LaFeminista posted a good Daily Kos diary about unions recently, and reading the diary and comments reminded me that despite my avid pro-union stance, until about 5 years ago when I lucked into a union job, I, like the vast majority of workers who are not as lucky as I am, really had no idea [...]
Workers
Wal-Mart’s evil plan
October 26, 2005
Don’t be fooled by the rhetorical crap spewing forth from orificial Wal-Mart sources. While the company publicly claims to have seen the light on environmental issues and has even come out in favor of raising the minimum wage, internal documents reveal the truly sinister nature of the evil behemoth. The AP reports that Wal-Mart is [...]
Poison Fruit: Santa Sweets grower hit with more fines
October 22, 2005
Ag-Mart, the Plant City producer of the popular Santa Sweets brand pesticide laden tomato, continues to rack up fines for possibly poisoning its workers, and at least one major grocery chain has decided to stop carrying its products pending an internal investigation into the possible poisoning of customers. This time, it’s North Carolina making the [...]
New and Improved Santa Sweets: ”A Little Less Poisonous!”
October 14, 2005
Plant City’s Ag-mart was just fined a record amount by Florida for forcing workers into dangerous pesticide-laden fields and harvesting produce too soon after applying poisons. Florida agriculture officials have slapped Ag-Mart Inc., one of the state’s largest vegetable growers, with $111,200 in fines for 88 counts of pesticide misuse. The “extensive violations” breached regulations [...]
Corporate welfare aids profits, not jobs
September 29, 2005
States and municipal governments have long been in the habit of providing tax breaks and other incentives to employers who promise to bring jobs to their region. Often, the per-job cost to the state more than offsets any economic gain, and lost tax revenues lead to infrastructure problems down the road. Corporate welfare encourages states [...]
Question of the day
September 20, 2005
Why hasn’t Tampa Rep. Jim Davis signed on to to co-sponsor H.R. 3763, the bill to overturn President Bush’s Gulf Coast Wage Cut? Maybe we should write him right now and ask. Here’s mine – feel free to fine tune and send it as your own. Dear Rep. Davis: I understand that you have not [...]
Trib to employers: Stand firm against equitable pay
September 12, 2005
Bemoaning the low Florida unemployment rate, the proudly conservative Tampa Tribune offers some unsolicited advice to those poor business owners who just can’t seem to find anyone to fill their underpaid, overworked, benefit-free positions. Not surprisingly, neither fair wages nor finding someplace other than the newspaper’s classified section in which to advertise are mentioned as [...]
Miami fights the power
August 12, 2005
(From the BlogWood mailbag) Ever heard of the Continental Management Group? They run most of South Florida’s condos. If you live in Miami, chances are they run yours. Well, Continental’s greed and poor service has gotten so bad, it’s provoked this hilarious new music video: Screw This Condo The flash is funny, but what’s going [...]
Jim Davis shows lukewarm support for working class
July 28, 2005
Trade Pact Approved By House The House narrowly approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement this morning, delivering a hard-fought victory to President Bush while underscoring the nation’s deep divisions over trade. The 217 to 215 vote came just after midnight, in a dramatic finish that highlighted the intensity brought by both sides to the [...]
BlogWood Redux: Why does Jim Davis hate Florida families?
July 27, 2005
Note: as promised earlier, during the next week or so of light blogging, I’ll be re-posting some stuff that may be relevant tocurrent events. This post first appeared in May. More on CAFTA here. May 13th, 2005 Why does Jim Davis hate Florida families? Actually, maybe I’m being a little too hard on Jim – [...]