Posts by Greg Tarpinian | CtW Connect

Posts by Greg Tarpinian

Greg Tarpinian is the Executive Director of Change to Win.

May 13, 2008

Colombian Workers Speak Out Against Colombia FTA

Paramilitary death squads in Colombia have systematically assassinated thousands of workers over the past twenty years for attempting to organize unions. But who is the real victim in this union-busting bloodbath? According to statements made on a recent installment of...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on May 13, 2008 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 17, 2008

War Is Economic Policy

One of the great myths of this election is that there is a distinction between national security and economic policy. The reality is however, with a war that has thus far cost well over a trillion dollars, one’s position on...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on March 17, 2008 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 2, 2007

Bush Board Launches Massive New Assault on Workers

With its term coming to an end, the Bush Administration's craven fealty to the most extreme interests of corporate America is reaching unprecedented heights in agency rule making throughout the government. It is hard to believe that any is more...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on November 2, 2007 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

September 13, 2007

Unions Boost Productivity

Unions bring higher wages and better benefits to the workers they represent, but they also bring increased productivity to employers and the overall economy. Anti-union critics say unionization lowers productivity. But according to recent data from the International Labor Organization...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on September 13, 2007 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 21, 2007

America is at the Tipping Point

When Change to Win’s first American Dream survey was released in September 2006 and showed that the vast majority of workers in America believe that their children will be no better off or worse off than they are some questioned...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on August 21, 2007 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 20, 2007

Winners and Losers in the Mortgage Meltdown

The chickens have come home to roost on the speculative Bush economy - an economy built on massive amounts of debt - and working Americans are going to pay the price. More U.S. workers will lose their homes through foreclosures...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on August 20, 2007 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 24, 2007

"Pretend" Benefits

Michael Moore's movie "Sicko" made the point that it was not focusing on the uninsured, but on those "who have insurance." It showed how working people "who have health care coverage" have, in fact, woefully inadequate insurance that can still...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on July 24, 2007 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

July 10, 2007

"Sicko" Shows America's Shame

We live in a country where a rich man's dog receives better medical care than millions of our citizens. "Sicko," Michael Moore's new documentary about the U.S. health care system, helps explain how we have reached such a shameful state...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on July 10, 2007 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 5, 2007

Ask No Questions And Hear No Lies: CEO Pay in Plain English

American Eagle Outfitters paid its CEO a whopping $15.3 million in 2006, according to a May 1st proxy statement, or 668 times the median annual earnings for a retail salesperson. The company’s board came up with that figure by setting...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on July 5, 2007 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 26, 2007

The Private Equity Tax Rip-Off

Where could the U.S. government come up with the money to lift up those Americans hurt most by the rapidly changing global economy? If just one private equity firm would pay their fair share of taxes on annual profits, the...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on June 26, 2007 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 12, 2007

A Follow-Up

Robert Senser raises two points in his comment in response to my post “(Union) Made in China: The Tag Corporate America Doesn’t want You to See.” First, contrary to Senser’s post, we did not shun the Hong Kong Confederation of...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on June 12, 2007 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 6, 2007

(Union) Made in China: The Tag Corporate America Doesn't Want You to See

Multinational corporations have been roaming the globe in a race to the bottom, competing solely on which can pay their workers the least -- and far too many have settled in China. As a result, what were once good-paying American...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on June 6, 2007 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

June 1, 2007

The Question Isn't Why We Went to China -- It's Why Wouldn't We?

There’s no question as to why the modern labor movement would need to pay attention to China. Every major U.S. and foreign transnational corporation has growing operations there, meaning Chinese workers are one of the main hammers that global capital...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on June 1, 2007 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

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...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on May 8, 2007 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 24, 2007

Unions: the Answer to Rising Income Inequality

It’s difficult to comprehend an economy where a corporate executive leaves his office every night wearing a watch that cost more than the building janitor makes in a year. But that is the reality of an economy where income inequality...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on April 24, 2007 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 16, 2007

There Is A War On The Middle Class

Last month, the New York Times’ David Cay Johnston reported the extraordinary fact that, in 2005, the top 1 percent of Americans received their largest share of national income since 1928. Further, while total reported income in the U.S. increased...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on April 16, 2007 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 11, 2007

What Do Workers Know?

When the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported job growth of 180,000 in March, the business press and the Bush administration hailed the announcement as proof of the economy’s resilience and America’s continued prosperity. Why, then, did our March survey of...

Posted by Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director, CtW on April 11, 2007 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)