Working Life

Last night, I weighed in on the significance of NY Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s endorsement by the huge city workers local, AFSCME DC37. This morning, The New York Times runs with a front-page story main section story on the endorsement this morning, confirming the general perception that it is lights out for any of the Democrats […]

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I’m not saying it’s definitely over but, thanks to a big labor endorsement by AFSCME’s District Council 37, NY Mayor Republican Mike “It Takes A Billion” Bloomberg is closer to re-election. Sure, it’s still a ways off until Election Day this Fall but it’s hard to see how any Democrat beats Billionaire Bloomberg (BB) without […]

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No, we’re not back in English class (something I never could stomach, as my writing perhaps reveals). I’m just endlessly curious and fascinated by the framing of the debate about the future of labor. This morning, I was specifically thinking about how so many of us have been seized or paralyzed by the language of […]

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On and off, over the past few months, I’ve gotten various comments from leaders of Central Labor Council and State Feds about the whole hoo-hah going on, as many of them see it, back there in Washington D.C. The rumblings have picked up a bit… Below is a resolution passed a few weeks ago by […]

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Excuse me, but does Tom Buffenbarger have a grip on reality? I had to read the Machinists’ president’s most recent letter to the Federation’s Executive Council members several times, each time thinking he’d say at the end, “just kidding!!!” But, it’s scary–he’s serious. You might remember his previous letter less than two weeks ago. That […]

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There’s some interesting stuff percolating up from the Central Labor Council front but first…a clean-up from a few days ago. Last week, John Sweeney, wearing his Federation president hat, issued a press release (see below) announcing approval by the Strategic Approaches Committee and the committee that deals with raiding issues of the officers’ proposals around […]

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I don’t want to be a downer. Really. I’d like to be constantly upbeat and sunny about the recent unemployment figures. But, I just can’t shake the feeling that something ominous looms down the road–and not too far down the road. Yeah, the unemployment number dropped to five percent of the workforce (this is cause […]

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Back in the 1980s, I wrote a longish article on how pathetic the system was for protecting worker safety and health. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) never had real power or resources–my grey cells seem to remember something like it would take 7 years for OSHA to make even a passing inspection of […]

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Not much has been said in the American press–I’m shocked–about what’s happening on the labor front in Australia so I thought it would be worth a quick little update. Fresh from re-election as the Aussie Prime Minister eight months ago, conservative John Howard, is trying to make the country into one of the most deregulated […]

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Had a chat yesterday with a senior UFCW person who said, “we’re disaffiliating. There’s not much question about that.” Though the union has made no official announcement, speaking of UFCW President Joe Hansen, my conversation partner said, “Joe wouldn’t have gone to the board to ask for authority if we weren’t going to do it.” […]

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