Working Life

Good for Steelworkers president Leo Gerard–from today’s Wall Street Journal– Unions in the U.S. and abroad have been slow to follow companies as they extend their overseas reach. The United Steelworkers and two of Britain’s largest unions are considering a daring move to catch up. The Steelworkers union is expected to sign an agreement tomorrow […]

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The crumbling of so-called “free trade” has got to be near when you read The Wall Street Journal and learn that “Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain will use his campaign’s first big economic speech today to talk about downsides of free trade.” Apparently, McCain will “acknowledge that open markets have resulted in pain for […]

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Today, Steve Greenhouse has a good story in The New York Times about the struggle of many food delivery workers to get a decent wage. They can usually be seen pedaling madly on Manhattan streets, often against traffic, rushing to satisfy New Yorkers’ capacious appetites for cold sesame noodles and General Tso’s chicken. Yu Guan […]

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I don’t know how many people out there worked with or knew Jim Jontz. He was a long-time activist who worked in the trenches of labor and politics for a long, long time…Jim died today of cancer. Here is what Americans For Democratic Action sent out: It is with profound sorrow that I announce the […]

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A few days, I got a report from the good folks at the Center for Economic and Policy Research on a topic that hasn’t gotten the attention it should–the break between productivity and wages. CEPR’s report focuses on looking at productivity and how that relates to wage growth and income inequality. Some of the conclusions: […]

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Friends: Welcome. This marks the beginning of a new chapter in the life of Working Life. Working Life started as a blog a couple of years ago at the time when labor had a pretty intense debate about its future. Stuff happened since then…but there is no less of a need for a vigorous debate. […]

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Working Life is moving…sort of…and it’s a great development for all of you. If you go to www.workinglife.org you will now see that the site has been re-launched as a project of Labor Research Association. The best thing about this–you can have your own blogs. That’s right, the thousands of people who visit this site […]

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From today’s Wall Street Journal, we learn some more about the tensions building in China over working conditions and labor rights. China Clears McDonald’s, Yum on Pay By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH April 11, 2007; Page A7 SHANGHAI — Provincial authorities in China cleared U.S. fast-food-restaurant companies McDonald’s Corp. and Yum Brands Inc. of allegations they underpaid […]

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Donald Trump is a very unpleasant character, though often times I also pity someone who needs to spend so much time looking in the mirror. Here’s another reason, per the Wall Street Journal today, to use his gorgeous self as target practice on a dartboard. ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The parent company of three casinos […]

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There was an eye-opening package of stories about CEO pay on Friday in The New York Times. I was traveling so I didn’t have a chance to read all of it. But as a UAW member, this one did jump put: The Ford Motor Company paid its new chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, $28.18 million […]

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