Bob Lord

Posted by Bob Lord

I posted last week on the plight of workers at Walmart. In that post, I threw out some rough numbers to suggest how painless it would be for Walmart and other retailers to reduce dramatically the financial pain they're inflicting on their workers:

And it would take so little to improve their lives. Assume those Walmart workers average 1500 hours per year. That's 1.5 billion hours. It would cost $3 Billion to give each of them a $2 per hour raise, and $3 Billion is less than one percent of Walmart's annual sales, an amount it easily could pass on to customers. Does anyone stop to think of this trade-off — a three quarters of a percentage point savings to customers, versus a 20% pay increase to poverty level workers?

Frankly, I thought that my rough math may have overlooked something. But it turns out I'd gotten it just about right. Here's Robert Reich at Truthdig:

Posted by Bob Lord

It's hard to find much to be happy about regarding the situation in Gaza. We have our supposedly progressive President making statements like this: "There's no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders." Really, Mr. President? What country to you know that would tolerate a five-year naval blockade of its coastline? But, as the President's logic seems to go, if a country resists such a naval blockade, it's resistance justifies an aerial bombardment by the same folks who are imposing the blockade.

Posted by Bob Lord

The AzBlueMeanie and I both have posted on the Hostess bakery situation. I posted on the implications for organized labor, and us, here. The AzBlueMeanie focused on the role that private equity funds had in Hostess' failure here.

Well, it looks like the story is not entirely written. The judge has ordered Hostess and the Bakers union to Let's hope the Bakers union holds its ground. I'm not above gloating when I've called something correctly, but in this case I'm a bit sickened to have done so. In my prior post, after discussing the situations at Hostess and Walmart, I stated:

Posted by Bob Lord

Americans have a depressing ability to collectively fool themselves. The situation in Gaza is a disgusting example of that. The mainstream American media describes the actions of Israel as Israel "defending itself." So, Americans watch as Gazans, forced to live in squalor for by their Israeli subjugators, are bombed into oblivion. And they think "it's ok," becasue Israel must defend itself. Even their President says it's ok.

No, it's not ok. And it's deplorable that America, by blindly supporting Israel at every turn, is allowing a humanitarian crisis to continue in perpetuity.

Anyone with even the most basic analytical skills and a grain of common sense would realize that could not possibly be the case. With just a little digging, the ugly truth comes to light. There is no shortage of coverage on the subject, as long as you're willing to (1) move past television as your information source and (2) read beyond the mainstream newspapers and weeklies. But you don't have to go far. Salon has covered it well, as has Truthdig.

Posted by Bob Lord

Shadegg and his stooges called me Big Labor Bob four years ago. It may have won him some votes, but it never bothered me. I spent many hours meeting with union members, some of that time selling myself, but a lot of it listening to them. I listened to hotel workers who hadn't seen a raise in eight years. I listened to flight attendants who earned a whopping $13,000 per year. I listened to stories about management tactics to thwart efforts to organize. Calling me Big Labor Bob was meant as ridicule, a way of suggesting I was in labor's pocket. But I wasn't. I just totally believed in their cause. 

And I still do. Now more than ever. Organized labor is on the ropes right now. If they lose, we lose. In the long run, even the filthy rich plutocrats and their Republican puppets who seek to destroy organized labor would lose, although they're too short-sighted to understand that. 

Two developments today reveal the desperate situation for workers in America. Although they don't appear to be connected, they absolutely are. 

First, Hostess announced today that it would be closing its doors, thereby eliminating 18,000 jobs. Hostess, in Chapter 11 bankruptct proceedings, blamed the closing on striking workers from the Bakers and Confectioners Union. The media largely has regurgitated the company's line, although there was some coverage by the San Francisco Chronicle that mentions poor management decisions. But the media spin has been consistently "striking workers caused shutdown."