Working Life

   This is news that is both somewhat expected and also worrisome, from The Wall Street Journal this morning: Outside advisers to the U.S. Treasury have started lining up the largest bankruptcy loan ever, talking with banks and other lenders about at least $40 billion in financing for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, in […]

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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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   Today, I’m going to be talking about labor and the president-elect with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, who, for non-New Yorkers, has one of the most interesting radio talk shows in the city. It’s at 11:25 am Eastern time. Those people fortunate enough to live in NYC (okay, let’s not start a war over that…) can […]

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   Even though I’ve suggested that auto workers should not pay for the mistakes made by the industry’s executives, the drumbeat has been pretty persistent that the workers will take another hit. And it picks up in today’s New York Times: While the union has not agreed to reopen contracts at General Motors, Ford and […]

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Memo to the traditional media: you want to see the auto industry go down? Fine. But, at least try to give the facts about what workers have undergone in the industry–an assignment that most of the traditional media could not live up in its coverage of yesterday’s hearings on the proposed bailout.   The facts […]

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    Yesterday, I posted a dairy about the right way to bailout the auto industry. I have no issue with those people who disagree with the basic premise that we should bailout the companies. But, in other places where I posted this and generally out there in the ether, there was a shocking level of […]

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   So much to say but…I’m going to be on CNBC this afternoon at 2:10 Eastern time to talk about labor’s prospects under an Obama Administration and, specfically, what to look for if the Employee Free Choice Act is passed. I’ll try to post the video clip later–if it exists.    UPDATE: here’s the link. […]

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   I sent the below around a couple of weeks ago and I’m sticking to it. It’s, of course, very optimistic–that’s the kind of guy I am–but feel free to comment yourselves. The upshot: Obama wins 390 Electoral votes Democratis end up with 58 Senate seats (net gain of 9–could mean after run-off in the […]

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   We are going to see alot more of this in the next couple of years: More than 50 day laborers stood, bored, anxious and mostly silent, in the sun-blasted parking lot of a Home Depot here last week, tracking the ebb and flow of customers and hoping for work. The hours crawled by. Six, […]

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   I am not going to say too much about whether I agree or disagree with the entirely self-serving, hypocritical, "Only I Can Save You" decision by his lordship NYC Mayor (or is that "God"?) Michael Bloomberg to reverse his position on term limits and seek a change in the law that would bar him […]

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