Working Life

The debate is on–Ted Kennedy has moved to raise the minimum wage from it’s pathetic $5.15 to $7.25 in three steps over the next two years. The Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities put out a report in light of the debate. What jumped out at me right off the […]

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I smell a bad deal coming down. And it is emblematic of the lack of spine by the Democratic Party and its inability to stand up for principle. You may be tracking that there is a tug and pull in Congress over an attempt to raise the federal minimum wage. I’m all in favor of […]

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A few days ago, our friends at the Economic Policy Institute put out an interesting paper looking at the claims about the trade-offs inherent in the Wal-Mart business model. That is, in order to have low prices, workers had to be paid low wages. Well, the EPI paper probes some interesting points. Here’s the upshot, […]

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There was an unremarkable piece in The New York Times that looked back at the just-completed UAW convention.

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This caught my eye this morning. In the morning newspaper, there was the following paragraph, in which I made a couple of edits for the moment: If [I’ve omitted the name] rhetoric is full of class conflict that rattles business owners and the middle to upper class, there is a reason for it. Poverty, job […]

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The case of Rep.William Jefferson, one of the CAFTA 15, gets even more sticky.Yesterday, the Democratic caucus voted to strip Jefferson of his seat on the Ways and Means Committee because of the bribery allegations that loom over him. In explaining her position, Nancy Pelosi takes the position I’ve taken here–everyone is innocent until proven […]

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Readers of this blog know that for many, many months I’ve been very skeptical about the feel-good economic news that seemed to be all the rage last Fall and earlier this year. Back in October, for example, I pointed out (not for the first time) how growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) can be […]

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Well, the president flew off to Iraq for a secret trip, the latest photo-op designed to convince us that, yes, “victory” is just around the corner. Understand that this has nothing to do with the facts on the ground–a country ripped apart by an illegal, immoral war. This photo-op is about one thing only: domestic […]

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Ron Gettlelfinger had this to say at the UAW Convention, according to the speech posted on the UAW website: “For decades now, the UAW has been a staunch advocate of single-payer national health insurance and we’re going to keep fighting to make affordable, quality health care a right for every American.” Yes, I agree but […]

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Though today it rates a front-page story in The New York Times, the difficult times the United Auto Workers (my union) faces is certainly nothing new. We’ve been losing members for a long time and, though there has been a lot of attention on organizing new members, the numbers have not made up the losses. […]

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