May 2007 Archives

May 24, 2007

Now We Know What "Smithfield Family Values" Look Like

Imagine what it would be like to work in a plant where summertime temperatures reach 100 degrees -- and not being able to get a drink of water. That's what workers at Smithfield Foods' pork-packing plant in Tar Heel, North...

May 21, 2007

LA Security Guards Score Major Victory

Four thousand security guards in Los Angeles just became the newest members of the Service Employees International Union. Union officials said guards now start at pay as low as $8.50 an hour with no benefits... Union organizer Jono Shaffer said...

Can you hear us now?

In a survey of 800 non-supervisory workers conducted for Change to Win by Lake Research Partners in March, 68% of respondents agreed with the statement: "The goverment doesn't do enough to rein in greedy and unethical behavior by coporations...

"What We Require Is No Fear"

The L.A. Times has a great story today about how local unions are helping gang members move from the world of crime into honest, productive careers: Building unions began recruiting gang members as part of their broader efforts in inner-city...

May 15, 2007

Gesundheit!

Bob Herbert's column in the New York Times today covers the new effort to ensure that all full-time workers are allowed paid sick days. A growing number of organizations and activists are lining up behind proposed federal legislation that would...

May 8, 2007

The $8,812 Missing from Your Wallet

Profits for Fortune 500 companies rose 29 percent in 2006 to $785 billion, the highest in half a century. Median wages rose 3 percent, or $1,016 per worker. If median wages had increased at the same rate as profits, each...

May 7, 2007

This will knock the wind out of you

A California lawmaker has introduced a bill in the State Assembly to ban the use of diacetyl, a chemical used in artificial butter flavor that has been linked to bronchitis obliterans, a rare and life-threatening lung disease also known as popcorn worker's lung....

"I see," said the blind man

Pro-free trade economist Alan S. Blinder sounded the alarm in the Washington Post today on an unlikely topic: the offshoring of U.S. jobs. He reports being treated like a heretic by fellow neoliberal economists. Blinder predicts as many as...

May 3, 2007

Cause, Meet Effect

I'm sure we'll hear Circuit City executives soon enough arguing that this had absolutely nothing to do with this: Circuit City fired 3,400 of its highest-paid store employees in March, saying it needed to hire cheaper workers to shore up...

May 2, 2007

Help to Air Some Dirty Laundry

No corporation should cut corners on worker safety. Cintas Corp. did just that and it may have cost a man his life. Eleazar Torres-Gomez was killed on the job at an industrial laundry facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was...