AltWeeklies Wire
Paper Mill Closing Leaves One Wisconsin Town Fighting for Its Lifenew
The struggle over the NewPage paper mill in Kimberly, Wisc., underscores the larger pattern of hurt in the heartland.
Isthmus |
Roger Bybee |
10-20-2008 |
Business & Labor
The Way of the Scalper: Inside Philly's Stealth Economynew
Why scalping? Well, you're your own boss, and set your own schedule. You have the freedom to travel the country, the ability to gain access to nearly any major event, and you get to be a part of some stories. There's a certain allure. And, of course, there's money.
Philadelphia City Paper |
E. James Beale |
10-06-2008 |
Business & Labor
The Trucked-Up Politics of NAFTAnew
Backed by some of America's most powerful unions, Democrats Barack Obama and Jeff Merkley -- who's challenging Sen. Gordon Smith -- say they want to protect U.S. jobs by reforming international trade deals such as the 14-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. We go to Mexico to see what it's doing there.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
10-01-2008 |
Business & Labor
Warring US Airways & America West Pilots Have the Merged Company in a Tailspinnew
Three years ago, US Airways merged with America West, but what was quickly made official on paper has proved much more complicated in reality. Pre-merger, the companies had little geographic overlap -- more importantly, they also had markedly different cultures.
Phoenix New Times |
Sarah Fenske |
09-09-2008 |
Business & Labor
Canvassers, Telemarketers and Parking Officials Talk About Doing Work People Hatenew
They call during dinner time. They interrupt your picnic at the park. They write parking tickets. We talk to some of these people, to find out not only just how badly they're treated, but also why they continue to show up for work, day after day.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Phil Eil |
08-13-2008 |
Business & Labor
Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell is Urging a Stronger Effort to Enforce Anti-Sweatshop Policiesnew
Pennsylvania is the first state to pledge its support for a proposed anti-sweatshop consortium, made up of states, counties and municipalities from across the country. "Rendell has taken the leadership of states nationally," says Kenneth Miller, who has long been active in local anti-sweatshop campaigns.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Adam Fleming |
07-28-2008 |
Business & Labor
Starbucks Baristas Union Drive Comes at Key Timenew
The effort to organize Minnesota latte-slingers could hurt the ailing chain.
City Pages (Twin Cities) |
Matt Snyders |
07-24-2008 |
Business & Labor
WMC Already Collecting Dividends from Buying the State Courtnew
The state Supreme Court, state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and the big business lobby Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) handed Wisconsin residents a $350 million tax hike—and gave corporations a new tax break.
Shepherd Express |
Lisa Kaiser |
07-18-2008 |
Business & Labor
Big Oil in Little Richmondnew
Back in 2004, the Chevron Corporation proposed a billion dollar "Energy and Hydrogen Renewal Project" at its 2,900-acre Richmond, Calif., refinery. Critics worry that the renovations will end up fouling the air in the already-blighted Richmond neighborhoods downwind of the refinery, and have taken up arms to halt the project's progress.
East Bay Express |
Anna McCarthy |
07-10-2008 |
Business & Labor
Death of 17-Year-Old Pregnant Farm Worker Incites Campaign Against Trader Joe'snew
The California Division of Industrial Relations has opened an investigation of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez's death and her employer, Merced Farm Labor. But activists connected to the case want to send the message even further, to stores like Trader Joe's that market products made with cheap or exploited agricultural labor.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Amanda Witherell |
07-10-2008 |
Business & Labor
FairPoint's Phone-Line Takeover is as Bad as Regulators Fearednew
The Verizon-FairPoint merger, in which a North Carolina-based little-phone-company-that-could spent $2.3 billion of mostly borrowed money to take over the northern New England operations of one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, has been more disastrous than even we thought.
Portland Phoenix |
Jeff Inglis |
07-03-2008 |
Business & Labor
Your Friendly Neighborhood War Profiteernew
Across Minnesota, from the Twin Cities to the smallest rural towns, are often-scrappy companies with a handful of employees who work contracts from the low thousands to the low millions. Some estimate the number of companies doing defense-related business in the state at numbers as high as 2,000.
City Pages (Twin Cities) |
Jeff Severns Guntzel |
07-02-2008 |
Business & Labor
Will Chrysler be the First of the Big Three to Cruise into the Sunset?new
Chrysler can no longer possibly compete in today's environment. It no longer trades on the stock exchanges, but if it sinks into the deep, it will have deep ripple effects on other firms, and on all of us in Detroit. Here's why I say the company is sick as a dog.
Metro Times |
Jack Lessenberry |
07-01-2008 |
Business & Labor
Did Microsoft Conspire to Charge People for MSN Service They Didn't Want?new
We'll find out -- as soon as the court sorts through a few trillion more bytes of data.
Seattle Weekly |
Rick Anderson |
06-17-2008 |
Business & Labor
Proposed Federal Laws Could Sweep Away Low-Wage Workersnew
The Shuler-Tancredo SAVE Act would require all employers to use E-Verify to check the legal status of their employees. Presently E-Verify is a free system that employers voluntarily use to check new hires. Critics point out that it has been shown to have serious shortcomings, the most problematic being the tendency to deliver "false positive" matches, declaring citizens in good standing to be illegal.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Diane Solomon |
05-29-2008 |
Business & Labor
