Labor Notes
1. Chipotle is supposed to be the “good” fast food company. You know, the capitalists that we can look to and say, “Hey, the system can work!” But Chipotle also won’t sign the Fair Food Agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the tomato picker union that has waged a long struggle to bring Florida farmworkers out of their near-slavery conditions. Other fast food companies have done so. If you aren’t familiar with the CIW, see here.
2. Last week, John Stossel decided to pull a James O’Keefe. He’s been going around to union offices claiming he’s interested in filming “beautiful buildings.” Um, yeah I’m sure. What he’s actually up to is almost certainly exposing the supposedly lavish offices of unions. I don’t know what kind of an office Richard Trumka has, but I’ve been in my share of union offices and they ain’t luxurious.
Also, John Stossel is both an idiot and a giant douche. As Laura Clawson says in the linked article, you can’t be James O’Keefe if everyone knows who you are.
3. Nice Josh Eidelson piece on some Republican lawmakers getting cold feet over attacking unions in their states. Josh notes that they are all watching Wisconsin. If Walker wins, the game is back on. If Walker loses, this retrenchment might hold. Another reason why the DNC needs to contribute its share.
4. Outstanding Mariya Strauss piece on the Department of Labor failing to update safety rules for child labor on farms. I’ve talked about this before, but Strauss gives you the information you need to know.
On the other hand, after seeing this image of a black hole destroying a star, what’s the point of living?
you can’t be James O’Keefe if everyone knows who you are.
Stossel should have worn his pimp suit. You just know he has one.
It’s more of a gimp suit than a pimp suit
LOL at Mr. Pornstache. Most Union offices are clean but well-worn third-tier space in crummy areas. Glibertarian twit.
Seriously. Stossel should come to my local’s offices. Very modest in size, in a pretty nondescript late 1960s-era office building, most of the furniture is second-hand, the computers are functional but years out of date, etc.
Plus, I’ll bet a sawbuck that the bar for what folks like Stossel regard as lavish gets way lowered in the case of unions. “They even have toilets and running water! An outrage, I say!”
Well of course, squandering YOUR money on fancy-schmancy electricity
On Stossel: #1–unions need to keep some professional wrestlers on hand to answer any questions Stossel might have about it being “fake.”
#2–Liberty Mutual’s CEO gave his own office a $4.5 million renovation--after Liberty Mutual got $46 million in tax breaks from the City of Boston. Stossel really, really wants it to be true that union members are just as greedy and wasteful as the Alpha Republicans, and can’t understand that most people just don’t have the same kind of money he has, much less the CEOs have.
By the way, nice tidbit from Krugman’s new book: In 2006, the top 25 hedge fund managers combined to make 3 times the combined salaries of all eighty thousand NYC school teachers.
Aye, don’t say professional wrestling never made a positive contribution to the world.
I’m not afraid to say that Unions ought to have lavish offices. I want them to be well-lit, clean, pleasantly appointed places with comfortable desks and chairs and up-to-date equipment and infrastructure, so that morale remains high and they’re better able to do their job, which is hitting corporations over the head until they scream bloody murder and fork over a fair share of their profits to their workers.
Nothing’s too good for the working class.
Loomis: “I’ve been in my share of union offices and they ain’t luxurious.”
Well, shit. Now I’m wondering what my fair share of union offices is, and whether I’ve already hit it or need to get on the ball.
The shame! Look at this place.
Unions having well-appointed offices is almost as bad as poor people having refrigerators and air conditioners.
The Mariya Strauss piece does a fine job of explaining the details of the farm child labor rules that might have been adopted, the need for them, and the alternatives, but COMPLETELY lets Hilda Solis and the Obama admin off the hook for caving to the agribiz/right-wing attack. These rules were within Solis’ power to issue, and Obama’s political cowardice will cost the lives of a hundred young people every year.
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