One of the most interesting debates to arise out of the recent national debate on immigration is whether or not immigration drives down the wages of working class Americans. And Michelle Goldberg’s Salon piece is the best article I’ve found on the subject. In the context of discussing general divisions among progressives over the issue [...]
Last year I had an opportunity in New York to hear a report from Robert Weil, the author of Red Cat, White Cat, who had just come back from China and talked about how economic “reforms” were affecting China’s working classes. It was an enlightening talk which talked about the heavy toll of privatization, corruption, [...]
Union activists in NY have a giant inflatable rat they bring around to embarrass employers. Now the rat has its own flickr photo pool! (Via the WFP blog) {rat, strike, union}
Guest post by tf With all the talk of call centers in poorer countries, one sometimes forgets that they are a booming business in the rich world. In Eugene, Oregon, Lane Community College has just reintroduced its eight week certificate program for would-be call center employees. As reported by Sherri Buri McDonald in The Register [...]
Guest post by tf Blackboard is an online system used by many universities, in the United States and elsewhere, to animate classroom discussions beyond the classroom, through forums and other web-based tools. Administrators at New York University (NYU) are pioneering a new use of Blackboard: to spy on faculty and graduate teaching assistants. Graduate students [...]
I’m really at a loss for words. What the victims of Katrina need most right now are jobs to help them get back on their feet. The best bet would be community involvement in the rebuilding process: the rebuilding could create thousands of local jobs and provide massive skills training in decent paying industries. Instead, [...]
This Foreign Affairs article by George J. Gilboy focuses on trade between China and the U.S., but it has some good news for Taiwan. I remember reading many alarmist articles a few years ago, at the time that both Taiwan and China entered the WTO, about how China was catching up with Taiwan in the [...]
Seems that violent worker protests aren’t unique to China, and “Made in Taiwan” does not ensure that something is made under humane working conditions. A riot by Thai workers on Sunday night in Kaohsiung wasn’t a prison riot, but there were many common features. Although the workers are not prisoners, their freedom is restricted to [...]
If, as Doonesbury suggests, the terrorists really are after us because they hate freedom, there may be no need to fear any longer. The NLRB has ruled that it is perfectly legal for an employer to ban workers from socializing on their free time! When I first read this on JJ’s blog I thought it [...]
I’ve been trying to keep up with the responses to last week’s big news about the AFL-CIO split. Kim Scipes’ roundup is by far the most thorough if you want to know what people in the labor movement are saying. Most responses have been fairly negative, suggesting that the split was more about power struggles [...]