Working Life

I woke up this morning to read about two new attacks against workers. The banner headline in the Financial Times (subscription required) reads: “Delphi seeks to tear up labour deals.” You may remember that back in November the company’s CEO Steve Miller had concocted a deal that would plunge Delphi into bankruptcy, gut the living […]

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I suspect this is going to cause a big hoo-hah in labor so let’s have a discussion here, too. Two large unions, SEIU and the Laborers, have joined with the Chamber of Commerce to push for an immigration bill that would “legalize millions of illegal workers,” as reported today in The New York Times. One […]

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Several people have commented in unrelated posts about the series that has been running this week in the Los Angeles Times about the United Farm Workers (registration required). I frankly haven’t had the time this week to read each piece…but people have asked for a space to debate the issue. So, here you go. The […]

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The president, trying to distract people from little things like illegal spying, the war and Jack Abramoff, decided to try to tout the wonderful state of the economy. Part of this little roadshow included the tired refrain that tax cuts have helped the economy–even though there’s almost no reputable economist that will make that argument […]

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Remember all the folks who pointed fingers at the transit union, claiming it was at fault for provoking the recent strike? Well, as the strike recedes in memory, we begin to get more of the truth. Today, Sewell Chan and Steven Greenhouse of The New York Times tell us that the chairman of the transit […]

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Check out: “New York Transit Deal Shows Union’s Success on Many Fronts.” A very positive analysis of the contract gains.

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So, we have a deal. Just in time for the New Year. And the question is: how did the transit workers do? On the one hand, Transit Workers Local 100 president Roger Toussaint comes out on top on the issue that sparked the three-day strike–there will be no give backs on pensions. Workers with 25 […]

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Just in time for Christmas, a jury handed out a gift to the Walton family: it has to pay up for breaking the law. Again. Jury slaps Wal-Mart with $172M rulingA California jury orders the retail giant to pay $172 million to workers denied lunch breaks. (CNN) – Jurors in Oakland, Calif., Thursday awarded $172 […]

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The news is this: the union leadership has agreed to recommend to its executive board that the members go back to work, possibly by late afternoon or tonight, while mediation continues. There are concerns, though. From what I could tease out from the mediator’s comments, the MTA has not taken the issue of the pension […]

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10:55 a.m. Folks, I just got a call from an extremely knowledgable source who says there may have been a deal reached in the transit strike. I know nothing more than that. And it’s not clear what the terms will be. More later.

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