Working Life

So, the Change To Win coalition rally came off quite nicely and the coalition also donated $125,000 to the strikers. Check out the photo here. But, what caught my eye this a.m. is the fact that the strike by more than 18,000 machinists at Boeing has even the business press confused–and critical of the company. […]

Read the full story

Yesterday, I promised to come back to the attack on workers’ wages unleashed by the Administration under the guise of New Orleans recovery. Today, a part of the attack has taken on a new face: the conservative wing of the Republican party is already calling for cuts in spending to offset any of the tens […]

Read the full story

The life for airline workers is just getting worse. As reported today in the major newspapers (see The New York Times–registration required), Northwest and Delta are poised to file for bankruptcy as soon as today. What will likely come in pretty quick succession is further demands for wage and benefits cuts, particularly termination of the […]

Read the full story

Ah, the Beast…in trouble again. Steven Greenhouse reports today in The New York Times (registration required) on a novel legal twist to trying to hold Wal-Mart accountable. Here are the first two paragraphs: “A labor rights group filed a class-action lawsuit yesterday against Wal-Mart Stores in which apparel workers in Bangladesh, China and other countries […]

Read the full story

It seems like the Chazer caucus has backed off its attempt to repeal the estate tax–at least for now. But, I thought this chart from my friends at the Economic Policy Institute would make it crystal clear why it is complete nonsense to believe that the estate tax hurts poor farmers or folks like you […]

Read the full story

So, yes, the president, responding to a request from a group of Republicans, did move quickly to undercut workers’ wages in Louisiana and Mississippi, and for good measure in areas in Alabama and Florida (beats me how he slipped in those last two states). He invoked emergency powers yesterday to suspend the Davis Bacon Act—effectively […]

Read the full story

Obviously, the price of Katrina is high–in human and financial terms. But, the devastation may have caused one positive development: our friends from OMB Watch report that the Republicans appear to have backed off their intention to vote on the repeal of the estate tax. Mind you, this didn’t come because Republicans saw the light […]

Read the full story

I wish I didn’t have to keep pointing out the sorry state of the “opposition” party. But, alas, the reason we may lose yet another trillion dollars in revenues over the next decade to fund education etc. is that too many Democrats seem likely to vote to end a potential filibuster to prevent the repeal […]

Read the full story

It seems petty if it’s deliberate or just plain pathetic if it was forgotten but…the Administration seems, to date, hell bent on effectively ignoring the 70th anniversary of Social Security, which falls this Sunday; historically, Republican and Democratic administrations alike have celebrated important milestones for Social Security. Well, yes, the president and his economic team […]

Read the full story

I was a bit preoccupied with L’affaire McKay yesterday so I didn’t get to this. Readers here know that I’ve spent a lot of time writing about the China challenge, and pointing out that no one has a good solution about to deal with China, short of just joining a drum-beat that I fear will […]

Read the full story