Tula Connell

The union movement is turning green. Not with envy, but with an escalating sense that the nation must work to address climate change and that we must be part of the effort to create good jobs that also are green jobs. Last December, an unprecedented delegation of unionists traveled to Bali, Indonesia, for the U.N. climate change conference. Of the 90 union delegates, more than 20 were from North America.

There are many reasons economic immigrants come to this nation—driven out of their home countries by bad trade deals that fail to consider the impact on workers or because they are fleeing unfettered corporate greed that seeks out impoverished nations to pay the lowest possible wages. Last week in this spot, I took a look at why border crossings start in the boardroom.

Once in the United States, immigrants are ripe for employer exploitation—and many U.S. employers don't hesitate to do so.

Before the immigration debate builds steam later this election year, I really wish candidates at all levels and in every party could spend a few hours in a maquila talking with workers. A few years ago, I spent two weeks in Guatemala with STITCH, a U.S.-based labor group that supports women workers in Latin America.

Join me in welcoming Amy M. Traub, director of Research at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. President Bush seems to have discovered that the economy is turning sour just in time for his State of the Union address. But for current and aspiring middle-class Americans, things have been tough for some time.

Back in January 2001, in an article presciently titled: "Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity is Finally Over,' " The Onion satirized the list of horrors on our horizon following the installation of the Bush regime. Here's what The Onion had to say about Bush and America's economy:

Anyone can get health care in the United States. Just ask George W. Bush. Last year in Cleveland, he had this to say to the 47 million Americans without health care coverage: I mean, people have access to health care in America.

Good thing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wasn't around during the American Revolution. Instead of "The British are coming," the cry would be: The populists are coming. The populists are coming! Amusing as it is to imagine Chamber President Tom Donohue riding bareback through the night, lantern in hand, in support of the colonies' British overlords, it seems the Chamber really does have its legal briefs in a ruffle over presidential candidates who

Mike Huckabee wants it both ways. He says he wants to support striking television writers—right before he crosses their picket line. Huckabee became one of the first to cross the picket line after late night talk show host Jay Leno went back on the "Tonight Show" yesterday. On his way to cross the picket line yesterday, Huckabee "professed his support for the striking television writers' union." Uh, sorry.

Members of the Writers Guild of America, East, walk the picket line in New York.

Last year, a group of television workers at WMUR in New Hampshire voted to join a union—Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1228. But management didn't want to negotiate a contract with them—and there's nothing in U.S. labor law that says employers must agree to a contract. So, until this month, the workers had no contract.

Then, one after another, the Democratic presidential candidates started writing letters to WMUR-TV General Manager Jeff Bartlett urging him to go back to the bargaining table and work out an agreement.

Guess what? He did.

After months of deadlock, the WMUR technicians and drivers now have a contract that includes wage increases ranging from 18 percent to 35 percent and improvements in the pension and vacation benefits.

Tuesday's vote by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) paving the way for more media monopoly was a slap against the public will, which overwhelmingly opposes further consolidation. The 3–2 vote took part in a Bush Republican-packed regulatory agency unaccountable to voters whose master is the party of the president.

Proving that executive signing statements aren't the only easy way for a presidential administration to bypass such trivialities as the democratic legislative process, federal regulatory agencies under the Bush administration have taken partisanship to an extreme.

So extreme, one such agency, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), is purposely pursuing an ideological agenda—one that rolls over workers, seeking to create a Dickensian world in which we all must futilely ask our employers: "Please, sir, may I have another?" NLRB chairman Robert Battista admitted as much last week in testimony before a joint House-Senate subcommittee hearing on the NLRB and its impact on workers’ rights.