California’s 1.4 million-member public-sector unions are the key force that has pushed the state toward increasingly progressive policies. The Supreme Court could seriously diminish that force.
The Pew Research Center says that among millennials who head households, more live in poverty than do households led by previous generations — and that national support for unions is largely driven by millennials.
“All of this rhetoric about a middle-class tax cut,” Robert Reich tells Capital & Main, “is just an absurd lie when you look at the numbers.”
Co-published by AlterNet
Wisconsin provided early examples of scorched-earth labor policies. California unions took note.
Co-published by International Business Times
Millions of public-sector workers could soon be targeted by conservative groups trying to dissuade them from paying union fees.
If the Supreme Court votes as expected in the landmark Janus v. AFSCME case, conservatives will have fulfilled one of their most cherished goals — weakening the nation’s public employee unions.
Co-published by AlterNet
A Supreme Court case that could topple the power of California’s unions has been a perfect storm gathering for 40 years.
Co-published by International Business Times
Right-to-work forces see in Janus v. AFSCME a golden opportunity to cripple public-sector unions, while organized labor looks for a silver lining in the event the Supreme Court rules in Mark Janus’ favor.
Co-published by Newsweek
Undocumented laborers who worked in Wine Country vineyards are now finding the only assistance they can hope for, following Northern California’s recent wildfires, is mostly private charity.
Co-published by Fast Company
The United Auto Workers union has filed an unfair labor practice charge against Tesla for firing pro-union workers at its Fremont, California auto assembly plant.
Professional “wet cleaning,” a process developed in Germany in 1991, relies on special computer-controlled machines and detergents to safely clean delicate garments with water. Can California’s dry cleaners be persuaded to switch from using toxic chemicals to this most eco-friendly of cleaning methods?
Co-published by Fast Company
Why would Tesla suddenly fire hundreds of workers at its one and only automobile plant? Could it be because it wanted to exchange vocally pro-union workers with temps that are cheaper to employ and easier to control?
Co-published by International Business Times
In California’s recent legislative “grand compromise” of an affordable housing package, developers got subsidies for building and a streamlined path to construction. It’s hard to see what they gave up in the exchange.
Co-published by International Business Times
“I think I have economic PTSD,” says Sami Abdou. With almost no savings or retirement account, the 32-year-old TV director is not even close to being able to buy a house.
Co-published by International Business Times
Proposition 13’s backers have fended off legal challenges and watched as many efforts to amend it in Sacramento fizzled. What they haven’t faced is a sustained ground campaign, but that will soon change.
“Lil Bill” Flournoy’s bicycle-repair shop has a panoramic view of the community that he and his father have served for over 40 years — and of the new USC Village, which has pushed his business into the street.
A coalition of elected officials, local residents and community leaders are encouraging Los Angeles’ City Council to require that any bank it does business with not engage in the kinds of unethical practices that helped mire the city’s current bank, Wells Fargo, in scandal.
This week on The Bottom Line podcast, Rick Wartzman talks to Cynthia Figge of CSRHub about the ways companies benefit from sustainable business practices.
In some ways, says economist Jared Bernstein, the incompetence of the Trump administration and dysfunctionality of the Republican Congress have been an asset for the economy.
An interview about how rising income, persistent inequality and populist politics all fit together.
Not eating well sparks a cascade effect in anyone, but the effect is especially pronounced among a homeless population experiencing high levels of stress, mental illness, substance abuse and all the pains that accompany the aging process.
Co-published by AlterNet
Everytable’s mission is to put healthy, tasty, affordable meals within reach of people in low-income communities. To stay profitable, the dining chain’s customers at its locations in more affluent parts Los Angeles pay more for the same meal than those in working-class neighborhoods.
St. Paul, who wrote the earliest documents we have from the Christian era, declared: “Each will receive wages according to the labor of each.” You work, you get paid.
Dolores, a documentary mix of archival footage and interviews with Dolores Huerta, her family and such prominent figures as Gloria Steinem, Angela Davis and Luis Valdez, portrays the United Farm Workers co-founder as a pivotal yet relatively uncredited luminary in labor history.
Nail-care salons are an $8.5 billion industry that is booming in America, but one that is also replete with an often-exploited immigrant work force, low wages, dangerous chemicals and difficult patrons. Change, though, is gradually coming.
Co-published by Newsweek
With momentum on infrastructure rebuilding stalled, the Trump administration this week is moving ahead to repeal a two-year initiative dating from the Obama administration that might be the only dynamic infrastructure and jobs program in existence at the federal level.
A new study finds that California’s proliferation of renewable energy plants is responsible for over 90 percent of direct economic benefits from the state’s major climate programs to Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and more than $12 billion in net benefits to the region. The research also flies in the face of arguments that regulations kill jobs.
While a GM executive, Mike Jackson led the exodus of advertisers from Don Imus’s show. In a special edition of The Bottom Line podcast, Jackson talks to Rick Wartzman about the collapse of Trump’s business councils and how corporate America can best approach the issue of racism.
Featured interviews with Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti and Rob Siegel, who wrote the biopic “The Founder” about McDonald’s mogul Ray Kroc. Also, Lily Bowles, sustainability officer at Aspiration, takes a look at which fast-food companies are leaders, and which are laggards, when it comes to taking care of their people and the environment.
Co-published by The American Prospect /
“Sustainability” is the mantra for many groups and businesses near the Salton Sea. But sustainability for whom? BY DAVID BACON