Working Life

Three weeks ago, I took a look at where unions might end up in the Democratic presidential primary race. There has been a fair amount of movement so it’s a good time to check back and see where we are—with some general analysis. Here, and down the line, I’m generally going to focus on national […]

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    Well, I was off on vacation–eh, it was just a week so I barely got the head cleared out–and got back in time to see that we’ve had a little action on the labor front on endorsements for president. I’m going to say a lot more about this tomorrow, with more detail, but for […]

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Subprime mortgages, foreclosures and the housing bubble have been discussed a great deal on this blog and elsewhere so I thought I would take the opportunity to focus on how this crisis has affected one community and what the community is doing to fight back. North Minneapolis is a neighborhood with working class roots that […]

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The Census Bureau released a new report yesterday – Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006 report. The data paints a dreary picture about the state of working America. For those of us who aren’t in the top 5%, this shouldn’t come as a big surprise. On Health Insurance: According to […]

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August has been a busy month in NY’s housing world. Last Friday Governor Spitzer signed a few bills that will improve the state’s flawed 421-a program, which provides tax breaks to developers who build affordable housing. Also last week, the City Council committed $14 million to help preserve federally-assisted affordable housing developments that are distressed […]

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Yesterday’s New York Times has a piece on the environmental cost of economic growth in China titled As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes. The long, detailed piece focuses on the huge impact heavy industry has had on public health in China and the lack of government action or effective regulations to address these problems. […]

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With only one week of summer left, NYC’s teachers aren’t just preparing for school to start. They are also getting ready to see their union, the United Federation of Teachers, increase its membership by 20%. For the past few years, the UFT and ACORN have been organizing New York City’s home-based child care providers, of […]

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Note to reader: Natasha Winegar, Jonathan’s assistant, wrote this post. While Jonathan is away on vacation for the next week, I will be posting in his place. There has been quite a buzz on DailyKos the past few weeks about a new campaign to organize school bus workers. Progressive bloggers have often written about labor […]

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    No, I haven’t turned this into a sex advice column (hmmm…maybe the readership would skyrocket? Memo to NW–put on "to consider" list). From way back during the fight over NAFTA, there was an interesting–and, for some, uncomfortable–alliance between "left" and "right." The "left" saw NAFTA as a disaster for workers and the environment, whereas […]

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    So, if you’re wondering why some pundits and analysts are starting to worry that consumers may be thinking about pulling back from opening up their wallets, you can take the two obvious reasons–none of which are surprising to anyone with their eye on real people, as opposed to Wall Street hype and free market […]

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