Why Screw Workers?

Labor Organizing

Why Screw Workers?             New Orleans               In the middle of this pronounced and historic recession I cannot help myself from monitoring some of the discordant voices out there about workers and wages these days, as business and government tries to find a place to land.             For example, in Lee Scott’s parting shot as CEO …

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Attracting Grocery Stores

Community Organizing Labor Organizing

            New Orleans               The other day brainstorming with Rick Smith, Ben, Colin, Beth, and Hillary — the core of the whole WARN team in Florida — we found ourselves talking about the contradictory problem of outsized superstores that we have fought many places versus grocery “deserts” that also concern us when communities are isolated from …

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Hope for Reunification

Labor Organizing

Hope for Reunification January 8, 2009             St. Petersburg             Getting on the plane to fly home, I ran into some old friends who were the principal officers of the International Longshoreman Association in New Orleans.  They had been at a bargaining conference in Tampa preparing for upcoming negotiations.  We talked about what happened to their …

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