Working Life

   I am going to debate the issue of the Employee Free Choice Act today at 11:30 a.m. on CNBC on "The Call" with Larry Kudlow (though apparently now the debate will also be about whether unions destroy jobs!!!). I am opening up this thread here for people to express their viewpoints about EFCA and, […]

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   Henry Ford used to say that he wanted his workers to have enough money to buy his cars. Our current business leaders seem to have forgotten that simple economic idea. That is why, for their own self-interest, business, and their Republican allies in Congress, should embrace broad unionization.   The sound you just heard […]

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  Perhaps only the prospect of hanging at dawn focuses the mind more than money. And now that we have the attention of all those banks and other folks who salivate at getting OUR (taxpayer) money through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), why not get something real out of them: write into new legislation […]

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Admittedly, I’ve never been into the bi-partisan meme. Maybe it’s because I’m a labor movement person and the mission of the Republican party, and its allies, is to destroy the labor movement. But, I still remain mystified: why exactly, given the Republican party’s record, is the new Administration working so hard to win it over? […]

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   McDonald’s really knows how to celebrate liberty and justice. On the eve of the international recognition Human Rights Day, McDonald’s announced it will launch a massive campaign to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act. So, let’s respond in kind: boycott McDonald’s.   As a reminder, the right to form a union is an internationally […]

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   Sounds like one of those spam emails you get, huh? Well, it feels like the members of Congress operate that way. People keep talking about stimulus as a way of stemming the financial global meltdown (um, it might be rough again today–foreign markets all plunged deeply and the Dow futures is showing a huge […]

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There is a great economic emergency looming in our country. But, it seems to me that we—or at least our elected leaders—have only looked at one side of the crisis, that of the housing bubble-inspired financial credit crunch. By doing so, we’ve missed the bigger picture and the solutions needed. So, here is one person’s […]

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   First, yours truly is supposed to be on CNBC today at 2:20 Eastern time debating the following: If Obama wins, unions will get a big boost.  Are unions bad or good for America?  You can come back here, if you see it, and keep the discussion going here (I emphasize "SUPPOSED TO BE" because […]

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   Well, Wal-Mart has a union…but not in the U.S…across the border, and only because a judge imposed the union on the Beast. Shows you what a slightly better legal system can do for union organizing. Here’s what The Wall Street Journal has today: An arbitrator has imposed a contract on a Wal-Mart Canada auto […]

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  Here, for your reading pleasure, is the draft, as of today, of the entire Democratic Party’s Platform.    Besides the trade language, here are my initial thoughts about some of the other economic-related language.    The good:    There is very strong language about the right to organize and other similar worker protection issues. […]

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