Working Life

    Readers of this blog know that I have been pointing out for a long time that the majority of Americans have been in recession for a long time–it was partly masked by the housing bubble, which allowed a lot of people to pull out a whole bunch of cash from almost under the mattress […]

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  I happened to see a cartoon recently in which one person says to another, "My 401(k) feels like a 201(k)". That is, indeed, one of the other, less-talked about facts that many people are facing in the more-visible credit-crisis gripping our economy. You would think that that reality would force a serious rethinking of […]

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I have to admit to a knee-jerk dislike when I hear the name "General Electric". It goes back to the days when the company that claims "we bring good things to life" was deep in the business of producing nuclear weapons, which have a quirky ability to end life. Then, there was the reign of […]

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    You are going to see a lot of rubbish in the coming weeks about the virtues of yet another so-called "free trade" deal, this one with Colombia. It’s always interesting–mind-boggling and enraging as well–that proponents of so-called "free trade" spew a whole bunch of nonsense about the virtues of these deals and what we […]

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    Over a year ago, I wrote about the murderous conditions facing unionists in Colombia. Despite this, the Administration is pushing ahead with the so-called "free trade" deal with Colombia. From CongressDailyPM:      The  White House is pushing for a vote on the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade  agreement before the August recess, a top administration official […]

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    This morning, Sen. Obama is scheduled to give a major address on the economy. Yours truly is scheduled to appear on CNBC’s "Power Lunch" (hey, I didn’t come up with the name) at 1:20 p.m. (Eastern Time). I may not have a chance to post the entire speech here before the CNBC gig but […]

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    Yesterday, I observed the bizarre proposal by Sen. Clinton to hand over fixing the economic mess we’re in to the very people who helped create the mess (well, actually, for most workers we’ve been in an economic mess for a very long time–but you’all know that). I wasn’t trying to pick on Sen. Clinton […]

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I have been waiting to hear what the presidential candidates have to say about how to address the financial crisis gripping the country, and the international markets. Very little of substance has been said, beyond vague pronouncements—until yesterday. Sen. Hillary Clinton released a plan, which, in my humble opinion, underscores why another Clinton Administration would […]

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    I’ll be writing a lot more in the future about the links between labor and the environment. Here’s a development that I’ve been following for some time. The Teamsters have had a long-term project to organize drivers in the ports, particularly on the West Coast–there are thousands of drivers who could potentially be Teamsters […]

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    Almost three years ago, I wrote about James Lynn, a whistle-blower who worked for Wal-Mart and exposed the Beast’s exploitation of workers in Central America. Wal-Mart fired Lynn, claiming he had engaged in improper "fraternization" with a colleague. A couple of days ago, the Arkansas Court of Appeals ruled in Wal-Mart’s favor: The Arkansas […]

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