I think I have a new favorite quote of all time. Time Warner Cable’s Chief Operating Officer, Landel Hobbs, recently said he doesn’t see evidence of people dropping cable in favor of the Internet. Hello? I cut the cord and so did many of the people I know. The tsunami of departures from cable might …
Last night’s election, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters today in a conference call, “was about jobs, plain and simple. It was a mandate to fix the economy and create jobs. But here’s what it wasn’t”: It wasn’t a mandate for the policies most Republicans campaigned on. An election night survey of voters in 100 …
I understand the home-of-the-free-and-land-of-the-brave. I get bring-me-your-tired-huddled-masses-yearning-to-breathe-free. I can even relate to hot dogs-apple pie-and-baseball. What I don’t understand is how passive Americans have been in the face of the economic challenges brought on by the recession. I thought we were a feisty country, tough and ready to stand up for what’s right. Case in …
It’s a stifling hot day in June, and Tory Moore, 37, is pounding the pavement outside a currency exchange in Bolingbrook, a Chicago suburb. Wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the words Warehouse Workers for Justice, sweating but full of energy, he paces back and forth while mopping his face with a yellow washcloth, looking …
With unemployment so high and middle class job prospects so low, this Labor Day is overcast by gloom. We can surrender to it. We can rant with Glenn Beck and kick the dog. Alternatively, we can join with our neighbors, employed and unemployed, our foreclosed-on children, our elderly parents and together create a grassroots groundswell that gives government no choice but to respond to our needs, the needs of working people.
When the world’s banks were going under, governments jumped to their aid. Now with record numbers of people out of work, it’s past time for governments to put working people first, or the fledgling economic recovery could fall apart. Leaders from the G-20 nations issued this warning while in Washington, D.C., this week for the …
G-20 Labor Leaders Meet at AFL-CIO for Labor Summit Read More »
The White House Task Force on the Middle Class today announced several initiatives it says will help middle-class families afford soaring child care costs, care for their aging relatives, cope with the challenge of saving for retirement and pay for their children’s college tuition. President Obama says the measures will help “ease the burdens on …
Middle Class Task Force Addresses Child Care, College Costs, Retirement Security Read More »
Massachusetts voters sent a strong signal to Washington lawmakers Tuesday that they want results—and aren’t seeing any. Not on health care reform, not on job creation and not on fixing the nation’s economy. Voters also sent another powerful message for Democrats: Ignore the working class at your peril. Some 79 percent of voters polled on …
The Working Class Has Spoken. Will Democrats Listen? Read More »
With heavy defections from Blue Dog Democrats, the House of Representatives still narrowly passed Wednesday evening 217 to 212 a $154 billion jobs package. It included funds for states to retain front-line workers, aid to the unemployed and transportation projects. But a jobs bill has yet to be voted on in the Senate, where it’s …
The U.S. is now 24 months into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Over the course of those two years, we have lost 8.1 million jobs and 17.5 percent of the workforce–27.4 million workers–are unemployed, underemployed, or have given up looking for work. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forsee the unemployment rate remaining at …
Putting People Back to Work and Obama’s Jobs Summit Read More »
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.
