If you don't count babysitting, which for two years before I got a real job helped my family to put food on the table, I've been working for 33 of my 49 years. Include babysitting, which paid better than my first real job, and it goes to 36 of my 49 years. My family of origin was blue collar and the work ethic was passed down as if it were a dominant genetic trait, much like my brown eyes. I don't recall a time in my childhood when my Dad worked only one job; My Mom always worked, too. It was the 1960s and I thought only fictional Moms, like TV's Donna Reed, stayed home during the day; I was shocked in elementary school to find out many of my friends had mothers who didn’t have paid jobs.

I grew up believing if you don't work, you don't eat and that education was going to be my ticket to an easier life.

I never considered not going to college, even though I would be the first person on my Mom's side of the family to do so; everything I imagined doing with my life started with an education. And when I got my first salaried job after college I just knew I’d be set for life.

crossposted at the NoSlaves.com blog

With friends like these who needs enemies? The IEEE-USA issued a statement supporting turning our University system into a glorified green card machine. They also have literally teamed up with a corporate lobbyist organization, the SIA, to issue their policy position.

Cross posted at NoSlaves.com blog

A new study from Bond University says almost two-thirds of the 240 participants in an online survey said the local workplace tyrant was either never censured or was promoted for domineering ways. From Bad Bosses Get Promoted.

Even the BBC is asking what is going on with America's economic policy by the question: The end of the American dream?

(Updated below)

I just read something that has verily shocked and outraged me. Via Raw Story - Workers told to shape up or pay up:

"Looking for new ways to trim the fat and boost workers' health, some employers are starting to make overweight employees pay if they don't slim down. Others, citing growing medical costs tied to obesity, are offering fit workers lucrative incentives that shave thousands of dollars a year off health care premiums."

At the last, the companies and corporations are now flatly coming out, unafraid and unfettered, to proclaim their intent of actually controlling your lives as they see fit.

Marks, Mississippi. Marianna Arkansas. Memphis Tennessee. These are the first stops for John Edwards on a special journey that begins July 16 in New Orleans, goes up the Mississippi, across to the Rust Belt of the upper Ohio Valley states and ends in Appalachia. John Edwards is highlighting poverty in this country: The Road to One America Tour.

Cross-posted to DailyKos and America in Solidarity.

Earlier this week, the Employee Free Choice Act failed to gain the 60 votes it needed for consideration by the United States Senate. While this was not unexpected, the defeat of the bill represents a failure by many of those in Washington to stand up for the rights of ordinary workers.

Cross posted on Dailykos

Our goal is clearly NOT TO FIND a qualified and interested U.S. worker.

For those of you reading this diary hoping for some dirt on Senator Specter, I'm sorry to disappoint you.  The only thing Senator Specter is hiding is where he stands on important issues.  Specifically, on the issue of working families and the right of men and women in America to organize at the workplace?  Does he support it?  Is he against it?  I don't know, and that's part of the problem.

Cross-posted to DailyKos and America in Solidarity.

Labor issues are very important to me. That's why, a few months ago, I contacted both of my U.S. Senators to ask them to support the Employee Free Choice Act when it comes before the Senate.

It took quite some time, but I eventually heard back from U.S. Senator Bob Casey Jr. The only problem is, his reply didn't address the EFCA. At all.

The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need

copyright © 2007 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org

Cross-posted to DailyKos.

Recently, I was flipping through my copy of The American Century, by Harold Evans, and I found a story about late 19th century Romanian immigrants. This story turned my thoughts to the immigration bill that recently stalled in the United States Senate, and the impact it could have, if it ever passes, on what we stand for as nation – not only now, but, for generations in the future.

This was a speech from my father’s generation, a call to arms for the American people. My father had always told me he felt this speech was directed at him specifically. I would suppose that would be a hallmark of a great speech to reach people and connect with them on a personal level. This speech was different however the country was mired in a deep depression and the population was very well aware of it Hoover had ignored it and Roosevelt could not. Instead the speech was a clarion cry and a veiled warning that the failure of capitalism meant revolution.

Cross-posted to DailyKos.

Imagine the following scenario: You work a decent, well paying, union job at a local brewery. The town you live in is fairly small, and the brewery provides the majority of employment for the area. You love your job, and you need to hang on to it, in order to keep your family afloat. If you were to be laid off, you likely wouldn't be able to find anything else in the area. Certainly nothing that pays as well.

Yesterday we had an incredible betrayal of the Professional workforce by Maria Cantwell (D-WA). She has introduced S.Admt 1249 which will absolutely decimate Americans in STEM careers as well as target most middle class careers for labor arbitrage.

Yesterday Senator Bernie Sanders managed to get an amendment accepted that takes a 3,500 fee, a minuscule drop in the bucket of total labor arbitrage profits from using cheap labor, to fund scholarships for Americans to go to college.