Working Life

   We can, and will, have differences with the president and his Administration on issues, particularly on the shaping of economic policy (single-payer, Mr. President). But, it’s nice to see that we at least have a leader who understands what a picket line is: Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. and other top Obama administration […]

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  Yesterday, I was on CNBC’s Closing Bell to debate the absurd notion that public employees are the people to blame for state government budget problems. But, what was most interesting about the debate with CNBC’s anchor Maria Bartiromo is how she became speechless–and that ain’t no easy feat–when I challenged her about class warfare. […]

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   You can decide for yourself why you think David Paterson did this (for true love of unions or a brazenly political move…or both) but it is still a good thing: Gov. David A. Paterson has issued an order making it easier for labor unions to organize thousands of workers at some of New York’s […]

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   Enough. Now that she has thrown another obstacle in the path of the Employee Free Choice Act, Blanche Lincoln must face a well-funded primary opponent in 2010. And it’s got to be the labor movement that recruits and funds that candidate–or the rhetoric about how important the Employee Free Choice Act is will be […]

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   Henry Ford used to say that he wanted his workers to have enough money to buy his cars. Our current business leaders seem to have forgotten that simple economic idea. That is why, for their own self-interest, business, and their Republican allies in Congress, should embrace broad unionization.   The sound you just heard […]

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  I suspect we are going to be distracted by an emerging debate between Congressional Democrats and The White House on how to handle the CEO pay caps written into the economic stimulus bill. This is a distraction because, in all honesty, the pay caps aren’t real.   Today, there is this news in The […]

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The Republicans, and Judd Gregg in particular, have handed the president a golden chance to make lemonade out of lemons. To do so, he has to enact some real change: put a progressive economist or political leader in charge of the renamed Department of Prosperity (formerly known as the Department of Commerce). Follow the argument […]

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I’m all for a little rhetoric and bashing CEOs who, as a class, have lined their pockets while pillaging the country. But, if the point is to stop the legal looting of corporate treasuries and leave some money in the till for regular workers, when you get right down to it, the CEO pay caps […]

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Every day, there is another example of the conspiracy of silence that pervades the traditional media’s description of the current economic crisis. Sure, de-regulation, greed and pure stupidity has a lot to do with it. But, in truth, the underlying reason for the collapse has been a persistent war on the wages of American workers. […]

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Jay Gould, the robber baron of the 19th Century, famously said that, "I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half." As we live through one of the worst economic collapses in a century, Gould’s wish is coming true. And we must stop Gould’s modern-day robber barons from sowing seeds […]

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