Wal-Mart: Always High Costs...Always
According to a report authored by the staff of the House Committee on Education and Workforce, because of Wal-Mart's low wages, any one of its employees might be forced to seek public assistance estimated at $2,103 to the US taxpayers for health care and other assistance. With approximately 1.3 million US employees and growing, this amounts to a total of $2.7 billion a year.
Labor in the Era of Globalization
Up until the early 1990’s the socialist camp including the Soviet Union acted somewhat as a brake on imperialism and on capitalist globalization. In addition to checking military domination and adventures, as trading partners the socialist bloc also provided the means for many developing countries to resist and/or minimize unfair trade and the penetration of foreign capital.
AFL-CIO Convention Calls for Troop Withdrawal
At its 25th Constitutional Convention, the AFL-CIO voted to adopt a resolution supporting 'the brave men and women deployed in Iraq.' The resolution states that US service men and women, which include AFL-CIO members and who mainly come from working families, risk their lives and deserve real leadership.
Union Members Hit Harder By Job Loss Numbers
Although high ongoing unemployment in a number of industries has depleted union membership and pushed the unionization rate down to record lows, job losses in heavily unionized sectors do not account for the decline in union membership since the 2001 recession.
Time to Legally Protect Card-Check
The freedom to join a union is a basic right guaranteed under the law. But as two new reports show, the main process whereby workers can choose union representation — NLRB-certified elections — stacks the odds unfairly in favor of employers waging aggressive anti-union campaigns.
Temp Workers Are New Frontiers in Labor Flexibility
Economic recovery means many things. One thing can be more hiring opportunities for temporary employees in the U.S. In the current phase of the business cycle, American employers are increasing their hiring of temporary workers, slowly. The demand for such employment had dropped in the recession of 2001 that followed the stock market slide.
Shellacked! The Crushing of the NHL Players Association
Not since Ronald Reagan gutted the PATCO Air Traffic Controllers has a union suffered such a high profile thrashing. After the longest labor lockout in the history of pro-sports, the National Hockey League Players Association now resembles John Ashcroft after 12 rounds with Eddie Mustafa Muhammad.
AFL-CIO:Work in Progress
[The following news items are summaries of weekly events that workers need to know. Unity is the Key.] Vermont Gov. James Douglas (R) has said he will sign a measure raising the state’s minimum wage to $7.25 an hour—a 25-cent boost—effective Jan. 1. At the federal level, congressional Republicans have blocked several attempts to raise the minimum wage, which has been frozen at $5.15 an hour since 1997.
The Costco Challenge: An Alternative to Wal-Martization?
To workers and union leaders, it is a familiar refrain. These days, the story goes, consumers demand low prices, meaning goods must be produced and sold cheaply — and retail wages must be kept as low as possible. Companies like Wal-Mart insist they’re feeling the squeeze and must pay workers poverty wages — even while netting $10.5 billion in annual profits and awarding millions to top executives
UAW Members Win, and Pledge to Fight to Protect Contracts
Last week the United Auto Workers (UAW) union announced a major victory for Thomas Built Bus workers in High Point, North Carolina. The workers voted by a large majority of 58% to join the UAW in an election supervised by the National Labor relations Board (NLRB), the federal regulatory body that oversees union matters.
