Labor
Signs Your Boss Is Lying to You
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 08:17 — Dave CulverIf your boss says something is fantastic, chances are, it’s probably not.
Seth Fiegerman, Mainstreet
If your boss says something is fantastic, chances are, it’s probably not.
A recent study found that deceptive CEOs tend to express “more extreme positive emotions” when trying to cover up something and forego language that makes them seem hesitant or uncertain.
Two researchers at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business have scoured through transcripts of 30,000 conference calls involving CEOs and CFOs of businesses around the country between 2003 and 2007. The researchers then compared what these executives were saying about their business’s finances to what was actually the case. The goal was to figure out how their choice of words change while lying.
Oil spill cleanup workers at risk!
Tue, 08/31/2010 - 15:43 — Dave Culver
BP's record on worker safety is beyond pathetic.
Sign our petition: Any worker who wants safety equipment – like respirators – should get it, and BP should pick up the tab.
Manny Herrmann, American Rights at Work
Did you know that over 27,000 men and women are working to clean up BP's toxic mix of oil and chemicals without any breathing protection? Every day they go without respirators, their lungs – and ultimately, their lives – are put at risk.
Jobs: Permanently Gone? How to Reverse the Trend?
Tue, 08/24/2010 - 08:43 — Dave Culver- Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen talk about the reality behind the recession, job losses and permanent low wages, and how to even out the economy with portions of a talk by Economist Dean Baker to the annual meeting of the JobsNow Coalition and a talk with local jobs and economic policy advocates.
- The jobs emergency
Andy Driscoll, Truth to Tell, KFAI-FM
Labor Day approaches - an ironic icon of the core human need to work, to produce, to contribute to one's wellbeing, one's family and one's community in a time of job scarcity. The nation's lingering economic mess is having mixed results in Minnesota with respect to jobs and the highly touted "recovery." Most economists are saying, "What recovery?" Job creation, not wealth creation, should be our main priority at every level of public and private sector business. But, where could they possibly come from?
Economist Dean Baker reminds us that it's not simply pessimistic to believe joblessness will remain high through 2017, 2018; the facts ensure it. (Dean Baker's complete talk along the follow-up Q&A at the JobsNow Coalition's Annual Meeting will be heard on Labor Day. In it, Baker also suggests a revenue stream that seems so simple, it's being pooh-pooh-ed by Washington as an investment killer. Is it? Listen in on Labor Day.
Schooling Scholars on Classroom Success
Mon, 08/23/2010 - 10:33 — Dave CulverTeachers are workers who, like the rest of us, need and deserve better working conditions and better pay. What’s good for teachers is good for the rest of us.
Moshe Adler, TruthDig
Beverly Wilson leads her kindergarten class through a song at Lakewood Elementary School in St. Albans, W. Va., in September 2007 AP / Jeff Gentner
These days everyone seems to think teachers need improving—even people who uncover evidence to the contrary. A group of economists from Berkeley, Harvard and Northwestern recently made headlines when they published a study that was ostensibly about the relationship between teacher quality and student success as adults. The economists made three observations. The first is that when children are assigned to kindergarten classes randomly, test scores in some classes are higher than in others. The authors argue that these differences must be due to differences in teacher performance (as well as peer effects). The second observation is that children who attend high-score kindergarten classes earn more money in their adult life. Based on these two observations, the economists conclude that we should invest in raising the quality of teachers, and The New York Times goes a step further and argues that teachersshould be paid according to their performance.
Mike Thompson | Economic Recovery (Maybe) / Detroit Free Press | MI
Mon, 08/23/2010 - 08:44 — Dave CulverThe air-conditioned Puritan
Mon, 08/23/2010 - 08:08 — Dave Culver- Why Americans, and those who are employed to write about them, cannot enjoy holidays
- The scandal of "vacation deprivation."
- America: The Grim Truth
“Let's take a boat to Bermuda, Let's take a plane to St Paul, Let's take a kayak to Quincy or Nyack, Let's get away from it all.” That may be all very well if you are not Lexington. For reasons only the flinty-hearted editor of this newspaper can explain, there will be no summer break this year for your columnist. True, Lexington has been allowed to saddle up his ultimate driving machine and motor north to join friends in a cabin in the Adirondacks. But get away from it all? No sir, this is a space that must be filled week in and week out this summer, come what may.