NewsTrust - Labor - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Taking Back May Day: What to Expect on the Nationwide Day of Rallies, Strikes and Actions

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Sarah Jaffe - Apr. 30 (Opinion) - Long celebrated as International Workers' Day, long forgotten in the United States and replaced with the defanged Labor Day, May Day is once again shaping up to be a national day of action for the “99 percent,” thanks to the Occupy movement.

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What May Day means to me

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

greenleft.org.au - By Noam Chomsky - Apr. 30 (Opinion) - May Day started here, but then became an international day in support of American workers who were being subjected to brutal violence and judicial punishment. Today, the struggle continues to celebrate May Day not as a “law day” as defined by political leaders, but as a day whose meaning is decided by the people, a day rooted in organising and working for a better future for the whole of society.

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NYC Needs Paid Sick Days, Not Lame Excuses - City Conversations - CityLimits.org

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

City Limits - Apr. 03 (Opinion) -

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Horizontal Meets Vertical: 3 Ways Occupy, Community Groups and Unions Can Work Together to Change Society | | AlterNet

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Stephen Lerner - Mar. 21 (Opinion) - Occupy has cracked open the door that lets us imagine that another world is possible. Thousands of arrests, months of protest and acts of incredible personal risk and sacrifice have put inequality and Wall Street’s out-of-control political and economic power on center stage. As activity ratchets up this spring, the challenge is to get more people pushing that door open ever wider.

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Green Politics

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Green Party Newsletter - Mar. 09 (Opinion) - The article on the Riverview Gardens School District in St. Louis, along with the discussion of recent events in Wisconsin, form a pattern on how public employees are scapegoats for the ills of the present economic system. Unions are notably pressured to give up more of workers' benefits and rights. This is discussed in the interview with Paul Pechter, where he feared that the attacks on unions would be successful, and lamented the failed strategy and tactics of the unions in the past.

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"Worker-Owners of America, Unite": Will Cooperative Workplaces Democratize U.S. Economy?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 15 (Interview) - As the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to protest record levels of wealth and income inequality, we turn to an author who says the U.S. economy might be becoming more democratic. Gar Alperovitz argues in an op-ed in today’s New York Times that we may be in the midst of a profound transition toward an economy characterized by more democratic structures of ownership. Alperovitz finds that 130 million Americans are members of some kind of cooperative, and 13 million Americans work in an employee-owned company. He says the United States may be heading toward something very different from both corporate-dominated capitalism and from traditional socialism. "I think we’re seeing a change in attitude, both increasing doubts about what’s now going on in the economy, deep doubts, very deep doubts—thanks to Occupation, it’s crystallized—but this other trend of saying, 'What do you want? Where are we going?' in some ways to democratize the economy in a very American way,"

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Labor Leaders Call for Review of Decision to Host 2012 U.N. Climate Talks in Qatar

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 06 (Interview) - The International Trade Union Confederation is condemning the decision by the United Nations to hold next year’s climate change conference in Qatar, a Gulf nation known for its restrictive labor laws. Migrant workers comprise 87 percent of Qatar’s workforce — none of them are allowed to form or join labor unions. Democracy Now! spoke with Sharan Burrow, head of the International Trade Union Confederation, yesterday. “We’re asking for a review. Clearly, the world should think twice about going to Qatar. It shouldn’t have just been a, you know, process decision,” Burrow says. “If there is no review, then we will organize clearly to expose the absolute abuse of human and labor rights by the Qatari authorities.”

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Beyond the Limits of Neoliberal Higher Education: Global Youth Resistance and the American/British Divide

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Henry A. Giroux - Nov. 09 (Opinion) - The global reach and destructiveness of neoliberal values and disciplinary controls are not only evident in the widespread hardships and human suffering caused by the economic recession of 2008, they are also visible in the ongoing and ruthless assault on the social state, workers, unions, higher education, students, and any vestige of the social at odds with neoliberal values. Under the regime of market fundamentalism, institutions that were meant to limit human suffering and misfortune and protect the public from the excesses of the market have been either weakened or abolished, as are many of those public spheres where private troubles can be understood as social problems and addressed as such.

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Occupy Wall Street: A historical perspective - Occupy Wall Street

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - Oct. 09 (Opinion) -

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The results are in: ‘Free trade’ is simply bad public policy

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

thestand.org - By Stan Sorscher - Oct. 08 (Opinion) - Free trade makes sense to market ideologues and it works sensationally well for the top 1% in each country, at least in the short term. Free trade is bad for workers, bad for communities, bad for long-term prosperity, and bad public policy.

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Can Big Companies Pick Which Laws to Obey?

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Stan Sorscher - Aug. 12 (Opinion) - Citizens are expected to obey laws, and we all get nervous when laws are ignored or swept aside, particularly at the insistence of someone who is wealthy or powerful. We are witnessing a case in point, in the recent investigation by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which charges that Boeing threatened and intimidated its unionized workers in Washington State. The intimidation and punishment are well documented. Boeing executives repeatedly threatened to move assembly work for the new 787 airplane from Washington State to South Carolina, pointing to strikes over the years by the Machinists' union. In labor law, this is a textbook example of "runaway shop." It is illegal.

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The Fight over Coal Mining is a “Fight About Democracy”: New Documentary with Robert Kennedy, Jr. Chronicles Campaign to Halt Mountaintop Removal

Mon, 23 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Amy Goodman - May. 23 (Interview) - We speak with environmental activist Robert Kennedy, Jr., and filmmaker Bill Haney about the new documentary, _The Last Mountain_, which premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film chronicles the fight against coal mining across Appalachia and Massey Energy’s devastating practice of mountaintop removal to extract layers of coal. "They have to break the law to do this. They cannot survive in the marketplace without violating the law. They violate labor laws. They violate health and safety laws. And by their own records, they've had some 67,000 violations of just one of the environmental statutes," says Kennedy of the coal giant that has tremendous political influence at the state and federal level. “It’s not just about the environmental destruction, it’s also about subverting democracy.” [includes rush transcript]

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A Labor Strike Against Economic Reality

Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Reason Magazine - By Steve Chapman, Reason - May. 16 (Opinion) - Strikes are an expensive luxury. The last one, which went on for nearly two months, was estimated to cost Boeing more than $2 billion. "Based on previous strike experience," reported The Seattle Times, "Boeing will not recoup that money for many years."

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Harkin Floor Statement on Attacks on National Labor Relations Board

Wed, 11 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

senate.gov - By Tom Harkin - May. 11 (Statement) - Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, spoke on the Senate floor to address recent attacks on the National Labor Relations Board regarding its handling of a complaint against Boeing.

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America’s Middle Class Crisis: The Sobering Facts

Mon, 09 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

finance.yahoo.com - By Peter Gorenstein, Sherle Schwenninger - May. 09 (Interview) - Two recessions, a couple of market crashes, and stubbornly high unemployment are all wreaking havoc on America's middle class. In the accompanying interview, The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task discusses the state of the middle class with Sherle Schwenninger, director of economic growth and American strategy programs at the New America Foundation.

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The International Assault on Labor

Thu, 05 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Noam Chomsky - May. 05 (Opinion) - The ferocity of the assault against labor by the U.S. business class is illustrated by Washington’s failure, for 60 years, to ratify the core principle of international labor law, which guarantees freedom of association. Legal analyst Steve Charnovitz calls it “the untouchable treaty in American politics” and observes that there has never even been any debate about the matter. Washington’s dismissal of some conventions supported by the International Labor Organization (ILO) contrasts sharply with its dedication to enforcement of monopoly-pricing rights for corporations, disguised under the mantle of “free trade” in one of the contemporary Orwellisms.

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May Day Rallies Celebrate Unity; Labor Unions and Immigrants Plan To March Side By Side

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Clarence Thomas, Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez - Apr. 29 (Interview) - The May Day rallies set to take place this Sunday follow massive pro-labor protests in Wisconsin to protect collective bargaining rights of public workers. Since 2006, when more than million people marched across the United States against a harsh anti-immigrant bill, May Day has also become a key date of protests by immigrant rights groups. This year, labor and immigrant activists will march together in a move organizers say symbolizes their decision to join forces. We speak with Clarence Thomas of the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union Local 10, which shut down the ports of Oakland and San Francisco on April 4, in solidarity with workers in Wisconsin. We're also joined from Milkwalkee by Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera, a key organizer behind 2006’s 70,000-strong march in Milwaukee.

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Sensen No Sen: Gilded Age v2.0

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

sensen-no-sen.blogspot.com - By Pbi - Apr. 29 (Opinion) - The latest in a string of Supreme Court decisions favoring corporations over individuals is just one more piece of a concerted, sustained effort to return America to the excesses of the Gilded Age.

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The American Dream As We Know It Is Obsolete

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Arun Gupta - Apr. 09 (Opinion) - No doubt this right-wing ideology is warmed-over Social Darwinism, hypocritical and would lead right back to the savage boom-and-bust cycles of the Robber Baron era and Dickensian England. (The Tea Party is generally quiet on the subject of the mortgage-interest deduction for homeowners that will cost the government an estimated $131 billion in 2012.) Nonetheless, the tens of millions of Americans embrace individualism are a very real force that is flexing its political muscle right now.

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Nobel Economist Joseph Stiglitz: Assault on Social Spending, Pro-Rich Tax Cuts Turning U.S. Into Nation "Of the 1 Percent, by the 1 Percent, for the 1 Percent"

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Joseph Stiglitz, Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez - Apr. 07 (Interview) - This week Republicans unveiled a budget proposal for 2012 that cuts more than $5.8 trillion in government spending over the next decade. The plan calls for sweeping changes to Medicaid and Medicare, while reducing the top corporate and individual tax rates to 25 percent. We speak to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who addresses the growing class divide taking place in the United States and inequality in a new _Vanity Fair_ article titled, "Of the 1 percent, by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent." Stiglitz is a professor at Columbia University and author of numerous books, most recently _Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy._ "It is not just that the people at the top are getting richer, Stiglitz says. "Actually, they are gaining and everyone else is decreasing... Right now, we are worse than old Europe."

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Reading the Wisconsin Tea Leaves

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By RealClearPolitics - Apr. 07 (Opinion) - As of this writing, conservative Supreme Court Justice David Prosser is trailing his liberal challenger JoAnne Kloppenberg by about 200 votes. There will probably be a recount, and it is conceivable, though highly unlikely, that it could reverse the outcome.

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Who Says It's Not About Destroying Unions?

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Stanley Kutler - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - Yet where and when have any candidates for public office declared and advocated such hostility and promised to destroy unions? Neither Wisconsin's Gov. Scott Walker nor his dutiful followers in the Legislature ever, ever openly called for the actions they are now taking. Theirs was a stealth campaign, one of calculated deceit.

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Wisconsin Protests:Tony Schultz, Speaks up for farmers, March 12, 2011

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

YouTube - By Tony Schultz - Apr. 01 (Speech) - (video)

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Obama's Fatal Addiction

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Scheer - Mar. 31 (Opinion) - If it had been revealed that Jeffrey Immelt once hired an undocumented nanny, or defaulted on his mortgage, he would be forced to resign as head of President Barack Obama’s “Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.” But the fact that General Electric, where Immelt is CEO, didn’t pay taxes on its $14.5 billion profit last year—and indeed is asking for a $3.2 billion tax rebate—has not produced a word of criticism from the president, who in January praised Immelt as a business leader who “understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy.”

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Michael Moore, Stephen Colbert: Union Busting!

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Colbert - Mar. 31 (Interview) - Michael Moore: 'Unions are our last line of defense, and they've got to break down that last line so they can get to the point where it's not that the top four hundred wealthy individuals have more than $150 million - they want it to be more than $200 million, $250 million. They want the whole pie.' Interview with Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report

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