Tag Archive for workers

AT&T Takes Money, Fires People

August 10, 2018 Comments Off on AT&T Takes Money, Fires People
[From Support the Fight for Good Jobs at AT&T]

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson made a promise to invest in his workforce and create at least 7,000 jobs if the tax bill passed.

Well, the bill did pass, and AT&T received a $20 billion windfall. But instead of creating jobs, AT&T has laid off over a thousand workers across the country in the past few months. And the company keeps sending work to low-wage and overseas contractors, devastating families and communities across America.

AT&T workers are fighting back. CWA members at AT&T Midwest and AT&T’s national Legacy T division are fighting for fair union contracts and have voted to strike if necessary to secure a deal that guarantees good jobs, affordable healthcare, and a secure retirement.

Send AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson this message : “I support good jobs and a fair union contract for working people at AT&T.” Sign the petition HERE.

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Culture and Contempt, Chavez Style

March 29, 2018 Comments Off on Culture and Contempt, Chavez Style

This Saturday is Caesar Chavez Day in California, Arizona, Michigan, New Mexico, and Nebraska.  It celebrates the legacy of an American farm-worker who led his fellow  workers toward claiming their civil  rights.  Along with Dolores Huerta, he started the United Farm Workers.  This day was established as one in which we focus on doing service for the community.  In today’s Thursday Thought quote, he  reminds us of an important fact that should be everyone’s mindset.

“Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.” — Cesar Chavez

 

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Lots of Jobs!

July 10, 2017 Comments Off on Lots of Jobs!

Great news, in case you missed it.  U.S. jobs have been growing for 80 straight months!  Good for our economy AND for many people struggling to find work.

Looks  like the economists are right. Since 80 months = roughly 6 years under Obama and half a year under Trump, Presidents have little to do with job growth.  Who  cares who gets the credit?  As long as more American workers are finding employment and their families are having improved quality of life!

 

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Shoppers: Make that Really a Good Deal

December 9, 2015 Comments Off on Shoppers: Make that Really a Good Deal

Attention, Walmart shoppers:  Those deals you’re getting aren’t such good deals.  Set aside for the moment that you can get similar items elsewhere on sale and meet or beat Walmart’s prices.  Set aside the fact that you’re budget likes it when you buy items that are cheap every day, even though their manufacturer is subsidized by the Chinese government, with low standards that often produce sub-standard or dangerous products. The fact is, those “cheap” items cost America and our workers dearly.

Reuters reports that Walmart single-handedly caused 15.3% of our counry’s goods trade deficit between 2001 and 2013–that’s $48.1 BILLION that went to China rather than into our economy.  400,000 American jobs were lost to Chinese workers, who, by the way, suffer abuse in their jobs.

Walmart claims they’ll be adding jobs here.  Most of their workers, however, are paid low wages and are kept part-time so the corporation doesn’t have to pay benefits.  According to the Economic Policy Institute, real jobs are not materializing, and the EPI projects that Walmart will send more manufacturing jobs to China in the next decade than it creates for U.S. workers.  All in all, the situation harms our economy.

Keep this in mind this holiday-shopping season.  Watch the ads.  Use the coupons.  Shop wisely.  Just not at Walmart.  Make it a merrier Christmas for the American economy and our workers.

 

 

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Kids Are Not Good Business

November 17, 2014 Comments Off on Kids Are Not Good Business

This morning’s news brought a disturbing statistic: 1 in 3 American children are homeless, and 2 1/2 MILLION kids were without a home sometime during last year–so says the National Center for Family and Homelessness.  (For details, read the article in The Guardian.)   The two main causes are the impact of domestic violence and lack of affordable housing.

It’s this second cause that shouldn’t exist.  In the same news I learned that Candlestick Park in San Francisco is slated to become a luxury shopping center, hotel, and housing.  You can bet it won’t be affordable housing!  San Francisco is doing the same kind of project there that they’ve done at Hunter’s Point and the shipping yard.  The argument for the Candlestick Park venture is that it will create 3000 permanent jobs.  I can’t help wondering, though, where those service and hotel workers filling those jobs will live.  They won’t earn enough to live at that complex or anywhere else in pricey San Francisco, or down the road in nearby cities, either.  If they’re among the many under-employed homeless people, they can’t put a roof over their children’s heads.

I’d like to see the $1 BILLION this project will cost put into something more practical and humane.  We can live without another upscale shopping center, hotel, and fancy condos.  But how long can our kids survive living on the streets?

Oh, I forgot.  That wouldn’t be good business.

 

 

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Invisible Workers

September 1, 2014 Comments Off on Invisible Workers

IT’S MAGIC!  Mail appears and trash disappears.  Somehow the electric company knows how much power I use each month.  After club or church gatherings, the grounds become clean overnight.  Fresh vegetables are abundant at the market.  A burger just shows up at the drive-through window or a choice of goodies in the cafeteria cases.  Funny, I didn’t see anyone do a thing.  It was all done by the “invisible people”—workers we take for granted because they always do their jobs.

This year, expand Labor Day into a life-long habit.  Make it a point to watch for the person who delivers mail, reads meters, picks up trash, prepares food in the cafeteria, hands over that burger.  Be aware of grounds-keeping individuals and housekeepers at the hotels you stay at.  Notice the human being who tends the store’s vegetables.   In other words, recognize the workers.  Make a special effort to thank them.  Let them know that you appreciate the part they play in making your life easier.  Feel free to shock them with a compliment.  They deserve it.

 

 

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Corporations Paying Less Tax

January 8, 2013 Comments Off on Corporations Paying Less Tax

Corporations stopped paying HALF OF THEIR TAXES after the recession.

After paying an average of 22.5% from 1987 to 2008, corporations have paid an annual rate of 10% since. This represents a sudden $250 billion annual loss in taxes.

U.S. corporations have shown a pattern of tax reluctance for more than 50 years, despite building their businesses with American research and infrastructure. They’ve passed the responsibility on to their workers. For every dollar of workers’ payroll tax paid in the 1950s, corporations paid three dollars. Now it’s 22 cents.

[Paul Buchheit, Common Dreams]
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