By Mitch Lawrence
Workers Independent News is heard Monday through Friday at 8:45 and 11:45 a.m. and 5:45 p.m.
The National Football League just completed its 81st draft and it will be forever remembered as the Laremy Tunsil draft.
Who is Laremy Tunsil? He’s the immense and talented offensive tackle from the University of Mississippi who lost only about $12 million on draft night. That’s right, $12 million.
Going into the draft, Tunsil was ranked the top offensive lineman and one of the best players in the entire draft. Many football experts believed that he’d go as high as the No. 3 overall pick, after the LA Rams and Philadelphia Eagles used the first two picks on quarterbacks. Jared Goff of California went first to the Rams and then Carson Wentz of North Dakota State was selected by the Eagles.
But only 13 minutes before the draft started, a highly-incriminating video of Tunsil started circulating. It showed him wearing a gas mask with a bong attached at the end, with plenty of smoke coming out of the bong. He is later shown taking the gas mask off and smiling.
As he later admitted, he was smoking marijuana. He said someone had hacked his Instagram account.
That is why Laremy Tunsil slid down to the Miami Dolphins to the 13th pick, and that cost him plenty of money. Instead of pocketing upwards of $25 million, he will get about $13 million. Sure, he’ll still make a lot of money. But just remember that the average NFL player plays only about three to four seasons.
Tunsil had a bad night because he had made some bad decisions. What happened to him should be a lesson to all future players.
UFCW El Super Workers Score a Win As Battle For a New Contract Continues
UFCW Grocery workers at El Super in California have won an NLRB victory after the company refused to heed worker demands for better working conditions.
Thousands of grocery workers at 43 El Super locations in Southern California have been demanding better work conditions for years, including an end to union busting, paid sick leave, and a lift on a 32-hour work week limit.
Recently, they were able to claim a major victory. The National Labor Relations Board ordered Paramount-based El Super to pay 549 current and former employees a total of $363,000 in unpaid wages.
About 600 workers at six El Super stores have been without a contract since September, 2013. They’re represented by UFCW, the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which claims the grocery chain stepped up its union busting efforts since then.
“Some of the things that we want included in this contract is, well, respect. A lot of workers are getting treated very poorly. We also want them to get access to paid sick leave as well as decent wages. Right now, El Super worker full time is actually 32 hours and that is not enough to raise a family,” said Cesar Castrejon.