cengel Posts

By Jared Bernstein
Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
You will recall that in his last State of the Union address, President Obama announced a policy idea that makes a whole lot of sense for our times: universal preschool. It’s easy to describe why this is a good idea, and I’ll do so in a moment, but i

By Sam Pizzigati
Editor, Too Much online magazine
All across Corporate America, top execs are feathering their own nests at the expense of their workers. The French have a better idea.
The founder of modern management science, Peter Drucker, considered excessive executive pay an assault on good enterprise management practice.
Peter

Robert Borosage
Co-Director Campaign for America's Future
Washington has been fascinated by Republican self-laceration since the 2012 election. Karl Rove triggered a circular firing squad by vowing to take out unwashed challengers in GOP primaries. Louisiana

By Mike Hall
AFL-CIO Senior Writer
After President Obama called for raising the nation’s minimum wage to $9 an hour and protecting it against inflation, the struggle that millions of low-wage workers face trying to surviv

By Jared Bernstein
Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
If Chairman Mao said, after two centuries, that it was still too soon to judge the impact of the French revolution, it’s probably a bit premature to learn much from the ongoing Cyprus bank debacle. That said, we at OTE are obliged to briefly speculate:

Bill Maher squared in what he views as a giant hypocrisy in the Republican party on the issue of cutting spending.

By Gary Villani
USW Local 959 Member; Former Editor, The Local Express
As the Supreme Court began considering two cases that might well determine the fate of same-sex marriage nationwide, a skeptical friend who anticipates 5-4 party line rulings in favor of doing nothing asked me which justice I would expect to break ranks.
I repl

By Dean Baker
Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research, AuthorThere are few areas where the corruption of the national m

By Robert Reich
Former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley
We’re still legislating and regulating private morality, while at the same time ignoring the much larger crisis of public morality in America.
In recent weeks Republican state legislators have decided to thwart the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision i

Pattie Federico prays her car keeps running until she somehow finds the money to fix it.  Her low-wage job at a Boston area movie theater leaves her constantly scrambling to cover basic needs.
Each week, Federico feels like she falls further behind. “I’m not on food stamps so buying food takes up a lot,” Federico told Acting Labor Secretary Seth D. Harris at a roundtable discussion on raising the minimum wage. “I just have enough to

A delegation of Steelworkers from Ohio on strike at Phillips Manufacturing Co. traveled to San Antonio to distribute information about their dispute at the 2013 INTEX Expo sponsored by the Association of the Wall and Ceiling Industry (AWCI).
While there, the group distributed hundreds of handbills and even received an audience with Phillips CEO George Kubatz.

The AWCI expo took place

Jackie Tortora
AFL-CIO Blog/Social Media Manager
A bill that creates a commonsense immigration process for America’s 11 million aspiring citizens is in jeopardy because of Republican demands for poverty wages.
Key Republican senat

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Jackie Tortora
AFL-CIO Blog/Social Media Manager
As you plan your Passover seders, make sure you check out these tasty union-made in America recipe ingredients and drinks. These highlights come from our friends at Labor 411, the union business directory from the 

By Mike Hall
AFL-CIO Senior WriterWhile the nation’s infrastructure has seen slight improvement since the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its last report card

By Robert Reich
Former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley
Prominent Democrats — including the President and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — are openly suggesting that Medicare be means-tested and Social Security payments be reduced by applying a lower adjustment for inflation.
This is even before t

By Richard (RJ) Eskow
Senior Fellow, Campaign for America’s Future
This week two Senate budget amendments could affect the future of everybody reading these words – presuming we live long enough to reach our retirement years.
That’s not an overstatement:  The Sanders-Harkin-Hirono Amendment would prevent the government from cutting Social Security be