Working Life

It is a pretty extraordinary scenario: in a blazingly short amount of time, the Administration has forged a deal that could save thousands of jobs at Chrysler–the major banks are on board, the UAW has made more significant concessions. But all that may come crashing to a halt because of a few hedge funds who […]

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   I imagine that I risk the ire of at least the most die-hard fringe Northern Ireland para-military forces or perhaps people who still revel in the Revolutionary War-era spanking of the redcoats but I’ve been carrying around this article from about a week ago that got a little attention and, then, floated out of […]

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   There are really two things that jump out of the details about the Chrysler deal, via The Wall Street Journal: The United Auto Workers union would eventually own 55% of the stock in a restructured Chrysler LLC under the deal reached by the union and the auto maker, according to a summary of the […]

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   You probably have heard that a deal was reach between the UAW and Chrysler. Like last week, though, it’s really had to tell from reading the traditional media what exactly the deal will be–other than workers are going to get the shaft. The Wall Street Journal doesn’t say much about enhanced pension protection (meaning, […]

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   Confusing signals are coming out about what the apparent inevitable bankruptcy of Chrysler will mean. But, I do think this will be another stake driven into the idea of having real pensions anymore–which is kind of shocking given how many people just lost much of their retirement in the greed-is-good collapse of economy. I’ll […]

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   Though not surprising, this is still a fairly damning revelation, in this morning’s Wall Street Journal: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Department chief Henry Paulson pressured Bank of America Corp. to not discuss its increasingly troubled plan to buy Merrill Lynch & Co. — a deal that later triggered a government bailout […]

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   In the bigger sense, these two things are related. First, a week ago, I asked whether the president will keep his campaign promise about renegotating NAFTA. The answer seems to be "no": The administration has no present plans to reopen negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement to add labor and environmental protections, […]

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   To start off, I don’t mind paying taxes. Taxes are my dues to live in a country where we get clean water, decent roads, communications systems, you name it. The fact that many of the things we enjoy aren’t always working right has more to do with people evading taxes and, more important, a […]

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   Last week, I wondered whether the president would keep his campaign promise about NAFTA. Today, Colombia is on my mind because of this piece in The Wall Street Journal: President Barack Obama discussed a pending free-trade agreement with his Colombian counterpart Saturday and dispatched his trade representative to discuss U.S. concerns over Colombia’s treatment […]

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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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