Working Life

No secret — working in a fast food restaurant is not a ticket to a middle-class life. But, it’s not because of a natural phenomena or because of a penalty you pay for serving grotesque food. It’s about power and greed. Some people are trying to change all that.

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Since there is no money in being right about the election, pardon me while I strut for just a few hours, having nailed on the nose the Electoral College vote weeks before (Florida is going to end up in Obama’s column—the remaining votes are from heavily Democratic areas). But, moving quickly on to an important lesson, because bragging only carries you as far as the first yawn from a friend, there is a lesson to consider.

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    It won’t be long before you hear–because it’s part of the framing of Democrats and Republicans alike, and traditional media "analysts" who haven’t a clue what they are taking about when it comes to economics–that unions are in trouble because of the "new economy" (which means, to some people, the industrial base is [...]

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    To step back for a moment from the terrific on-the-ground accounts of this morning’s action to defend Liberty Square, I took a moment to think about what took place–and why this make me even more optimistic than I was even a week ago that we are building something. Lesson Number One: some things are [...]

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   Apparently, in the alternate universe Republicans inhabit, socialism is on the march and the attack against the "free market" is unrelenting. Where? At the National Labor Relations Board, of course. The truth is–shocking, I know–quite different, and it speaks volumes about the playing field for workers in the real world.    The NLRB has [...]

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  This is a post simply suggesting we ponder what it means to live in a conflicted, grey world. Yeah, I hate that. It would be nice if everything was clear cut. But, it isn’t. Especially for people who are trying to survive in a corrupt economic system.   On the one hand, I am [...]

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   We can wait until the next inevitable capitulation–anyone want to take bets on the Bush tax cut expiration deal?–or we can keep debating about what has already, predictably, happened. We can complain about the Tea Party, FOX News etc–but I confess to being bored by that discussion simply because, get over it, they are [...]

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   No one should be against fairer election rules–well, no one outside the corporate, wing-nut world. But, we should take the new proposed NLRB rules with a grain of salt: The proposed amendments are intended to reduce unnecessary litigation, streamline pre- and post-election procedures, and facilitate the use of electronic communications and document filing. The [...]

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   I’ve heard this talked about…well, as long as the grey cells can recall. But, this feels like it has some content to it: The United Auto Workers outlined a new push to recruit U.S. workers at one or more foreign auto makers and will bolster the effort by training and sending activists abroad to [...]

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    I always shake my head when I read that the country no longer has industry and has evolved into a "service economy". That simple isn’t true. The main problem is that we have jobs–whether industrial or service–that don’t pay decently and are largely non-union.     Someone thinks we should do something about that: The [...]

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   Maybe a trend: The Jimmy John’s restaurants here are known for serving attitude with their sandwiches. Many of their young workers wear nose rings, beards and dreadlocks, and the shops sport mottoes like “The Customer Is Usually Right” and “Subs So Fast You’ll Freak.” But recently, the employees at the 10 shops here have [...]

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   It’s old news by now that the nomination of Craig Becker to be a member of the National Labor Relations Board has been blocked–or, as the British like to say in a more interesting way, scuppered. Understand that Becker actually got 52 votes–FIFTY-TWO–in favor of his appointment. In my long-ago civics class, I was [...]

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   The financial newspapers are buzzing with the news of a coalition of business leaders stepping forward to propose executive compensation limits. I think this is only a secondary issue. Don’t get me wrong–I think the greed that has swamped the country at the executive suite level is astonishing. And it should be dealt with. [...]

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   I have had my doubts, as expressed here over these many months, about the Employee Free Choice Act–whether it would do what the labor movement said it would do (unleash organizing of millions of workers) and, most important, whether it would pass in its proposed form.    Well, you can forget about the latter [...]

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   It will be a steep hill to climb but it’s good to read about this, via The Wall Street Journal: The United Food and Commercial Workers union is ramping up organizing at Wal Mart Stores Inc. after a five-year lull, dovetailing with its efforts to win support in Congress for a bill to make [...]

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   Yesterday, I pointed out that the math being used to figure out whether the Employee Free Choice Act would pass is a bit flawed, particularly as it relates to the Senate. Today, the New York Times has an article about yesterday’s introduction of the bill, which says this: Republican and business strategists said some [...]

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