Labor
Abyss of Joblessness: The Economy Can't Improve Unless We Put People Back to Work
Thu, 07/02/2009 - 07:31 — Dave CulverEconomists are currently spreading the word that the recession may end sometime this year, but the unemployment rate will continue to climb. That’s not a recovery. That’s mumbo jumbo.
Bob Herbert, The New York Times
How do you put together a consumer economy that works when the consumers are out of work?
One of the great stories you’ll be hearing over the next couple of years will be about the large number of Americans who were forced out of work in this recession and remained unable to find gainful employment after the recession ended. We’re basically in denial about this.
There are now more than five unemployed workers for every job opening in the United States. The ranks of the poor are growing, welfare rolls are rising and young American men on a broad front are falling into an abyss of joblessness.
Some months ago, the Obama administration and various mainstream economists forecast a peak unemployment rate of roughly 8 percent this year. It has already reached 9.4 percent, and most analysts now expect it to hit 10 percent or higher. Economists are currently spreading the word that the recession may end sometime this year, but the unemployment rate will continue to climb. That’s not a recovery. That’s mumbo jumbo.
Related:
Krugman: US "Depressed Economy" Could Last 5 Years, Associated Press, Huffington Post
The United States may emerge from recession as early as this summer, though further job losses mean a "depressed economy" could last as long as five years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said Tuesday (May 19).
Ricci Decision: 5-4 Ruling In Favor Of Firefighters (Full decision text)
Wed, 07/01/2009 - 15:54 — Dave CulverThe ruling could alter employment practices nationwide, potentially limiting the circumstances in which employers can be held liable for decisions when there is no evidence of intentional discrimination against minorities.
The Supreme Court has ruled that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decisionthat high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.
New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday (June 29) in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.
The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide, potentially limiting the circumstances in which employers can be held liable for decisions when there is no evidence of intentional discrimination against minorities.
Judge denies GM salaried retirees' request for committee
Thu, 06/25/2009 - 14:54 — Dave CulverAs part of its restructuring plan, GM plans to continue to pay health care and life insurance benefits for its 122,000 salaried retirees and their surviving spouses, but those benefits are expected to be reduced and the retirees will be forced to shoulder a larger share of their health care costs.
Bree Fowler, Associated Press
A bankruptcy judge on Thursday (June 25) ruled that a group representing General Motors Corp.'s salaried retirees cannot form a formal committee to negotiate with the automaker as it attempts to reorganize under bankruptcy protection.
U.S. Judge Robert Gerber said that since GM had the right to modify or terminate the retirees' health care and life insurance benefits before it filed for bankruptcy protection, the retirees can't challenge the automaker's ability to do so now.
"While I do understand the importance of this to the retirees, I can't grant the retirees rights that they don't have outside of bankruptcy," Gerber said in issuing his ruling.
Related:
Judge allows GM financing, bankruptcy on track, Associated Press
A bankruptcy judge Thursday (June 25) authorized General Motors to tap into the second half of 30 billion dollars in government financing, keeping the rapid restructuring plan on track.
Why Wal-Mart Workers Need the Employee Free Choice Act
Mon, 06/22/2009 - 20:19 — Dave Culver- America’s largest private employer has systematically harassed and fired pro-union workers.
- The National Labor Relations Board eventually ruled that Wal-Mart had systematically spied upon numerous workers and fired key labor partisans.
Nelson Lichtenstein, In These Times
Wal-Mart workers and members of the community labor organization Warehouse Workers United protested outside a Wal-Mart warehouse and distribution facility in Fontana, Calif., on May 14, 2009. The protesters accused the retail giant of trying to prevent employees from forming unions. (Video of the protest can be watched here.)
Since liberal Democrats and their labor supporters introduced the Employee Free Choice Act into Congress earlier this year, opposition to the legislation has reached a fever pitch.
The main line of attack from corporations and business trade associations zeroes in on EFCA’s “card check” provision, which would give union advocates the option of avoiding a contentious and often employer-dominated National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election. The provision would allow a majority of workers in any given workplace to enroll in a union via a simple card-signing.
Auto Task Force Outsources Jobs
Mon, 06/22/2009 - 19:38 — Dave CulverObama’s recovery plan steers GM and Chrysler in the wrong direction. He has forfeited the opportunity to recast the current crisis into a fuel-efficient re-industrialization of America—right when the country needs the stimulus of high-wage green jobs the most.
Roger Bybee, In These Times
Members of Obama's Auto Task Force arrive at the White House April 30 for a news conference on Chrysler’s bankruptcy.
As rescue attempts go, the Obama administration and its Auto Task Force are pursuing a peculiar course: They seem intent on keeping General Motors and Chrysler afloat as corporate entities by tossing more U.S. workers overboard.
Even as unemployment rates soar in longtime GM-centered communities hit by shutdowns, such as Janesville, Wis. (14.7 percent), and Flint, Mich. (15.3 percent), Obama and his task force pressed GM and Chrysler for more cuts. GM plans to shut down at least 14 factories and discard some 21,000 workers. Chrysler is closing eight U.S. plants, though it claims that somehow its merger with Fiat will result in a new increase of 5,000 jobs. In a telling observation that carried unsettling echoes of Bill Clinton’s push for NAFTA, the New York Times called the job cuts and other worker sacrifices “steps that most analysts thought could never be pushed through by a Democratic president allied with organized labor.”