The real immigration story
The drama in Arizona belies the real action on the immigration front. The Obama administration is deporting record numbers of illegal aliens and going after employers of them with unprecedented vigor. This is
Tags: Arizona, immigration, Latinos, Obama
2010: A Space Odyssey
So you thought machines would liberate man from his life of hectic toil? Ha, ha, ha.
That was a theme in Kubrick’s movie classic, “2001: A Space Odyssey” and a theme of my latest column. The work day in the early 21st Century ain’t no graceful waltz to a Strauss tune.
There may be a factory in your future
Forget about Blake’s “dark Satanic Mills” and the more recent bloodletting of factory jobs:
FOR SOME, MANUFACTURING CAN BE A MARVELOUS CAREER
Tags: culture, economy, manufacturing, Ohio
Hear me in Jacksonville….
To my comrades in Florida and everyone else, hear me at 3:45 pm EST on the Brother Stan Labor Show. Subject: immigration reform.
“THE BROTHER STAN LABOR SHOW”Wednesdays, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM EDSTLIVE — ON AIR AND ON THE WEB!FM 105.3 (WJSJ) in Jacksonville — Streaming Worldwide: www.radiofreejax.comAND ON REPLAY! /// THE SAME DAY!10:00 PM – 12:00 Midnight /// Same Station and Website!LISTEN IN! — CALL IN!Call-In Number = 854-8255 (854-TALK) — Area Code = 904
Tags: Arizona, Democrats, immigration, Republicans, Washington
Government pensions to face the music
When it comes to pensions in the United States, private-sector workers live in America. Government workers live in Europe. One can be pro-union and pro-labor and still resent lavish public-employee retirement deals, as I write in my latest column:
GOVERNMENT PENSIONS FACE THE MUSIC
Tags: France, labor, politics, retirement, states
Unions did waste millions in Arkansas
An unnamed White House official told Politico that unions had wasted $10 million in their “pointless” support of Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter. Halter had launched an unsuccessful primary challenge against Democratic incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln.
The New York Times took offense to that remark. The White House, it said, should have been “paying attention to the signals that were sent” in a race that Lincoln won with a narrow margin. The signal, in the Times’s opinion, was anger over Lincoln’s opposition to “card check.”
What did the unions want, really? I’m no big fan of Lincoln and pro-union, but I join many other good people in not liking the card check proposal. Card check would let organizers force unionization by collecting a certain number of signatures from workers — thus bypassing the need for a secret ballot vote.
Having belonged to two unions (the Teamsters and the Newspaper Guild), I can attest that union activists are not always the nicest of people. And some businesses offer cushy wages and benefits to make their workers not want to join unions. Workers should have the right to choose whether to form a union without some brute breathing down their neck.
Furthermore, “card check” is said to be a negotiating chip that organized labor is willing to give up in return for other concessions. It is not some holy principle. So you wonder whether the card-check obsession is really aimed at forcing a gesture of submission on the politician’s part.
Many progressive voters are rightly sore at Lincoln for fighting against the “public option” in the health-care bill. I that was the true cause of her near-upset, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Tags: Arkansas, health care, politics, unions, Washington
