The people of Minneapolis have taken to the streets the past 72 hours, demanding the arrest of the killer cops who murdered 46-year-old African American George Floyd on Monday night, May 25. Eyewitness video was released Tuesday morning showing now former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin pinning Floyd to the ground, with Chauvin’s knee directly on the back of his neck – the video shows Floyd’s last gasps for air. You can hear him telling the killer cop that he can’t breathe and calling for his mother before you see his body going limp. Three other cops on the scene stand by, with two other cops actively helping to restrain Floyd on the ground, all ignoring the pleas of bystanders to let him breathe. Since then, tens of thousands in Minneapolis and have taken to the streets, demanding justice and retribution, which prompted the Minneapolis police to immediately terminate the four officers involved with Floyd’s murder and finally to charge and jail Chauvin May 29.
Nevada, Michigan and Hawai’i see unemployment rates above 20% in April
San José, CA – On Friday, May 22, the monthly report on state-level labor markets saw the – unemployment rate for three states – Nevada, Michigan and Hawai’i – all soar to more than 20%, levels unseen since the worst of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Actual job losses, reported by business, came to almost 20% between March and April in Vermont and New York, along with Hawai’i.
Kapolei, HI – United Steelworkers (USW) members employed by Par Hawaii Refining, LLC, in Kapolei, a subsidiary of Houston-based Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PARR), overwhelmingly rejected the company’s contract proposal.
Corvallis, OR – Over 300 students, campus workers, professors and community members rallied at Oregon State University on May 12, to protest the racist SB 1070 law in Arizona. Chanting “The people of Arizona are under attack, what do we do, stand up fight back!” the demonstrators marched from the Centro Cultural César Chávez to the center of campus, with banners and brightly-colored signs denouncing SB 1070, as well as another racist bill, HB 2281, which bans schools in Arizona from teaching ethnic studies.
