Economic Report :
Factory orders fell for a second straight month in February. According to a Commerce Department report released last week factory orders fell by 1.3 percent on top of a 2.3 percent decline in January. The drop in January was the largest in five months. All eyes are on the month of March – six straight months of declining numbers is necessary for economists to technically say the economy is in recession. The last increase was in November of 2007.
A strike at a Nike plant in Vietnam has come to an end. Jesse Russell reports:
A three-day strike by 15,000 workers at a factory that makes shoes for Nike has come to an end./ The workers walked off the job demanding a monthly pay raise of 200,000 dong, or roughly $12.40 in U.S. currency. The workers returned to work, agreeing to management’s offer of a pay increase of 100,000 dong, the equivalent of $6.20 per month. The workers are currently paid between the equivalent of $49 and $65 dollars per month, and were demanding the wage increases to offset the rising inflation in the country – consumer prices for essentials, such as rice, have jumped by more than 16 percent since this time last year.
By Doug Cunningham
For the second time in a week another small airline filed for bankruptcy. ATA Airlines abruptly shut down hours after filing. The Association of Flight Åttendants –CWA says this is another devastating blow to flight attendants who are now suddenly with livelihoods. The union represents 750 flight attendants at ATA. The abrupt shutdown of took customers by surprise, leaving them scrambling for alternative transportation.
By Doug Cunningham
The Blue-Green alliance between the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club is working now with Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection. The alliance is working to educate its members about global warming and then activate them around solutions that can promote economic prosperity with green principles. It’s an effort to build a strong blue-collar constituency for global warming solutions. Steelworkers President Leo Gerard says we’re looking towards a very near future when good, high-paying American jobs will be created by the emerging green economy.
By Doug Cunningham
It was forty years ago that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down in Memphis while supporting striking AFSCME sanitation workers. In a speech to the 1961 AFL-CIO convention Dr, King said the needs of African-Americans are identical with labor’s needs – decent wages, fair working conditions, liveable housing, old age security and health and welfare measures to create conditions where families can grow. Dr, King understood that the labor movement was and is a movement for fundamental justice. In a 1965 speech Dr. King said the labor movement was the principal forc
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Having health insurance no longer necessarily means that you can afford the medicines you need to stay healthy. According to a new report, people with health insurance are having more trouble paying for prescription drugs as insurers push more of the drug costs onto workers, at the same time the economic recession is stretching family budgets.
A survey by the National Patient Advocate Foundation, which helps people pay medical bills, found 31 percent of the nearly 45,000 people it assisted last year said drug co-payments were their top medical-debt problem.
In some cases, the patient’s share of drug costs is no longer a flat dollar amount, but a proportion that can range from 20 percent to 70 percent, according to USA Today. Co-payments for prescription drugs have risen most sharply for costly types of drugs.
Yesterday, workers in Annapolis, Md., were hoping to get a chance to talk to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) about jobs, the housing crisis and the economy.
They got to have their conversation—but McCain stayed away.
What he missed was an opportunity to hear firsthand how the economic crisis is affecting real people. Beverly Norton, an AFSCME member and 20-year state employee, described her situation, one that’s all too common today. She’s at risk of losing her home because her economic situation has left her without a safety net.
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