labor
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The rise of a shadow workforce—workers who perform essential labor without full rights or protections—is not a side issue in the American economy. It is rapidly becoming the model that reshapes work for everyone. During an April 2020 interview with Kimberly Graham about her U.S Senate race, she laid a framework, We are some of… Read more
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Since making this post on May 1, 2011, society’s view of ICE has deteriorated for good reason. The problem with illegal workers runs right up to a home owner’s front door where choices are made. This post is unchanged. While walking in the neighborhood last fall it was hard not to notice a gang of… Read more
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Packinghouse Daughter: A Memoir by Cheri Register is a book I wouldn’t have found except for patronizing an excellent local used bookstore. They have a deal where you set an amount of money to spend, tell them your interests, and they locate books that match. I have yet to be disappointed by their choices. One… Read more
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Following is a chapter of my privately published memoir, An Iowa Life. A Union Job With classes and examinations finished, I headed back to Mother’s home for the summer. Several high school classmates applied for summer jobs at industrial workplaces in the Quad-Cities. The post-World War II economy was still humming at John Deere, International… Read more
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A breaker boy was a coal-mining worker in the United States whose job was to separate impurities from coal by hand in a coal breaker. The use of breaker boys began in the mid-1860s, according to Wikipedia. Although public disapproval of the employment of children as breaker boys existed by the mid-1880s, the practice did… Read more
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In 2022 I wrote how I felt about Labor Day: “Even though I retired during the pandemic, and its been many years since I carried a union card, I believe I’ll take the day off, work at home, and thank a union.” At 11.3 percent of the workforce, there are not that many American workers… Read more
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Republicans in the Iowa legislature are treating children like trash. It is part of their view of the role of children in society. It is not right. Republicans embrace our forefathers, and seek to make Iowa and America great. They don’t want to hear alternative views of American history, like those presented in The 1619… Read more
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Thank a union if you have today off work. In 2021, 15.8 million wage and salary workers, 11.6 percent of the workforce, were represented by a union according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is a small, yet mighty segment of the American people. The flip side of this is 313.7 million Americans are… Read more
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Delicious food can be part of a normal life. It seems important to enjoy food we eat as it results in sustaining our lives in a turbulent world. There is little point in living a Dickensian food culture of gruel three times a day when so much food is abundantly available and recipes to prepare… Read more
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Yesterday’s news was workers at Kellogg’s cereal plant in Memphis, and at plants in three other cities, rejected the company’s terms during contract negotiations. In response, the company posted this statement on its website: The prolonged work stoppage has left us no choice but to hire permanent replacement employees in positions vacated by striking workers.… Read more
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