Working Life

No more “I ate bad food last night” or “the kid kept me up at night with a fever” as excuses to stay away from work. It’s to save the planet I’m staying home.

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   It is going to take the concerted effort of a lot of voices to overcome the noise being generated by the people who would like us to think that economic salvation is at hand. So, we need to keep pointing out some harsh realities facing real people. For example: The number of Americans filing […]

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   Over to Copenhagen (A lovely city to visit): how exactly do we adjust the global economy to save the planet from catastrophic changes AND do so in a way that is fair to workers. The process is called "Just Transition". The international labor movement–there is a delegation in Copenhagen drawing from labor around the […]

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   Last week, I wrote about the energy bill and passages that impose penalties on countries that violate the bill. The president thinks this is "protectionism": “At a time when the economy worldwide is still deep in recession and we’ve seen a significant drop in global trade,” Mr. Obama said, “I think we have to […]

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   Trade and climate change are closely connected issues. Think just about the carbon emissions of planes and ships traversing the globe carrying stuff that we consume. I’ll come back to that in a sec.    Yesterday, Rep. Mike Michaud of Maine introduced the House version of the TRADE Act; the Senate’s sponsor is Sherrod […]

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I’ve been reading the various proposals about how to bailout the auto industry. Some of the ideas are good but one piece floating around in the punditry is foolish and dangerous. This has to be done right–and it has to be done in a way that does not attack the workers of the industry.   […]

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   Last night’s debate, not surprisingly, didn’t finger the real culprit in the economic crisis hitting people everywhere–by the way, an economic crisis that is a far more ancient phenomena than the last few weeks. The real culprit is Market Fundamentalism.    And, so, I offer you this: "The Audacity of Timidity: Where Is The […]

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    Most of what I write about so-called "free trade" has focused on the horrendous hits that workers take from globalization that is all about one major thing: seeking out the lowest wages. But, there is another piece to this: so-called "free trade" is destroying the planet. Oh, yes, I’m sure the advocates of so-called […]

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    I’ll be writing a lot more in the future about the links between labor and the environment. Here’s a development that I’ve been following for some time. The Teamsters have had a long-term project to organize drivers in the ports, particularly on the West Coast–there are thousands of drivers who could potentially be Teamsters […]

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    So, I’ve been at a conference on "Green Jobs" here in Pittsburgh. I’ve written about this topic before and you’ll see more about this in the future. But, for today, just quickly–we all know that we have to move from a carbon-based economy and I think there is a huge opportunity for labor to […]

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