Working Life

Sigh. Not that I expected the Times to adjust its coverage of the NY City pensions situation. But…can’t the reporters at least acknowledge that the serious fiscal situation cities and states are in come in large part from the shredding of a progressive taxation system, i.e., that the rich and corporations pay so little in […]

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This report was actually out a week ago but I just came on it–it’s from the smart folks over at the Center for Economic and Policy Research: Pharmaceutical companies are making billions in excess profits under the new Medicare drug benefit, according to a report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. In the […]

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Readers of this blog know that I’ve been quite positive about the pension reporting that usually is done by Mary Williams Walsh of The New York Times. Today, she has a lead front-page article (co-authored with Michael Cooper) with the scary headline “City Gets Sobering Look At Possible Pension Trouble.” The upshot of the article […]

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Hey, everyone’s using YouTube to get the message out. The janitors get into the game.

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Back in March, I wrote about the recruitment of Andy Young, the noted civil rights leader and former ambassador to the U.N., to the cause of defending Wal-Mart. Lots of people were astonished and I was a bit perplexed by the moral corruption of someone who actually fought for the rights of the oppressed. Today, […]

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You almost want to say “duh” after reading the front-page story in today’s New York Times about the Democrats catching the anti-Wal-Mart wave. Here are the two key paragraphs: The focus on Wal-Mart is part of a broader strategy of addressing what Democrats say is general economic anxiety and a growing sense that economic gains […]

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Interesting piece in The Wall Street Journal today: Mine Unions Call Strikes to Obtain A Share of ProfitsBy KRIS MAHER High prices for copper, nickel and other commodities are emboldening miners unions world-wide to stage strikes in hopes of getting better pay and benefits for workers. Concerns over labor-related supply disruptions have contributed to higher […]

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With thanks to Susan G over at Daily Kos for pointing this out, the Christian Science Monitor had a decent article reporting on a joint effort by the AFL-CIO and Change To Win to coordinate political efforts in 2006. I always thought that this would happen after the split–after all, coordinating phone and walk lists […]

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I’ve pointed out before the stark contrast between the great rise in productivity and the lack of reward flowing to workers who are working harder than ever before. Last year, the Economic Policy Institute showed that productivity has grown almost three times faster than wages since 2001. During that time, 70 percent of the nation’s […]

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I’ve been calling for someone to get up and challenge CAFTA 15 Rep. William “I Store 90,000 In My Freezer” Jefferson. And, sure enough, a number of someones have stepped forward: 12 File to Oppose Rep. Jefferson By Allan Lengel Washington Post Staff Writer Under the glare of an FBI investigation, a politically vulnerable Rep. […]

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