Working Life

   Today, The Wall Street Journal had a story entitled "Unions Push Issues in State Capitals". The story told a tale of unions trying to move legislation that advances "card check" protections and similar measures that would make union organizing more fair.    What struck me were the last two paragraphs of the story: The […]

Read the full story

   I wanted to make sure folks saw this: Gunmen ambushed a peasant union leader and his family in northern Mexico, killing him and 14 others in an attack that bore the hallmarks of a hit by drug cartels but one that his organization said might have been related to his union work. The victims, […]

Read the full story

I want to try to make a subtle distinction here: between something that I’m glad is happening, on the one hand, and changes that fundamentally reshape economic power in the country, on the other hand. The first does not necessarily bring about the second. And it’s important, I would argue, for us to keep our […]

Read the full story

   The financial newspapers are buzzing with the news of a coalition of business leaders stepping forward to propose executive compensation limits. I think this is only a secondary issue. Don’t get me wrong–I think the greed that has swamped the country at the executive suite level is astonishing. And it should be dealt with. […]

Read the full story

   Yesterday, I participated in a debate on CNBC about whether unions helped the "middle class". The most comical and childish comment came from the fellow from the Cato Institute who called unions a “leukemia” on American society. I thought of this poor fellow this morning when I read this in The Wall Street Journal: […]

Read the full story

   i’ve been asked to debate that question today on CNBC–I will post the video later. But, why do we even debate this anymore? It’s entirely about ideology, not economic facts. Union workers make almost 25 percent more than non-union workers–the difference was actually wider not too long ago but I suspect that deep concessions […]

Read the full story

Today, the minimum wage rises to $7.25 an hour. We should all be glad that millions of people are going to get a bit more money in their pockets. But, this hike masks a very grim fact: the “recovery” is not going to happen anytime soon, if the measure we use for “recovery” is that […]

Read the full story

   I’ve always wanted to go out and do a week-long series on how the labor movement built the middle-class in Las Vegas–you know, the labor movement that part of the Democratic Party just sold out by eviscerating the Employee Free Choice Act. So, it was with a bit of trepidation that I began reading […]

Read the full story

The minimum wage is a scandal. It masks poverty. It must be dramatically raised.   On July 24th, the minimum wage will rise to $7.25 an hour. I applaud people who worked hard to pass the three-step hike. The new level will put some extra money in the pockets of millions of Americans and, modestly, […]

Read the full story

  One of the ugliest fights for worker justice has taken place in Tar Heel, North Carolina, which is about 80 miles south of Raleigh. For 17 years, thousands of workers, who labor under some pretty brutal conditions in the largest pork processing plant, have sought a modicum of justice and dignity. And they just […]

Read the full story