Dollars & Sense articles from September 2003

Dollars & Sense archives from September 2003

Labor matters.(from the editors)
September 1, 2003... To be in touch with what is going on at the workplace is to be in touch with the reality of both American life and life in the global economy. To that end, this year's annual labor issue spotlights hidden injustices and emerging trends in the...

D&S honored.(from the editors)(Project Censored awards Dollars and Sense)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Once again, Dollars & Sense has been honored by Sonoma State University's Project Censored, which recognizes journalists who cover stories that the mainstream media ignore. Three of Project Censored's Top 25 Censored Stories of the year...

The World Bank: champion of unions?(the short run)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... According to a recent report, "Unions and Collective Bargaining: Economic Effects in a Global Environment," widespread unionization is good for a nation's economy. "High unionization rates lead to lower inequality of earnings and can improve...

Can't they just water their crops with Coke?
September 1, 2003... ISN'T IT ARROGANT OF COKE TO COME TO INDIA AND USE OUR CLEAN WATER, WHICH WE NEED FOR FARMING AND DRINKING, JUST TO MAKE SOFT DRINKS? ACTUALLY, LESS THAN A THIRD OF THE WATER IS EVEN USED TO MAKE COKE PRODUCTS! THEN WHERE DOES-? ...

"Worst government ever".(the short run)(George A. Akerlof)(Brief Article)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... Some elite economists are starting to sound like radicals when the subject is George W. Bush. George A. Akerlof, a 2001 Nobel Prize laureate who teaches economics at the University of California, Berkeley, said recently in an interview: "I...

Labor department censors its own laborers.(the short run)(National Council of Field Labor Locals newsletter pulled)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Last December, the U.S. Department of Labor pulled the newsletter of the National Council of Field Labor Locals (NCFLL) out of its inter-office mail, according to a Press Associates report. NCFLL represents 10,000 Labor Department employees....

Corporate donations buy influence--shocking!(the short run)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... In June, the Westar Energy corporation released e-mails naming four congressional Republicans--Rep. Joe Barton (Texas), Rep. Billy Tauzin (La.), Senator Richard Shelby (Ala.), and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Texas)--who solicited donations...

Bowing to Boeing.(the short run)(business incentives)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... In their understandable desperation over massive job losses, many state and local politicians have lost their ability to do basic arithmetic. The state of Washington is offering $3.2 billion in subsidies to the Boeing corporation to entice it...

Supporting the troops?(the short run)(military pay policy)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Congress recently rolled back "modest increases in monthly imminent-danger pay (from $225 to $150) and family-separation allowance (from $250 to $100) for troops getting shot at in combat zones," according to the Army Times. Nor could...

Postwar Iraq needs ... unions!(the short run)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The British military administration charged with reopening the port at Umm Qasr in Iraq needs to hire thousands of port workers. But it's not willing to pay the $36 a month wage that these workers averaged under the Hussein regime. According to...

Worsening misery for the world's poor.(the short run)(2003 U.N. Human Development Report)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Many Americans may look back longingly on the relative boom-times of the 1990s. But per capita income in 54 countries actually fell between 1990 and 2000, according to the 2003 U.N. Human Development Report. Although the proportion of people...

Things go better with Coke.(the short run)(bottling operations in India have impact on local water)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... In an ironic twist Coca-Cola, the world's largest soft drink producer, is quickly becoming associated with thirst throughout India. CorpWatch is currently highlighting four Indian communities where Coke has met with popular resistance because...

Antiwar union joins the ranks of the homeless.(the short run)(National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees District 1199 evicted )(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Anti-war protesters sometimes fear arrest, but not usually eviction. However, the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees District 1199 was evicted from its Albuquerque offices in June after protesting the war in Iraq, according to...

Letters.(the short run)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... To the Editor: I enjoyed Thad Williamson's analysis of the antiwar movement in the July/August issue, and share his disgust with Bush and his policies. However, just "getting rid of Bush" may not be that helpful a step, unless he is...

Singing in the streets.(the short run)(street performance advertising)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Telecommunications giant AT&T has recently devised an advertising plot with a hit of spin: street performances. The company planted paid minstrels--armed with lyrics like "Ooh I love my voice mail/Yes you know it's true/Hope you like the voice...

Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride: labor hits the road in a nationwide campaign for immigrant rights.(active culture)
September 1, 2003... It was late on a Wednesday night in the packed and stuffy basement of a New Haven church, but Maria Elena Durazo of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (HERE) was just getting started. Her audience of over 300 was...

No sweat in Minneapolis: Minnesota high school students convince their schools to stop buying sweatshop products.(active culture)
September 1, 2003... Schools purchase many items--from soccer balls to varsity jackets--that sweatshop workers around the world produce. But last November, the Minneapolis Board of Education voted unanimously to work out a purchasing policy that "excludes goods...

National Writers Union unites to keep members insured: writers win dispute with Unicare managed-care company, but their health coverage is still in jeopardy.(active culture)
September 1, 2003... Forecasts of record snowfall and a possible government shutdown didn't concern members of the National Writers Union (NWU)'s Washington, D.C., local on President's Day, 2003. What worried them was the union's announcement that its health...

Southwest flight attendants fight concessions.(active culture)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... In the airline industry, post-9/11 managerial opportunism led to a contract massacre. Union concessions at American, United, and US Airways will total at least $36 billion over the lives of recently ratified restructuring agreements. That's why...

Organized labor and the question of the Black worker.(comment)
September 1, 2003... It seems almost counterintuitive, at a moment when the labor movement needs to grow, that anyone would need to appeal to the leaders of organized labor to recognize the importance of the Black worker. Opinion polls regularly demonstrate some...

Tyson workers holding the line ... and the pepperoni.(making sense)
September 1, 2003... Less than 500 pepperoni workers on strike against Tyson Foods in the tiny Wisconsin town of Jefferson are staring down a massive corporate assault on the living standards of thousands of workers nationwide. They know it, too. Supporters joining...

Quality in, workers out? companies adopt Six Sigma.(making sense)
September 1, 2003... My friend's company laid off every single salesperson in all of their stores around the country, in one morning. Then they immediately rehired them, but only the ones who bad been averaging less than $16 an hour in commissions. All the best...

Of pension funds and life spans.(econ-Atrocity)
September 1, 2003... When the Society of Actuaries released a new study of mortality among workers earlier this year, manufacturing corporations saw too good an opportunity to pass up. The research showed that low-income and blue-collar workers lead shorter lives....

Maquiladora bosses play the China card: companies in Mexico threaten to relocate to China.
September 1, 2003... For decades, U.S. workers have been told their wages are too high--and that high labor costs could force employers to move operations to Mexico. Now Mexican workers, whose numbers on the border have mushroomed in the last three decades, are on...

Victories for home health care workers: home care workers get organized.
September 1, 2003... Thirteen thousand home care workers in Oregon voted overwhelmingly two years ago to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The vote was the culmination of a four-year statewide campaign modeled on earlier efforts in Washington...

Innovative labor strategies: 10 campaigns to learn from.
September 1, 2003... Organized labor could use a shot in the arm. Today, the percentage of U.S. workers in unions continues to fall despite massive organizing drives. Public-sector workers have been stripped of basic rights by the most anti-union administration in...

Captive labor: the plight of Peruvian sheepherders illuminates broader exploitation of immigrant workers in U.S. agriculture.
September 1, 2003... On the night of June 25, 2000, Remigio Damian, a Peruvian shepherd, collapsed on the doorstep of a local farmer. Feverish and frail, Remigio had spent the past four days walking through mountains and pastures to escape his employer---a...

Scripted talk: from "Welcome to McDonalds" to "Paper or plastic?" employers control the speech of service workers.
September 1, 2003... Now one of the very first requirements for a man who is fit to handle pig iron as a regular occupation is that he shall be so stupid and so phlegmatic that he more nearly resembles in his mental make-up the ox than any other type.... He is so...

Still up against the death plan in Haiti: the Aristide government is straitjacketed by U.S. low-intensity warfare and neoliberal economic demands.
September 1, 2003... This March I visited Haiti for the first time since 1997. I expected the worst. In publications across the political spectrum, North American analysts condemn the government of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. Haiti, they say, faces worse...

U.S. labor law: how the United States' stacked labor laws make it nearly impossible for workers to gain union representation.(primer)
September 1, 2003... Ever wish you had a union at work? Surveys show that half of all nonunion workers do. Still, less than 10% of private sector workers in this country enjoy the benefits of union representation. How is this possible? U.S. labor laws that are...

Comic strip of neoliberalism.
September 1, 2003... THE RULE NEVER USE COERCION TO REDISTRIBUTE WEALTH. VERY BAD! THE EXCEPTION ... UNLESS IT'S NATIONALIZED WEALTH. IN THE WORDS OF PAUL BREMER, APPOINTED RULER OF POST-WAR IRAQ, THE GOAL OF THE COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY...

Unemployment rate deception: labor markets are looser than the official rate suggests.(economy in numbers)
September 1, 2003... When June's dismal unemployment data came out (at 6.4%, the official unemployment rate hit its highest level in nine years), the administration was quick to put a positive spin on the news. "While the unemployment rate is disappointing," Labor...