Working Life

So, the U.S. Treasury Department decided not to brand China as a currency manipulator; The Financial Times (subscription required) leads with that story across the top of its front page and The New York Times features it on the front page of the business section. I’ve always thought this debate is misplaced or, at least, […]

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Poor Pascal Lamy is in a pickle. But, it’s a pickle that no regular working person should feel bad about. Lamy is the director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the international body that oversees global trade agreements. I’m assuming most readers know the basics about the WTO so I’ll just move on here. […]

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Today, the Wall Street Journal catches up with a story that I first saw reported in the Financial Times on Wednesday: the UAW and a group of large shareholders, including four large U.S. and European pension funds, have filed objections in bankcruptcy court to the outrageous bonuses that Delphi executives have cleverly orchestrated for themselves […]

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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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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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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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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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There is an ideological drum beat underway that, to me, mirrors the relentless mantra we have endured about so-called “free trade” for the past three decades. This one goes like this: pensions are a thing of the past, and certainly no one should expect to get a real pension anymore–“real” being, in my humble opinion, […]

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As readers know, I’ve been beating the drum for some time that the “growing economy” as measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a misleading number because it doesn’t really tell the depth of economic distress facing workers. Presto, in front of my eyes the contradiction is laid bare. First, I get my little […]

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This is great news–the White House has caved in to the pressure to rescind the suspension of the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws for the areas hit by Hurricane Katrina. Here’s what I hear from my Capitol Hill sources: the president, who suspended the Davis Bacon provisions that guarantee people working on federal contracts are paid […]

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