Working Life

It’s not surprising that a growing number of workers around the globe are losing faith in political leaders. After all, the economic debate often seems completely divorced from the realities of workers’ lives, whether it’s blaming workers for national budget squeezes actually caused by bankers or CEOs imposing mass layoffs to cover up obscene executive compensation at the heart of bottom-line revenue shortfalls. The debate in the United States is a good example.

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Everyone likes to compare their city to New York City. If you can be like the greatest city in the world, hey, you’ve made it. But, uh, this might not be a comparison the Chamber of Commerce and Tourist Board wants making the rounds.

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The gyrations of stock markets, the Euro crisis and the conflicting predictions about the direction of the economy are related to one basic point: average people are tapped out. Wal-Mart tells us the story in pretty simple terms. And it is the story of poverty and class warfare. Turns out, who knew, but a paycheck […]

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Two sides of the planet. Two different systems. Two different realities for workers—and, therein, lies the lesson: economies are about power, and values. Over in the U.S., if you are a waiter in the food industry, you are screwed, as Mark Bittman outlined in his column a few days ago, on the backs of a […]

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   Here is what austerity and the spread of the "American disease" does for people: Europe’s long-running euro crisis may be cooling. But the economic distress it has left in its wake is pushing a rising tide of workers into precarious straits in France and across the European Union. Today, hundreds of thousands of people […]

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You want to know how your dollars are spent when you buy stuff? It’s not for the wages of the workers who serve you:

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   I’ve written a lot about the complete immoral insanity of the obsession over the phony debt and deficit "crisis"and the rush to impose austerity on the people when we really need much more public spending to employ the masses of people who are falling, falling, falling further behind. Well, truth is austerity is not […]

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    1.4 BILLION PEOPLE IN THE WORLD MAKE $1.25 A DAY.    That is a fact. That is a moral scandal.    Yesterday, I was at the United Nations for the unveiling of an important, if a bit boringly titled, "Social Protection Floor for a Fair and Inclusive Globalization". You should read this report but […]

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    Keep our eye on the ball. I’m sure the Waltons are doing a great dance over in Bentonville, Arkansas in light of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling blocking a class-action suit against the companythat, had it been successful, would have likely cost the company billions of dollars in damages. But, let’s be clear: Wal-Mart […]

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    Meanwhile, as we are subjected to the foolish efforts by Democrats to cut pensions for workers, over in Geneva there is some serious talk about the social crisis underway worldwide. Via the meeting of the International Labor Organization, thousands of people from around the world are talking about the grand crisis ripping throughout the […]

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