Economic Report:

By Jesse Russell

The U.S. Conference of Mayors has issued an especially grim report concerning property values. The report suggests that homeowners could lose equity over the next year of $1.2 trillion dollars and project an increase in foreclosures of at least 1.4 million. The decline in home prices across the country will average 7 percent while California will be hit the hardest seeing a decline of 16 percent. As a result as many as 524,000 fewer jobs being created.

By Doug Cunningham

For four years a handful of workers with the help of UNITE-HERE have fought to organize a union at the Monterey Travel Lodge in California. They’re rallying today to protest the continuing anti-union actions of the lodge’s owner. UNITE-HERE 43’s Mark Weller.

[Weller]: “We need to lift these hospitality jobs into the middle class, not drag them into poverty. And so, this is a three year boycott, its a four year fight. And it's thirteen workers. But these thirteen workers are as important as any others in the United States, so we're going to continue to fight for them."

By Doug Cunningham

For four years a handful of workers with the help of UNITE-HERE have fought to organize a union at the Monterey Travel Lodge in California. They’re rallying today to protest the continuing anti-union actions of the lodge’s owner. UNITE-HERE 43’s Mark Weller.

[Weller]: “We need to lift these hospitality jobs into the middle class, not drag them into poverty. And so, this is a three year boycott, its a four year fight. And it's thirteen workers. But these thirteen workers are as important as any others in the United States, so we're going to continue to fight for them."

Has a New York Times reporter blown the lid off of manhole production in India? Jesse Russell takes a look:

The photographs are stunning. Indian workers forge manholes out of iron standing barefoot, bare-hand, bare-chest, and bare-head. All that protects the lower half of their bodies – in some cases thin shorts, but often nothing more than a cloth tied like a skirt. These are the conditions for workers making the manholes for Con Edison and New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection. The conditions were discovered when photographer J. Adam Huggins noticed that many of the manholes around New York said “Made in India” and on a trip to the country he decided to see how they were made. According to the Times report Con Edison buys 2,750 manhole covers a year from India. Officials commented to the Times that they were surprised by the conditions and that they would “rewrite international contracts to include safety requirements.” When it comes to protective equipment India’s Factory Safety Act only specifies safety goggles.

Has a New York Times reporter blown the lid off of manhole production in India? Jesse Russell takes a look:

The photographs are stunning. Indian workers forge manholes out of iron standing barefoot, bare-hand, bare-chest, and bare-head. All that protects the lower half of their bodies – in some cases thin shorts, but often nothing more than a cloth tied like a skirt. These are the conditions for workers making the manholes for Con Edison and New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection. The conditions were discovered when photographer J. Adam Huggins noticed that many of the manholes around New York said “Made in India” and on a trip to the country he decided to see how they were made. According to the Times report Con Edison buys 2,750 manhole covers a year from India. Officials commented to the Times that they were surprised by the conditions and that they would “rewrite international contracts to include safety requirements.” When it comes to protective equipment India’s Factory Safety Act only specifies safety goggles.

By Doug Cunningham

The United Steelworkers has teamed with the Sierra Club and other groups to form a coalition that’s suing the state of California to enforce the state’s protections against cancer-causing chemicals. USW’s Shawn Gilchrest says the coalition also wants Dupont’s Teflon chemical – PFOA – treated as a carcinogen.

[Gilchrest]: “The agencies are just not reacting to the hazardous chemicals the way that the law is intended. And so what we really want to do is hold the agencies accountable. We depend on our agencies and on our federal regulators to be watchdogs for us and its a shame when we actually have to take them to court to hold them accountable for doing what they should be doing."

By Doug Cunningham

The United Steelworkers has teamed with the Sierra Club and other groups to form a coalition that’s suing the state of California to enforce the state’s protections against cancer-causing chemicals. USW’s Shawn Gilchrest says the coalition also wants Dupont’s Teflon chemical – PFOA – treated as a carcinogen.

[Gilchrest]: “The agencies are just not reacting to the hazardous chemicals the way that the law is intended. And so what we really want to do is hold the agencies accountable. We depend on our agencies and on our federal regulators to be watchdogs for us and its a shame when we actually have to take them to court to hold them accountable for doing what they should be doing."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has abandoned its attempt to enforce its proposed “no match” rule that would improperly use Social Security records for immigration enforcement.

Last Friday, the department asked a federal court in San Francisco to put on hold until March 2008 a lawsuit challenging the rule, which could affect more than 8 million workers. The government says it plans to publish a revised rule next month.

The lawsuit charges the rule would require employers to penalize U.S. citizens and legal workers whose Social Security numbers don’t match up with the Social Security Administration (SSA) database.

Ed Mayne

The union movement is mourning the loss of Ed Mayne, the president of the Utah State AFL-CIO, who died Nov. 25 of cancer. Mayne, 62, led the Utah union movement for 30 years.

Mayne began his union career as a member of the United Steelworkers while he was working for Kennecott Copper in the Bingham Canyon mine. He was elected president of USW Local 485 in 1977, leading a tough contract negotiation with Kennecott that year. Shortly after that, he was elected president of the Utah State AFL-CIO at age 32, making him the youngest state federation president in the country at the time.

He was elected to the Utah state Senate in 1994 and was in his fourth term when he died. In the Senate, just as in the union movement, Mayne fought for those who had no voice, working to maintain benefits for the most needy on Medicaid and legislation to raise the minimum wage, among other issues.

Health care is guaranteed to be a top issue in the 2008 presidential election. It’s on the minds of voters, and Democratic and Republican candidates have proposed plans reflecting their vision of how to address the crisis in our nation’s health care system.

With so many candidates, and sharply different visions of the problems and how to address them, it can be hard to sort out the real facts about presidential candidate health care proposals.