Labor Unions in a free market. Southern California is being gripped by crippling strikes by transit workers and grocery clerks -- both over health care -- that has stranded thousands of mostly poor commuters across Los Angeles and is expected to sap millions from the local economy.

As a person who can't drive due to a visual disability, I am personally effected by the MTA transit strike (that is rumored may last several months). State employees are not allowed to strike. Shouldn't that also be the case for essential services, such as public transit?
posted by lola on Oct 14, 2003 - 80 comments

House likely to approve homeland security bill that erodes labor protections "But the Senate, which likely takes up the matter next week, so far has pursued a much different course. On Thursday, the Democratic-led Senate Governmental Affairs Committee crafted legislation that would protect all current civil service protections and make it more difficult for the president to move workers out of unions. Bush and other Republicans said the measure would give the president less authority than he has now."

The House seems to be so much more conservative and extremist than the Senate. Heck they're still working on trying to ban selected types of abortion procedures even when there's a strong chance it won't pass constitutional muster and the Senate isn't likely to support them.

Is it your perception that the House is more conservative? If so, why do you think that's true?
posted by Red58 on Jul 26, 2002 - 19 comments

Does Security Trump Union Rights? It has always seemed to me that collective bargaining is a fair way for workers to create a balance of power. Do unions still have a role?

And how many rights is it okay to lose in the name of security?
posted by theora55 on Jul 24, 2002 - 7 comments

Corporations Behaving Badly. The Ten Worst Corporations of 2001.
posted by Ty Webb on Jan 8, 2002 - 50 comments

Communists infiltrating the Oakland, Calif. teachers union. The Trotskyites of the Revolutionary Workers League, having branched out from the perpetual student-revolutionary ghetto on the fringes of UC Berkeley (2 miles north of the Oakland city limits), are hungering to grab a bully pulpit and $300,000 a year worth of dues, and are well on their well to controlling the union's executive board.
posted by MattD on Jun 15, 2001 - 4 comments

Payback time Executive orders: nice way to beat up on labor unions!
posted by Postroad on Feb 17, 2001 - 18 comments