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November 16, 2007

Viacom vs. Daily Show

Does the writer’s strike have you down? Miss The Daily Show? Here are some things you can do: Download Miro. Watch some classic Daily Show clips

August 24, 2007

One America

The text of John Edward’s Hanover speech reprinted in full (via Crooked Timber): Remarks as Prepared for Delivery: “To Build One America, End the

June 17, 2007

SiCKO

Here is a quote from FOX News: Filmmaker Michael Moore’s brilliant and uplifting new documentary, “Sicko,” deals with the failings of the U.S.

May 4, 2007

Employment Rate

Wikipedia lists some problems with the current method of calculating the unemployment rate in the US. These include the fact that 1.5% of the

April 15, 2007

Sacrifices

The LA Times reports that one of the leading US Airlines is doing so well that “874 top executives will receive more than $150 million in stock

March 18, 2007

Free Choice Act

The Employee Free Choice Act passed the house vote, now it is going to the senate. If you are a US citizen, please go here to tell your senator that

November 25, 2006

Sergei & Uncle Walt

Speaking of the Guardian … a piece in the Observer discuses how Walt Disney was a raving McCarthyite: Disney had a ferocious temper, especially

November 25, 2006

Sergei & Uncle Walt

Speaking of the Guardian … a piece in the Observer discuses how Walt Disney was a raving McCarthyite: Disney had a ferocious temper, especially

October 4, 2006

Supervisor

To those 8 million American workers who were recently “promoted” to supervisor. Congratulations! {unions}

July 24, 2006

Oligarchy

Having just complained about the Times habit of writing as if the poor didn’t exist, suddenly I find two articles that would make you think the

June 16, 2006

On the Waterfront

That organized crime controls New York and New Jersey’s waterfront is not news. Elia Kazan’s classic 1954 film On the Waterfront (filmed around

April 22, 2006

Immigration vs. Wages

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

April 21, 2006

Suspended Animation

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

April 10, 2006

Rat

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

December 23, 2005

Elocution

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.

December 5, 2005

Blackboard

Guest post by tf Blackboard is an online system used by many universities, in the United States and elsewhere, to animate classroom discussions

September 11, 2005

Davis-Bacon

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

August 30, 2005

R & D

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

August 30, 2005

R & D

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

August 26, 2005

Kaohsiung

Seems that violent worker protests aren’t unique to China, and “Made in Taiwan” does not ensure that something is made under humane working

August 15, 2005

Fraternizing

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

August 11, 2005

Labor Split

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

July 15, 2005

House of Labor

I’ve added it to my blogroll, but it really deserves its own post. Nathan Newman has joined the borg at TPMCafe and is blogging up a storm about

July 2, 2005

Anglo Saxon Laborers

The opposite-of-indubitable Tom Friedman has been raving about Ireland lately. How rich it is, and now how its labor system should be admired for

June 15, 2005

Out-House

I’ve long believed that the main purpose of outsourcing is not to save money by finding cheaper labor, but to save money by keeping labor costs down

May 13, 2005

David Graeber

From an article in Zmag: [Anthropologist] David Graeber, was fired from Yale University a few days ago. Of course, that wasn’t the official

May 3, 2005

Food Stamps

More of New York City’s working poor are using food stamps: Even as welfare rolls have dropped, food stamp use has increased over the last few

April 25, 2005

Victory

Another victory for students fighting to improve workers’ rights! The second one this month. A groundbreaking agreement improving workers’ rights

April 19, 2005

Anthropology Ballot

This is a message for all those members of the American Anthropology Association out there: I admit it, I normally throw my AAA ballot in the

April 16, 2005

Debt Ownership Society

A recent compendium and analysis of U.S. labor market statistics, the State of Working America, has some interesting data that is relevant to the

April 14, 2005

Ivy Strike

Graduate student teachers at Yale and Columbia universities are on strike to demand the right to form a union (recently denied to private schools by

April 11, 2005

Conversation

Mark Liberman, commenting on a story that the FAA is considering lifting the ban on in-flight cell phone use, points out that the problem is not

April 7, 2005

IFTU

Matthew Harwood has an important article in the Washington Monthly about how failure to embrace Iraqi unions undermined post-invasion reconstruction

April 6, 2005

Prudence

Richard Posner, federal judge, professor at the University of Chicago, father of the law and economics movement, and now a blogger as well, has

April 4, 2005

Expendable

The hunger strike by students supporting a guaranteed living wage at Georgetown was a success. According to the DC labor web site (where I can no

March 24, 2005

Chili

I recently described working in a coal mine in China as one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. The most dangerous factory job in the United

March 23, 2005

Living

Students at Georgetown are fighting to get a living wage for the lowest paid employees at the university. Sign a petition in support of the hunger

March 8, 2005

Jonquiere

Facing the threat of unionization, Wal-Mart closed its Jonquiere, Quebec store rather than pay its employees living wages and benefits. The Canadian

February 28, 2005

Danger

Officially, more than 6,000 Chinese miners lose their lives each year in industrial accidents. The real figure is believed to be much higher,

February 15, 2005

Child Labor

The above is a picture taken by Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee in 1909, titled “Photograph of Bibb Mill No. 1, Macon, GA.” The

January 6, 2005

Adivasi

India is a settler state, like Australia, the United States, South Africa, Israel, Canada, Taiwan, and many other states where the indigenous

January 2, 2005

Bhangis

I find myself hesitant to write this post because it touches on two issues that are often harped upon in the Western press when writing about India:

November 25, 2004

Class War

Drew Beck brings my attention to this Žižek essay (also here) on the book everyone has been talking about since even before election day: Thomas

November 2, 2004

Unbudging

The New York Times finally has a story on the locked out workers, here: Classic bread-and-butter issues were on the table, including wage

October 31, 2004

Bourgois

Philippe Bourgois has written a letter to the Anthropology community, asking them to boycott the Hilton Hotel in Atlanta where the AAA has moved its

October 28, 2004

Send a letter on behalf of UNITE!

S.F. HOTELS, STOP LOCKING OUT YOUR EMPLOYEES A number of international hotel chains, including the Hyatt, Hilton, and Holiday Inn groups, have

October 26, 2004

UNITE update

From the San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom threatened Monday to join hotel workers on their picket lines today unless hotel

October 23, 2004

UNITE

Being a member of the American Anthropological Association is usually fairly boring. Sure, there are your occasional controversies, such as when

September 18, 2004

Labor Lobbyists

Mark Schmitt recalls being asked the question: “Do any of you seriously believe that it is possible to have a real progressive movement in this

August 14, 2004

War on Immigrants

Two big changes in policy this week translate into a major assault by Bush on undocumented immigrants

August 12, 2004

Risk

Jacob Hacker has a sort of preview of his next book in The New Republic, and I think he is most clearly saying the big thing that needs to be said

August 11, 2004

Card Check

Via Nathan Newman, an important article on the legal threat to use of card checks for union organizing and media coverage of the issue. What is Card

March 30, 2004

Migrants

The first time Scott presented to me his argument that English teachers in East Asia should be thought of as economic migrants, I have to admit I

March 26, 2004

Foreigners

A few weeks ago I asked, in regards to US concerns about the offshoring of high-tech jobs, just how many American’s were doing these jobs to begin

March 19, 2004

Offshoring

Charlie Cook, quoted in Donkey Rising, has some important things to say about why we aren’t seeing the creation of new full time jobs in the US: In

March 10, 2004

Skills

I once had a summer job renovating apartments in New York city. Not having much experience at this kind of thing, my Jamaican co-workers always

March 5, 2004

Absolute

Brett at Marstonalia writes, about the income charts I posted earlier: Median income isn’t relevant for everything, of course — it would be nice to

March 5, 2004

Middle

In a recent interview on Now, Doug Henwood discussed just how small the American middle class is, compared with other developed countries:

February 24, 2004

Maid

Barbara Ehrenreich has co-edited a new book: Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy. I haven’t read it yet, but she

February 23, 2004

Progress

Kevin Drum doesn’t understand why Gregg Easterbrook is confused by the fact that material progress doesn’t bring people greater happiness. I would

February 23, 2004

Poverty

In an excellent Op-Ed in the New York Times David Shipler (who had a Magazine article on the “working poor” in the Times a few weeks ago) writes:

February 2, 2004

Emancipation

Looking back, however, what is even more surprising than slavery’s scope is how swiftly it died. By the end of the 19th century, slavery was, at

January 31, 2004

Better

I’ve been following stories about outsourcing to India, and while this one from Wired magazine is one of the least insightful I’ve read, it did have

January 25, 2004

Lunch

When I was studying Chinese the school had a policy that we had to speak Chinese all the time, even during our lunch breaks. A well intentioned

January 18, 2004

Teeth

I often find it painfully tedious to read NY Times stories which try to individualize social problems, but this one, about one woman’s struggle

December 23, 2003

Safety

Even though just about every blog has already covered this, the story is so upsetting, I think it needs to be repeated as often as possible. The

December 8, 2003

Salt

Before embarking on the 240-mile journey from Sabarmati to Dandi, known as the “salt march”, Gandhi sent a letter to the Viceroy: If my letter

December 1, 2003

Bargains

The New York Times must have turned over a new leaf this holiday season. In just the past few days there have been four excellent Op-Ed

December 1, 2003

Speech

I totally missed this brilliant post from Nathan Newman, written about three weeks ago. He discusses allegations of liberal censorship of

November 20, 2003

Turkey

Please consider supporting grocery workers who are on strike–holding the line for health care. More than 80,000 supermarket workers are fighting to

November 9, 2003

McJobs

Am I allowed to title today’s entry “McJobs”? Not according to McDonalds. What interests me about this story is that although McDonalds raises legal

October 22, 2003

Nascar

Inequality is increasing, but those getting the short end of the stick — blue collar workers — are largely in favor of Bush. How can that be? First

October 20, 2003

Wal-Mart

has already helped push more than two dozen national supermarket chains into bankruptcy over the past decade. That list includes names like

October 11, 2003

Discrimination

In the latest in of his excellent series of articles on the gender wage gap, Barry over at Ampersand has made a strong case (as if it needed to be

October 4, 2003

Liability

Nathan Newman reports some good news: A federal district court in Texas ruled on Wednesday that Ken Lay and other Enron executives are liable to

September 28, 2003

Symmetry

So, you start a company to privatize education and take on the teachers unions. Your company fails miserably both in terms of the market and

September 21, 2003

Immigrant

In honor of the Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride, Nathan Newman had a good post on how fighting for Immigrant worker’s rights is good for U.S.

September 19, 2003

Class

Calpundit asks: “is there any kind of rough consensus about what income it takes to reasonably label someone as “rich” or “poor” or “middle class”?

September 15, 2003

English

I was at a wedding this weekend and was telling some relatives how I live in Jackson Heights, Queens where I have language difficulties because I

September 8, 2003

Productivity

The department of labor reports that worker productivity is up. But what does that mean? I can understand it when we are talking about industrial

September 1, 2003

Dignity

Nathan Newman starts another series (this one on Unions) by explaining why older cocktail waitresses in Las Vegas are pro-Union: If you pay

August 27, 2003

Minimum

Nathan Newman has a series of excellent posts on the minimum wage: Illinois Raises Minimum Wage Why Minimum Wage Beats EITC Popularity of Raising

August 26, 2003

Racism

Over at Nathan Newman: … a white criminal gets more job interviews than a black person with no record at all. It almost boggles the mind that there

August 9, 2003

Gaydar

I was reading Noy Thrupkaew’s discussion of recent Gay-themed TV shows in The American Prospect, when this caught my eye [my emphasis]: Indeed, the

July 26, 2003

Trade

A recent NY Times Editorial argued that developing nations were being hurt by the unfair trade practices of Europe and America: The same sad story

July 21, 2003

Overtime

Bush is trying to kill overtime pay for millions of workers: The Bush administration is trying to push through new regulations — without public

June 30, 2003

White

With the vice president attending the funeral of one of America’s most famous civil rights opponents, I think it is worth while taking a look at the