But a recent article by David Wessel of The Wall Street Journal provided startling evidence of the impact of globalization. His analysis of data from the Commerce Department indicates that major multinational corporations cut their employment in the United States by 2.9 million during the 2000s while increasing employment overseas by 2.4 million.
This is a big change from the 1990s, when those corporations added 4.4 million jobs in the United States and 2.7 million abroad.
Remember that next time you’re told that your sacrifice is necessary so that corporations will use their giant tax breaks to create jobs here at home. Or when they try to blame unemployment on unemployed workers.
Osama bin Laden, the long-hunted al-Qaeda leader and chief architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, was killed by U.S. forces Sunday in what officials described as a surgical raid on his luxury hideout in Pakistan.
In a rare Sunday night address from the East Room of the White House, President Obama said a small team of U.S. personnel attacked a compound Sunday in Pakistan’s Abbottabad Valley, where bin Laden had been hiding since at least last summer. During a firefight, U.S. team killed bin Laden, 54, and took custody of his body in what Obama called “the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al-Qaeda.”
It’s been a long time coming, and though bin Laden had not been so much in the news these past few years as he was in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the significance of the moment was undiminished.
This is what it looks like when you balance a state budget on the backs of working families:
The Philadelphia school district may have to cut 3,800 positions in order to close a $600 million deficit. Another proposal to make up for the loss of almost $300 million in state funds this year includes eliminating free transportation to and from school.
That means no busing or free SEPTA transpasses for any students except those in special education students and those attending charter schools.
That’s because state law requires the district to provide transportation to and from charter schools. But students who attend public and parochial schools next year could have to pay their own way.
Note two things there. One is just the sheer volume of cuts that will have to be made, one way or another. The other is that charter schools—which don’t have to serve all the city’s students, don’t have to keep the most disadvantaged and troubled—are exempt from some key cuts. The agenda is privatization using public funding.
Yesterday, Susan wrote about the tough reception Republicans who voted to gut Medicare and Medicaid are getting at town hall meetings in their districts. The representatives mentioned in Susan’s posts aren’t alone in hearing from angry constituents.
Charlie Bass, my former and Susan’s current representative in New Hampshire:
WOMAN: Despite all we’re hearing about Ryan and Medicare, there’s a 10 percent reduction in the taxes for the wealthiest Americans. My feeling is this whole thing about saying 55 and under or under 55 is a way to divide and conquer because their benefits will be cut and then we as older people will, there will be anger fomenting against us. A generational gap will start where the younger people are told you’re playing for these Cadillac plans these older people how is that fair. Because we’re older the thought is we won’t speak up and won’t tell congress this is not acceptable. All generations have to stand together and say we need this social safety net. The bigger part of the problem is the commercial insurance industry.
BASS: Well first of all the tax part of the budget is revenue neutral. [...] The tax reduction is not a reduction in taxes on the wealthiest Americans, it’s a reduction of corporate tax rate so that we’re competitive around the world [...]
WOMAN: No, this is –
BASS: Very few companies, we tax foreign income, companies keep foreign income offshore. [...] The quickest way to turn this deficit down is to turn this economy around [...] off this federal system, so that the deficit goes down. We’re in this situation now here we’re bumping along unless we do something to stimulate real growth in this economy […] Who’s going to pay the bills? It’s going to be the younger people, that’s the real generational war, they’re going to say we’re not gonna pay 50, 60 percent of our income to subsidize the rest of the population older [...]
WOMAN: I agree, you guys are setting it up! [laughter from audience]
During a town hall in Orlando earlier today, Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) faced a barrage of questions from outraged constituents about the Republican budget. The Orlando Sentinel accurately described the scene as “bedlam.”
For nearly an hour, Webster was peppered with one question after another about his support for ending Medicare, his desire to see tax breaks for the wealthy extended, and his vote to repeal health care reform, including its protections for people with preexisting conditions. For his part, Webster didn’t just avoid the questions by resorting to talking points, as most politicians commonly do. On numerous occasions, Webster simply declined to give an answer to contentious questions altogether, moving on to take a new question instead.
“I would like to know: Did you vote to eliminate Medicare as it is today?” a man asks Berg during his library appearance in an exchange caught on video by PlainsDaily.com
“No,” Berg says, before the audience contradicts him.
“You voted for every Republican issue and that was part of the issues that went out there,” the man says.
A woman interrupts to ask how much the elderly will be asked to pay out of pocket for health care costs under the new system.
“I want you to tell me how much it’s going to cost us when we’re 65 years old after you give us a voucher,” she says.
“Fifty-five or over, absolutely no change, absolutely no change, in this Medicare program,” Berg promises.
“As long as you are over 55,” the woman responds. “If you’re 54, to hell with those people.”
West’s town hall in Fort Lauderdale was interrupted by hecklers, one of whom shouted at the beginning of his remarks “How about our Medicare that you’re stealing?” The Palm Beach Post reports that that West took written questions submitted before the meeting, prompting another man to yell out that questions should be allowed from the audience.
You may recall that when tea partiers (often bused in from outside) showed up at town hall meetings to argue (often in monstrously inaccurate terms) against health care reform, it made national news for weeks. But here, though constituents are asking questions that are based in fact, it’s still a relatively low-profile story on a national level. These representatives should be sweating the fact that it is getting coverage in their districts, though.
It’s Workers Memorial Day—a time to honor, or at least stop and think about, the workers who have lost their lives on the job. While the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) has greatly decreased the number of workplace deaths and injuries in the 40 years since it was passed, there are still too many.
Big explosions and disasters draw headlines and attention, but many more workers lose their lives in ways that don’t get widespread notice—but are no less painful for their families and friends.
In 2009, according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4,340 workers were killed on the job—an average of 12 workers every day—and an estimated 50,000 died from occupational diseases. More than 4.1 million work-related injuries and illnesses were reported, but this number understates the problem. The true toll of job injuries is two to three times greater—about 8 million to12 million job injuries and illnesses each year.
The risks are not evenly distributed. Workers are much more likely to be killed in some states than others:
The risk of job fatalities and injuries varies widely from state to state, in part due to the mix of industries. Montana led the country with the highest fatality rate (10.8 per 100,000), followed by Louisiana and North Dakota (7.2), Wyoming (6.8) and Nebraska (6.1). The lowest state fatality rate (0.9 per 100,000) was reported in New Hampshire, followed by Rhode Island (1.4), Arizona (1.8), Massachusetts (1.8) and Delaware (1.8). This compares with a preliminary national fatality rate of 3.3 per 100,000 workers in 2009.
And Latino workers have an increased risk of fatalities: 3.7 per 100,000 workers as opposed to that national rate of 3.3.
The penalties for violations and fatalities are too low to deter employers from risking their workers’ lives:
For FY 2010, the median initial total penalty in fatality cases investigated by federal OSHA was $7,000, with a median penalty after settlement of $5,600.
That’s in cases where someone died. The average penalty for a serious violation of the law just on its own was $1,052 for federal OSHA.
Penalties also vary state by state:
Oregon had the lowest median current penalty for fatality investigations, with $1,500 in penalties assessed, followed by Wyoming ($2,063) and Kentucky ($2,275). New Hampshire had the highest median current penalty ($142,000), followed by Minnesota ($26,050) and Missouri ($21,000).
Criminal investigations? Forget about it:
Since 1970, only 84 cases have been prosecuted, with defendants serving a total of 89 months in jail. During this time there were more than 360,000 worker deaths. By comparison, in FY 2010 there were 346 criminal enforcement cases initiated under federal environmental laws and 289 defendants charged, resulting in 72 years of jail time and $41 million in penalties—more cases, fines and jail time in one year than during OSHA’s entire history.
On Workers Memorial Day, the best way to honor workers who have lost their lives on the job is to fight to prevent future workplace fatalities. That means more funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration. More inspectors checking to make sure workplaces are safe, not less. More prosecutions and higher penalties, to give employers added reason to think twice about committing safety violations (and how sad is it that workers’ lives are not enough reason). And passing the Protecting America’s Workers Act (PDF) to update OSHA and fill some of its gaps.
Unless Pennsylvania lawmakers take action soon, long-term unemployed workers in Pennsylvania will lose up to 20 weeks of unemployment compensation known as Extended Benefits on June 11, 2011. Senate Bill 994 would allow Pennsylvania’s unemployed to keep these federally-funded benefits.
On June 11, 2011, an estimated 45,000 unemployed workers in Pennsylvania will be cut-off of the Extended Benefits they’ve been receiving — unless the legislature acts. Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor and Industry estimates that a total of 135,000 jobless workers could lose eligibility for these benefits this year starting on June 11th.
The federal government now covers 100% of the cost of these benefits for non-government employees. All the state needs to do to continue receiving these federally-funded benefits is to enact a technical fix to the state unemployment insurance law. Senate Bill 994 would do just that.
Republicans and Democrats in every one of Pennsylvania’s neighboring states—Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland—have all recently passed the needed Extended Benefits legislation. In total, 24 states have already acted to allow individuals to continue these benefits.
Arthur Delaney at HuffPo on our “America Wants to Work” project (which we’re doing jointly with the AFL-CIO and state and local labor organizations):
“We just want to help folks,” Chelsey Evans, state director of Working America in New Mexico, told HuffPost. “We’ve had several meetings and we’re coming together to provide services and support to anyone in the community who is unemployed. We’re finding that a lot of people really struggle to navigate through this extremely complex system, whether it’s unemployment, rental assistance, utility assistance, job counseling.”
(snip)
Susan See, laid off early in 2009 from her job doing advertising and administrative work for a local newspaper in Albuquerque, said the New Mexico Wants to Work monthly meetings have been a big help. She’s doing some freelance photography while her search for full-time work grinds on, seemingly endlessly.
“It helps a lot just to have a support network, just to know that I’m not alone,” said See, 41. “It starts to feel after a while, ‘What am I doing wrong? Is it my age, is it because I’ve been out of work so long?’ And then you start hearing that from other people, that they’re having the same issues.”
President Obama, if you look closely at his positions, is a moderate Republican from the early 1990s. And the Republican Party he’s facing has abandoned many of its best ideas in its effort to oppose him.
If you’ve been wondering why you haven’t heard so much about Republican attempts to recall Democratic Wisconsin senators, here’s one reason: the deadline passed yesterday and Republicans didn’t have enough signatures to recall two of their targets. Officials are currently reviewing signatures on five Republicans and three Democrats.
Sadly, economists tell us that income inequality may be eroding the trust between the rich and the poor members of the American “family.” What’s the reason for the treason, distrustful poors?
(It’s snark, in case you were in danger of missing that.)
Maine Gov. Paul LePage reiterates his support for rolling back child labor laws:
LePage doesn’t see the problem:
I went to work at 11 years old. I became governor. It’s not a big deal. Work doesn’t hurt anybody.
First of all, I’d question that he went to work in the way this law allows for—going from school to a job at McDonald’s or WalMart for several hours every single day—at age 11. And as to whether it hurts anybody, Amanda Terkel quotes the director of public policy for the Maine Women’s Lobby:
“Just look at the studies linking increases in substance abuse, delinquency, on the job injury and teen pregnancy with teens working long hours — I think it is a big deal, and yes it does hurt somebody.”
Second, I’d go back to what Doug said on this issue a few weeks back:
Maine has 7 percent unemployment and a 20 percent high school dropout rate. The last thing Maine needs to do is educate kids less on their way to receiving less wages for more work.
I’ll say again: Nothing about this will put a single person back to work, nor will it reduce the deficit by a penny. It’s about politicians doing the bidding of wealthy donors and hoping the Middle Class is too exhausted, undereducated, and overworked to notice us going back to the labor laws of the 19th century.
And finally, Gov. LePage mischaracterizes the provisions of the law he’s advocating for. Whether that was done with intention to mislead his audience or because he simply doesn’t know what the bill says, Maine blogger Dirigo Blue notes that:
this is important, as many in the audience have never heard of LD1346, and will leave the auditorium believing what the Governor has told them.
