workers rights

Union Membership at All Time Low

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The attack on unions has been clearly effective. America's workers who are members of a union declined by 0.5 percentage points in 2012 to a low of 11.3%. In 1983 20.1% of all workers were members of a union and in 2011 11.8% of America's employed were union members. We have not seen union membership rates this low since the Great Depression.

Disabled Workers - Valuable Resource Treated Like Pond Scum

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I'll never forget one day at a start-up. The CEO was designing a new company building. He was ranting, raving about elevators, storming up and down the halls, on his phone. He was talking to his attorney, demanding to find a legal way to not have an elevator in the new building. Why? Supposedly to save costs, but also to deny a disabled applicant needing an elevator, due to being in a wheelchair, a job. He spent thousands of dollars on attorney fees, studying the law, all to avoid putting in an elevator.

With that, I give you this Wall Street Journal article, Disabled Face Sharply Higher Jobless Rate:

The government's first detailed look at disabled workers' employment shows they are far more likely than the overall work force to be older, working part-time or jobless.

The average unemployment rate for disabled workers was 14.5% last year, the Labor Department said Wednesday, well above the 9% rate for those without disabilities. By the Labor Department's count, there were roughly 27 million Americans 16 years or older with a disability last year.

The employment situation doesn't appear to have improved this year: The unemployment rate for those with disabilities had risen to 16.4% as of July.

BoA Tells Investors to Bail Out of China Due To No More Slave Labor

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Bank Of America, you know that corporation based in the United States, land of the free, home of the brave, is telling investors to sell because wages in China might have to rise.

Investors should sell shares of Chinese cement and metal companies as increases in labor costs will curb capital spending in those industries, according to BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research.

Seven Chinese provinces raised minimum wages in the first quarter after halting them last year amid the global recession, according to the Labor Ministry. Higher salaries may deter foreign investment in China, which has been a low-cost manufacturing base.

Astounding huh? The Yuan is still undervalued ranging up to 40%, yet the minute Chinese workers get anywhere with wages, investors should pull out.

Chinese Honda workers managed to get a 30% wage increase and 30 states increased the minimum wage by 15%. This amounts to $23.5 a month. That's a cocktail to investors. Suck it up!

I guess BoA just wants workers to continue committing suicide so as to not disturb ROI: