Trump's dialogue about low unemployment never addresses the impoverishment of those known as "The Working Poor."

May 22, 2018

...A collapse (click here) in the rate of union membership for private-sector employees — to 6.5 percent last year from the upper teens in the early 1980s — appears to have played a key role in holding down wages.

Washington - Despite an ultra-low 3.9 percent unemployment rate (click here), about one-third of U.S. adults faced financial insecurity last year and often struggled to pay unexpected expenses, a Federal Reserve survey found .

For three in 10 adults, their monthly incomes fluctuated - often because their work schedules changed at short notice - and that caused about one in ten Americans to miss some bill payments, according to the report released Tuesday. Forty percent of adults would have had to borrow money or sell something to pay an emergency expense of just $400.

The data suggests that financial security evades even many of those who are working. About one-third of U.S. adults relied on "gig" work or side jobs last year to bolster their incomes. Fewer than four of 10 Americans think their retirement savings are sufficient, and a quarter have none at all, the Fed survey found....

Additionally, there is far more reason for people to organize into unions for their employment, namely the recent Supreme Court ruling against class action suits. The Supreme Court treats class action suits as a nuisance and not a reality.

THE WORK PLACE is where unions exceed expectations. It has always been the focus of unions with demands that increase safety and at the same time increase employee attendance. I am sure the unions take any form of sexual harassment seriously and have taken it seriously. The woman worker has been most successful with union organizations where they lead as well.

May 28, 2018

...The consequences (click here) that follow the demise of employment-related class-action claims, moreover, include the following:

Claims may be too costly or time-consuming to pursue individually. As a result, employees will have little bargaining power against significant moneyed interests and repeat players.

Individual claims, decided in secret, rarely right wrongs that affect others; patterns of wrongdoing are hidden, and the public is kept in the dark.


Congress may have intended otherwise, but the reality is that arbitration, co-opted by companies, delivers costly, complex, time-consuming proceedings that not only intimidate individual claimants but also deny them procedural justice.

Additionally, Lilly Ledbetter has been accepted by some as a legitimate issue. It seems as though Starbucks is more than willing and seems to thrive on social structural change.

March 21, 2018
By Danielle Weiner-Bonner

..."This milestone is the result of years of work and commitment," said Lucy Helm, executive vice president and chief partner officer at Starbucks (SBUX), in a statement.

"We've worked hard for a couple of years now to ensure we can get there," Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson told CNN's Maggie Lake on Wednesday.

The coffee company added that it will now tell American job candidates the pay range for any position in an effort to increase transparency.

Helm explained that the company has been striving for pay equity for about decade. Last year, it was at 99.7% parity. Women make up about one-third of the company's executive team....

Another example of corporate mismanagement. Human beings have rights and some companies see those rights as a burden to profit. Employees for profit companies needs unions. It is just a fact of life.

May 29, 2018

Kansas City – Employees of the janitorial company (click here) Crystal Clear Enterprise based in Grandview are seeking class action status in a suit over allegations they were not paid for all hours worked in their 40-hour workweek.

Lead plaintiff Leslie S. Lemanske claims that from April 2017 and March 2018, she worked as an hourly, non-exempt employee as a site supervisor for the defendant but that she and others were consistently required to perform duties during their meal and break periods and not relieved from duty during those periods.

According to the complaint filed May 18 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, any employee who had a shift of four or more hours would automatically have 15 minutes deducted from their paid shift and anyone who worked longer than eight hours would have 45 minutes automatically deducted to account for "rest" and "meal" breaks.

Lemanske claims that under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Missouri law, rest periods of short duration - 5 to 20 minutes - must be counted as hours worked.

The suit states that "while 'bona fide meal periods are not worktime,' the employee must be completely relieved from duty for the purposes of eating regular meals."...

US Cities with shortest and longest average work weeks. By the way, shorter work weeks have been proven to be more productive.

14 May 2018
By Sarah Berger

...Financial website WalletHub (click here) recently analyzed data to determine the best large, U.S. cities to start a business in, comparing 182 cities, including 150 of the most populated U.S. cities plus at least two of the most populated cities in each state. Those cities were then evaluated on three dimensions — business environment, access to resources and business costs, using 19 relevant metrics....

Shortest: 

1. Burlington, Vermont: 33.5 hours

2. Tallahassee, Florida: 34.9 hours

3. Providence, Rhode Island: 36 hours

4. Missoula, Montana: 36.1 hours

5. Bridgeport, Connecticut: 36.2 hours

6. Madison, Wisconsin: 36.2 hours

Longest:

1. Anchorage, Alaska: 41 hours

2. Corpus Christi, Texas: 40.5 hours

3. Fayetteville, North Carolina, 40.5 hours

4. Casper, Wyoming: 40.4 hours

5. Irving, Texas: 40.3 hours

6. Plano, Texas: 40.3 hours

Removing children from their parents is genocide. Period. Stop.

The reason the Trump administration, National Guard, Border Patrol and civilian agencies provides is that the parents have broken the law. No, they haven't.

If all the problem with the Mexican - US Border is law enforcement the end to such immigration would have been solved a long time ago. The only exception to border crossings requiring imprisonment is drug trafficking.

THE PRACTICE of USA southern border crossings has a long history of humanitarian content. These folks at the border are not criminals. They are coming to the USA for humanitarian reasons. They are UNARMED and without illegal drugs or raw materials.

The issue is that Mexico and other countries south of the USA border have profound impoverishment. The problem is that if Mexico had an economy that supported the population this would not happen. No one is coming here on a lark. The history in this relationship with border crossers in long standing because nothing has occurred for CENTURIES in changing the economy of the countries south of the USA border.

ALSO, the notion that border crossings INTO SAFETY is a very valuable commodity in any place that occurs with our embassies. There is a clear understanding that crossing a country's border means a change in status to safety and A FUTURE. That definition internationally cannot change. It effects Americans as well as others that seek asylum or fear for their lives. There are Russians living in the UK that are there for one reason, their personal safety. They long for a return to Russia if the country becomes a place where personal safety has value. 

Using WORDS against the safety of human beings and instilling genocide is more illegal than can be undone. The USA knows the trauma of removing children from their parents and potential to permanent psychological damage. Basically, Trump and his henchmen/women are creating a huge problem that can be avoided by common sheltering of children with parents.

There are strong EXAMPLES of sheltering border crossers with their children in the history, recent history as well, in the USA. This is a hostile act by the Trump administration and all it's minions and should not be tolerated by anyone.

The wrongful use of American agencies to facilitate the removal of children from their parents is out of sync with their legislated purpose AND ARTIFICAL. Sessions cannot simply state the children are now parentless because they are in jail. THAT IS AN ARTIFICAL CREATED CIRCUMSTANCE that is not upheld by law.

None of these parents expected to lose their children with their border crossing. They brought their families with them to find better circumstances to their lives rather than have the children indoctrinated by drug cartels and/or killed because they won't. This is a humanitarian issue at the USA southern border, sustained or not, it is a humanitarian issue NOT A CRIMINAL ISSUE. These people did not come to the USA to break the law and cause the country harm. They are border crossers for EXTERMELY TYPICAL REASONS and they should be welcomed no different than other peaceful border crossers across the world.

The agencies receiving these children need to refuse them and demand they remain with their parents. They are being paid for the wrong reasons and are just as guilty as the rest of the structure supporting the genocide.

North Korea has a lot to learn from South Korea to come up to speed with something recognized as an economy.

Investment and a stable middle class will help build a real economy in North Korea. Credit cards should only become a real part of society with a stable middle class.

The middle class can work best in any burgeoning economy if it starts young with good educations and marketable skills. I think the young leader, Kim Jong Un, identifies with the young in North Korea. I think much of his desire to have a stronger economy will be to benefit the future. An immediate future is a big unrealistic. 

North Korea has to recognize that investment needs to occur to bring his people into the 21st century. And it needs to be an economy with real jobs, not simply a hook up to "Alibaba." Real jobs with real people earning a paycheck every week and going in wealth with savings and investment themselves.

I think the Koreas can build economies separately and then find common ground where the two countries can build a future together for their people.

May 29, 2018

“What I saw when I came to South Korea (click here) was overwhelming,” 19-year-old Pak Sool says while talking about what he experienced since fleeing the North.

“North and South Korea are totally different. I had no idea what a credit card was, and that’s used everyday here,” the Yeomyung school student said....