Labor Union Blog

Lede: Workers in Detroit have taken some body blows over the years and are suffering now, but the spirit of the city that boxing legend Joe Louis called home refuses to stay down. Doug Cunningham reports.

By Doug Cunningham

Poor and working class people in Detroit are feeling the brunt of the recession, but there’s a spirit of resistance to this economic system’s injustices. And it’s alive and well in Maureen Taylor of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization.

[Taylor]: “Homelessness up. Child abuse, domestic abuse, up. Poverty up, food prices up, unemployment up. Political corruption exploding, gas prices exploding. Hopelessness, up. Seems like the cost of living is goin’ up, but the chances of livin’ is goin’ down!

Lede: Workers in Detroit have taken some body blows over the years and are suffering now – but the spirit of the city that boxing legend Joe Louis called home refuses to stay down. Doug Cunningham reports.

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By Doug Cunningham

Poor and working class people in Detroit are feeling the brunt of the recession, but there’s a spirit of resistance to this economic system’s injustices . And it’s alive and well in Maureen Taylor of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization.

[Taylor]: “Homelessness up. Child abuse, domestic abuse, up. Poverty up, food prices up, unemployment up. Political corruption exploding, gas prices

By Jesse Russell

With the Pennsylvania primary coming on Tuesday, Democratic Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spent last week making their final pitches for Pennsylvanian voters. They both took time off to visit the AFL-CIO and Building Trades and Constructions Department’s Legislative Conference, where they both tried to convince construction unions why they would be best suited for the title of President.

Clinton said the country needs unions to set the standard and example for the country and the rest of the world.

[Clinton]: “When other countries exploit their workers to disadvantage unions, we need unions standing strong for workers’ rights. And when 47 million Americans don’t have health insurance and millions more have it but it costs too much and doesn’t cover enough, we need unions standing strong for the right to quality affordable healthcare.”

By Jesse Russell

With the Pennsylvania primary coming on Tuesday Democratic Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spent last week making their final pitches for Pennsylvanian voters. They both took time off to visit the AFL-CIO and Building Trades and Constructions Department’s Legislative Conference where they both tried to convince construction unions why they would be best suited for the title of President.

Clinton said the country needs union to set the standard and example for the country and the rest of the world.

[Clinton]: When other countries exploit their workers to disadvantage unions, we need unions standing strong for workers’ rights. And when 47 million don’t have insurance and millions more have it but it costs too much and doesn’t cover enough we need unions standing strong for the right to quality affordable healthcare.

This is a cross-post from the Firedoglake blog.

Here’s an idea. Instead of retiring when we turn 65, let’s go to work scrubbing tables at the nearest fast-food outlet.

Sound good?

Not to most of us. But it’s a future that U.S. workers increasingly are facing. America’s workers aren’t just losing their homes in what is misleadingly termed the nation’s mortgage crisis. More of us are losing retirement savings as well, as pension funds bear the brunt of overwhelming losses faced by financial institutions. The International Monetary Fund estimates the financial turmoil triggered by the collapse of the mortgage market could total nearly $1 trillion.