Working Life

   Though I mentioned this yesterday in the posting of the newest, latest version of the Democratic Party platform, this bears repeating: you can’t have the private insurance industry mucking around with health care. It is really painful to watch a kind of cognitive dissonance playing out here. Watch this, on page 22, in the […]

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  Here, for your reading pleasure, is the draft, as of today, of the entire Democratic Party’s Platform.    Besides the trade language, here are my initial thoughts about some of the other economic-related language.    The good:    There is very strong language about the right to organize and other similar worker protection issues. […]

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   I keep my promises. I’ve just been given the language on trade that will likely be in the Democratic Party’s platform. Here it is, followed by some commentary (the numbers to the left of the language are from the draft pages…too lazy to take them out):   Smart, Strong, and Fair Trade Policies 20 […]

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    Here’s what caught my eye this morning: CWA and the IBEW might be headed for a strike against Verizon. If you want to read a detailed update, it’s here; this morning there is a short update issued a few minutes ago that says: "Bargaining continued until 10:30 p.m. last evening. We continue making progress on […]

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   This has been an on-going story. An update today via The NYTimes (quick post today, folks, because of work craziness): State labor investigators have identified 57 under-age workers who were employed at a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa and have asked the attorney general to bring criminal charges against the company for child […]

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   Now that the platform committee has met a  number of times, we should learn what the Democratic Party’s platform will say about trade. I’m told the language may be finalized today. In the meantime, consider a couple of nuggets of information:    The Citizens Trade Campaign came up with proposed language, which you can […]

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Just when you thought the greed and outrageous behavior of corporate America could get no worse, the leaders of companies have sunk to a new low: they are using workers’ pension money to fund CEO pensions. No this is not a joke.   The evidence is laid out today in The Wall Street Journal by […]

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   Where does a politician, or a political party, draw the line in the willingness to sacrifice principles for a few bucks? When we talk about the need to "change" the political environment and the culture of money and politics, isn’t there some place where you can say, "right here, this is the perfect example […]

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As if Bear Stearns ($50 billion in loans plus $29 billion in loss guarantees to JP Morgan) and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac ($4 trillion in liabilities dumped back on the government’s balance sheet) stories were not enough, investment bankers seem to have come up with a new scheme to loot those smallers banks that are about […]

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   You want contrast? I’ve got a doozy for you this morning. Check out these two contrasting developments. First, no surprise, the economy isn’t growing…duh: The economy grew less than expected from April to June, the government said on Thursday, and it shrank in the final months of 2007, dimming the outlook for a quick […]

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