Working Life

We have an affliction that really undermines a decent society. It’s a tendency to want to ignore inconvenient facts, either explicitly or because we are encouraged to look quite narrowly and myopically at a problem. Which brings me to Wal-Mart’s new attempt to whitewash its practices, using the First Lady as a prop.   We […]

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You can’t find a better contrast between the vision for our country than those offered by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Goldman Sachs. One vision sees America as the land of equality and fairness. The other vision sees an America where greed is good.   Here is some of what Trumka will say today at […]

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   I found this article in the Financial Times quite interesting: Coming out of the crisis, China wants to forge a new phase of globalisation where many of the roads – financial, commercial and perhaps eventually political – converge on Beijing.  China is not seeking a rupture with the international economic system (although some foreign […]

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   I’m as critical of the Democratic Party has anyone. But, we need to keep in mind that, on a daily basis, it can matter somewhat, at the margins, who is in charge. This would never happen under Republican rule: The National Labor Relations Board announced on Friday that it planned to sue Arizona, South […]

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I just got off the phone with a reporter who wanted my thoughts on the appointment of Bruce Reed as Joe Biden’s chief of staff. My first though, sarcastically, was that I wondered whether Bernie Madoff would now be brought in to oversee Consumer Protection…of course, an exaggerated observation but I wonder: Who will speak […]

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   It is has been pointed out by others that when the Republicans chose to organize the reading of the Constitution on the House floor, they conveniently left out parts they didn’t like. But, they have intellectual–and I use "intellectual" loosely–support for this from Justice Scalia and his wing of convenient Constitutionalists who choose to […]

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   They are always looking for a new way to nickle-and-dime people: General Motors Co. wants pay for union-represented workers be tied to employees’ work performance and the company’s financial health—much like the way its salaried workers are paid—in what would be a major shift in how generations of auto workers have been compensated. GM […]

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The jobs crisis is really devastating. We all know the numbers on how many people are out of work. But, the truth is that just calling for more jobs is not enough–because what we lack in the country is GOOD-PAYING JOBS. And wages are not coming back.   The Wall Street Journal reports what many […]

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   Wal-Mart is always ready to exploit women, employ people at low wages, use slave labor in China and violate wage and hour laws. What it apparently isn’t ready to do is answer questions: Wal-Mart execs are boycotting a City Council hearing on the chain’s plans to open its first store in New York City, the […]

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It is still very grim out there for those people who want decent paying work. Not just a job–but a job that pays a fair wage. Today’s numbers make even more clear–we need a Job Party.   I’ll talk about the Job Party a bit more. But, first, let’s look at the numbers: While the […]

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