Jobs, Offshoring, and the U.S. Budget Deficit

By Jack Rasmus What’s the connection between the 25 million still jobless today, US Multinational Corporations, and the estimated $1.6 trillion 2012 budget deficit? The deficit and budget cutting have been given massive amount of attention in the public press. At least a dozen different proposals—from the Obama administration, Republicans in the House, Democrats in [...]

Massachusetts Dems Pass Bill to ‘Eliminate Collective Bargaining as We Know It’

by Mike Elk This week, the Massachusetts House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill (111-42) to strip public-sector workers of their ability to bargain collectively for healthcare. The rhetoric surrounding the bill, proposed by Democratic State House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, is in many ways similar to what Wisconsinites recently heard as Gov. Walker pushed [...]

Will Public Workers and immigrants march together on May Day ?

by David Bacon One sign carried in almost every May Day march of the last few years says it all: “We are Workers, not Criminals!” Often it was held in the calloused hands of men and women who looked as though they’d just come from work in a factory, cleaning an office building, or picking [...]

Anti-regulation agenda of business groups threatens health and safety at work

ITUC OnLine International trade unions are warning of the potentially devastating effect of business lobbying to weaken protection for worker’s health and safety as workers across the world take part in the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers today. “Business groups and companies in a succession of countries, including some of the world’s [...]

May Day Rallies around the nation

Thousands of people rallied in New York City last year on May Day. This May Day, working people are rallying across the country to oppose attacks on workers’ rights and immigrant rights. Just as we did on April 4, working people will declare: “Somos Unos—Respeten Nuestros Derechos” or “We Are One—Respect Our Rights.” Workers’ rights [...]

U.S. Columbia Free Trade Agreement

Trading Away Financial Stability: Capital Controls and the US-Colombia Trade Agreement Latin American Trade Network Policy Brief #66, April 2011 By Kevin P. Gallagher The Obama Administration is preparing to submit a reworked version of the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement to Congress, along with two other agreements previously negotiated by the Bush Administration. In this [...]

Wisconsin Students seek help to stop privatization

Students escalate their campaigns nation-wide to take back our economy!  See below for report from Rutgers. Call U. Wisconsin Chancellor Martin to stop her handover of the U. Wisconsin to corporate control.  Call her office at 608-262 9946. Right now, students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are taking the Capitol protests against the attack on [...]

Teapublicans, Timidcrats, and the $14.3 Trillion U.S. Federal Debt

by Jack Rasmus President Obama on April 13 gave another of his now notorious ‘maybe this/maybe that’ speeches. Raise taxes on the rich, he said. But in the same breath announced “everything’s on the table”. This time the subject was the U.S. debt and deficits, as he responded to the policy gauntlet thrown down by [...]

Corporate Spin Doctors Slant Hospital Union Election

By Carl Finamore  A bitterly-contested election is occurring among employees at three of the oldest hospitals in San Francisco that have continuously provided healthcare since around the mid-1800s. A lot has changed over the last 150 years but surely, we can safely assume, it was mostly for the better. One can only hope for a [...]

Labor repression in Mexico

From the AFL-CIO blog: by James Park Over the past five years, the Mexican government has unleashed a systematic attack on workers’ rights. Despite the continuing repression, Mexico’s independent, democratic unions organize and represent the rights of workers. Some of the most egregious attacks have been on the Mine, Metal and Steel Workers Union (SNTMMSSRM), also [...]