Working Life

John Edwards is making his closing argument with the voters of Iowa–and the media elites are having a hard time trying to understand why he is now drawing increasingly larger crowds. That comes through glaringly in today’s New York Times piece by the apparently perplexed Adam Nagourney.   In the piece, we learn that: Mr. […]

Read the full story

John Edwards is making his closing argument with the voters of Iowa–and the media elites are having a hard time trying to understand why he is now drawing increasingly larger crowds. That comes through glaringly in today’s New York Times piece by the apparently perplexed Adam Nagourney.   In the piece, we learn that: Mr. […]

Read the full story

An update from the battle for single-payer health care…yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the American College of Physicians (ACP) has endorsed a single-payer health system. The ACP is the second largest physician’s group in the country – the American Medical Association, which doesn’t support single-payer, is the largest.  Here’s a bit from the article: While […]

Read the full story

An update from the battle for single-payer health care…yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the American College of Physicians (ACP) has endorsed a single-payer health system. The ACP is the second largest physician’s group in the country – the American Medical Association, which doesn’t support single-payer, is the largest.  Here’s a bit from the article: While […]

Read the full story

    Today, I’m going to head down to a protest at noon by striking taxi drivers in New York City. You may remember that the drivers, who belong to the  Taxi Workers Alliance, struck for 48 hours right after Labor Day. In today’s NY Daily News, the Alliance executive director, Bhairavi Desai, explains the main reasons […]

Read the full story

    I don’t know that one should trust The Wall Street Journal’s take on the vibe inside any union. I’m not familiar with the reporter who wrote today’s story describing stronger dissent inside the UAW to the negotiated deal with Chrysler, as well as a relatively strong minority "no" vote on the GM deal. But, […]

Read the full story

    Now, I like this and I get to write about this on my birthday, too. SEIU managed to reach a deal in Philadelphia that…are you ready for this?…increases the health benefits for its members. Most of the time, we read about health care givebacks–health care is always the big issue and has been for […]

Read the full story

  Last week, I took part in a discussion on CNBC about the agreement reached between the UAW and Chrysler. The show’s producers wanted to focus on the question of whether the deal showed that the UAW’s power is in decline. The truth is that the Chrysler deal, and the previous pact reached between the […]

Read the full story

    Though not surprising, here’s a report that puts some facts behind a grim picture: Low wages, inadequate benefits, and limited work supports leave one-in-five people (nearly 41 million) in working families struggling to make ends meet. According to a study released today by the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC, and […]

Read the full story

    Some random things. A number of people kept asking me, "so, what is a VEBA beyond the basic name?" Here’s an excerpt from today’s Wall Street Journal–interesting note that VEBAs are not that rare at large companies: A. VEBAs are similar to pension funds. They have assets intended to pay for retiree health care, […]

Read the full story