Labor Notes #412
Hospitals are adopting Toyota's methods for squeezing more out of each worker. The result? Management by stress—and worse care for patients.
Common wisdom is you can't raise taxes. Even people who should know better believed this—while the public sector slid down the tubes. But a California vote raised $6 billion a year for schools and services—mostly from an income tax hike on rich people.
Reformers in the Operating Engineers union have attracted a national following among members by daring to sue their international officers for corruption, while also running to take over their southern California local.
They call themselves The Resistance.
In the 400,000-member union of skilled crane, bulldozer and boiler operators, mechanics, and surveyors, dissent is uncommon, and union staffers have hiring influence with employers.
Is your local missing out on firepower to help win your campaigns? Cellphone and online tactics can spread information fast, get people to take action, embarrass your target, and gain media attention.
Congress will soon debate whether to “fast-track” a trade deal that would make job-killers like NAFTA look puny. The Trans-Pacific Partnership would cover 40 percent of the world's economy.
