Editors’ note: This is part of the Op-Eds From the Future series, in which science fiction authors, futurists, philosophers and scientists write Op-Eds that they imagine we might read 10, 50 or even 200 years from now. The challenges they predict are imaginary — for now — but their arguments illuminate the urgent questions of […]
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TORONTO — It has become taboo in Canada’s established political circles to question what the world trading order has done to the country’s vaunted middle class. Vocally criticizing free trade deals, such as the recently negotiated United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and denouncing them as harmful to middle-income workers, risks being ridiculed as “nativist” or “retrograde.” Problem […]
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Since the presidential campaign began, the prospect that socialism would seize the Democratic Party has animated Republicans and created anxiety for many Democrats. Last Tuesday, hours before the Democratic debate, President Trump’s campaign flew a 105-foot-long banner reading “Socialism Destroys Ohio Jobs: Vote Trump” over the debate site in Westerville, Ohio. At the same time, […]
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At first glance, it may seem like a paradox: Even as the economy rides a 10-year winning streak, tens of thousands of workers across the country, from General Motors employees to teachers in Chicago, are striking to win better wages and benefits. But, according to those on strike, the strong growth is precisely the point. […]
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The tentative contract hammered out by the United Automobile Workers and General Motors won’t please all of the union’s members, but it is sure to get strong support at the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant. The factory, which employs 700 U.A.W. members, is scheduled to close in January. But under the contract, G.M. has promised to spend […]
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On Thursday two of the most powerful brands in politics and high fashion collided in Johnson County, Texas, a rural area about a half-hour’s drive south of Fort Worth. They met in a blur of pomp, supple leather and mutual appreciation as President Trump joined Bernard Arnault, founder and chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis […]
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One of the less discussed parts of Tuesday’s Democratic debate was the exchange that took place over automation and how to deal with it. But it’s worth focusing on that exchange, because it was interesting — by which I mean depressing. CNN’s Erin Burnett, one of the moderators, asked a bad question, and the debaters […]
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United Automobile Workers leaders voted Thursday on a tentative agreement to end a monthlong walkout by 50,000 workers at General Motors over wages, health insurance premiums and the use of temporary and “tiered” contracts. The accord includes raises and a large ratification bonus and gives temps a path to permanent status — but it also […]
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After a monthlong strike that has idled General Motors plants across the Midwest and South, union leaders will gather on Thursday in Detroit to consider a deal that could send the picketing autoworkers back to the assembly lines. The details of the tentative agreement have not been announced, but the union, the United Automobile Workers, […]
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I am not one of the nervous Nellies who believe that Democratic candidates shouldn’t dream big and pitch big, transformational ideas. I’m not one of those who believe that Democrats should negotiate with themselves, in advance of submitting a proposal, so that they present only incremental half measures in the name of practicality and perceived […]
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Unpredictable schedules can be brutal for hourly workers, upending their lives. New research shows that African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities — particularly women — are much more likely to be assigned irregular schedules, and that the harmful repercussions are felt not just by the workers but also their families. The findings come from continuing surveys […]
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The United Automobile Workers union announced Wednesday that it had reached a tentative agreement with General Motors on a new labor contract that could end a monthlong strike that has idled G.M. plants across the Midwest and South. Details of the contract terms were not released, although the union said it had “achieved major wins.” […]
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Kickstarter, the Brooklyn-based crowdfunding site, has long tried to stand apart from Silicon Valley, seeking to portray itself as a socially responsible enterprise that cares more about improving the world than putting money in wealthy shareholders’ pockets. Then came the union drive. Earlier this year, a group of Kickstarter employees publicly pressed to form a […]
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A dozen candidates for the Democratic presidential primary will debate on Tuesday in Westerville, Ohio. They will go back and forth on whether policies should be centrist or progressive and how much to talk about President Trump in an effort to balance appeals to primary voters now and a broader coalition later. But the Ohio […]
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SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Anthony Pretrick was scraping by as a fisherman in his Pacific island homeland of Micronesia when he met a job recruiter with an irresistible offer: There was a fortune to be made slaughtering hogs in a faraway place called Iowa. A new pork processing plant was hiring workers for $15.95 an […]
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MANSFIELD, Ohio — When they gather near Columbus for their fourth debate, Democrats will be coming to a state that, if not “great again,” is by many accounts doing quite O.K., certainly much better than a decade ago. Unemployment is lower than it has been in many years. Wages are inching up. Despite multiple signs […]
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When Bernie Sanders ran for president in 2016, his campaign was strikingly pro-labor. He proposed a $15-an-hour minimum wage, which was much further than most mainstream Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, were willing to go. He denounced a trans-Pacific trade deal that was anathema to many unions. He endorsed an organizing method, known as card check, […]
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There were smiles and handshakes between union leaders and the General Motors chief executive, Mary T. Barra, when contract talks started in July. On Wednesday, with talks stalled and G.M. plants idled for more than three weeks by a nationwide strike, Ms. Barra sat down with the union again. At G.M.’s initiative, Ms. Barra met […]
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Just before 20,000 Google employees left their desks last fall to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment, a debate broke out among the hundreds of workers involved in formulating a list of demands. Some workers argued that they could win fairer pay policies and a full accounting of harassment claims by filing lawsuits or […]
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DENVER — The Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, said on Tuesday that the central bank would once again begin expanding its portfolio of government-backed securities and continued to leave the door open to another interest rate cut this month. While “policy is not on a preset course,” Mr. Powell said, the Fed will “act […]
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