Working Life

It seems like ages since the Solidarity Charter issue was being debated (I divide time now between BSI–Before Scooter’s Indictment–and ASI–After Scooter’s Indictment). But, it seems as if we’re done and the major issues have been resolved, with negotiations continuing on the exact “specific amount and mechanism for a solidarity fee to be paid by […]

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I’ll need to look at the details before I say more but here’s the media reports: Senate Approves Legislation To Shore Up Private Pensions By JOHN GODFREY DOW JONES NEWSWIRES November 16, 2005 WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday passed a sweeping pension funding bill that touches on almost every type of federally regulated retirement […]

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[PUBLISHING NOTE: IT’S REALLY WEDNESDAY! Your weary correspondent will be up at 4:30 a.m. here in the nation’s capitol to catch a flight to the West Coast so…this will have to do for your Wednesday feeding until perhaps later in the day] I hear that House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel, ex-Clintonista and […]

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Some day, I’ve been meaning to go off on the world view of Thomas Friedman. His book “The World Is Flat” is the newest installment of his endless fascination with globalization–and his blindness to either the consequences or history and economics. I’ve gotten a big enough dose of his trips to Bangalore, India via his […]

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The strike at Northwest Airlines is continuing. As part of a campaign to save the jobs of the mechanics at Northwest, the union is now targeting the company’s board of directors (it has hired Corporate Campaign as an outside consultant). Today, there is an interesting twist. It turns out that one of the members of […]

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I’m not surprised when I read about corporate greed–it permeates every corner of the economy. What still makes me shake my head in wonder is the corporate greed that continues unabated at companies in distress. So, let’s check out some truly obscene behavior at Delphi We’ve been following the travails of workers at Delphi for […]

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If you haven’t seen “Good Night, Good Luck,” well, it’s time to rush out to the theaters and check it out because it’s loyalty oath time in America. George Clooney’s quite good portrayal of Edward R. Murrow’s exposure of Sen. Joe McCarthy’s vile campaign against people the nutty senator accused of being Communists is chilling […]

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Even our friends at The Hill are tracking the pay-offs being made by business to the CAFTA 15. Check out the November 9th story below from the Capitol Hill newspaper. The story raises, for me, a couple of thoughts: 1. Why hasn’t Nancy Pelosi followed through on punishing the CAFTA 15 as she promised after […]

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While there is a lot of focus on the results of Tuesday’s elections, I’m much more intrigued by the developments in the last two days on trade. And hoping that maybe, somehow, the developments can inject a little sanity into the debate over the rules that govern the exchange of stuff between countries. First, the […]

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So, let’s sort through yesterday’s elections. I’m not buying into the conventional wisdom that the Democratic Party should be dancing in the streets, or that labor should be celebrating. Positive: in California, the trend over the last few weeks held–and everyone of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s propositions went down to defeat. The vote was not overwhelming but […]

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