The Great Recession and the Pressure on Workplace Rights

This paper explores the impact of the Great Recession on the rights of workers in the U.S. and overseas. While secular trends in play before the economic downturn began had already eroded employment benefits and workers’ right, recent economic conditions have exacerbated conditions for workers. With the Great Recession have come record levels of long term unemployment, a rise in the number of involuntary part-time workers, and a growth in the already high rates of youth unemployment. All of these conditions, along with the decline of union representation, have placed downward pressure on wages and forced workers to give back hard won benefits, thereby increasing inequality within and between groups

The Great Recession and the Pressure on Workplace Rights

This paper explores the impact of the Great Recession on the rights of workers in the U.S. and overseas. While secular trends in play before the economic downturn began had already eroded employment benefits and workers’ right, recent economic conditions have exacerbated conditions for workers. With the Great Recession have come record levels of long term unemployment, a rise in the number of involuntary part-time workers, and a growth in the already high rates of youth unemployment. All of these conditions, along with the decline of union representation, have placed downward pressure on wages and forced workers to give back hard won benefits, thereby increasing inequality within and between groups

Workers on the Run: Recession and the Pressure on Workplace Rights - The 34th Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture

This lecture discusses the impact of the recent recession, both directly and indirectly, on the rights of workers in the U.S. and internationally. Employers are increasingly relying on temporary/contingent workers, and even unpaid interns who have few jobs protections and no benefits. This practice negatively impacts the wages and bargaining power of the core labor force as well as overall job creation. Particularly pronounced is the misclassification of jobs and failure to pay minimum wage and/or overtime benefits contrary to contractual requirements. There is evidence that the recession has made it politically acceptable to re-write existing employment agreements, with federal and local governments seeking to reduce payouts to municipal workers, auto workers and others. Martin J. Mulloy and Gwynne A. Wilcox, two labor and employment leaders, provide commentary on the lecture

Workers on the Run: Recession and the Pressure on Workplace Rights - The 34th Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture

This lecture discusses the impact of the recent recession, both directly and indirectly, on the rights of workers in the U.S. and internationally. Employers are increasingly relying on temporary/contingent workers, and even unpaid interns who have few jobs protections and no benefits. This practice negatively impacts the wages and bargaining power of the core labor force as well as overall job creation. Particularly pronounced is the misclassification of jobs and failure to pay minimum wage and/or overtime benefits contrary to contractual requirements. There is evidence that the recession has made it politically acceptable to re-write existing employment agreements, with federal and local governments seeking to reduce payouts to municipal workers, auto workers and others. Martin J. Mulloy and Gwynne A. Wilcox, two labor and employment leaders, provide commentary on the lecture

Global Estimates of Prevalent and Incident Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 Infections in 2012

Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection causes significant disease globally. Adolescent and adult infection may present as painful genital ulcers. Neonatal infection has high morbidity and mortality. Additionally, HSV-2 likely contributes substantially to the spread of HIV infection. The global burden of HSV-2 infection was last estimated for 2003. Here we present new global estimates for 2012 of the burden of prevalent (existing) and incident (new) HSV-2 infection among females and males aged 15-49 years, using updated methodology to adjust for test performance and estimate by World Health Organization (WHO) region.We conducted a literature review of HSV-2 prevalence studies world-wide since 2000. We then fitted a model with constant HSV-2 incidence by age to pooled HSV-2 prevalence values by age and sex. Prevalence values were adjusted for test sensitivity and specificity. The model estimated prevalence and incidence by sex for each WHO region to obtain global burden estimates. Uncertainty bounds were computed by refitting the model to reflect the variation in the underlying prevalence data. In 2012, we estimate that there were 417 million people aged 15-49 years (range: 274-678 million) living with HSV-2 infection world-wide (11.3% global prevalence), of whom 267 million were women. We also estimate that in 2012, 19.2 million (range: 13.0-28.6 million) individuals aged 15-49 years were newly-infected (0.5% of all individuals globally). The highest burden was in Africa. However, despite lower prevalence, South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions also contributed large numbers to the global totals because of large population sizes.The global burden of HSV-2 infection is large, leaving over 400 million people at increased risk of genital ulcer disease, HIV acquisition, and transmission of HSV-2 to partners or neonates. These estimates highlight the critical need for development of vaccines, microbicides, and other new HSV prevention strategies

Local Food Systems: Concepts, Impacts, and Issues

This comprehensive overview of local food systems explores alternative definitions of local food, estimates market size and reach, describes the characteristics of local consumers and producers, and examines early indications of the economic and health impacts of local food systems. There is no consensus on a definition of “local” or “local food systems” in terms of the geographic distance between production and consumption. But defining “local” based on marketing arrangements, such as farmers selling directly to consumers at regional farmers’ markets or to schools, is well recognized. Statistics suggest that local food markets account for a small, but growing, share of U.S. agricultural production. For smaller farms, direct marketing to consumers accounts for a higher percentage of their sales than for larger farms. Findings are mixed on the impact of local food systems on local economic development and better nutrition levels among consumers, and sparse literature is so far inconclusive about whether localization reduces energy use or greenhouse gas emissions.local food systems, farmers’ markets, direct-to-consumer marketing, direct-to-retail/ foodservice marketing, community supported agriculture, farm to school programs, Farmers’ Market Promotion Program, food miles, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Global and Regional Estimates of Prevalent and Incident Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Infections in 2012

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) commonly causes orolabial ulcers, while HSV-2 commonly causes genital ulcers. However, HSV-1 is an increasing cause of genital infection. Previously, the World Health Organization estimated the global burden of HSV-2 for 2003 and for 2012. The global burden of HSV-1 has not been estimated.We fitted a constant-incidence model to pooled HSV-1 prevalence data from literature searches for 6 World Health Organization regions and used 2012 population data to derive global numbers of 0-49-year-olds with prevalent and incident HSV-1 infection. To estimate genital HSV-1, we applied values for the proportion of incident infections that are genital.We estimated that 3709 million people (range: 3440-3878 million) aged 0-49 years had prevalent HSV-1 infection in 2012 (67%), with highest prevalence in Africa, South-East Asia and Western Pacific. Assuming 50% of incident infections among 15-49-year-olds are genital, an estimated 140 million (range: 67-212 million) people had prevalent genital HSV-1 infection, most of which occurred in the Americas, Europe and Western Pacific.The global burden of HSV-1 infection is huge. Genital HSV-1 burden can be substantial but varies widely by region. Future control efforts, including development of HSV vaccines, should consider the epidemiology of HSV-1 in addition to HSV-2, and especially the relative contribution of HSV-1 to genital infection

First estimates of the global and regional incidence of neonatal herpes infection

Background Neonatal herpes is a rare but potentially devastating condition with an estimated 60% fatality rate without treatment. Transmission usually occurs during delivery from mothers with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) or type 2 (HSV-2) genital infection. However, the global burden has never been quantifi ed to our knowledge. We developed a novel methodology for burden estimation and present fi rst WHO global and regional estimates of the annual number of neonatal herpes cases during 2010–15. Methods We applied previous estimates of HSV-1 and HSV-2 prevalence and incidence in women aged 15–49 years to 2010–15 birth rates to estimate infections during pregnancy. We then applied published risks of neonatal HSV transmission according to whether maternal infection was incident or prevalent with HSV-1 or HSV-2 to generate annual numbers of incident neonatal infections. We estimated the number of incident neonatal infections by maternal age, and we generated separate estimates for each WHO region, which were then summed to obtain global estimates of the number of neonatal herpes infections. Findings Globally the overall rate of neonatal herpes was estimated to be about ten cases per 100 000 livebirths, equivalent to a best-estimate of 14 000 cases annually roughly (4000 for HSV-1; 10 000 for HSV-2). We estimated that the most neonatal herpes cases occurred in Africa, due to high maternal HSV-2 infection and high birth rates. HSV-1 contributed more cases than HSV-2 in the Americas, Europe, and Western Pacifi c. High rates of genital HSV-1 infection and moderate HSV-2 prevalence meant the Americas had the highest overall rate. However, our estimates are highly sensitive to the core assumptions, and considerable uncertainty exists for many settings given sparse underlying data. Interpretation These neonatal herpes estimates mark the fi rst attempt to quantify the global burden of this rare but serious condition. Better collection of primary data for neonatal herpes is crucially needed to reduce uncertainty and refi ne future estimates. These data are particularly important in resource-poor settings where we may have underestimated cases. Nevertheless, these fi rst estimates suggest development of new HSV prevention measures such as vaccines could have additional benefi ts beyond reducing genital ulcer disease and HSV-associated HIV transmission, through prevention of neonatal herpes