World-News

Ellen Dannin, American Constitution Society: 'In this era of high unemployment, the United States has increasingly become a country of bad jobs that are held by people desperate to provide food and shelter for themselves and their families. As a result, many workers and unemployed workers have become so desperate that they are willing to forego fair treatment on the job, the enforcement of laws enacted to provide safe, fair, and remunerative work, and the working conditions of other employees who have benefitted from collective bargaining.'

http://www.truth-out.org/democracys-work-work-democratic-society/1303841302



Public Pensions, Once Off Limits, Face Budget Cuts

Michael Cooper and Mary Williams Walsh, The New York Times News Service: 'When an arbitrator ruled this month that Detroit could reduce the pensions being earned by its police sergeants and lieutenants, it put the struggling city at the forefront of a growing national debate over whether the pensions of current public workers can or should be reduced. Conventional wisdom and the laws and constitutions of many states have long held that the pensions being earned by current government workers are untouchable. But as the fiscal crisis has lingered, officials in strapped states from California to Illinois have begun to take a second look, to see whether there might be loopholes allowing them to cut the pension benefits of current employees. Now the move in Detroit - made possible, lawyers said, because Michigan's constitutional protections are weaker - could spur other places to try to follow suit.'

http://truth-out.org/public-pensions-once-limits-face-budget-cuts/1303823863



http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=budget
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=bargaining
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=workers
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=unemploy
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=public+pension
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Ellen+Dannin
http://www.sharenews-blog.com:8090/helma/twoday/sharenews/search?q=Mary+Williams+Walsh

-----