Working Life

Working Life is moving…sort of…and it’s a great development for all of you. If you go to www.workinglife.org you will now see that the site has been re-launched as a project of Labor Research Association. The best thing about this–you can have your own blogs. That’s right, the thousands of people who visit this site […]

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From today’s Wall Street Journal, we learn some more about the tensions building in China over working conditions and labor rights. China Clears McDonald’s, Yum on Pay By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH April 11, 2007; Page A7 SHANGHAI — Provincial authorities in China cleared U.S. fast-food-restaurant companies McDonald’s Corp. and Yum Brands Inc. of allegations they underpaid […]

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Donald Trump is a very unpleasant character, though often times I also pity someone who needs to spend so much time looking in the mirror. Here’s another reason, per the Wall Street Journal today, to use his gorgeous self as target practice on a dartboard. ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The parent company of three casinos […]

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There was an eye-opening package of stories about CEO pay on Friday in The New York Times. I was traveling so I didn’t have a chance to read all of it. But as a UAW member, this one did jump put: The Ford Motor Company paid its new chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, $28.18 million […]

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Traveling most of the day so a little late post with this piece: Latte Laborers Take on a Latte-Liberal Business By DANIEL GROSS ON March 30, the National Labor Relations Board’s New York office delivered a stinging accusation against one of the city’s — and the nation’s — most popular retail outlets. The labor board […]

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I had written about this some months ago but now it seems to be coming up in a much more serious way. This story was in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal: FRANKFURT, April 5 — An unusual law that shapes the oversight of German companies is again being re-examined after corruption scandals at Siemens and Volkswagen, […]

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Leave it to the Norwegians to show what needs to be done with abusive corporations. The Norwegian government is dropping Wal-Mart stock from its $285 billion pension fund. Could this spark a broader dumping of Wal-Mart stock around the world because of the company’s abhorrent behavior? Norway has very strong ethical guidelines for its government […]

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There has been an on-going debate in the U.S. about how to engage the only legally sanctioned union in China, the All China Federation of Trade Union (ACFTU). Some believe it is simply a mouthpiece for the government and not a real union. Others argue that at the local and regional level, many ACFTU leaders […]

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New Jersey’s public pension system is in dire straights–or so says Mary Williams Walsh in The New York Times today in an article that argues that politicians have made some questionable moves in pension funding.: In 2005, New Jersey put either $551 million, $56 million or nothing into its pension fund for teachers. All three […]

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As I talk to workers throughout the country, whether they are in unions or not, I’m struck how much the greed of CEOs has penetrated the public consciousness. But, CEO pay is really only the tip of the financial riches that CEOs are hauling away–it is their pensions and deferred compensation that are truly staggering. […]

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