Monthly Archives: June 2022

By Zenda Douglas, WRAL contributor

Pittsboro, N.C. The long-awaited grand re-opening of The Plant is coming up on Wednesday, June 15, from 5 to 8 p.m. in Pittsboro.

With the theme Steel Toes To Stilettos, there will be festivities that include a ribbon cutting by Pittsboros mayor, awards, tunes by DJ OS and lots of dancing on the new pavers recently installed to enhance visitor experience.

Paperhand Puppets will get the party started with a parade. Lilly Den Food Truck will be open, and beverages will be available from Fair Game Beverage, bmc brewing, Chatham Cider Works and Starrlight Meadery. Denizens of The Plant will also be open for the event.

Depending on who you ask, the 17-acre property at 220 Lorax Lane in Pittsboro anchored by Cold War style thick concrete buildings is called The Plant or Chatham Beverage District; some still refer to it as the old bio-diesel place.

Whatever the name, the radically redeveloped complex is emerging as the "go-to" venue for crafted beverages, farm-to-table eats, artisan goods, music, art, special events, workshops and meetings. The unique setting can be described as laid-back and natural with an industrial chic look. The Plant lies within comfortable distances from all around the Triangle region.

Plus, the property, with its spacious landscape and wooded trails, lends itself to simply gathering with friends to enjoy the outdoors, walk their dogs or ride bikes and learn a lot about trees and birds. A one-and-one-half-acre growing area is occupied by Copeland Springs Farm.

Tami Schwerin and Lyle Estill are the co-founders of The Plant, described as an eco-industrial park. They both refer to themselves as creators of experiences. Their son, Arlo, has joined in the management of the operation.

Lyle is the force behind Fair Game Beverage Company, the cornerstone business of The Plant a tasting room, distillery, snack and bottle shop offering some of the oldest barrel aged spirits in the region as well as craft beers, North Carolina wines and ciders and specialty food products. Patrons can now dine in at Fair Game.

Arlo, a graduate from N.C. State University in textiles, is carrying out a mission to help spark a restorative economy through the versatility, sustainability and strength of hemp textile production in North Carolina. His company, Hempsmith Clothing, located next door to Fair Game, sells stylish clothing made from the wonder plant.

In all our pursuits here, weve been committed to a restorative local economy utilizing North Carolina-grown ingredients and products, says Lyle Estill. Thats a big touchstone for The Plant.

My vision is that it is a place for local economy, says Tami Schwerin. Were strict about what businesses come in. Theres no fast food. We work with like-minded, local, small businesses and farms as much as possible.

The Plant is home to close to 20 diverse businesses which provide a wide variety of products and services including several food and dining options, craft beverages, coffee roasting, hemp clothing and CBD products, jewelry, art, electric bike rentals, axe-throwing and safe and sustainable weed and pest control products.

Tenants here are making something but not commodities, says Lyle. The Hemp store is doing work by hand, embroidering the hat; not like youre going to Old Navy. Everyone is involved in craft or artisan manufacturing.

On the beverage side of things, theres Fair Game Beverage Company, bmc brewing company, Starrlight Mead, Chatham Cider Works, Metal Brixx Caf, Vortex Roasters, Vita Mielie and soon, The Den Deli. Visitors cannot go thirsty here. Hunger is also well-sated here with vegetarian, vegan and meat options.

Essentially, The Plant is a food hall with different beverage companies, says Lyle, explaining the role of the Chatham Beverage District. Tasting rooms encourage visitors to try new offerings.

Both Tami and Lyle are veteran makers and collectors of art. The Plants outdoor art walk displays 30 locally-made art pieces. The Smelt Art Gallery, a non-conventional art gallery, resides at The Plant within the hallway of an old smelting plant beside bmc brewing. The works of mixed-media artist, Claire Alexandre, will be on display through July 31.

One of the buildings, known as Building #2, formerly used for the bio-diesel operation, has been converted to a theater.

On Thursday afternoons from 3 to 6 p.m., visitors to The Plant will find the Pittsboro Farmers Market underway. The well-established market changed its location in June and offers a wide variety of produce, flowers, fresh seafood, eggs, sustainably and ethically-raised meats, hemp products (CBD), prepared food, crafts and more.

Its beneficial for the market and The Plant because people can shop at the market and also stop off to get a beer or other beverage, walk around to other businesses and enjoy the property, says Tami.

Birthday parties, weddings and funerals find unique, creative settings on the property from which to celebrate life.

The Plant welcomes RV rigs through the Harvest Host and Boondockers Welcome networks. RVers can settle down for a night and enjoy all the property offers in food, beverage and entertainment.

Two service organizations currently reside at The Plant: Abundance NC, started by Tami in 2005, which now focuses on local food, putting on the annual Pepper Festival, the annual Death Faire and organizing a monthly grief circle event; and Webb Squared, an organization established to empower Black entrepreneurs.

Kristin Bulpitt, owner of Copeland Springs Farm & Kitchen, moved her farm to The Plant in 2018 and opened the dining establishment in 2019. She farms, manages and cooks.

The farm, which is committed to environmentally sustainable practices, supplies the kitchen with a wide assortment of vegetables and mushrooms. The counter-service kitchen offers small plates, quiche, greens and grains bowls, wraps, sammies and sweets.

Its unlike any other place in Chatham County, says Kristin. People can walk out and see whats growing and eat it five minutes later. Its farm-to-table in the truest sense. The farm also supplies fresh vegetables through Community Supported Agriculture.

Kalim Hasan is the owner, CEO and president of several businesses at The Plant where hes been operating since 2019: Carolina Hemp Tours, Chatham Axes, Metal Brixx Caf and Pittsboro e-Bikes. Kalim owns two brands inside of Chatham Hemp Tours which focus on agritourism across North Carolina. The caf serves cake jars and candy apples and sells cake and canning jars made of glass.

Visitors can relieve tension by picking up some axe-throwing skills or rent an electric bike and tour the area. I wanted to be on the cusp of the growing diversity in this area, says Kalim. Were all building our brands here at The Plant. Its amazing to be surrounded by smart people who dont mind explaining who they are and what they do a great sense of community.

Mackenzie and Tucker Withington started farming Lilly Den Farm in Goldston in 2008. Two months ago they brought their Meats & Eats Food Truck to its permanent home at The Plant. They expect to open a dine-in deli named The Den next month.

The food truck, which has its own commissary kitchen, allows customers to build-their-own meals including rice bowls, salads, sandwiches and something sweet. Loaded French fries are a big hit. The Den Deli will feature a beautiful bar and serve beer, wine, uber local food and Lilly Den Farm meat and dairy products.

The great thing about The Plant is that people can buy from anywhere and eat anywhere on the property, says Mackenzie. We fit in with businesses that were already here. I feel like I hit a goldmine they want us here and that is priceless; they want us to succeed.

The land now occupied by The Plant was once part of a huge flower farm known as Sunshine Gardens, which operated from the 1940s. Once the largest flower farm in the United States, it was famous for growing football chrysanthemums. In 1961, it provided flowers for the inauguration of John F. Kennedy.

Inco Alloys acquired the land in the late 1980s with a mission to secretly develop a new type of aluminum alloy suitable for Cold War military uses. For a time, Inco made metal pieces for fighter jets. The companys prospects were ruined when the Soviet Union collapsed, signaling the end of the Cold War. Leaving behind four massive concrete buildings locked behind a twelve-foot, barbed wire fence equipped with cameras, the company abandoned the property and it sat vacant for the next decade.

Lyle Estill, Tami Schwerin and Lyles late brother, Mark Estill, bought the property in 2005. The family group wanted to establish a sustainable industrial plant to produce bio-fuels.

We wanted to make enough fuel to power our little town, says Lyle.

Piedmont Bio-Fuels, as it was called, was successful in buying up fats and greases from all over town and processing them into fuel that would be sold to customers such as municipalities and Departments of Transportation and Education for school buses, city buses and trains. The owners dubbed the property The Plant and simultaneously took on tenants, grew food, planted native species and hosted events.

In the end, however, Piedmont Bio-Fuels, which produced one-million gallons per year, could not compete with huge corporations in the industry.

Next came Fair Game Beverage in 2013, which has become a destination business for The Plant. Tami and Lyle have never had a problem attracting tenant businesses to the property and numerous businesses have been launched, some with successes that have landed them in bigger markets.

Poison Ivy and possums and abandoned buildings are what were here when we bought it, says Lyle. We turned it into an industrial plant and invited others to do business here. We reinvented it to become a complex for craft beverages and artisan businesses."

The Plant has grown exponentially and is highly successful in nurturing the local economy and community.

Now, instead of steel toed work boots, instead of filling up eighteen-wheelers with fuel, were filling up bottles of beverages and seeing people walk around in their stilettos carrying shopping bags, says Lyle.

Find more information about The Plant, its businesses, venues and events or browse through the Art Walk.

Excerpt from:

Steel Toes to Stilettos: The evolution of The Plant, aka Chatham Beverage District - WRAL News

Pokmon Go is one of the busiest and the most played games, with new events, updates, and content regularly added to the game. As a part of Adventure Week 2022, Niantic is releasing Tyrunt and Evolution Tyruntrum for trainers. Both Tyrunt and Evolution Tyruntrum are Gen 6 Pokmon that debuted in the Season of Go. Heres our Pokmon Go guide to tell you how to get Tyrunt and evolution Tyruntrum.

Tyrunt is a rock and dragon-type Pokmon which first appeared on June 7, 2022, in Pokmon Go. Like every other new Pokmon that gets introduced to the game, trainers can use different ways to get Tyrunt. Heres how you can get Tyrunt:

Tyrunt can be easily obtained in the wild as the Pokmon appears regularly during set hours on Research Day, June 12.

Trainers can also obtain Tyrunt by hatching 7km eggs. These eggs must be collected during the adventure week to have a chance to hatch Tyrunt.

Trainers can get Tyrunt by earning 5 candies while exploring with their buddies.

Trainers can get Tyrunt by walking 5 kilometers and Spinning 25 PokStops or Gyms.It is important to note that these will only give trainers an easy chance to encounter Tyrunt and will not guarantee a Tyrunt, because the rewards from these research tasks can also turn out to be Amaura which was also released during the adventure week.Users must catch plenty of Tyrunt as they need the candy for its evolution.

Trainers must also remember that if they wish to catch Tyrunt by completing Research Tasks, they will have a hard time finding specific tasks as these tasks keep changing daily. As of now, the spawn rate of Tyrunt is unavailable, but it is safe to assume that players will have to put in some work to get it.

Users can stay updated about all the information by visiting the official website or following the official social media handles.

Did you find our guide on How to get Tyrunt and evolution Tyruntrum in Pokmon GO useful? Let us know in the comments below!

For more Mobile Gaming news and updates, join ourWhatsApp group,Telegram Group,orDiscord server. Also, follow us onInstagramandTwitter,andGoogle Newsfor quick updates.

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Pokmon Go Guide: How to get Tyrunt and do Tyruntrum evolution - GamingonPhone

John Merrell, speaking in a southern drawl, apologized for presenting over Zoom in such casual attire. The lack of a jacket and tie, he said, was intentional. He was on-site with a client.

I figured this group would appreciate as much as any that you know, when youve got a lawyer in your facility, you usually dont want them to come in looking all lawyered up, said Merrell, a management labor attorney at the firm Ogletree Deakins, a South Carolina-based law firm that specializes in closely advising businesses on how to counter union organizing drives. Im trying to be somewhat incognito.

The group had gathered to speak candidly about creative new ways in which employers can subtly counter union organizing. Theres a huge uptick in activity, Merrell began, not just at name brand companies like Starbucks, but union drives even in the Carolinas where [I am] based, were seeing a lot of an uptick of activity in some kind of unexpected places, unexpected industries, not the industries that you typically think of as being your unionized industries.

In the heyday for union organizing, he continued, we just thought of them as seeking better wages and working conditions for their workers. Now, workers were agitating for respect and in opposition to harassment, bigotry, discrimination and retaliation, said Merrell, quoting a mission statement from the Alphabet Workers Union, which secured bargaining rights for a small group of Google Fiber workers in Kansas City, Missouri, in March.

Corporations, advised Merrell, should be ready to pivot and respond quickly to these social justice-driven campaigns.

Across the country, particularly in highly educated workplaces, employee activism has centered on demands that go beyond the bread and butter of higher salaries and better retirement benefits. YouTube and Facebook employees have demanded that management take a greater role in censoring content viewed as sexist or racist. Amazon corporate headquarters workers this month staged a protest to demand that the company restrict the sales of books that are perceived by some activist groups as anti-trans. The union that represents workers at NPR has demanded that the media outlet develop demographic tools to track the race and gender of every source that appears in stories.

Workers now have a heightened focus on the optics of race, continued Merrell, so management should do more to match the demographics of the workforce. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, social consciousness raising, and constant surveys were all on the table as tools to monitor employee sentiment.

Merrells presentation was just one in a two-day April conference that showcased the changing face of union-busting. Over a dozen other presenters who work in union avoidance gave talks during the virtual conference, sponsored by a group called CUE, on the latest trends in organizing, strike-breaking, and how to get ahead of changes in the law and political environment that could provide an edge to the labor movement. They included representatives from Kelloggs, John Deere, Five Below, Lowes, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as well as a consultant hired by Amazon to oppose the warehouse worker union drives.

In the new environment, businesses facing worker uprisings are attempting to co-opt the language of social justice movements and embrace trends around self-growth and positive lifestyles to counter demands for unionization a far cry from the old days of union prevention, a history that featured employers routinely threatening workers with private guards and violent clashes on the picket lines.

Businesses facing worker uprisings are attempting to co-opt the language of social justice movements and embrace trends around self-growth and positive lifestyles to counter demands for unionization.

Leny Riebli, the vice president of human resources at Ross Stores, noted that given whats happening at Amazon and Starbucks, her company had retooled its training to remain union-free. We really had to redouble our efforts, said Riebli. The company, said Riebli, closely monitors employee concerns that might spill over into support for unionization, so managers have been trained not only to spot potential card check organizing, but also listen for issues around safety, scheduling, and respect in the workplace.

This relates to our diversity, equality and inclusion efforts, explained Riebli, noting that the company sought managers who can be approachable to an array of worker issues.

Virtually none of the presenters identified explicitly as anti-union agents. Many described themselves or had professional biographies emphasizing their role as DEI experts, developers of human capital, and champions of workplace belonging. The industry has undergone somewhat of a rebranding, with many labor relations executives now identifying as people experts and diversity executives.

Even the host of the conference was camouflaged. The conference was organized by a group called CUE, which bills itself publicly as simply a community for positive employee relations. But that sunny image belies its true agenda: Founded in 1977 by the National Association of Manufacturers, as part of a sweeping crusade against organized labor, CUE is formally known as the Council for a Union-Free Environment. The organization provides research and training for the union suppression tactics, an estimated $340-million-per-year cottage industry of lawyers and consultants who specialize in assisting corporations with mitigating the threat of organized labor.

But there was no doubt that they understood how controversial their work can be. Ken Hurley, the vice president of Kelloggs Co. for human resources and labor relations who presided over the effort last year to replace striking cereal workers, said he did not want participants to share his slide deck, for fear of leaks. And, after The Intercept published his remarks in which he described the union as behaving more like terrorists than partners, Hurley left Kelloggs.

Union workers rally in support of unionizing Alabama Amazon workers in downtown Los Angeles on March 22, 2021.

Photo: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

So-called union avoidance consultants, also known as persuaders, work in a specialty profession that has been honed in recent decades. They are hired by corporations to train managers to spot union sympathies or to lead captive audience lectures where attendance is mandatory to pressure workers against voting for a union.

These seminars can involve threats of retaliation, warnings that a union will force the company to close down, and claims that union dues will negate any benefit of a union contract. But the most important aspect of these meetings, experts say, can be collecting information to identify union supporters within a workplace so that they may be sidelined or fired before they gain influence with their co-workers.

The industry has undergone somewhat of a rebranding, with many labor relations executives now identifying as people experts and diversity executives.

The persuader industry has evolved to match the cultural trends among many workers. Jason Greer, who has led a diversity seminar at CUE in the past, embodies the evolution of the anti-union industry to match cultural trends among workers. Greer, founder of the eponymous business Greer Consulting, is a persuader who helps companies fend off unionization drives, but you wouldnt necessarily know it from talking to him.

I do leadership coaching. I do diversity management training, said Greer. Im known as the employee whisperer within my industry.

Major corporations are at once under pressure to appear sensitive to employees from marginalized groups and eager to blunt unionization efforts that would hurt their bottom line. Thanks to consultants like Greer and others, these companies can sometimes kill two birds with one stone by wrapping anti-union talking points in a patina of racial sensitivity and commitment to diversity; Greers company advertises labor relations alongside diversity training.

Over the last year, Greer and his team have worked for B&H Photo, Keurig Dr Pepper, Studio in a School, and Blues City Brewery, and are paid as much as $2,000 per day to pressure workers not to join a labor union. B&H, notably, settled a federal racial discrimination lawsuit in 2017, and agreed to paying $3.2 million in back pay to over 1,300 individuals.

Employees, said Greer, fundamentally want respect and dignity on the job. Listening to worker demands, he explained, can prevent workers from drifting toward a third party, like a labor union. In some cases, that means providing seminars on leadership and understanding, or creating employee resource groups that provide special recognition to marginalized communities.

People will work for money, but they will die for respect and die for recognition, continued Greer. If your employees are talking about wanting diversity and inclusion practices, dont shut your eyes and, you know, shut your ears to that.

The Labor Pros, a Florida-based firm that runs anti-union campaigns across the country, prominently presents a diverse team that conducts diversity training adjacent to interventions to remove the union threat.

Nekeya Nunn, the chief executive officer of the Labor Pros, has adopted terminology from left-wing, activist spaces. Im a proponent of listening, heart-led leaders, people who make decisions on how they would want somebody else to treat them, said Nunn, in an interview with The Intercept.

Nunn echoed Merrells argument, that employees care as much about dignity as wages and benefits. People unionize against bad managers, not bad companies, she said. Programs that help people from different demographics and different nationalities integrate are simply part of a positive workplace culture, she continued. People work for companies that make them feel valued and included, so if thats a tactic to not have a union, then so be it.

A contract obtained by The Intercept shows that the Labor Pros provided a menu of options to Hilton Hotels last year on options for persuading workers against joining a union. The firm offered up to four consultants to speak to 80 employees for four days at a cost of $43,120, plus per diem.

Danine Clay and Byron Clay of the firm Diverse Workforce Consultants are among the union avoidance professionals who have worked on recent high-profile campaigns to persuade workers against joining a union at Hersheys and at Mission Hospital in North Carolina, according to disclosures. Their firm touts its ability to empower management with employee selection, retention, diversity training and skills, and union avoidance tools and strategies are unmatched.

Danine Clay was listed on disclosure forms as a consultant for Amazon engaged in persuading warehouse workers not to join a union. Over the phone, she said the disclosure form was incorrect but declined to comment further.

Theres kind of a jiujitsu, to get employees thinking about racial justice issues, at least superficially, as a way to deflect labor and collective bargaining, said Michael C. Duff, a law professor at the University of Wyoming. Duff attended law school after union organizing cost him his job working for an airline. He understands why the diversity, equity, and inclusion field has become an asset for companies hoping to skirt unionization particularly at a time when employee interest in both is rising rapidly.

Labor consultant folks converting into DEI folks, added Duff. Its really a wonderful kind of psyops, right, because these people are supposed to be close to employees.

The approach is on display in some of the most high-profile union battles going on now. One example is Starbucks, which has faced growing unionization pressure as over 100 stores have voted to join a union. The company, in response, launched an anti-union website earlier this year. Among the reasons not to join a union? The Starbucks website says the firm already provides an inclusive environment and maintains a strong commitment to diverse hiring practices.

So far, the approach has mostly backfired for the company. Starbucks claims to be a progressive company, and theyre using this social justice language, but people see past that, said Joseph Thompson, a student barista who organized two Starbucks locations in Santa Cruz, California.

Thompson has corresponded with other baristas seeking to form unions around the country as far away as Idaho. Many have voiced frustration at the companys union-busting tactics in contrast to its purported values, he said.

Despite the rosy image of inclusiveness and activism touted in Starbucks press releases, the company has been accused of over200 violations of federal labor laws, and over 20 baristas say they have been illegally fired in retaliation for attempting to form a union.

Its a brutal anti-union campaign, but also one that tries to appeal to the sort of progressive sensibilities of the kinds of people who work at Starbucks, said John Logan, professor and director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University.

Effective or not, its becoming a standard playbook. Princeton University, in a page outlining alternatives to unionizing for graduate students, notes that the school already welcomes input on all areas of university life, such as professional development and diversity and inclusion.Princeton University has so far prevailed: The graduate student union has not held a unionization vote, there is no recognition to bargain with the graduate students, and they do not have a contract.

When workers at vegan food company No Evil Foods, which makes imitation meat products sold at Whole Foods and other upscale groceries, held captive audience anti-union seminars, the company warned workers about the old white guys in union leadership and compared union dues to taxpayers funding President Donald Trumps golf junkets.

In other records leaked out of the No Evil Foods seminars, workers were warned that unions were hotbeds of sexism and sexual harassment, and did not share the vegan food manufacturers progressive values. The union drive at the firm ultimately failed.

Corporations are trying to hijack the language of liberation as a way to prevent workers from having a voice at the table and a say in their jobs.

Critics say that many corporations merely channel concerns around racial injustice into a reputation-laundering strategy, one that can serve the bottom line of keeping workers in check. For lack of a better word, were in this woke moment, said Wes McEnany, a former organizer with CODE-CWA, a project of the Communication Workers of America to unionize the tech industry. Corporations are trying to hijack the language of liberation as a way to prevent workers from having a voice at the table and a say in their jobs.

McEnany noted that when he worked on a campaign to organize workers at Mapbox, a technology firm that provides custom online maps, management responded with accusations of bigotry, claiming efforts to prevent the offshoring of jobs reeked of xenophobia.

Medium, the publishing website launched by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, countered a union organizing drive with a promise to increase spending on diversity and inclusion efforts, according to McEnany. After the union vote failed by one vote, Medium liquidated its primary editorial division.

Such left-leaning language and promises were on display in the recent organizing drive at REI, the outdoor clothing and equipment retailer. The company this year posted an internal podcast featuring its chief executive, Eric Artz, and the companys chief diversity and social impact officer, Wilma Wallace, discussing why REI doesnt think unionization is the right thing for the co-op or for the employees.

Much of the conversation centered on claims that a union would hamper the companys ability to listen and communicate directly with our employees and reduce the companys ability to be flexible in resolving workplace concerns. Such arguments are routine in most organizations facing a union vote.

But what stood out was the language of social justice that filled the discussion. Wallace began the talk by stating her preferred pronouns and a land acknowledgement to honor the traditional lands of the Ohlone people. Artz, while arguing against unionization, peppered his remarks with comments about how REI intends to maintain its focus on inclusion and racial equity.

Finally, Dollar General is perhaps one of the most glaring retailers facing criticism for its labor practices. The company, in its latest annual disclosure, reported that its median annual salary for workers was $17,773. Workers have cited broken air conditioners, mold in the break rooms, and little safety precautions for employees who face constant robberies and violent incidents within stores. The widespread problems have led to a worker revolt, including store clerks posting TikTok videos of unsanitary work environments and grossly understaffed stores, and some moving toward demands for a labor union to negotiate better conditions.

Dollar General has responded with an aggressive anti-union effort that is overseen by Kathy Reardon, the companys chief people officer. In public, Reardon is touted for leading the discount retailers ongoing diversity and inclusion journey and for creating an allyship guide that helps employees play an active role in creating a more inclusive environment.

Records show that Reardon is involved in the hiring of $2,700-per day consultants who have helped the firm defeat a push for a labor union at its Connecticut locations.

One of the most insidious tactics have been the use of supposed employee resource groups, also known as affinity groups or ERGs, to undermine labor activism. Many companies offer specific ERGs for Asian, Black, Latino, or LGBTQ+ individuals, among other identity-based suborganizations as part of a larger diversity and inclusion program.

The management-sanctioned groups are attempts to create safe spaces for historically marginalized identities to voice shared concerns and create a sense of community within the workplace. According to a study published last year by McKinsey & Co. that surveyed 423 organizations employing 12 million people, close to 35 percent of firms have added or expanded ERGs since 2020.

Supporters of these initiatives say these groups provide a useful channel to improve communications and spotlight company practices that might be shaped by racial biases or lack of sensitivity to minority cultures.

These lofty goals, however, at times run parallel to or even in conjunction with anti-union measures at some firms. IRI Consultants, a union avoidance firm, noted in one publication that unions in some industries, particularly high tech, have drifted toward capitalizing on demands that employers do a better job of hiring diverse talent. One way to union-proof your business, IRI claims, is to develop effective leadership, consistent employee training, and diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives that address challenges like unconscious bias in the human resources (HR) process.

When people feel powerless, resentment festers until someone comes along, like a union representative saying, You have a right to be heard. We can help you get a voice in your workplace, and your employer will have to listen, IRI noted in another publication.

In response, IRI suggests the creation of ERGs within a workplace. If you dont give todays employees a voice, the workforce is likely to have a low engagement level, and the union is going to see an opportunity, warns IRI.

ERGs are becoming more and more common. CUE, along with Littler Mendelson and Jackson Lewis, two of the largest union suppression law firms, have encouraged them.

Thats because ERGs can provide a useful corporate alternative to unions that places management in control. The tech reporting site Protocol noted that when tech firms such as Mapbox faced a union organizing drive, the company kicked off DEI-related efforts, including ERGs, in order to allay worker concerns.

ERGs kind of passively work against the idea of a union in that theyre a way for you to kind of spend your energy without it turning into anything, one tech worker told the media outlet.

When Google, notably, hired IRI Consultants to suppress union activism within the tech giant, the decision, recent court documents show, was made by the then-chief diversity officer, Danielle Brown, who previously led the firms ERG programs.

The ERG is essentially the companys union. Its more about surveillance, about keeping an eye on workers.

The ERG is essentially the companys union. Its engaged in this way: Oh, youre from a marginalized identity group, you have a place to speak, said McEnany, the organizer. But if you talk to a lot of workers interested in real change, they see this as a way to throw money for a party. Its more about surveillance, about keeping an eye on workers.

In the late19th and early20th century, in the early days of the U.S. labor movement, corporations facing labor activism would often create fake union organizations controlled by management. These so-called company unions would provide a false sense of worker empowerment, with some fringe benefits like a pool hall or recreation center, while keeping wage and benefit decisions controlled by corporate leaders.

The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, which enshrined federal labor union rights, expressly outlawed the formation of company unions. Corporations cannot form worker organizations that claim to negotiate on behalf of employees.

Company unions were a major concern of Sen. [Robert F.] Wagner because its very easy for a working person to mistake these groups as third parties, said Duff, the University of Wyoming law professor.

The movement to create ERGs at a time when workers demand better conditions could be a violation of labor law, Duff argued.

Its a distraction. The idea is, Were going to siphon off energy that might be devoted to creating your own arms-length groups that would be adversarial, he added.

Nunn, of the Labor Pros, agreed that operating ERGs in some ways could run in violation of the National Labor Relations Act but questioned the wisdom of such prohibitions. So workers get what they want, companies could not have to deal with a union if they didnt want, and employees would still feel theyre fairly compensated and they work in a just environment that speaks up on social justice issues. It would make unions obsolete, said Nunn.

If a company is willing to create those things outside of the union, outside the labor union, whats the problem with that? she asked.

The success or failure of a union election is almost always determined by knowledge of the workforce and an intimate understanding of the values and beliefs of each employee. The union suppression industry has made workforce intelligence gathering a key element of its trade.

In the70s and 80s, industrial psychologist Charles Hughes trained over 27,000 managers and supervisors to make unions unnecessary. One of his methods was to promote the use of surveys to collect information about workers. Employers signed up by the hundreds to attend Hughess talks, including a seminar titled, Attitude Survey Techniques for Measuring Union Sentiments. CUE which hosted the conference helped streamline the emerging industry of management consultants, industrial psychologists, and law firms that helped turn the tide against the labor movement, which has declined precipitously since the 70s.

Its intimate to talk about race and identity, said Duff. That creates a vulnerability, and to have consultants come in and say, Hey, look, I understand the discrimination youve gone through, you can open up to me, that can get you a lot of valuable intelligence.

Such vulnerabilities can be key insights during an organizing drive. In 2011, Pratt Logistics opened a new plant in Pennsylvania. The company brought in a man who only identified himself as an efficiency expert named Jay. Jay went around conducting one-on-one interviews with workers, asking them about what problems they faced, their values, and concerns.

Later, when truckers and warehouse workers at Pratt began steps to form a union at the new plant, the company instantly fired union sympathizers. It wasnt until later that they found out Jays real identity: Jason Greer, the union suppression consultant, who had been hired explicitly to identify potential union supporters.

When the Teamsters union later brought the case to court, arguing illegal retaliation and unfair labor practices, labor attorneys noted that Greer on his website explicitly advertised himself as a union buster who wakes up every day with one goal in mind, and thats to keep unions from taking over and ruining businesses that my friends and my clients have worked their entire lives to build.

Those words are gone from Greers website. Now he lists himself as a diversity consultant.

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The Evolution of Union-Busting - The Intercept

CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) Though wide acceptance of gay culture is a thing of recent history, the gay bar has been around for well over 100 years. But some bar owners feel wider acceptance has come at a price: the need for gay bars.

Petras in Plaza Midwood is a snapshot of the story of the American gay bar.

It happened that there was another bar in town called Liasons that closed around 2009 or 2010, and that clientele started coming over here. Since it was already gay-owned, it was just a natural fit, said Petras Owner Curtis Tutt.

Gay-owned and operated from its opening in 2007, Petras quickly became known as a safe haven for Charlottes LGBTQ community.

Billy Reasor says he came out around the time Petras opened. He was just getting out of a heterosexual marriage, finding his place in his new community.

I was finding a place in the LGBT community, and this was a place that felt safe, said Reasor. I could do things that I thought were so taboo and I could live my authentic life. And that happened here. That happened at Petras.

That was the role of gay bars for thousands, if not millions of the countrys LGBTQ population, particularly during the 1970s. Gay bars were a place to drink, dance, and be unapologetically yourself.

The gay bar is where I met my husband. The gay bar is where I felt it was OK to be me. Because I hid me for so long, said Reasor.

But the story of the gay bar doesnt end there and its not a fairytale. The number of gay bars has declined significantly over the past few decades. For example, San Francisco, which has one of the largest LGBTQ populations in the country. Slate News reports the Gayellow Pages placed 118 gay bars in San Francisco in 1973. In 2011, that number plummeted to 33.

And in New York City, Manhattan had 86 gay bars at its peak in 1978. By 2011, there were 44.

Weve changed so much now that we dont really need the safe haven part of it because people feel comfortable anywhere, said Tutt.

Its not just growing acceptance thats contributed to the decline of gay bars. Online dating has also forced bar owners to make some tough choices.

It comes to a point of change or die, said Tutt. We really dont identify as a gay bar anymore, but we are and always have been accepting and open to everybody.

Download the Queen City News appto stay updated on the go.Sign up for QC News email alertsto have breaking news sent to your inbox.Find todays top stories on QCNews.comfor Charlotte, NC, and all of the Carolinas.

Its a sad reality for those who once relished in the unwavering acceptance that comes with a space designed for people just like them. But some argue there is still a place for gay bars in todays world. Some people will never feel comfortable going to bars where they risk discrimination and hateful rhetoric.

There are still [gay bars] here in Charlotte and some that I go to semi-regularly. But theyre not the place to be like they used to be, said Tutt. Its wonderful that they dont feel the need to have that safe haven. But at the same time, its sad.

A side effect of progress: inclusivity at the price of exclusivity.

Link:

A place that felt safe: The evolution of the gay bar across the U.S. - Fox 46 Charlotte

I have unfinished business with the future, said David Cronenberg, announcing his long-awaited return to body horror with Crimes of the Future. The Canadian director hadnt made a movie quite in that vein since 1999s eXistenZ, but given that films forward-looking vision of a virtual reality, one mightve thought his business with the future largely complete. Its not an accident, though, that the real reference to the future in Cronenbergs cheeky statement was, in fact, to his second feature, an experimental science-fiction film from 1970, also titled Crimes of the Future, about a dermatologist who falls in with a group of pedophiles after a plague wipes out all sexually mature women. The new film and the old have nothing actually to do with each other, except perhaps as point/counterpoint. Fifty-two years on, Cronenbergs formal acuity is sharper and his ideas about medicine, about psychology, about the flesh have matured considerably. The result is a carefully considered uncertainty, in which the wizened perspective of an older artist befits material whose boundary pushing is most evident in the spaces between the surface horrors. A far cry from his original fresh-out-of-college experiment in shock.

In the new Crimes of the Future, shock is mundane. Viggo Mortensen plays Saul Tenser, a performance artist of a particular sort. In a world wrecked by climate catastrophe and industrial waste, where most people no longer feel pain and some select humans are mutating and growing brand new organs (Accelerated Evolution Syndrome, they call it), Tenser puts on grotesquely clinical shows of his surgeries to cut those organs out. Lea Seydoux is both his lover and the woman wielding the knife, a distinction blurred in classic Cronenbergian fashion and later underlined by an admiring Kristen Stewart, who remarks, Surgery is the new sex. Where the director might once have bought into that sort of out-of-bounds provocation, pushing the audience to the limits as he did to greatest effect in 1996s Crash, here he is decidedly more ambivalent. Surgery might be the new sex, but not all sex is good or fun or interesting, and most of it isnt worth the attention of an audience other than dull art snobs whose sense for the outre has less to do with provoking revolutionary thought than flattering egos.

If re-using the title invites us to think back over the gruesome terrors of Cronenbergs filmography, it is also an invitation to consider the role of skepticism in his work. From his very first shorts, he was a filmmaker deeply mistrustful of institutions like psychiatry, medical research, and the tech industry. Each claiming knowledge about those things which appear to make us human: the mind, the flesh and the technology we use to interface those bodily attributes with the world around us. In 2022, the themes havent changed, but Cronenbergs relationship to them and to himself most certainly has. Embodied by proxy in Tensers troubled artist, whose painful mutations and acts of literal sacrifice inspire and influence other (lesser) artists, the director evinces a depressed rootlessness in a cinematic world he birthed but no longer knows quite what to do with.

Crimes of the Future thus exists in an unusual space for the filmmaker. Filmed in a dilapidated Greece, with its rough stone walls shot in clinically lit darkness, its a long way off from the odd concrete and glass Canadian urban architecture he so lovingly made alien in much of his earlier work. A budgetary consideration, no doubt, but also a reflection of how the world has caught up with Cronenbergs troubling visions of where humanity is headed. When an underground organization of plastic-eaters in the film seeks to adapt humanity to the environmental degradation we have wrought, the troubling questions raised about our bodily relationship to the physical world come across less as disturbing dorm-room pontification than a picture of our present ecological reality. Cronenberg has said that his script for the film was originally penned not long after eXistenZ, and if thats the case, its concerns are shockingly prescient. Wrestling with how we shape the world is one thing. Reckoning with how that world might shape us in turn is yet another. And in Crimes of the Future, Cronenberg goes a step further, assessing the morality of going along now the damage is done.

The films autobiographical elements of an artist unsettled by the effect of his art on himself and the world find union in its bleak ambivalence about humanitys place in the future. The ambivalence is key. Its not just that Cronenberg doesnt pick a side, but that there really arent any sides at all when confronted with collapsing systems supporting culture, society, the planet, and life itself. Only in the context of that pessimism does eating plastic start to seem like more than just a viable option, but perhaps a moral necessity, and even an optimistic one in terms of human survival. Tenser, who as it turns out is also a police informant, is caught right in the middle of these moral quandaries, engaged in an endless dialectic with various characters (from detectives to art dealers to public health bureaucrats to revolutionaries) on matters that have no answers but the choices he makes, and often the ones he declines to make. As a portrait of the artist as an aging man, Crimes of the Future is fulfilling precisely in its refusal of easy fulfillment. Thats a young persons game.

Body horror is an odd sub-genre. In practical terms originated by Cronenberg himself with early films like Shivers and The Brood, its a mode of filmmaking defined by its graphic approach to bodily mutation and gore. A gross-out genre, often consumed by pure spectacle. Not so in Cronenbergs work, which has regularly used body horror for outward manifestations of concerns about psychological dynamics. At first glance, Crimes of the Future appears devoid of psychology, playing instead in a pool of politics and sociology and aesthetics. But then you remember that the Inner Beauty Pageant referenced in the film is itself an idea lifted from a concept in Cronenbergs Dead Ringers, among his most psychologically real and disturbing works. That unlikely connection between the film about people in the future spontaneously or maybe wilfully? growing new organs, and the one about twin gynaecologists dealing with warped sibling interdependence, dark sexual frustration, and wild substance abuse, is not down to simple self-thievery for the sake of plot. Within the evolution of Cronenbergs career, the fractured psychology of Dead Ringers is not absent from Crimes of the Future, its just become a given. The fact of our existence in the Anthropocene imprinted on our psyches, with only the flesh inner and outer left up for grabs.

Maybe thats why the film often plays less as sci-fi horror than dark comedy (its only resemblance to the original, very deadpan Crimes of the Future). Faced with the impossibilities of living in the world weve created, laughing at the absurdity feels only rational. Cronenberg stares this reality down, though, compelling us to consider that there really may be nothing more left for us, while in his sly way check out that mans devious grin in photos! proposing that there is still much left to do. What exactly we do, he cannot say. His work is only a diagnosis. The film opens with a mother murdering her child. It ends after that child has been carved open, his defaced insides displayed for an aghast world, with no intrinsic meaning to be found except that which might be made. This is the future Cronenberg gives us.

Corey Atad is a writer based in Toronto. His work has appeared at Esquire, Hazlitt and The Baffler and he has an unhealthy obsession with Air Bud.

Read the original post:

Crimes of the Future and the Evolution of David Cronenberg - Gawker

WASHINGTON (AP) Most every Republican lawmaker expressed outrage in the days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Some even blamed then-President Donald Trump.

But the larger GOP narrative shifted in the weeks and months that followed. Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, who had said in the hours after the attack that it had been the saddest day I have ever had serving as a member of this institution, went on to visit Trump at his Florida home only weeks after the riot.

Others went further, with some Republican lawmakers defending the rioters or playing down the violence of the mob that beat police officers and smashed its way into the Capitol. The rioters, echoing Trumps falsehoods about widespread fraud in the election, temporarily stopped the certification of Joe Bidens presidential victory.

A few Republicans have consistently criticized Trump, putting their own political future in peril.

A look at comments from key Republicans in the year-and-a half since the attack as the House committee investigating the riot prepares to begin public hearings Thursday night.

HOUSE GOP LEADER KEVIN MCCARTHY, R-CALIF.

On Jan. 13, 2021, just before the Democratic-led House voted to impeach Trump over the insurrection, McCarthy said that the president bears responsibility for Wednesdays attack on Congress by mob rioters.

McCarthy said Trump should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw the violence unfolding.

These facts require immediate action by President Trump: accept his share of responsibility, quell the brewing unrest, and ensure President-elect Biden is able to successfully begin his term, McCarthy said. And the presidents immediate action also deserves congressional action, which is why I think a fact finding commission and a censure resolution would be prudent.

Just a week later, McCarthy told reporters, I dont believe he provoked it, if you listen to what he said at the rally, referring to Trumps speech to his supporters in front of the White House shortly before the assault on the Capitol. Trump had said to march peacefully to the Capitol, but he also told people in the crowd to fight like hell or youre not going to have a country anymore.

McCarthy later voted against forming a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack and has called the Democratic-led Jan. 6 committee a partisan sham. He is now appearing with Trump and praising the former president at fundraisers.

Trump never accepted responsibility for the insurrection and has defended the rioters.

___

SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY.

McConnell spoke of the failed insurrection the night of the attack and said Congress will not be kept out of this chamber by thugs, mobs, or threats.

He voted weeks later to acquit Trump for inciting the insurrection. But he delivered a scorching rebuke of Trump after that vote, saying that there is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.

McConnell continued: Their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.

That same month, McConnell said he would absolutely vote for Trump if he were the GOP nominee in 2024.

___

FORMER VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE

Pence was under more pressure than any other Republican on Jan. 6, 2021 because Trump was calling on him to object to Bidens certification even though the vice president had no legal authority to do so in his ceremonial role presiding over the count.

Pence refused Trumps entreaties. As he hid in the Capitol during the insurrection, rioters breaking in were chanting hang Mike Pence.

Bringing the Senate back to session in the hours after the insurrection, Pence said he condemned the violence in the strongest possible terms.

To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win, Pence said. Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the Peoples House.

Two weeks later, Pence attended Bidens inauguration. Trump refused to go.

Since then, Pence has repeatedly defended his decision to abide by his constitutional role. He has called for the GOP to move on from 2020 as he lays the groundwork for a potential presidential run that could put him in direct competition with his former boss.

He reinforced his stance in a speech this year, saying that President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election.

Still, he has walked a careful line, praising the Trump-Pence administrations policy accomplishments as he courts support from the partys base.

___

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.

Graham spoke emotionally and forcefully the night of the insurrection, suggesting that he would permanently break ties with Trump after the two had forged a close relationship during Trumps presidency.

Trump and I have had a hell of a journey, Graham said on the Senate floor in the hours after the attack. I hate it being this way. Oh my God, I hate it. From my point of view, he has been a consequential president. But today, the first thing you will see, all I can say is, count me out. Enough is enough. I tried to be helpful.

Graham voted to certify Bidens victory and praised Pence for resisting the pressure to object.

In the months afterward, Graham softened his stance, and he and the former president continued to talk.

Can we move forward without President Trump? The answer is no, Graham told Fox News host Sean Hannity in the spring of 2021. Ive determined we cant grow without him.

___

REP. MO BROOKS, R-ALA.

Brooks is the rare House Republican to have stepped up his criticism of Trump since the insurrection.

The Alabama Republican was one of Trumps most forceful allies on Jan. 6, 2021, telling the crowd at the rally near the White House before the riot, Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.

Brooks was one of several GOP lawmakers who tried to help Trump overturn his election defeat. Brooks said on the House floor after the violence that in his judgment, if only lawful votes cast by eligible American citizens are counted, Joe Biden lost and President Trump won the Electoral College.

In August, though, as he was running in a GOP primary for the Senate, Brooks told a crowd that it was time to move on from the 2020 election. Trump didnt like that and withdrew his Senate endorsement.

Brooks claimed that Trump rescinded his support after the two had a conversation in which he told Trump there was no legal way to rescind the results or hold a do-over of the 2020 election.

Brooks is now in a runoff for the GOP Senate nomination, having risen in the polls after Trump dropped him. And Brooks is asking the former president to back him again.

___

REP. LIZ CHENEY, R-WYO.

Cheney has been the most prominent and consistent GOP critic of Trump and shes staked her political career on it.

A week after the attack, Cheney was one of only 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. In a statement, Cheney said that the president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing.

She said Trump should have intervened, but did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution, Cheney said. I will vote to impeach the president.

Cheney, who was then a member of House leadership, faced immediate backlash from her party for the impeachment vote and for her forceful remarks. But she has not wavered in the year since, and accepted an invitation from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to sit on the committee that is investigating the insurrection.

House Republicans booted Cheney from leadership and the party censured her and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the only other Republican on the Jan. 6 committee. And she faces a strong challenge in the Wyoming primary from a Trump-backed candidate.

When I know something is wrong, I will say so, Cheney said in a campaign video announcing that she had filed for reelection. I wont waver or back down.

___

Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

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For full coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege

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Then and now: GOP lawmakers' evolution on the Capitol riot - The Associated Press