Dollars & Sense articles from September 2007

Dollars & Sense archives from September 2007

From the editors.
September 1, 2007... U.S. manufacturing associations have recently been calling for--brace yourself--re-regulation of their industries, according to recent reports in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Clearly, their one-eighty is motivated by fears of...

Invisible hand caught in the cookie jar.(the short run)
September 1, 2007... Hershey, the largest candy producer in the United States, announced in February that it would eliminate 1,500 jobs in Pennsylvania and transfer some of its operations to Mexico. But the plan has backfired, according to Bloomberg News. Hershey's...

The smelly American.(the short run)(American workers)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Are the inexorable laws of global capitalism causing corporations to export their manufacturing and service operations to low-wage countries, or is it just that U.S. workers are boorish, lazy slobs? Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao says it's the...

At your service.(the short run)(People Staff Co.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Call a temp agency and get a receptionist... robot? People Staff Co., a Japanese job placement agency, is now offering "rental humanoid robots" to work as receptionists at offices and hospitals, the Japan Times Online reports. Three feet tall,...

In TUC we trust.(the short run)(The United Cities Corp.)(Company overview)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... The United Cities Corp. (TUC) of Kissimmee, Fla., has been offering great jobs with high salaries and amazing benefits, including a new car, health insurance, and payment of workers' debts. How can TUC afford to treat its workers so well?...

Labor rights begin at home.(the short run)(National Labor Relations Board)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... The National Labor Relations Board "guarantees the right of employees to organize and to bargain collectively with their employers," according to its mission statement. But not if the employer is the NLRB itself, apparently. Created by Congress...

Ampersand.(the short run)(Cartoon)
September 1, 2007... SWEET, SWEET DENIAL [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] amptoons.com

Letters.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... Dear Friends, For the first time since I started reading D & S I find myself in total disagreement with a story--that on Sudan. How could you let yourself be taken in by George Clooney and the State Department? I can't believe it! ...

A sweatshop without the sweat? Not yet.(update)(Just Garments)(Company overview)
September 1, 2007... Two years ago we reported on a noble experiment taking place in El Salvador: a group of workers had taken over a clothing assembly shop, or maquiladora, and were trying to keep the business going while treating workers fairly (Dollars & Sense,...

Day laborers at Camden Yards.(active culture)
September 1, 2007... Victory, for now! At press time, the Maryland Stadium Authority has just agreed to require janitorial contractors to pay the living wage the Camden Yards campaign has demanded.--Eds. Camden Yards, Baltimore, 5:30 p.m., July 29. The Orioles...

The KatrinaRitaVille Express Tour: activists take a FEMA trailer on the road.(active culture)(Federal Emergency Management Agency)
September 1, 2007... An interview with historian, preservationist, community organizer, and economic and environmental justice activist Derrick Evans appeared in Dollars & Sense in March/April 2006. At the time, six months after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck...

Gulf Coast shipyard workers take on Northrup Grumman: an important strike on the Katrina-ravaged Mississippi coast lacks national labor support.(making sense)
September 1, 2007... On March 8 of this year, more than 7,000 asbestos workers, boilermakers, machinists, operating engineers, painters, plumbers and pipe fitters, sheet metal workers, carpenters, guards, laborers, and drivers at the Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula,...

A lazy man's labor policy: George W. Bush didn't have to do much to destroy workers' right--they were already long gone.
September 1, 2007... Labor policy under George W. Bush has been oddly uncontroversial. After all, we've seen (with a few exceptions, notably the Sego Mine incident) far less of the kind of shenanigans that have become all too characteristic of this presidency--the...

Up against the charros and the changarros: Mexico's independent unions confront a wave of lousy jobs. Second in a three-part series.(cowboy unions and self-employment )
September 1, 2007... We have the best bosses in the world," trumpeted the headlines in the Mexican press upon the release of an international survey earlier this year. Mexicans responding to the survey, carried out by the Kelly Services temp agency, rated their...

Women of NAFTA.(North American Free Trade Agreement)(Excerpt)
September 1, 2007... The outstanding collection NAFTA From Below: Maquiladora Workers, Farmers, and Indigenous Communities Speak Out on the Impact of Free Trade in Mexico, combines worker testimony with analytical and historical essays to provide a devastating...

Building the new labor history: innovative labor organizing strategies.(List)
September 1, 2007... It's no longer enough to organize on the factory floor. With the manufacturing sector in decline, the U.S. labor movement faces the many challenges of unionizing the service sector. With good jobs increasingly scarce, business owners have been...

Iraq's workers strike to keep their oil.
September 1, 2007... The Bush administration has no love for unions anywhere, but in Iraq it has a special reason for hating them. They are the main opposition to the occupation's economic agenda, and the biggest obstacle to that agenda's centerpiece--the...

Outsized offshore outsourcing: the scope of offshore outsourcing gives some economists and the business press the heebie-jeebies.
September 1, 2007... At a press conference introducing the 2004 Economic Report of the President, N. Gregory Mankiw, then head of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisors, assured the press that "Outsourcing is probably a plus for the economy in the long run...

Starting on the shop floor: U.S. Auto Workers face an industry in turmoil; An interview with economist Susan Helper.(Interview)(Company overview)
September 1, 2007... DETROIT, 1970. The United Auto Workers has over 1.6 million members, representing around 95% of all U.S. auto workers. Typical of the industry, blue-collar workers at General Motors have seen their wages rise by more than 70% over the past two...

The Dropkick Murphys, friends to the working class.(Organization overview)
September 1, 2007... Smart. Aggressive. In your face. Committed to economic justice. These words describe an effective union organizer; they also describe the no-nonsense punk rock band Dropkick Murphys, a true friend of organized labor. The band's annual St....

Access to paid sick days vastly unequal.(economy in numbers)(Reprint)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Just 57% of private-industry workers in the United States have access to paid sick leave; 43% have no paid sick days. When these workers get sick, they are forced either to stay home, without pay and, in many cases, with some risk of losing...