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David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.

  • September 18, 2007 3:27 PM

    Ho Hum...More Editorial Board Attacks On Workers

    From the Department of The Media Is Not Liberal At All, check out this editorial and this editorial. The former says "paid family leave is still an ugly idea" the latter says it is "inexplicable" that Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) is proposing to give state workers basic collective bargaining rights. "If state workers win collective-bargaining rights," the Rocky Mountain News writes, "local government employees won't be far behind." What a frightening prospect, really. Workers having paid sick leave and basic rights to organize. The horror.

    Posted by David Sirota
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    Tags: war on the middle class

Discussion

  • waltc [TypeKey Profile Page] :

    Its too bad Ritter is also pushing for more H1-B visa workers which pretty much makes a mockery of his vote pandering with state workers. See he's one of 13 governors pushing Congress to increase the number of H1-B workers let in. Other Democratic supporting this are Spitzer, Nepolitano, Patrick,Gregorie,Seblius and Doyle.

    Here's the news article:
    http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9776360-7.html

    Here's the letter(in pdf format)
    http://competeamerica.org/news/alliance_pr/gov_letter_9-11-07.pdf

    To me it looks more and more than the Democrats are almost the same as the GOP. The only difference being that the Democrats are better propagandists at keeping their corporate side hidden.


    Posted on September 18, 2007 6:11 PM
  • typedslowly [TypeKey Profile Page] :

    Paid leave is a great idea and given our economy it should have been introduced many years ago. The United States is one of the only industrialized countries - aside from Australia - that does not offer paid leave. Yet, Australia offers more weeks of unpaid leave than the US. The Family Medical Leave Act is deficient in that it only covers workers with fifty or more employees; the bulk of companies in the US are small businesses. Therefore, those workers have no protections.

    One must not forget the effect on women's wages. The empirical data suggest that when women leave work to care for a child, they incur a steep cost not only in lost income due to the pregnancy, but it is rare to be hired back at the same salary.

    Paid leave is not only great social policy, but it is better for the child. Being in the care of a mother or father significantly increases the well-being of an infant.

    California has a partial-paid leave program, which seems to operate nicely while not imposing an exorbitant cost on employees.

    Posted on September 18, 2007 11:06 PM

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