Working Life

   The New York City Central Labor Council is calling for a mobilization tomorrow in Wall Street to protest the bailout for bankers. Here is a piece of the statement which outlines the demands: In response to the growing concerns for worker’s needs, the Central Labor Council Executive Board today announced the following “Seven Conditions […]

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   I’ve just been given a letter that John Sweeney is sending today to every Senator. Here it it is.    It makes all the right points, with this being the key nut graf:    It proposes a grant of unlimited authority to the Bush Administration to spend $700 billion of the public’s money to […]

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   Since I posted yesterday’s appeal to labor to really dive into the financial crisis, I’ve gotten a number of calls or emails pointing to various statements made by labor leaders. As I said yesterday, I’m truly glad that John Sweeney, Andy Stern and others have made strong public statements.    BUT…statements are not enough. […]

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With the country facing the biggest financial crisis in 100 years, which threatens the homes, livelihoods and bank accounts of millions of working Americans, where is the labor movement? This moment fits the classic observation by community organizer Saul Alinksy that the Chinese character for "crisis" means both "danger" and "opportunity". The "danger" part is […]

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   That isn’t my rhetoric. That comes straight from the voice of Wall Street this morning, The Wall Street Journal: Worst Crisis Since ’30s, With No End Yet in Sight By JON HILSENRATH, SERENA NG and DAMIAN PALETT The financial crisis that began 13 months ago has entered a new, far more serious phase. Lingering […]

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    I don’t want to be negative all the time but, folks, I just don’t see a way out of the economic mess without some more serious pain being inflicted. And this pain might last a long, long time. Note that I say MORE serious pain because, unlike the talking heads and the economists who […]

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    Readers of this blog know that I have been pointing out for a long time that the majority of Americans have been in recession for a long time–it was partly masked by the housing bubble, which allowed a lot of people to pull out a whole bunch of cash from almost under the mattress […]

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    This morning, Sen. Obama is scheduled to give a major address on the economy. Yours truly is scheduled to appear on CNBC’s "Power Lunch" (hey, I didn’t come up with the name) at 1:20 p.m. (Eastern Time). I may not have a chance to post the entire speech here before the CNBC gig but […]

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    Yesterday, I observed the bizarre proposal by Sen. Clinton to hand over fixing the economic mess we’re in to the very people who helped create the mess (well, actually, for most workers we’ve been in an economic mess for a very long time–but you’all know that). I wasn’t trying to pick on Sen. Clinton […]

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I have been waiting to hear what the presidential candidates have to say about how to address the financial crisis gripping the country, and the international markets. Very little of substance has been said, beyond vague pronouncements—until yesterday. Sen. Hillary Clinton released a plan, which, in my humble opinion, underscores why another Clinton Administration would […]

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