Working Life

Tomorrow, my friends are going to be on the picket line at New York University. You may remember that, actually, NYU graduate students lead the way in winning bargaining rights for all graduate students–except, then, the Bush Administration’s National Labor Relations board overturned the precedent that gave grad students those basic democratic rights. So, NYU, […]

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Before I go off to vote in the New York City mayoral election (for Freddy Ferrer, of course), I caught this item in today’s Wall Street Journal. I had heard about this Delphi coalition yesterday from a friend in the UAW. UAW, Other Unions Join Forces To Increase Pressure on DelphiBy KRIS MAHER in Pittsburgh […]

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Last week, we had a fair amount of discussion on the ties between the Democrats and Wal-Mart. My latest column at TomPaine.com is an updated version of the issue, with more info: “The Wal-Mart 22.” And feel free to keep the conversation going. Another reminder: don’t forget to get your own copy here of Robert […]

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I opined over the weekend that the recent summit in Argentina could signal the end of so-called “free trade.” Which would be a good thing since, then, we could cast off the unhelpful dichotomy of “free trade” versus “protectionism” and get down to a real discussion about rules of the road when it comes to […]

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Sometimes, jobs disappear in a headline-grabbing plant closure. But, here’s one that is far more subtle and has grave implications for thousands of jobs and for the Teamsters. The Financial Times has a front-page story today describing a new trend: U.S maunfacturers and retailers are shifting their “domestic warehouses and distribution facilities to China as […]

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Another piece today–this one coming in The Washington Post–sees the Schwarzenegger-backed propositions going down to defeat (registration required). This seems to be now a trend over the past week or so, as we’ve been discussing here. The propositions would, the piece says, give the governor far more power. “But three recent polls, by the Public […]

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Mar Del Plata may be the place where so-called “free trade” was stopped. I never underestimate the ability of the big corporate powers to get up off the mat. But, the big-scale ambition–far bigger than the Central American Free Trade Agreement–to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas is pretty much dead–at least for […]

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I happened to catch on C-SPAN last night (yes, I’m a C-SPAN junkie) a briefing about House Joint Resolution 55, which calls for the complete withdrawal of troops from Iraq by October 1, 2006. For myself, I believe the troops should be withdrawn immediately–the death and destruction will continue as long as the U.S. remains […]

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Well, it looks like the propositions in California are going down to defeat–though something could shift between now and Election Day. According to a new Field Poll, all four of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ballot initiatives appear to be headed for defeat, including Prop 75 which was directly aimed at crippling the labor movement’s political operations. Making […]

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My colleague David Sirota (who writes a terrific blog) passed on a couple of useful background pieces from the Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill explaining why so many members of the Congressional Black Caucus seem to be cozy with Wal-Mart. First, the first piece recounts the furor caused by a letter sent by Anna Burger, […]

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