Right-to-Work Laws Harm the Middle Class

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States should not pass so-called "right-to-work" laws because they are a body blow to the middle class and undermine a state's economy. Unions are essential for building a strong middle class, yet right-to-work laws weaken unions by making them provide services without being paid for them—forcing certain workers to pay the costs of union representation for all workers.

And by harming the middle class, these laws hurt the economy because a strong middle class leads to additional business investment, greater entrepreneurship, more growth-enhancing public policy, and higher levels of trust that facilitate business transactions.

The evidence that 'right-to-work' laws harm the middle class is crystal clear... 

Video: Law prohibiting union agreements to pass in Michigan

Republican lawmakers in Michigan are pushing to pass a right-to-work law, which could have an impact in union-heavy states across the U.S. Elaine Quijano reports.

Developed country wages show no growth in 2012: ILO

Of course not. Global capitalism has won out. And they are about exploiting labor by keeping wages as low as possible:

source: Yahoo/Reuters

 Average salaries in developed countries are expected to have risen by no more than inflation this year, the International Labour Organization said on Friday.

Developed country wages failed to keep up with inflation in both 2008 and 2011, but remained about 5 percent above the 2000 level in real terms, the ILO said in its Global Wage Report, published every two years.

"So far as we can tell for 2012 at this stage the trend seems to be for zero percent growth -- flatlining," ILO Director General Guy Ryder told a news conference in Geneva.

The report said governments in the euro zone and countries with big deficits should avoid squeezing labor with a "race to the bottom" in wages.

Ryder said governments should adopt policies that encourage companies to invest their cash piles and encourage banks to lend to small businesses.

Minimum wage policies, which were used until 2009 as social protection to help the most vulnerable workers, were now rising only in line with inflation or even fell in real terms, the ILO said.

Michigan GOP Passes 'Right To Work' Legislation

The war on labor is heating up. And if you want war you got it. And that applies to Obama as well. He is nothing but a facilitator:

Following the Michigan House's lead, the state Senate passed a right-to-work measure on Thursday evening -- just hours after Gov. Rick Snyder and top GOP Republicans announced the bills.

Despite impassioned debate from Senate Democrats, the measure passed with a 22-16 vote. According to the Associated Press, four Republican state Senators joined all 12 of their Democratic counterparts in opposition to the right-to-work bill. It passed the Michigan House by a vote of 58-52 earlier in the evening. During the House vote, Democrats walked off the floor in protest after at least eight protesters were arrested, crowds were pepper-sprayed and the Capitol building locked down.

Walmart Workers Reflect Economy's Future

We are well on our way to becoming a third world country. And that's exactly what the corporatocrats want:

A half-century ago, America's largest private-sector employer was General Motors, where full-time workers earned an average hourly wage of around $50 in today's dollars, including health and pension benefits.

Today, America's largest employer is Walmart, where the average sales associate earns $8.81 an hour. A third of Walmart's employees work less than 28 hours per week and don't qualify for benefits.

There are many reasons for the difference - including globalization and technological changes that have shrunk employment in American manufacturing while enlarging it in sectors involving personal services, such as retail.

But one reason, closely related to this seismic shift, is the decline of labor unions in the United States. In the 1950s, more than a third of private-sector workers belonged to a union. Today, fewer than 7 percent do. As a result, the typical American worker no longer has the bargaining clout to get a sizable share of corporate profits.

At the peak of its power and influence in the 1950s, the United Auto Workers could claim a significant portion of GM's earnings for its members.

Walmart's employees, by contrast, have no union to represent them. So they've had no means of getting much of the corporation's earnings.

Walmart earned $16 billion last year (it just reported a 9 percent increase in earnings in the third quarter of 2012, to $3.6 billion), much of which went to Walmart's shareholders - including the family of its founder, Sam Walton.

The wealth of the Walton family now exceeds the wealth of the bottom 40 percent of American families combined, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.

Bankrupt Hostess Brand Workers Laid Off, Executives Get Bonuses

Why do we put up with this. Working people in America are not allowed minimum increases in pay. And if they protest their employers fire them, move abroad, or file for bankruptcy. The CEOs who mismanage a company are given massive bonuses. Don't take it anymore:

Warehouse worker lawsuit targets Walmart

Warehouse worker lawsuit targets Walmart | The Center for Public Integrity

Walmart's poor labor record

Walmart's poor labor record - SFGate

Congress Revolts On Obama Plan That Would Ban 'Buy American'

This President proves once again that he has no loyalty to American workers. And still unions plan supporting this anti-labor administration. It is astonishing that Obama continues spit in the eye of working people and the poor and we still just keep buying his lies. He has betrayed his supporters and party. WAKE-UP. Don't be conned any further. Think for yourself. Barack Obama is a fraud:

A group of 68 House Democrats and one Republican sent a letter to President Barack Obama on Thursday urging him to reconsider an element of the controversial free trade agreement currently being negotiated by the administration. If approved in its current form, the pact would effectively ban "Buy American" policies in government contracting.

Although the deal, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, has received relatively little media attention in the United States, it has sparked international friction among consumer groups and environmental activists who worry that terms demanded by the Obama administration will eliminate important public protections. Domestically, however, the deal's primary source of political tension is from a portion that could ban "Buy American" provisions -- a restriction that opponents emphasize would crimp U.S. jobs.

Full article

Wal-Mart Ordered to Pay $4.8 million in Back Wages

A major victory for these employees and message sent to Wal-Mart. But many workers throughout America are being robbed of their rights on a daily basis. The war on labor is real and spreading, regardless of this particular case:

The Labor Department on Tuesday ordered Wal-Mart to pay $4.8 million in back wages and damages to thousands of employees who were denied overtime charges, the latest in a string of embarrassments for the company over its business practices.

The department said its decision affects roughly 4,500 vision-center managers and asset-protection coordinators who worked at Wal-Mart between 2004 and 2007. Wal-Mart had considered those employees exempt from federal regulations requiring overtime pay but reclassified them in 2007. The government and the retailer have been negotiating the amount owed since then.

[...]The decision comes as Wal-Mart faces investigations into its Mexican operations after the New York Times reported that company executives turned a blind eye while employees allegedly bribed local officials to approve new stores.

Report: Low Seattle hotel wages amount to 'hidden subsidy'

Another example of how America is becoming a third-word nation:

A new report from a Seattle non-profit group says that downtown Seattle's hotels are projected to enjoy tidy profits this year - at the expense of hotel workers and local taxpayers.

The report called "Our Pain, Their Gain: The hidden costs of profitability in Seattle's downtown hotels," notes that between 2006 and 2010, the State of Washington spent more than $44 million to cover an average of 4,224 uninsured hotel workers per year.

"There is a hidden subsidy to this industry," says Howard Greenwich, research director of Puget Sound Sage, a regional economic policy advocacy group.

Full article

Sarah Palin Claims Child Labor Laws Are Causing America To Fail

Palin is wrong. Obama doesn't care about laborers either:

In a Facebook post titled “If I Wanted America to Fail, I’d Ban Kids From Farm Work,” Palin wrote,

“The Obama Administration is working on regulations that would prevent children from working on our own family farms. This is more overreach of the federal government with many negative consequences. And if you think the government’s new regs will stop at family farms, think again.”

Her post is in response to US Department of Labor’s plan to update the Fair Labor Standards Act to include the farming industry. For the first time, children would be protected on non-family owned farms. Working with pesticides, lumber mills, animals, manure pits, storage bins, and many other jobs that children are often employed to perform would be regulated. But Sarah Palin doesn’t think America needs to protect kids. She thinks child labor laws make America fail. The problem with Palin’s position is that it’s dangerous and threatens the lives of our kids. Industry has taken advantage of child workers before.

According to Eastern Illinois University, before child labor laws, children, some as young as three years old, “endured some of the harshest conditions. Workdays would often be 10 to 14 hours with minimal breaks during the shift. Factories employing children were often very dangerous places leading to injuries and even deaths.  Machinery often ran so quickly that little fingers, arms and legs could easily get caught. Beyond the equipment, the environment was a threat to children as well as factories put out fumes and toxins.  When inhaled by children these most certainly could result in illness, chronic conditions or disease. Beyond the topic of safety, children working lengthy hours had limited access to education. Many families relied on income earned by each family member and did not allow children to attend school at all. Those fortunate enough to be enrolled often attended only portions of a school day or only a few weeks at a time.”

Full article

Anti-union Right’s alternate reality on NLRB election rule

Source:

A vigorous opponent of unions, the Workplace Fairness Institute, according to the New York Times, was founded by “several long-term Republican operatives” and is funded by undisclosed corporate donors. However, Mr. Wszolek’s arguments should be considered on their merits, so let’s take a closer look at his so-called “facts."

Fact No 1: Is “regulatory uncertainty” destroying jobs? On this point, Wszolek might read the Economic Policy Institute’s study, “Regulatory Uncertainty: A Phony Explanation for our jobs problem.” EPI director Larry Mishel concludes, “An examination of current economic trends, and especially what employers are doing in terms of hiring and investment, debunks this story about regulatory uncertainty as the cause of our dismal
job growth.” With regard to the NLRB rules, GOP lawsuits and legislation are responsible for creating the current uncertainty.

Research Shows the US is a Low Wage Country

This should be a wake-up call to the supporters of this President. If Obama were a Republican this stat would be used against him. But it seems that the left has been drinking the cool aid and refuse to see reality for what it is. President Obama serves the interest of big business. He's proven that over and over again. Don't be fooled any longer.


Source: CBS

Bloomberg Editorial: U.S. Minimum Wage Needs A Raise

Why is a capitalist newspaper calling for raising the minimum wage and Obama refuses to mention the subject? And why is Democratic Party almost completely silent except for some States legislatures? Maybe because they represent the interests of big business:

Here’s an unhappy observation about the minimum wage: Congress last increased the rate in stages in 2006, topping it out at $7.25 an hour in 2009, or $15,080 a year.

That amount, when adjusted for inflation, is actually lower than what a minimum-wage worker earned in 1968 and is too meager to offer anyone the chance to climb out of poverty, let alone afford basic goods and services.

About 10 states are now considering raising the rate, and Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, is proposing to increase the federal rate in three increments to $9.80 an hour in 2014. Many of the initiatives under consideration would smartly tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, meaning that those workers’ wages would finally keep up with inflation.

[...]But a wave of new economic research is disproving those arguments about job losses and youth employment. Previous studies tended not to control for regional economic trends that were already affecting employment levels, such as a manufacturing-dependent state that was shedding jobs. The new research looks at micro-level employment patterns for a more accurate employment picture.
The studies find minimum-wage increases even provide an economic boost, albeit a small one, as strapped workers immediately spend their raises. A 2011 paper by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago found that a $1 minimum-wage increase lifts household income by about $250 and increases spending by about $700 a quarter in the following year. The spending increase is driven by a small number of households that primarily buy vehicles.

[...]A team of economists, led by Arindrajit Dube of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, compared employment levels in contiguous areas with disparate minimum-wage levels over a 16-year period and concluded in a 2010 paper there are “strong earnings effects and no employment effects of minimum wage increases.” 

Full article

More American workers sue employers for overtime pay

There is a lot of talk about the 'war on women.' But what about the war on labor (which obviously affects women). The reason: both parties have declared war on American workers. Why else would things keep getting worse under Republican and Democratic administrations alike:

Americans were pushed to their limit in the recession and its aftermath as they worked longer hours, often for the same or less pay, after businesses laid off almost 9 million employees.

Now, many are striking back in court. Since the height of the recession in 2008, more workers across the nation have been suing employers under federal and state wage-and-hour laws. The number of lawsuits filed last year was up 32% vs. 2008, an increase that some experts partly attribute to a post-downturn austerity that pervaded the American workplace and artificially inflated U.S. productivity.

Workers' main grievance is that they had to put in more than 40 hours a week without overtime pay through various practices:

Full article

INCONVENIENT TRUTH: Your iPhone Was Built, In Part, By 13 Year-Olds Working 16 Hours A Day For 70 Cents An Hour

The evil which is outsourcing and international capitalism:

We love our iPhones and iPads.

We love the prices of our iPhones and iPads.

We love the super-high profit margins of Apple, Inc., the maker of our iPhones and iPads.

And that's why it's disconcerting to remember that the low prices of our iPhones and iPads--and the super-high profit margins of Apple--are only possible because our iPhones and iPads are made with labor practices that would be illegal in the United States.

And it's also disconcerting to realize that the folks who make our iPhones and iPads not only don't have iPhones and iPads (because they can't afford them), but, in some cases, have never even seen them.

Full article from Business Insider:

Young Turks Video: Obama Won't Propose Minimum Wage Increase Despite Promise

They want a fight? We need to give the Republicans in that State one:

The finish line may be in sight for an end to the House Democratic walkout and the passage of the "right to work" bill that prompted it.

A Senate committee voted 6-4 Friday to advance the legislation that would prevent companies and labor unions from negotiating contracts that require nonmembers to pay fees.

The approval came after a marathon hearing where supporters called the measure a job-boosting tool and opponents labeled it a union-busting, wage-lowering ploy. The vote clears the way for certain passage by the Senate in the coming days.

Full article

Walkout by Indiana Democrats stalls anti-union bill

With all the attention on the worthless Republican primaries lets not forget that there is still a war on working people in America:

Indiana House Democrats met behind closed doors on Wednesday, delaying the start of the 2012 legislative session and blocking action on controversial anti-union legislation backed by Republicans.

House Democratic Leader Pat Bauer defended the walkout, saying his members had been forced to boycott the first day of the new session to thwart a Republican effort to quickly ram the so-called right-to-work measure through the house.

Only additional hearings on the bill, including public meetings around the state, would break the impasse, Bauer said.

Full article