workers

( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – This is the Year for the Elimination of Child Labor. What can democracies do to make this a reality? By Timothy Ryan | September 23, 2021 Two years ago, when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro favorably promoted the idea of labor for children as young as eight or nine, […]

African-Americans

The Labor Day Dreams of Black Workers

Inequality.org

By Marc Bayard, Sarah Anderson and Rebekah Entralgo | – As our second pandemic Labor Day approaches, Black worker leaders are determined to never again bear the brunt of a national crisis as they have under Covid-19. At least four U.S. employees have now been killed as they tried to enforce mask mandates — and […]

Banking

This time, it is the Students and the Unions that the Gov’t Needs to Bail out for a Healthy Economy

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Digging our way back out of the pandemic recession will not be easy, but we have the advantage of knowing what worked and did not work in the 2008 crisis. Any policy choice today does not operate on a blank slate. No one knows this more than […]

US politics

Is America’s Big Problem Really overly generous Unemployment Benefits?

John Buell

Ending enhanced unemployment benefits has become the signature economic agenda for the GOP, a party with little else to promote. Unfortunately the largely low- key response of the President on this issue has been disappointing. The failure to mount a vigorous defense of these benefits is bad ethics, bad policy, and bad politics. As for […]

women

Mother’s Day Tears: The Fierce Prophetic Vision of Poor Women

Liz Theoharis

( Tomdispatch.com) – One hundred and fifty years ago, in the bloody wake of the Civil War, the abolitionist Julia Ward Howe issued a “Mother’s Day Proclamation.” The world, she wrote, could no longer bear such terrible violence and death. She called on women across the country to “rise up through the ashes and devastation” […]

Employment

Congress needs to pass Labor Laws Protecting Union Drives and right to Strike

OtherWords

By Rebekah Entralgo | – ( Otherwords.org) – Following one of the most high-profile union votes in history, workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama ultimately rejected efforts to form a union. But for labor advocates, this fight is far from over. “The Amazon workers who voted for a union in Bessemer are already […]

Employment

For Workers struggling to Unionize at Amazon, it is a Matter of Life and Death

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – That unions lost the battle to organize Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama plant should and did come as no surprise. The workers were up against one of the world’s most affluent and powerful corporations. Yet despite the 2 to 1 loss, the organization effort did help to reveal Amazon’s […]

Banking

An Open Letter to Senator Joe Manchin: Stop worrying about Inflation and Focus on Keeping Hurting Workers Afloat

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Dear Senator Manchin; Corporate media now portray you as on of the most powerful politicians in DC. Hard bargaining on the amount and length of unemployment insurance chopped 100 dollars a week off the compensation workers will receive. This compromise, which you defended on the grounds it […]

Joe Biden

Biden’s Relief Package Is a Huge Victory for Workers

OtherWords

By Rebekah Entralgo | – ( Otherwords.org ) – President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan is more than just a response to the coronavirus. It’s also one of the largest anti-poverty measures in U.S. history. Provisions in the package, like expanding the Child Tax Credit alone, will bring nearly 4 million kids out […]