Entering the workforce is an exciting rite of passage for most young people but the ability to work a job isn’t always cut and dry. For example, you may have physical or mental limitations that impede your ability to perform certain tasks. It’s crucial to note that disabilities aren’t always visible, and mental health disorders …
A new proposal for a negative income tax could eliminate poverty in the United States. In these heady days of progressive proposals for massive increases in the federal budget, such as the Democrats’ recently announced $3.5 trillion human infrastructure package, a timely paper has reopened an old debate with a new proposal for a guaranteed national income, in the form of …
An Old Idea for a Guaranteed Income Is Back in Style Read More »
More successful strikes help the entire labor movement. We should pay for them together. On July 24, more than 600 Frito-Lay workers in Kansas who had been on strike for three weeks finally signed a new union contract. The contract, won at great personal cost for the striking factory workers, came with a modest 4 percent wage increase, and the right to at least …
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. Grocery store beef prices are rising. The rancher’s share is falling. And the companies that dominate the highly-concentrated meatpacking industry are making a killing. Shad Sullivan has stopped paying for cable TV, yearly vacations and trips to movie theaters. He’s contemplated ending his health …
While Meatpacking Companies Reap Big Profits, Cattle Ranchers Struggle Read More »
Fleeing is what the rich do best. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz fled Texas last winter, abandoning millions to freezing temperatures. But some have tired of the Earth altogether. Billionaires Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson are fleeing to space on rockets with stratospheric price tags. Branson was the first to venture forth July 11, in a gambit to launch a commercial space …
Billionaires Can Have the Cosmos—We Only Want the Earth Read More »
A union set to be wiped out by layoffs says politicians are missing in action. Joe Gouzd is pissed. As the president of United Steelworkers Local 8?–?957 in Morgantown, West Virginia, he represents more than 800 of the 1,500 workers who are set to lose their jobs on July 31, when the Viatris pharmaceuticals plant in Morgantown shuts down for good. And …
As Devastating Plant Shutdown Looms in West Virginia, National Outrage Is Hard to Find Read More »
This is one of two articles from Hawaiian hotel workers. Read the other, “Hawaiian Hilton Workers Fear Permanent Layoffs As Recall Rights Expiration Nears,” here. Tourism drives Hawaii’s economy, and housekeepers are the heart of our hotels. But as tourism is returning to Hawaii, only a few housekeepers are being called back to work because many …
At World’s Largest Hilton, Workers Fight for Jobs, Daily Cleaning Read More »
This is one of two articles from Hawaiian hotel workers. Read the other, “At World’s Largest Hilton, Workers Fight for Jobs, Daily Cleaning,” here. “Did you see Hilton is getting rid of workers permanently?” Jungmin Kim, my co-worker, came running to ask me before I could even get to the front desk. Hilton’s CEO had told …
Hawaiian Hilton Workers Fear Permanent Layoffs As Recall Rights Expiration Nears Read More »
Gen Z and Millennials are facing a bleak economic future. The answer is to massively expand union membership and democratize workplaces. Like so many other recent college graduates of Gen Z who are trying to enter the workforce, become financially independent and grow our families, we’re seeing the promised ?“American dream” drift further and further out of reach. …
Opponents of raising the minimum wage to $15 like to say that sure, $15 might be a reasonable wage in New York City or Los Angeles, but it’s just too high in the heartland. Guess what, guys? There are more than 3,000 counties in the United States, but only 218 in which a full-time minimum-wage worker can afford …
Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.
