The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that more than 40 percent of America’s unemployed have been out of work for six months or more. The Associated Press reported recently that the long-term unemployed are facing increased hiring bias, with employers refusing to take on workers who have been out of work for …
How Long-Term Unemployment Decreases Life Expectancy Read More »
More than half of people age 65 and older face the prospect of not having enough money to meet basic daily expenses while staying in their homes and communities, a new analysis (PDF) from Wider Opportunities for Women finds. We’re talking basic necessities here—renting a one-bedroom apartment or having a modest mortgage, basic food, health …
More Than Half of Elders, and 60% of Older Women, Face Economic Insecurity Read More »
Following lots and lots of terrible publicity around the wages, working conditions and hours faced by Chinese workers manufacturing its iPhones and iPads, Apple asked the Fair Labor Association, an organization widely described as independent although it is funded by the corporations it oversees, to look into working conditions in the factories of its Chinese …
Apple and Foxconn to Improve Working Conditions and Hours Read More »
Advocates push for stronger protections during National Farmworker Awareness Week “[When I was 12] they gave me my first knife. Week after week I was cutting myself. Every week I had a new scar. My hands have a lot of stories.” –17-year-old boy who started working at age 11 in Michigan (Human Rights Watch) America’s …
Citing ‘Tradition,’ Big Ag Fights Reforms for Child Farmworkers Read More »
The United Steelworkers (USW), the Spanish worker cooperative Mondragon—the world’s largest worker cooperative—and the Ohio Employee Ownership Center (OEOC) this week unveiled what they describe as a “template that combines worker equity with a progressive collective bargaining process.” USW President Leo Gerard says that “to survive the boom and bust, bubble-driven economic cycles fueled by …
New Co-Op Model for Sustainable Main Street Jobs Read More »
Union plans to win recognition rights through political and legal challenges rather than demanding voluntary recognition Following two years of organizing and months of hearings, this month Michigan’s state labor board was set to rule on whether to reverse a 1981 decision that stripped union recognition from the state university’s graduate student research assistants (GSRAs). …
Grad Student Workers Plan Counterattack After Michigan Gov. Signs Law Denying Rights Read More »
Last week, telecom giant T-Mobile announced that it plans to close seven of its 24 U.S. call centers. About 3,300 employees work at those centers, and the company is planning to lay off at least 1,900 of them, while offering transfers to some (though it doesn’t yet know how many). Adding insult to injury, four of …
Where I work, we get donuts on payday Friday. At one law office in Florida, workers go to happy hour after work. They all wear the same color shirt so they look like a group when they go out for happy hour. A lot of places get crowded for happy hour on Friday nights, so …
Law Office Fires 14 Workers for Wearing Orange Shirts Read More »
Apple’s brand glared in the media spotlight this past week, after the public learned that performance artist Mike Daisey’s theatrical rendering of the struggles of Apple factory workers contained false claims—painfully exposed on an episode of the radio program This American Life. But if one fundamental truth has emerged from the scandal surrounding Daisey’s dramatic fudging, it’s …
Even With Daisey’s Lies Peeled Away, Apple’s Rotten Core Exposed Read More »
The women who work in Idaho Gov. Butch Otter’s (R) cabinet make substantially less than their male colleagues, according to a McClatchy analysis of state salary data. Despite chairing the state Agriculture Department, for instance, Director Celia Gould makes less than male directors. Gould has been with the administration since its first day in 2007 …
Why Does Idaho’s Governor Pay Female Employees So Much Less Than Men? 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.
