have endured quarantines, travel restrictions and complex Covid-19 vaccination and testing requirements to keep stretched supply chains moving during the pandemic.
But many are now reaching their breaking point, posing yet another threat to the badly tangled network of ports, container vessels and trucking companies that moves goods around the world.
(29.09.2021)
At the peak of the crisis 400,000 seafarers were unable to leave their ships, with some working for as long as 18 months over their initial contracts, the letter said. Flights have been restricted and aviation workers have faced the inconsistency of border, travel and vaccine restrictions/requirements, it added.
Additional and systemic stopping at road borders has also meant truck drivers have been forced to wait, sometimes weeks, before being able to complete their journeys and return home.
The agreement will allow Kingho Railway and Port Company Limited to manage and operate the infrastructure of the railway and Pepel Port for haulage and export of Kingho Mining Company‘s iron ore out of the country, it said.
A ‘veto’ against the railway by the Sami herders could be the final nail in the coffin for the project. It is unlikely that the Governments of Finland and Norway would invite for a new big conflict with the indigenous peoples up north.
Hundreds of people marched in an anti-pipeline protest through downtown Saskatoon late Thursday afternoon.
Alice Wells alleged that there was no transparency in CPEC projects, claiming Pakistan’s debt burden was growing due to Chinese financing. She also touched on the cost escalation in the railways ML-1 upgrade project and said the Chinese companies joining CPEC were in World Bank’s blacklist.
Xi‘s state visit to Nepal, the first by a Chinese president in 23 years, will be one with a „new meaning,“ which provides an opportunity to enhance the political, economic, social and cultural ties between the two countries, Oli said.
“The project will enhance trade by significantly reducing transport costs, thereby accelerating the economic growth of Ethiopia and its neighbour Djibouti, as it is part of the main import-export corridor,” the AfDB said in a statement.
Despite these challenges, Nepal’s railway dream moved closer to reality after the project was listed as one of the 64 to be considered under China’s BRI during the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing in April.
The two countries have been actively pushing forward the joint building of the Belt and Road, with stable progress being made in the construction of Hungary-Serbia railway project, said Orban.
Noting this year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations, the Hungarian president said his country is willing to work with China to carry forward the traditional friendship, deepen pragmatic cooperation, and promote new progress in bilateral ties, China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) cooperation as well as in China-Europe relations.
Noorollah Beyranvand said the money, being loaned by the Export-Import Bank of China, was ready to be paid to China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC), the company due to carry out the work.
Other companies involved are Khatam Al-Anbia Construction, which is owned by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Germany’s Siemens, and Italferr, the consulting arm the Italian national rail operator Ferrovie dello Stato.
The volume of container transfers from China to European Union countries and back via territory of Kazakhstan increased by 21 percent