Subjects Archives: Labor

  • South African Public Sector Strike Highlights Society’s Contradictions

    The two major civil service unions on strike against the South African government vow to intensify pressure in coming days, in a struggle pitting a million members of the middle and lower ranks of society against a confident government leadership fresh from hosting the World Cup. Along with smaller public sector unions, teachers from the […]

  • Hormel Strike a Key Event in Nation’s Labor History

    From the late summer of 1985 into the early spring of 1986, the small town of Austin, Minnesota, figured prominently in the national news.  The dramatic themes and issues, twists and turns, of a labor conflict there captured the national imagination.  This interest was not merely passive, as more than thirty support committees formed across […]

  • Hard Work?  Patterns in Physically Demanding Labor among Older Workers

    Introduction: Legislators have recently expressed support for raising the normal retirement age (NRA) to as high as 70.  Under current law, the normal retirement age — the age at which full retirement benefits are payable — is already scheduled to increase from 66 to 67 in two-month increments from 2017 to 2022.  The current law […]

  • Rebuilding a Demolished Palestinian Home

      Day One of the ICAHD Work Camp, July 19, 2010 Rubble covers the tile floor at the site of the demolished home we are beginning to rebuild in the East Jerusalem section of Anata, a Palestinian town divided between occupied “East” Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.  Activists from the United States, Britain, Germany, […]

  • The Urgent Need for Job Creation

      Excerpt: Between December 2007 — the official first month of the recession — and December 2009, the U.S. economy lost more than eight million jobs.  Even if the economy creates jobs from now on at a pace equal to the fastest four years of the early 2000s expansion, we will not return to the […]

  • Exploiting “Crisis” to Crush Labor

    One thing should be made clear about the situation in the Eurozone economies that is not clear at all if we rely on most of the news reports.  This is not a situation where countries face a “dilemma” because they have overspent and piled up too much public debt.  They do not face “tough choices” […]

  • Labor Talks Sense About Immigration.  What Comes Next?

    Something unusual happened on June 18: an important figure on the U.S. political scene spoke sensibly and realistically about immigration. The occasion was a speech at the City Club of Cleveland, and the speaker was AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka.  The news wasn’t that labor was backing a rational, equitable reform of U.S. immigration laws; the […]

  • US Economy: Decline in Labor Force Leads to Drop in Unemployment

    The Labor Department reported that 652,000 people left the labor force in June, causing the unemployment rate to edge down to 9.5 percent, even as the number of employed reportedly dropped by 301,000.  The establishment survey showed a gain of 100,000 jobs, excluding the 225,000 Census workers who lost their jobs in June.  The establishment […]

  • Labor Market Flexibility

    Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain.  This cartoon was published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 23 June 2010.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). | Print

  • Do Not Renew POSCO MoU

      To: Mr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India; Mr. Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Orissa; Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests; Ms. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of the National Advisory Council We write to express our concern at several violations of legal process in the approval of the POSCO […]

  • Protesters Block Israeli Cargo Ship in Oakland, California

      In Oakland, California, an Israeli ship was blocked by protesters for the first time in history.  700-1,000 protesters blocked three different gates at 5:30 A.M. keeping dockworkers from unloading the Israeli cargo.  ILWU members refused to cross picketline — citing “health & safety” provisions of their contract.  Management demanded “instant arbitration.”  The arbitrator took […]

  • Regarding New York Times Labor Coverage

    To: Business Editor The New York Times I appreciate your detailed reporting on Chinese unions and workers vs. Japanese employers, but I write to ask whether that use of your resources is the cause of your ignoring similar union stories here at home. For example, I can find no coverage in the Times of the […]

  • India and Pakistan: Labor, Democratization, and Development

      Christopher Candland.  Labor, Democratization and Development in India and Pakistan.  London: Routledge, 2007.  216 pages. This book, by Christopher Candland, sets out to provide a documented analytical and empirical study of the linkages between organized labor, development, and democratization in India and Pakistan from the colonial period till date.  It attempts to explain why […]

  • Michał Kalecki

    Political Aspects of Full Employment

    This essay was first published in Political Quarterly in 1943; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. A shorter version of this essay was published in The Last Phase in the Transformation of Capitalism (Monthly Review Press, 1972). I 1. A solid majority of economists is now of the opinion that, even in a […]

  • 75 Years of UAW — and Where Are We?

      This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the UAW in May 1935.  In December 1936, UAW members seized GM’s Flint plants in a sit-down strike and held on for 44 days to force GM to recognize their union.  The victory set off a wave of organizing across the Midwest.  For decades […]

  • Public-Sector Unions

      In an age where only 7.2 percent of private-sector workers in the United States belong to unions, it may come as a surprise that 37.4 percent of all public-sector (i.e. government) workers are unionized.  Put another way, there are more public-sector workers in unions (7.9 million) than in the private-sector (7.4 million), despite the […]

  • Don’t Get Caught in a Bad Hotel

      A flashmob infiltrates the Westin St. Francis hotel in San Francisco and performs an adaptation of Lady Gaga’s song “Bad Romance.”  The event was organized to draw attention to a boycott called by the workers of the hotel who are fighting to win a fair contract and affordable healthcare.  Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and […]

  • Bolivia: President’s Chief of Staff Vouches That There Is No General Strike in Country and Asks COB to Make Sensible Decisions

    La Paz, 10 May — The President’s Chief of Staff, Óscar Coca, said on Monday that no general strike is happening in Bolivia, referring to the indefinite general strike called by the Bolivian Workers’ Center (COB), and asked the leaders of this trade union organization to make sensible decisions on their demands.

  • Unemployment Rises to 9.9 Percent, Driven by Jump in Labor Force Participation

    Nominal wage growth has averaged just 1.1 percent over the last quarter. The Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent in April as 805,000 people entered the labor force.  Even with the economy generating 290,000 new jobs according to the establishment survey, this was not sufficient to keep the unemployment rate […]

  • No Crisis in Public Retirement Systems: Debunking the Hype and the Attacks on Employee Benefits

      For years, right-wing groups have been beating the drums to roll back decent pensions and retirement benefits for American workers.  At the federal level, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, ranking member on the U.S. House Budget Committee, proposed a “Road Map” plan to privatize social security, cut payments, and slash Medicare benefits for all seniors. […]