Working Life

We’re just 12 days away from the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Las Vegas (Feb 28th-March 3rd). Hard to know whether there will be a knock-down, dragged-out fight, with one or more internationals declaring they are leaving the Federation and someone stepping forward to announce he or she is running for AFL-CIO President at the […]

Read the full story

I learned tonight from a reliable source on Capitol Hill that the Inspector General of the Department of Labor has agreed to probe the sweetheart deal the agency struck with Wal-Mart that let the company get away with a puny $135,000 and change fine and a promise the DOL would give Wal-Mart a 15-day heads-up […]

Read the full story

Thinking about Wal-Mart’s child labor violations reminded me of an international effort around violations of labor rights worldwide. The Campaign to Abolish Sweatshops and Child Labor had put together a piece of legislation that would “require companies to disclose information related to potential violations of core labor standards, by preventing a market for goods made […]

Read the full story

Bill Greider has a must-read piece in the Feb. 28th issue of The Nation on the potential power of public pensions to reshape public policy. The potential use of public pension funds, which is essentially money invested on behalf of unionized public employees, has been talked about for more than twenty years. But, we’ve got […]

Read the full story

Wal-Mart cut itself a great deal with the government. Not only does it pay a puny $135,000 and change fine for 24 child labor violations, the Department of Labor has promised to give Wal-Mart a 15-day heads-up before it starts any future investigations. Enough time to get those paper shredders going and muddle the trail. […]

Read the full story

The Center for American Progress has an easy-to-understand breakdown of the key false claims put forth by the Administration, countered by the facts. CLAIM: “By the year 2042, the entire system would be exhausted and bankrupt.” [President Bush, 2/2/05] FACT: In 2042, enough new money will be coming in to pay between 73-80 percent of […]

Read the full story

Well, if you’re a trade deficit worrier, time to get out the tranquilizers. The government reports that the trade deficit reached $666.2 billion in 2004– a record!!! This shouldn’t surprise–China’s trade surplus with the U.S. (meaning, we bought more of their stuff than they bought of our stuff) was huge, coming in at $162 billion, […]

Read the full story

What does Wal-Mart do when workers try to exercise basic rights? Fire ’em! Not just in the U.S. but in Canada: Wal-Mart Plans to Close Unionized Store in Quebec (Update3) Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to close its first unionized store in North America and fire 190 workers after it failed to […]

Read the full story

The Administration’s record on jobs is still pathetic, as the Economic Policy Institute points out: EPI tells us that: On average, it has taken 21 months to surpass the prior employment peak after a recession. In this case it took 46 months, making this the longest slump of this type on record. Had we done […]

Read the full story

As if things couldn’t get worse, the labor movement is even smaller than it was a year ago. Actually, the movement hasn’t been this small in six decades. In 2003, unions represented 12.9 percent of workers overall; in 2004, that percentage dropped to 12.5. The story is actually worse if you look just at the […]

Read the full story