Economics
WHY UNIONS MATTER – Lest We Forget
WHY UNIONS MATTER
Lest We Forget
By Kath Michel
Labor Day, held on the first Monday of September, was designated, in 1894, as an annual federal holiday to celebrate and show appreciation for the work of labor organizations and for their contribution to the American economy.
After one hundred and six years, do we have anything left to celebrate? The Wisconsin Governor and his ilk have waged an all-out war on unions in Wisconsin. With stout financial support from a boatload of backers including Charles and David Koch, the Bradley Foundation (whose president and CEO, ...
BACK TO ALEC, BACK TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS
BACK TO ALEC, BACK TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS
By Rep Chris Taylor (D-Madison)
On the heels of a newly passed state budget that again leaves our K-12 public schools behind without ample and consistent funding, I recently headed back to where the school privatization push all began — the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.
ALEC and its members, including the American Federation for Children, have become more powerful than our citizens’ voices at the state Capitol.
Despite massive public urging from Wisconsin school superintendents, principals, teachers, ...
WORKERS INDEPENDENT NEWS
WORKERS INDEPENDENT NEWS
(A Multimedia Voice for Workers)
Doug Cunningham is the producer of Workers Independent News. This is a multimedia voice for workers. On the web you can read his daily labor news updates. You can also hear labor news on the radio.
Check the website for a station near you. www.LaborRadio.org
WIN (Workers Independent News) is the voice of working families in a world where the corporations dominate. There is no other national daily news on unions.
Eleven per cent of US workers are unionized, a minority. News of unions are outgunned. For ...
RIGHT-SIZING THE PENTAGON (how to reduce military spending and maintain security)
RIGHT-SIZING THE PENTAGON
(how to reduce military spending and maintain security)
By Philip Anderson
I believe we can reduce military spending without hurting national security. Reducing the huge cost of our military requires many reforms large and small. It requires reducing waste. We need to take the profit out of war. We need to demilitarize our foreign policy. And we need to “right size” the military.
Reduce the waste.
Waste is endemic in the military and is the obvious place to begin reducing costs. Waste happens everywhere at every level from ...
PREVAILING WAGE
PREVAILING WAGE
By John Spiegelhoff
Prevailing wage is the minimum hourly wage employers must pay certain workers who work on construction projects where state dollars are used to fund the construction. The prevailing wage includes the employer's cost of benefits.
Prevailing wage is used in any construction project funded in whole or in part by federal or state funds. For example, state-funded projects can be projects to construct highways, roads, wastewater treatment plants, public utilities, colleges, schools or park and recreation improvements. The prevailing wage ...
WISCONSIN’S RANKING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
WISCONSIN’S RANKING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
By Joyce Luedke
DO YOU KNOW?
June of 2015 in the latest Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation survey.
***The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurship , respected around the world, focuses on education and small business start-ups. See page 10 for rankings and page 67 for Wisconsin’s profile.
*** Wisconsin’s job creation ranking in the nation fell from 31st in December, 2014, to 38th in March*** Wisconsin’s ranking for small business start-ups dropped from 45th in 2014 to 50th in, 2015.
*** Wisconsin lags the nation: ...
Eminent Enbridge Domain
Eminent Enbridge Domain
by James Botsford
Enbridge Pipeline Corporation is a multi-national corporation based in Canada. In the early days of the feeding frenzy created by the discovery of frackable oil in the Bakken oil fields of Western North Dakota, Enbridge moved in.
They put on nice suits and went to visit with the kind and apparently trusting state government officials. I suppose they said they were world-wide experts in such matters and knew how to help North Dakota plan for the most efficient and expeditious way of capitalizing on this oil boom.
That ...
STOP HOG FACTORY FARM NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR
STOP HOG FACTORY FARM NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR
By Virginia Kirsch
Badgerwood LLC wants to build and operate a 26,000 hog factory-farm in Eileen Township of Bayfield County. Badgerwood LLC is from the Reicks View Farms in Iowa. Why choose such an ecologically delicate area close to Lake Superior?
Perhaps the plan includes exporting animals from the Great Lakes by rail to British Columbia and then by ship to China. This long journey sounds like cruel treatment!
The proposed hog factory farm is 8 miles from Lake Superior. The proposed factory farm is in the Fish Creek ...
WIND POWER
WIND POWER
By Jeanne Larson
Science Alert reports that on a particularly windy July 2015 day Denmark's wind farms produced between 116 and 140% of the nation's electricity requirements, and they weren't even operating at full capacity. Germany and Norway took 80% of the excess, storing the surplus in hydropower systems for later use, and Sweden took the rest.
Oliver Joy from the European Wind Energy Association said this shows that a world powered 100% by renewable energy is no fantasy.
Denmark cannot rely on wind energy to ...
PREVAILING WAGE
PREVAILING WAGE
By Nancy Stencil
Oh my, such the times we Wisconsinites are living in! Wages are stagnant and income equality is at an all-time high in America. I can't believe the attacks that Wisconsin Republicans snuck into the budget at the last minute…provisions that will lower wages for all of us and weaken our middle class.
The prevailing wage bill failed to pass using the normal democratic process. Weakening the prevailing wage was slipped into the budget, just days before it was signed, in order to avoid public debate and scrutiny.
Prevailing wage is a ...
