NewsTrust - Labor - Most Recent Stories

Unrest mounts as China mine death rises

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Manila Times - Nov. 23 (News Report) - Relatives of victims angrily demanded answers Monday as hopes of finding more survivors after China’s worst mining disaster for two years took a blow with the death toll rising to 104. Rescuers recovered 12 more bodies, a spokesman for the mine in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province said, leaving four miners still unaccounted for after the weekend blast.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

State Democrats facing revolt by labor

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Andrew Garber - Nov. 14 (News Report) - The Washington State Labor Council, the Service Employees International Union and unions representing teachers and state workers have either stopped or sharply reduced donations to Democratic caucus political-action committees that back candidates for the state House and Senate.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Anti-Statism In America

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By John B. Judis - Nov. 11 (News Analysis) - Liberals and progressives have fared poorly in the face of this staunch anti-statist tradition, but there have still been periods when they have broken through and enacted major reforms--during Woodrow Wilson’s first term, Franklin Roosevelt’s first term, Lyndon Johnson’s first two years, and Richard Nixon’s first term. They succeeded for different reasons at different times, but several conditions recur.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

SPEEA: Boeing's decision to add second line in S.C. bad for everyone

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Times - By Ray Goforth - Nov. 03 (Opinion) - Boeing's decision to add a second line in South Carolina is bad for the company and employees and eventually will be bad for shareholders. Better to focus on fixing 787 production problems.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Calderon Tries to Turn Out the Lights on Mexico's Unions

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Michael E. Miller - Oct. 16 (News Report) - Every Monday morning for the last 23 years, Ernesto arrived at Luz y Fuerza del Centro, Mexico City's power and light company, ready to work. This Monday, however, he arrived ready to protest.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Dick Gephardt's Fall: How a Progressive Stalwart Turned into a Spectacular Political Sellout

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Sebastian Jones - Oct. 15 (Opinion) - In a town where everyone seemingly has a price, Gephardt has distinguished himself, selling his reputation as a pro-labor, pro-universal healthcare, pro-environment expert and advocate to his new corporate masters, giving their efforts to kill and maim reforms a familiar, friendly face in the Democratic establishment. As a result, Gephardt has become a highly sought-after and very effective lobbyist. He has also betrayed nearly every principle he once claimed to hold.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Stocked Exchange

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Oct. 06 (Opinion) - Ten years from now, if health care reform is a boondoggle, you might be able to trace that failure back to a decision in the wee hours of last week's Senate Finance Committee hearings. It happened on Thursday night, just before midnight, when John Kerry put forward an amendment. It was amendment C-8: "Empowering State Exchanges to be Prudent Purchasers." The title may sound innocuous, if a bit arcane. But if you've followed the health care reform debate, then you know (or should know) that anything involving the insurance exchanges is important.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Obama: Health Plan Will Boost Economy - WSJ.com

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Oct. 04 (News Analysis) - Obama used his weekly radio address to tout a health-insurance overhaul making its way through Congress, calling it a critical step toward reducing the nation's deficit and boosting an ailing economy.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Paul Ingrassia: Saturn Couldn't Escape GM's Dysfunctional Orbit

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Oct. 03 (Opinion) - Union leaders hated the flexible work rules and eventually got rid of them.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Real "Norma Rae" Dies of Cancer After Insurer Delayed Treatment

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Sue Sturgis - Sep. 16 (News Report) - The North Carolina union organizer who was the inspiration for the movie "Norma Rae" died on Friday of brain cancer after a battle with her insurance company, which delayed her treatment. She was 68.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Progressives shouldn't confuse a party with a movement

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By David Sirota - Sep. 08 (Opinion) - Though the 2006 and 2008 elections were billed as progressive movement successes, the story behind them highlights a longer-term failure. During those contests, most leaders of Washington's major labor, environmental, antiwar and anti-poverty groups spent millions of dollars on a party endeavor — specifically, on electing a Democratic president and Democratic Congress. In the process, many groups subverted their own movement agendas in the name of electoral unity.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.3 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

On Labor Day, support for unions plunges to all-time low

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Examiner.com - By Byron York - Sep. 07 (News Report) - Before this year, American support for unions had remained remarkably stable for nearly four decades. In August 2001, in the first months of George W. Bush's presidency, Gallup's results for the same question were 60 percent approve, 32 percent disapprove. In August 1997, in Bill Clinton's second term, they were 60-31. In 1985, during Ronald Reagan's presidency, the figures were 58-27. In 1978, during Jimmy Carter's time in the White House, they were 59-31. And in 1972, during Richard Nixon's, they were 60-27.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.3 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Where have All the broad Shoulders Gone? Or, Labor Day in a Kleptocracy

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Sep. 07 (Opinion) - Now Americans have convinced themselves that we don't have a working class. Everybody is middle class, even those who make minimum wage in the fast food industry, or those who are kept as part-timers so that the store (I'm looking at you, Walmart) doesn't have to enroll them in a health care program. The closest we get to celebrating the workers who built this country is when we talk about "working families," an odd locution, since aside from the idle rich who defrauded the country into bankruptcy last fall, wouldn't that be everyone?

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Tom Woodruff: A New Workforce Model for A New American Economy

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Tom Woodruff - Sep. 07 (Opinion) - For many Americans, Labor Day has become better known as a holiday to mark the end of summer rather than a celebration of the many contributions workers have made to our society - from the weekend, to safer jobs, to paid vacations and health care.

NewsTrust Rating: Not rated yet - See Info » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Party Is Such Sweet Sorrow

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Sep. 04 (News Analysis) - During the past year, Republicans have frequently said they want to work with Democrats. But the real story of the last few months is how unserious those pledges turned out to be. Although you wouldn’t know it from their rhetoric or the media coverage, there are not one but two ostensibly bipartisan proposals out there right now. Either of them could be the template for successful reform if even a few Republicans started pushing them seriously. But, even the ostensibly reasonable Republican senators whom Democrats have tried to engage--Mike Enzi, Charles Grassley, and Hatch--just aren’t interested. And it appears they haven’t been for a while.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.2 average - 7 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Time for Boeing to get back to the basics of experience and performance

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Stan Sorscher - Sep. 02 (Opinion) - Boeing is considering a second 787 line in South Carolina, which would take the company further down a path that is not working. Guest columnist Stan Sorscher, SPEEA's legislative director, urges Boeing to get back to basics where performance and experience matter.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Courtship

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Gabriel Sherman - Aug. 31 (Special Report) - In the spring of 2005, New York Times columnist David Brooks arrived at then-Senator Barack Obama’s office for a chat. Brooks, a conservative writer who joined the Times in 2003 from The Weekly Standard, had never met Obama before. But, as they chewed over the finer points of Edmund Burke, it didn’t take long for the two men to click. “I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging,” Brooks recently told me, “but usually when I talk to senators, while they may know a policy area better than me, they generally don’t know political philosophy better than me. I got the sense he knew both better than me.”

NewsTrust Rating: 3.1 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

There Are More Slaves Today Than at Any Time in Human History

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Terrence McNally - Aug. 25 (Special Report) - One hundred forty-three years after passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and 60 years after Article 4 of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights banned slavery and the slave trade worldwide, there are more slaves than at any time in human history -- 27 million. Today’s slavery focuses on big profits and cheap lives. It is not about owning people like before, but about using them as completely disposable tools for making money.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

"One Nation, Two Economies"

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Max Fraad Wolff - Aug. 25 (Opinion) - President Obama is nominating Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke to a second term today because of his attempts to combat the financial crisis and the recession. Last week, Bernanke gave his most positive assessment of the economy yet, saying, “the prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good.” We speak with economist Max Fraad Wolff, who cuts through the numbers to expose the deepening long-term inequality in the United States.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Labor Warns Dems: We'll Sit Out Election If You Oppose Public Plan

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Sam Stein - Aug. 18 (News Report) - "We'll look at every one of their votes," Trumka said after his speech at the Netroots Nation convention. "If they're against the Employee Free Choice Act, if they're against health care for that reason, I think it'll be tough for them to get support from working people."

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

HeraldNet: Boeing enjoys profitable model here in Puget Sound

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

HeraldNet - By John Burbank - Aug. 05 (Opinion) - This is now Boeing’s dilemma, because that model of employer-union cooperation has yielded the company and its shareholders great profits. If the company sees a union-free environment as its No. 1 objective, then it has to leave behind the talent and the workers who helped to create the sweet spot for Boeing profits. That’s a heavy price for an ideological agenda, a price that would be paid by Boeing, by its current employees, and by this great community here in Washington that Boeing has helped to build.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Can Obama be deprogrammed?

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By Michael Lind - Aug. 04 (Opinion) - Boy, do we need deprogrammers now, to liberate Barack Obama from the cult of neoliberalism. By neoliberalism I mean the ideology that replaced New Deal liberalism as the dominant force in the Democratic Party between the Carter and Clinton presidencies.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Working for Happiness

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Greater Good - By Alex Frankel - Aug. 02 (Opinion) - I started at UPS on Monday. I drove to the San Francisco UPS headquarters, a block-wide fortress of freight. A staffer from human resources took me to get a uniform and pointed me toward the locker room. I changed out of my street clothes and into the brown outfit. I had the locker room to myself; after buttoning up my shirt I took a second to stare into the mirror. As I changed into this new brown uniform, I was changing my attitude. I was becoming one of them. For a decade I had worked as a journalist, covering business and the rise of branding. But by that fateful morning, I'd decided to leave my desk behind and dive deeper into a subject that had long intrigued me: the role of corporate cultures in large companies. In what became a two-year adventure through the world of commerce, I served as a driver's assistant at UPS, poured coffee at a busy Starbucks cafe, folded garments at Gap, rented cars for Enterprise, and sold iPods at an Apple Store.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Health complaints linked to former NASA site in Downey

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Richard Verrier - Aug. 02 (Investigative Report) - A toxic cleanup paved the way for Downey Studios. But people who worked on films there say they developed conditions from which they haven't recovered. The source of their problems remains a mystery.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Geithner Says Unemployment May Peak in Second Half of 2010

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Bloomberg - By Steve Matthews, Sue Decker - Aug. 02 (News Report) - The U.S. unemployment rate may not peak until the second half of 2010, possibly necessitating another extension in unemployment benefits, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said. “I think that is something that the administration and Congress are going to look very carefully at as we get closer to the end of this year,” Geithner said in an interview today on ABC’s “This Week” program. The U.S. economy contracted at a better-than-forecast 1 percent annual pace in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported July 31. Stabilization of housing markets and consumer spending, a lessening of financial turmoil and increased government spending all suggest the longest recession since the 1930s may be close to ending.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer