Archive for October 6th, 2006
Packin’ Off to Green Bay to Get Out the Vote
The first thing that comes to mind when you hear about Green Bay, Wis., is the Green Bay Packers. But after the Nov. 7 elections, the city might be remembered—at least in political circles—as a town that played a big role in taking back the U.S. Congress for working families.
Republican Rep. Mark Green (who earned a record of wrong on working families issues 84 percent of the time during his House tenure) is vacating the congressional seat to challenge union-backed Gov. Jim Doyle (D) for the governorship.
Health Care Impact of the Iraq War
Stephanie Taylor, an online writer for the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America, reports on a panel at the AFL-CIO building in Washington, D.C., yesterday, where a group of experts spoke about the health impact of the Iraq war. Their conclusion: “Devastating.”
Every dollar spent on the war is a dollar less for America’s working families, according to Dr. Barry Levy, co-editor of War and Public Health and past president of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and panelist at the event, sponsored by the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees.
State Economies Do Well After Minimum Wage Boosts
The economic sky hasn’t fallen in states where the minimum wage has increased. It won’t fall in Colorado either if voters there approve a ballot initiative (known as Amendment 42) to increase the Rocky Mountain State’s minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.85, several economists told state reporters there this week.
Business groups, especially the restaurant industry, always predict dire consequences—layoffs or reduced hiring, lower profits and overall doom—whenever a minimum wage increase is discussed.
Doesn’t Pay to Export Jobs—And More Quick News
A few end of the week items worth noting.
* It doesn’t pay to export jobs. A new report by the Conference Board finds the cost advantages of low-wage countries over the United States in manufacturing industries are less than suggested by the wide gap in compensation levels because emerging economies also have much lower productivity rates.
The Conference Board says the report, Competitive Advantage of ‘Low-Wage’ Countries Often Exaggerated, is the first attempt by a non-governmental organization to estimate the level of unit labor costs in China and India in comparable U.S. dollar purchasing power parity.
And speaking of U.S. labor productivity….Why is it again that America’s workers have not seen a real wage increase since the 1970s while productivity has boomed?
| Rising Productivity Used to Mean Rising Wages…Yet, Workers Have Not Seen a Wage Increase Since the 1970s |
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| Source: Economic Policy Institute |
* Long-term U.S. economic growth unhealthy. Today’s jobs report by the U.S. Labor Department will get attention for the dip in September unemployment rate, from 4.7 percent to 4.6 percent. But the report found a significant lack of job creation in September—a paltry 51,000 jobs compared with the more than 120,000 expected by analysts, yet another sign that long-term economic trends are unhealthy.
Newt Gingrich, Cheerleading for Wal-Mart
Is it any surprise that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R), who resigned from lack of support within his own party in 1998 and sought drastic cuts in fundamental federal education and social programs, comes to the defense of Wal-Mart?
Surfacing Wednesday on American Public Media’s “Marketplace,” Gingrich made clear to host Scott Jagow he supports the Wal-Mart corporate-first model as a replacement for a federal government whose mission is to serve the people.
