by Seth Michaels, Mar 19, 2008 Some three-quarters of the American public say we’re in a recession—and by now, most economists agree. Economic inequality is greater than it’s been in generations and wages are declining after years of stagnation. The middle class is getting squeezed out of existence. As labor and civil rights […]
Workers Win Union with ILWU Despite Rite Aid Anti-Union Drive
by James Parks, Mar 18, 2008 The nearly 700 workers at Rite Aid’s distribution center in Lancaster, Calif., overcame a vicious two-year anti-union campaign to gain a voice on the job after voting for International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 26 last week. The workers began seeking a union in 2006 to put an […]
Sick in America? You’re on Your Own
Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), knows what ails the nation’s sick health care system. The AFL-CIO Executive Council member says Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s health proposals don’t even come close to a cure. In this crosspost from Huffington Post, DeMoro dissects McCain’s health care […]
Greedy Troglodytes Attack Teachers
by Tula Connell, Mar 14, 2008 What is it about teachers that reactionaries don’t like? Maybe it’s because an educated electorate poses a threat to those who seek to control the public—”Danger: Educated Union Member” is one of our favorite phrases—and so teachers pose an easy target for the antediluvians among us. (Remember John Stossel’s […]
McCain Stiffs U.S. Workers, Helps Europeans Win Air Tanker Deal
by James Parks, Mar 12, 2008 At a time when American jobs are disappearing and our manufacturing base is being decimated, working people are outraged that Republican presidential nominee John McCain played a key role in the Bush Defense Department’s decision to award one of our largest military contracts to a foreign company. Had Boeing […]
New Abolitionists Fight Slavery in Tomato Fields
by James Parks, Mar 13, 2008 The slave trade in the United States was banned 200 years ago, but in the tomato fields of south Florida, modern-day slavery still thrives. Farm workers who pick tomatoes for the fast-food industry are among this country’s most exploited workers. They sometimes are held against their will, beaten and forced […]