Working Life

    I just got this in my e-mail box: Chris Chafe will become the new executive director of Change To Win. I can say, without any hesitation, that Chris is a real–to use a technical term–mensch. He was most recently a senior advisor for the Edwards’ campaign; he took his whole family from New York […]

Read the full story

    A few months ago, I wrote about a worker dying in the construction industry in New York. Then, I said:     How do you stop this from happening? I’m sorry to say it won’t be by hiring more inspectors or gathering more data. It will stop when contractors start going to jail when people […]

Read the full story

I’ve published this before. But, it always seems appropriate: Recognizing who served: Democrats * Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71. Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72. Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade. Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-’47; Medal of Honor, WWII. John […]

Read the full story

    My UAW sisters and brothers approved a four-year contract that ends a long strike at American Axle. When I first wrote about the strike, it seemed obvious that the company wanted to destroy the basic standard of living that made it possible for people to have a decent life. And, indeed, that is what […]

Read the full story

    A pet peeve of mine has been the way in which government statistics mislead us–and that is even without actual lying by politicians and their operatives. Take the Gross Domestic Product–it only tells you that stuff is being made, not whether the average person can pay their bills. Even when the GDP goes up, […]

Read the full story

    Most of what I write about so-called "free trade" has focused on the horrendous hits that workers take from globalization that is all about one major thing: seeking out the lowest wages. But, there is another piece to this: so-called "free trade" is destroying the planet. Oh, yes, I’m sure the advocates of so-called […]

Read the full story

    This is a catch-up with an interesting, and not surprising report, from the good folks at the Center for Economic and Policy Research: After decades of disappointing wage growth for many American workers, a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) shows that unionization significantly boosts the wages of low-wage […]

Read the full story

   Over the never-ending primary season (I recently picked up a not-so-old old New Yorker issue that had a New Hampshire primary and realized that wasn’t so long ago and it seems like ancient history), I’ve pointed numerous times that on the question of so-called "free trade" I wasn’t entirely sure that there would be a […]

Read the full story

    One of the very under-the-radar things that happened when the Democrats took the seat in Mississippi was that the newly-elected Congresscritter, Travis Childers is a "fair trade" proponent and won’t support any so-called "free trade" deals: Childers has signed a pledge not to approve any international trade agreements if he’s elected, saying that deals […]

Read the full story

    Not something we should be thrilled to hear: Imagine Houston being populated only by Wal-Mart workers. Houston proper, with its population of just over 2 million, has about the same number of people as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. now employs worldwide. Put another way, if a city had only families of four and one member […]

Read the full story