The Grand Argument That Isn't

post from Open Left - Front Page on 11 May 2009 03:30:00 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

The debate over government intervention in the economy is often phrased in grand terms in the[...]

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The Crime Wave No One Talks About

post from TPMCafe on 11 May 2009 03:24:00 PM. © TPMCafe

Ten years ago, I had no idea wage theft was such a crisis -- though I suspect it was just as prevalent then as it is today.

Wage theft is the failure of an employer to follow the law by paying a worker for all of his or her work. Two to three million workers aren't paid the minimum wage required by law. Three million, perhaps more, are misclassified as independent contractors when they are really employees, a maneuver that steals both from workers and from the public coffers. Untold millions aren't paid the overtime premium the law requires. Billions of dollars are stolen each and every year from workers. This is not a small or isolated problem of a few bad employers. It's a systematic theft of wages from the nation's workers.

When I helped organize Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) in 1996, I primarily had in mind that the organization would engage the religious community in supporting workers' rights to organize and get good contracts.

A few years into the process, pastors began referring random workers to us. At first we tried to convince our union partners that they should organize and represent these small groups of workers. In past eras, unions might have considered these small groups of workers, but with labor's focus on strategic organizing campaigns - a focus I understand and support -- they weren't interested in diverting attention to the smaller workplaces.

Next we created some worker rights materials in hopes that we could simply send some materials when workers called. But that merely resulted in more workers calling (if we created the workers rights materials, we must know how to respond). Oh dear.

Eventually, we decided we had to create a structure to support workers and respond in more systematic ways. Worker centers emerged as a structure for responding to these groups of workers who had unresolved workplace problems and no place to turn. In urban, more unionized areas, the groups of workers were usually relatively small. In more rural communities with little union density, even large groups of workers in poultry plants sought help from worker centers.

Although the centers do their best to support workers with a variety of workplace problems, the number one problem workers bring to the centers is that of employers not paying them for all, or sometimes any, of their work. When we've polled workers who come into the centers over wage theft, we often find that the same employers who are stealing wages are also discriminating against their workers and injuring them. No big surprise there, but workers tend to visit the centers most often when they haven't been paid.

Over the years, I've been dismayed at the extent of this phenomenon. When I describe the situation to friends or family, or in speeches to religious audiences, the primary response has been surprise and shock. No one thinks it is right to underpay workers. The most common response to my book is, "I had no idea wage theft was such a problem."

Over the years, I've become convinced that in addition to a strong and revitalized labor movement, we also needed a strong and visionary Department of Labor (DOL). Throughout the Bush years, our organization worked to build and maintain relationships with DOL leadership, especially at the Wage and Hour Division. It became clear that the division had neither the resources to do the job nor the mandate from the top to seriously stop and deter wage theft. Despite the best efforts on the part of the worker centers to work with the Department of Labor, we frequently couldn't get calls returned, we had our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests denied, and settlements typically gave workers a mere half of the wages they had stolen.

I didn't set out to write a book on wage theft. I set out to write more of a monograph on what a visionary Department of Labor might look like. But to do that I had to explain why we needed a visionary Department of Labor. A friend in the church choir I direct admitted he didn't even know we had a Department of Labor. (So much for its visibility in people's lives!) I began by explaining the breadth of the crisis of wage theft. Then I explained how wage theft occurs. Next I explained why it happens. As an organizer, I had lots of suggestions for what people could do to help stop and deter wage theft. Consequently, before you knew it, I had a book on wage theft.

I'm excited about this week's TPM Café Book Club discussion because of the terrific interlocutors assembled. I look forward to learning from them. Here are some questions we might explore together:

1) Will Hilda Solis and her great team at the Department of Labor be able to get the resources necessary to seriously stop and deter wage theft?

2) How does the labor movement relate to worker centers? How should it?

3) Is there a way to engage the ethical business community to play a role in stopping and deterring wage theft? (I've tried, but failed miserably so far!)

4) If some version of labor reform passes Congress and workers feel safer to organize unions, how can unions support the small groups of workers - say, five Dunkin' Donuts workers - who decide they want to organize unions? Is there a role for worker centers in expanding unions to smaller groups of workers?

5) What are the long-term prospects of updating and expanding coverage in the Fair Labor Standards Act?

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New Afghanistan Commander Had Role In Tillman
Friendly-Fire Episode

post from TPMMuckraker on 11 May 2009 03:24:00 PM. © TPMMuckraker

It looks Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the man taking over as the new top commander in Afghanistan, was a key player in one of the more shameful episodes of the Bush administration's war on terror -- though it's unclear exactly how much blame, if any, he himself deserves.

In 2007, the Associated Press reported that McChrystal suspected when he approved a Silver Star citation for Pat Tillman that the former NFL star killed in Afghanistan may have been felled by friendly fire. McChrystal told military investigators that that suspicion had led him to send a memo to top generals, urging them not to say publicly that Tillman was killed under "devastating enemy fire."

That seems to put McChrystal on the side of the angels. But it's a bit more complicated. McChrystal wrote that memo just one day after approving the award. Questioned about that potential discrepancy by investigators, he said he nevertheless believed Tillman deserved the award, but explained:

Because I thought it was friendly fire, I thought it was important that key attendees know that that theory could become the finding of the investigation, and if they were going to make a statement about 'killed by enemy fire,' it might not be certain.

An internal DOD report on the Tillman affair found that McChrystal should be held accountable for not notifying officials processing the Silver Star award that friendly fire was the likely cause of Tillman's death. But another army general found that McChrystal had acted reasonably in assuming that information he had received supporting the award recommendation was accurate.

Tillman, of course, was ultimately found to have been killed by friendly fire. His father has blamed high-ranking Army officers for presenting "outright lies" to the Tillman family and the public about the cause of his son's death, and has accused army brass of using the death of an all-American football star to engineer a public relations coup.

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Deep Thought

post from Talking Points Memo on 11 May 2009 03:22:00 PM. © Talking Points Memo

Liking Wanda Sykes more and more.From Extra, explaining how she was asked to keep her routine clean ..."They told me not so say the F word or the N word... I'm offended they even told me that," Sykes told "Extra" moments before taking the stage. "What do[...]

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Another war supplemental But I thought...

post from Daily Kos on 11 May 2009 03:20:07 PM. © Daily Kos

Yes, yes. You thought we weren't doing these anymore. Always trust Congress Matters to explain why the answer to everything is "well, yes and no."

The maneuverings, no matter where you stand on the war funding, are important and interesting to watch, if just for a reminder of how legislation really moves, and what it takes to put together working majorities.

Oh, and by the way, there's also a special bonus in it for our "moderate" friends in the Senate.

Get it all -- and discuss! -- at Congress Matters.

Your Daily Kos ID and password get you in.

Why do we do things this way? With extra clicks, separate sites, etc? Why, so as not to distract from the elitist $2.99 squeeze bottle mustard, of course.

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Wage Theft in America

post from TPMCafe on 11 May 2009 03:19:00 PM. © TPMCafe

Kim Bobo, Executive Director of Interfaith Worker Justice, joins us this week for discussion of her book Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid - And What We Can Do About It. Senator Ted Kennedy has said the book offers "bold, practical, and progressive solutions for how policymakers and advocates can end the growing crisis of wage theft in America."

From Kim's opening post:

I didn't set out to write a book on wage theft. I set out to write more of a monograph on what a visionary Department of Labor might look like. But to do that I had to explain why we needed a visionary Department of Labor. A friend in the church choir I direct admitted he didn't even know we had a Department of Labor. (So much for its visibility in people's lives!) I began by explaining the breadth of the crisis of wage theft. Then I explained how wage theft occurs. Next I explained why it happens. As an organizer, I had lots of suggestions for what people could do to help stop and deter wage theft. Consequently, before you knew it, I had a book on wage theft.

Joining the discussion are Liza Featherstone, Nation journalist and author of Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers' Rights at Wal-Mart; Bill Fletcher, author of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path Toward Social Justice and longtime labor and international activist; Steve Greenhouse, New York Times labor reporter and author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker; Nathan Newman, Policy Director for the Progressive Legislative Action Network; T. A. Frank, Consulting Editor at The Washington Monthly; and Dean Baker, Cafe regular, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

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Swiftboaters Are Back, This Time To Block
Healthcare Reform

post from BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 11 May 2009 03:18:41 PM. © BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Christine Bowman

As the standard joke goes, we have some good news, and some bad news. The good news is that healthcare "industry leaders" told President Obama today they can find ways to slow the growth of healthcare costs by 1.5% or $2 trillion over 10 years. They're ready to embrace "voluntary" controls:

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Dr. Evil

Robert Gibbs gives Dick Cheney big thumbs up as new GOP chief political strategist. [...]

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Limbaugh agrees with Sessions: Obama’s
‘objective is unemployment.’

Earlier today, ThinkProgress highlighted NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions’ (R-TX) claim that President Obama is intentionally trying to ??diminish employment and diminish stock prices? as part of a ?divide and conquer? strategy to consolidate power.? Sessions’ paranoid theory got a powerful endorsement today from the de facto leader of the conservative movement, Rush Limbaugh. Noting new budget deficit projections out of the White House, Limbaugh declared that “the objective is unemployment.” “Think forced reparations here if you want to understand what actually is going on,” added the right-wing talker. Listen here:

Transcript:

LIMBAUGH: As the economy performs worse than expected, the deficit for the 2010 budget year beginning in October will worsen by $87 billion to $1.3 trillion. The deterioration reflects lower tax revenues and higher costs for bank failures, unemployment benefits and food stamps. But in the Oval Office of the White House none of this is a problem. This is the objective. The objective is unemployment. The objective is more food stamp benefits. The objective is more unemployment benefits. The objective is an expanding welfare state. And the objective is to take the nation’s wealth and return to it to the nation’s quote, “rightful owners.” Think reparations. Think forced reparations here if you want to understand what actually is going on.

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TX Federal Judge Sentenced to 33 Months

U.S. District Court Judge Sam Kent was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison today for obstructing justice in the investigation of sexual harassment claims against him. Prosecutors had asked for 36 months.

He was granted a voluntary surrender and will report to prison next month.

Kent has asked for early retirement and is still being paid his salary. His salary continues until he resigns or is impeached. He was on the bench for 18 years.