American Workforce

If I were a shareholder of a corporation and heard news that the corporation paid a CEO $14 million to be fired (this is what the Gap just did), my stock would instantly be sold. Sadly this is something we hear about more and more.

Luckily we have a Democratically controlled Congress, and one Representative Barney Franks who now chairs the House Financial Services Committee, to try and make changes to this horrible system. Rep. Franks was on FOX news a few weeks ago trying to explain how he wants to put more power in the hands of the shareholders. Of course Neil Cuvato wouldn't here of anything like that:

Cuvato constantly tried to reword what Frank's was saying and making it out like Barney was trying to hurt the poor little CEO's.

This country has taken a very damaging turn in terms of economic fairness. In 1980, the average CEO earned 42 times what the average employee in his company made. Today he earns more than 300 times (more than a 600% increase). This dangerous practice is quickly creating a larger gap between America's working class and upper class.

Last night, CNN was discussing the 2008 Presidential race. They reported that it is expected for Hillary Clinton alone to spend $500 million in her campaign. With this high price tag to run for public office coupled with the increasing economical gap in our society, we are quickly creating a new aristocratic social group. This of course will destroy everything America ever stood for. Hopefully Barney Franks will be able to get this new legislation through, however I am sure Bush would veto such a thing. His entire administration has been based on rewarding the failures.

To give you a taste of Ohio politics, here is something going on in my own backyard. I posted last September about the lockout at AK Steel, a prominent area employer. In that post I showed a picture of the new Butler County Republican headquarters, which came with a $800,000 price tag and donations from AK Steel. This building is really nice, as compared Butler County Democratic headquarters store front. However, the Democrats have no problem at all operating out of this small space.

Now our Republican sheriff is getting involved in trying to bring this lockout to an end:

The Republican sheriff of Butler County, unable to get help from his own party to end an 11-month lockout at AK Steel’s Middletown Works, is turning to newly elected Democrats in Columbus and Washington.

Sheriff Rick Jones has written letters to Gov. Ted Strickland and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, both Democrats who won GOP-held seats on Nov. 7, and asked them to intervene.

“It is of the utmost importance that you intervene in the negotiations to bring this 11-month-old lockout to a productive conclusion. Our community needs your help and support,” Jones wrote. “I know it’s very strange that a local Republican sheriff would ask two of the most powerful Democrats in the state of Ohio to do something, but I am.”

Jones said Friday that he was frustrated that former Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican who served the maximum two consecutive terms, and former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, defeated by Brown in November, were not able to end the lockout. He said the toll the strike has taken on the county’s residents is getting to him.

It is nice to see Sherriff Jones take the initiative to help bring this lockout to an end. I know many families who are struggling to get by because of this corporate greed. I drive by AK Steel and see these people sitting out there picketing, as they have been for the past 11 months, and it is heart wrenching.

I have been hard locally on Sherriff Jones in the past. He has had some "questionable" techniques in dealing with illegal immigration. He has been so tough in fact that Jon Stewart has talked about interviewing him. It is good to see him focus some energy on a serious problem this community is facing. Sadly our Republican county officers seem to be ignoring the problem (of course - they have the new building to worry about).

Bob Geiger:

Another unfortunate milestone in the reign of George W. Bush and the recently-deposed Republican Congress was reached on Saturday when the federal minimum wage set a new record for the longest period without a raise since its establishment in 1938. As of December 2, the $5.15-per-hour wage rate has remained unchanged for nine years and three months.

Not surprisingly, the prior record also occurred under Republican administrations, when the minimum wage rate remained stagnant from early 1981 until April of 1990 under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

read on

A story is making the rounds by the AP talking about the locked out A.K. Steel workers, here in my own town. This isn't the first time the story has made national news, as the lock out has gone on for most of the year, but it is now at the point that the striking workers are having to give up and find new jobs. This is very sad since A.K. Steel has been a major employer in the area for decades, and the people who have worked there are family people now struggling to survive.

Something that the AP article does not mention is this:

That is the new $800,000 headquarters for our county's Republican Party, that is nearing completion. Why should the AP mention this? Because A.K. Steel is one of the major donors to the local GOP. While the families of locked out workers are struggling to survive, Republicans are once again enjoying great things. Perhaps people should call John Boehner and ask how he can sleep at night knowing this is happening in his own town.

Think Progress has an interesting post up about the White House staffers getting a raise while at the same time opposing an increase on the minimum wage:

This year the highest paid staffers in the White House – including Karl Rove, Dan Bartlett and Steven Hadley – got a cost-of-living adjustment of $4,200, boosting their total salary to $165,200.

Meanwhile, the White House is backing Congressional efforts to beat back a modest increase in the minimum wage for the lowest paid Americans for the first time since 1997. Here’s a press release issued today by Rep. George Miller (D-CA):

As Think Progress also pointed out last week, while Bush is boasting about a "growing economy", wages have actually fallen:

Real wages have fallen since August 2003. The average worker’s real wages were twenty cents lower in June 2006 than they were in August 2003.

When we hear the economic news coming from the White House they go on about sales increasing, but they some how fail to mention that the sales that are increasing are in luxury items - i.e., the ones that rich people buy (boats, sea-dos, furs, etc). While they are out living the high life, middle America is struggling and that struggle is starting to make an enormous impact on our society as a whole.

A week after Congress was given another raise, Senate has sent a big fuck-you to the American workers:

The U.S. Senate Wednesday defeated a proposal pushed by Democrats to raise the federal minimum wage in increments from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour by Jan. 1, 2009.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, unsuccessfully tried to attach the proposal raising the wage for the first time since 1997 to a defense authorization bill that is expected to be passed by the Senate soon.

While a majority of the Senate, 52 senators, backed the move to increase the minimum wage, it failed to win the 60 votes needed for passage under a procedural agreement worked out earlier.

Perhaps the American people should take to the polls and vote for legislation that states members of Congress only get raises when the minimum wage is increased. They love getting their money and giving tax breaks to corporations but sure will piss on the little man every chance they get.