Working Life

This caught my eye this morning. In the morning newspaper, there was the following paragraph, in which I made a couple of edits for the moment: If [I’ve omitted the name] rhetoric is full of class conflict that rattles business owners and the middle to upper class, there is a reason for it. Poverty, job […]

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The case of Rep.William Jefferson, one of the CAFTA 15, gets even more sticky.Yesterday, the Democratic caucus voted to strip Jefferson of his seat on the Ways and Means Committee because of the bribery allegations that loom over him. In explaining her position, Nancy Pelosi takes the position I’ve taken here–everyone is innocent until proven […]

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Readers of this blog know that for many, many months I’ve been very skeptical about the feel-good economic news that seemed to be all the rage last Fall and earlier this year. Back in October, for example, I pointed out (not for the first time) how growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) can be […]

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Well, the president flew off to Iraq for a secret trip, the latest photo-op designed to convince us that, yes, “victory” is just around the corner. Understand that this has nothing to do with the facts on the ground–a country ripped apart by an illegal, immoral war. This photo-op is about one thing only: domestic […]

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Ron Gettlelfinger had this to say at the UAW Convention, according to the speech posted on the UAW website: “For decades now, the UAW has been a staunch advocate of single-payer national health insurance and we’re going to keep fighting to make affordable, quality health care a right for every American.” Yes, I agree but […]

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Though today it rates a front-page story in The New York Times, the difficult times the United Auto Workers (my union) faces is certainly nothing new. We’ve been losing members for a long time and, though there has been a lot of attention on organizing new members, the numbers have not made up the losses. […]

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Now, what will the Administration claim here? A sign of the victory in the “war on terror?” 3 Prisoners Commit Suicide at Guantánamo By JAMES RISEN and TIM GOLDEN WASHINGTON, June 10 — Three detainees being held at the United States military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, committed suicide early on Saturday, the first deaths […]

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We’ve been following the saga at Delphi Corp. for many months, in large part because it speaks volumes about the ability of corporations to use the bankruptcy laws to impose crippling wage concessions on working people. Yesterday, the UAW (which is holding its convention this week in Las Vegas) reached a deal with Delphi to […]

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Yesterday, the AFL-CIO unveiled a new legal challenge to the Chinese labor system that is at the heart of a vexing problem for workers here and in other countries: how do you compete against workers who make bottom-of-the-barrel wages thanks to a government policy to artificially suppress wages? I don’t know if this challenge has […]

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Yours truly has a crazy day today from dawn until midnight (okay, so the very last part of it is sneaking in the final game of the Yankees-Red Sox game at The Stadium) so this one is a quick and simple post: the Economic Policy Institute has a guide to off-shoring that helps gets the […]

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