Working Life

   You probably have heard that a deal was reach between the UAW and Chrysler. Like last week, though, it’s really had to tell from reading the traditional media what exactly the deal will be–other than workers are going to get the shaft. The Wall Street Journal doesn’t say much about enhanced pension protection (meaning, […]

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   Today, The White House is hosting a gathering of people who want to take part in shaping the future health care system. A lot of the participants simply want to keep the same basic system going: for-profit leeching from the pockets of the American people. Here’s a story they should listen to:   This […]

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   Here is a classic example about how poorly the debate is often framed in our political discourse. The president has appointed Nancy-Ann DeParle to be the director of the White House Office of Health Reform. Some people are getting worked up into a lather about her need to sever her ties to the health […]

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    This really got me infuriated. Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported (as did other news outlets): Delphi Corp., the largest parts supplier to General Motors Corp., won court approval to terminate health benefits for thousands of retired salaried employees after arguing the move is critical to keeping its slow-going bankruptcy reorganization afloat. Ending the […]

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   Way back when the UAW negotiated with the Big Three in 2007, the union agreed to set up Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Associations (VEBA) to handle health care liabilities. It was a logical gamble pressed on the union by very difficult economic circumstances–which have only gotten tougher. And now the VEBA is at risk–or at […]

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  Yesterday, Tom Daschle testified in his confirmation hearing for secretary of health and human services. He promised "bi-partisanship", pledging "I really want to work in a collaborative way. It’s the only way we’re going to get this done." Which made me think: if that is the path we take, millions of Americans will be […]

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Maybe you feel, on days like this, the same way I do–that you live in an alternate universe. In my alternate universe, I wouldn’t consider cutting education, health care, or aid to the poor before asking the richest people in our society to pay their fair share in dues. In my alternate universe, I would […]

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  When the history of our current economic crisis is written, there will need to be a full chapter devoted to the willful ignorance or stupidity of the traditional media. Right before our eyes stands the solution to a huge chunk of our fiscal nightmare and a lifeline for the auto industry: single-payer health care. […]

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  Hear me out: this is an argument as much about the place of workers’ issues in the future Administration, as it is an argument for making John Edwards the next Labor Secretary.   When it comes to tackling the economic crisis, the president-elect has been pre-occupied, personnel-wise, with the question of who will be […]

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   I had grand ambitions about posting today an in-depth thing and may still rally to do that but, you know, I’m under the gun on so much stuff that I’m taking the easy way out but not necessarily by not giving up something important. Check this out, from The Wall Street Journal this morning: […]

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