Working Life

The strike at Northwest Airlines is continuing. As part of a campaign to save the jobs of the mechanics at Northwest, the union is now targeting the company’s board of directors (it has hired Corporate Campaign as an outside consultant). Today, there is an interesting twist. It turns out that one of the members of […]

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I’m not surprised when I read about corporate greed–it permeates every corner of the economy. What still makes me shake my head in wonder is the corporate greed that continues unabated at companies in distress. So, let’s check out some truly obscene behavior at Delphi We’ve been following the travails of workers at Delphi for […]

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If you haven’t seen “Good Night, Good Luck,” well, it’s time to rush out to the theaters and check it out because it’s loyalty oath time in America. George Clooney’s quite good portrayal of Edward R. Murrow’s exposure of Sen. Joe McCarthy’s vile campaign against people the nutty senator accused of being Communists is chilling […]

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Even our friends at The Hill are tracking the pay-offs being made by business to the CAFTA 15. Check out the November 9th story below from the Capitol Hill newspaper. The story raises, for me, a couple of thoughts: 1. Why hasn’t Nancy Pelosi followed through on punishing the CAFTA 15 as she promised after […]

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While there is a lot of focus on the results of Tuesday’s elections, I’m much more intrigued by the developments in the last two days on trade. And hoping that maybe, somehow, the developments can inject a little sanity into the debate over the rules that govern the exchange of stuff between countries. First, the […]

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So, let’s sort through yesterday’s elections. I’m not buying into the conventional wisdom that the Democratic Party should be dancing in the streets, or that labor should be celebrating. Positive: in California, the trend over the last few weeks held–and everyone of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s propositions went down to defeat. The vote was not overwhelming but […]

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Tomorrow, my friends are going to be on the picket line at New York University. You may remember that, actually, NYU graduate students lead the way in winning bargaining rights for all graduate students–except, then, the Bush Administration’s National Labor Relations board overturned the precedent that gave grad students those basic democratic rights. So, NYU, […]

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Before I go off to vote in the New York City mayoral election (for Freddy Ferrer, of course), I caught this item in today’s Wall Street Journal. I had heard about this Delphi coalition yesterday from a friend in the UAW. UAW, Other Unions Join Forces To Increase Pressure on DelphiBy KRIS MAHER in Pittsburgh […]

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Last week, we had a fair amount of discussion on the ties between the Democrats and Wal-Mart. My latest column at TomPaine.com is an updated version of the issue, with more info: “The Wal-Mart 22.” And feel free to keep the conversation going. Another reminder: don’t forget to get your own copy here of Robert […]

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I opined over the weekend that the recent summit in Argentina could signal the end of so-called “free trade.” Which would be a good thing since, then, we could cast off the unhelpful dichotomy of “free trade” versus “protectionism” and get down to a real discussion about rules of the road when it comes to […]

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