Working Life

It’s not been a pretty couple of days here for New York labor. It is true that Brian McLaughlin deserves the presumption of being innocent until proven guilty of the corruption charges leveled against him yesterday. But, what really needs to be looked at is how we got here in the first place. Frankly, even […]

Read the full story

Sometimes, you wonder:is there no limit to a corporation’s willingness to obfuscate? I opened up The New York Times today and on the op-ed page there is an ad from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (this is the place on the op-ed page where advocacy groups run issue ads). The ad features a bookmark […]

Read the full story

Last night, I went to a discussion between Scott Ritter, the former U.N top weapons inspector in Iraq, and investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. They were discussing the unthinkable: the gathering drumbeat on the part of this Administration, and a number of Democrats, for war against Iran. There was a lot in the discussion worth reporting […]

Read the full story

Here’s a small observation. One-third of the CAFTA 15 also voted for HR 6166, the “enemy combatant” bill: Melissa Bean, Henry Cuellar, Jim Matheson, Dennis Moore and John Tanner. Sad. Though I’d also add shame on Sherrod Brown for also voting for the horrific HR 6166–Brown has been a great fighter on trade issues and […]

Read the full story

There might be at least one ounce of retribution taken against so-called Democrats who voted for CAFTA. In a shocker, Bill “I Keep $90,000 In My Freezer” Jefferson was denied the endorsement by state party leaders in Louisiana. In an extraordinary vote against an incumbent congressman, Louisiana Democratic Party leaders on Saturday endorsed state Rep. […]

Read the full story

The long arm of the law–or at least a jury–has caught up again with the law-breakers from Bentonville, also known as the Waltons. As reported by the Associated Press, “the world’s biggest retailer, must pay at least $78.5 million for violating Pennsylvania labor laws by forcing employees to work through rest breaks and off the […]

Read the full story

For a long time, I have argued that our problem with China is not really the difference in currency nor, on its face, the trade deficit. At heart, the real issue is the truly abysmal working conditions faced by millions of Chinese workers–working conditions that are the reason corporations love China and love moving production […]

Read the full story

We’ve discussed the impact of Wal-Mart many times here. There is a new book out that I highly recommend: “The Big Box Swindle.” It’s written by Stacy Mitchell who really did a ton of ground-breaking research and organizing around the issue of Wal-Mart long before it was hip and cool to oppose the Beast. I’m […]

Read the full story

If you ever wondered what will happen if there is a change in political power in Washington D.C., there was no better reason to fear the future after watching last night’s “debate” on Larry King Live between Lou Dobbs, former Republican-turned-crusader for the middle class, and Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary in the Clinton Administration. […]

Read the full story

I know that with North Korea exploding a nuke and four weeks out from an election I shouldn’t be digressing to such a minor topic as baseball but…Joe Torre should stick around as Yankees’ manager. I can hear the clicking of the mouse as many a reader goes off to another place and, bless you, […]

Read the full story