Working Life

   It will be a steep hill to climb but it’s good to read about this, via The Wall Street Journal: The United Food and Commercial Workers union is ramping up organizing at Wal Mart Stores Inc. after a five-year lull, dovetailing with its efforts to win support in Congress for a bill to make […]

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   I was inclined to give my own take on the newest Treasury plan to bail out banks but, not that that isn’t important, I thought this was more likely to get missed. Surprise, surprise, Wal-Mart is negotiating with the UFCW about an organizing issue. But, it isn’t what you think: Nine years after a […]

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  The Beast of Bentonville–aka Wal-Mart–is slowly, but surely, letting go of the argument "we’re innocent" of widespread lawbreaking. And this just in: it will settle 63 lawsuits for a cool $640 million.   From The New York Times: Wal-Mart Stores, the nation’s largest retailer, said Tuesday that it would pay up to $640 million […]

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   I’ve made the point over the past many months that the current financial crisis will be used–and has been used–as a cover to attack workers and, particularly unions. There is a struggle going on over two visions of society: a decent standard of living vs. a Wal-Mart standard of living. I made that point […]

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   It’s a typical refrain when it comes to health care or labor rights…"If we only live in Canada…" And there is a lot of truth to that–we would have a single-payer type health care system and it would be easier to organize unions. But, when it comes to the behavior of The Beast of […]

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   I suppose I try to live by the credo that anyone can change. Everyone deserves another shot (okay, I don’t include Dick Cheney or Henry Kissinger in that category–mass murderers can’t be redeemed). But, I approach this news with a bit of skepticism: At a gathering of more than 1,000 suppliers, Chinese officials and […]

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   For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been focusing a lot of observations about the financial mess–the Paulson bailout for bankers, the AIG bailout, the "The Audacity of Timidity: Where Is The Challenge to Market Fundamentalism"–but, to start off today, I wanted to turn us back to some real voices. And this comes courtesy […]

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   One of the great lies that Wal-Mart perpetrates on our national debate is that it is a paragon of the so-called "free market". In truth, Wal-Mart’s model of low wages and cheap prices could not survive without broad government support, not the least of which is health care.   You see, most Wal-Mart workers […]

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   Well, Wal-Mart has a union…but not in the U.S…across the border, and only because a judge imposed the union on the Beast. Shows you what a slightly better legal system can do for union organizing. Here’s what The Wall Street Journal has today: An arbitrator has imposed a contract on a Wal-Mart Canada auto […]

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   Where does a politician, or a political party, draw the line in the willingness to sacrifice principles for a few bucks? When we talk about the need to "change" the political environment and the culture of money and politics, isn’t there some place where you can say, "right here, this is the perfect example […]

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