“Something is rotten in the U.S. economy. Poor men without a college degree are disappearing from the labor force. The share of prime-age men (ages 25-54) who are neither working nor looking for work has doubled since the 1970s.” — The Atlantic “The U.S.’s labor participati[...]
Posts Tagged ‘labor’
First it was cheap labor in South Carolina, then the cheap labor moved to China, next .. robots
Assembly line workers in Hon Hai’s factories (Picture Getty) In the future, we will all be on benefits, while rich people use robots to make even MORE money. That’s the dark future hinted at by Samsung’s new ‘big project’ – a plan to build robots cheaper even than the miserably underpaid[...]
April 6th, 2015 - 11:05 am § in America, The Ave Scene
Conservatives Go Bull Shit Over Seattle’s Minimum Wage
Here is a response and fact check to the story that Ray Tennison posted and other conservatives bought hook line and sinker. Turns out like so much of their crap on minimum wage to not be true. Minimum Wage Increase Killing Seattle Restaurants? Anatomy Of A Lie From Inside The Bubble It all began [...]
February 28th, 2015 - 11:01 pm § in Politics
Book Review: Praising sweatshops
Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy, by Benjamin Powell (Cambridge University Press, 2014) Okay, I haven’t read it, I’ve only read the review in Barrons magazine, so this is really a review of a review. Benjamin Powell is a very conservative (actually libertarian) academic [...]
February 22nd, 2015 - 12:10 pm § in Misc.
Growing refinery strike threatens gas shortages and higher prices
The United Steelworkers expanded a refinery strike this weekend after rejecting oil companies’ seventh contract offer Thursday, and the widening strike could begin limiting gasoline supplies and driving up pump prices soon. Workers struck more refineries, including the nation’s largest, [...]
June 26th, 2014 - 12:55 pm § in America, The Ave Scene
IKEA: Nationalizes (USA) effort at fair minimal wage!
Ikea is raising the minimum wage in all of its U.S. stores by basing the wage floor on the MIT Living Wage Calculator, The MIT tool estimates the salary needed in a particular geographic area. According to Ikea, the move will boost the average store minimum wage to $10.76, a 17 percent incre[...]
Germany: VW may build its next plant outside the South!
WHY NOT HERE IN SEATTLE? German law requires works councils, giving employees a role in management, at all large German companies. This may mean VW needs to move out of the South! Or at least one of their Volkswagen subsidiaries! After the workers in Tennessee were coerced to reject the UAW by threa[...]
January 29th, 2014 - 10:00 am § in The Ave Scene
Amazon 2: No Unions Here
Amazon hates unions. Each of the above are really symptoms of one larger problem. Amazon executives categorically oppose the idea of warehouse workers organizing because they fear that unions would slow the speedy deliveries that have become the staple of the Amazon shopping experience. From The New[...]
December 19th, 2013 - 10:38 am § in Hypocrisy
Merry Christmas from Amazon’s elves in Germany!
BERLIN (AP) — Hundreds of workers at Amazon.com in Germany have walked off the job in an effort to put pressure on the American online retailer in the busy days before Christmas to settle on a new wage agreement.[...]