Organize! Many Employers Are Just Using the Recession to Stick it to Workers

Whatever the truth is about where this economy is heading, one thing is clear: employers are taking every opportunity to slash employment and, if they are unionized, to hammer unions for pay cuts, even when there is no justification for these actions.

Obama Will Get No Warning When The People's Response to This Crisis Comes

On Friday, the day Congress passed the stimulus bill, more than 250 people arrived at the Holiday Inn in Somerset for a careers fair. There are scenes like this all over the country. In San Francisco last week, queues for a similar fair went out of the door and around the block. In Miami last month, a thousand people waited in line, some overnight, for just 35 firefighter jobs.

Enough Is Enough: Confirm Hilda Solis Now

Almost two months have gone by since President Obama nominated Rep. Hilda Solis for Secretary of Labor.

But some Senate Republicans are playing petty politics, holding up her confirmation. It looks like a cynical and misguided attempt to score points at the expense of the new Democratic President and his cabinet nominee.

Hilda Solis's Hard Labor

Hilda Solis, President Obama's nominee to be secretary of labour, suddenly faces a battle in the US Senate. On the face of it, the story appears to be another case of an Obama appointee who has had trouble remembering to pay some taxes.

Save the Solis Nomination

Hilda Solis is not a "toxic asset" in the Obama administration's personnel portfolio.

Inequality Alive and Well in US

President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress face one overriding domestic challenge. Can they reverse a generation-long plunge toward economic inequality not seen since the Gilded Age?

Time to Plant Seeds

For those of us in Wisconsin, it's been a long cold winter already. The idea of only being halfway through seems daunting. I take solace in knowing gardeners and farmers are already at work planting seeds. Spring is inevitable even if the ice on the lake is a foot deep.

February 2 marks the halfway point between winter solstice and the vernal equinox. We're officially at midwinter.

Midwinter was traditionally a time to take stock of what's left in the larder. Is there enough to make it to spring?

Labor's Real Fight

By one measure, last Wednesday was that rarity of rarities for American labor: a good day. The measure was that of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which announced that union membership actually increased by 428,000 in 2008. After decades of decline, the uptick in union membership signaled that some unions, at least, have figured out how to organize, despite relentless employer opposition and toothless worker-protection laws.