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Who’s the Boss at McDonald’s? Fast Food Industry Pay Scheme Going on Trial

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The struggles of low-paid employees working for fast food corporations will be in the spotlight next week as McDonald’s goes on trial at the National Labor Relations Board in New York. The case threatens the economic model for the company (and most franchise-based companies), which passes off daily operational responsibilities to franchise holders for 90% of its locations under a regimented program.

The company’s reaction to the campaign for better wages in the fast food industry in recent years opened it up to charges it violated labor laws. Now the NLRB will decide the question of whether or not corporate shares responsibility with local operators for the wages and working conditions of front-line employees.

Also… Friday Calendar of Upcoming Progressive Events Inside…   [Read more…]

Bernie Sanders: ‘Greed Is Not Good’

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By United States Senator Bernie Sanders / Common Dreams

The American people are catching on. They understand that something is profoundly wrong when, in our country today, the top one-tenth of 1 percent own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent and when the 20 richest people own more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans – half of our population. They know that the system is rigged when the average person is working longer hours for lower wages, while 58 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent.

They also know that a handful of people on Wall Street have extraordinary power over the economic and political life of our country.   [Read more…]

Bottomless Pit of Right-Wing Lies Continues as City Pension Reform Scheme Loses Appeal

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Over the last few days we’ve heard, via the Union-Tribune and the Wall Street Journal’s free marketeers, a tale of woe arising from the ruling of a state agency holding that the city of San Diego violated state law by not negotiating with employee unions over a 2012 ballot measure that eliminated guaranteed pension benefits for most city employees.

Now we’re being told that greedy unions have circumvented the will of the voters. Talk-show host Carl DeMaio says the agency making this determination is a “kangaroo court.”

Then-Mayor Jerry Sanders worked hand-in-glove with local right-wing politicos to create and sell a “reform” program promising to save taxpayers untold millions of dollars. They lied, they cheated, and when they were called on it, said “so what?”   [Read more…]

The Economy in 2016: On the Edge of Recession

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By Robert Reich

Economic forecasters exist to make astrologers look good, but I’ll hazard a guess. I expect the U.S. economy to sputter in 2016. That’s because the economy faces a deep structural problem: not enough demand for all the goods and services it’s capable of producing.

American consumers account for almost 70 percent of economic activity, but they won’t have enough purchasing power in 2016 to keep the economy going on more than two cylinders. Blame widening inequality.   [Read more…]

Why the 2016 Race for City Attorney Matters

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There is no more important local electoral contest than the race for City Attorney. This relatively obscure office has been the part of government where dreams come to die, the priorities of the modern-day landed gentry are enforced, and the political will of the city’s business interests is turned into policy.

Incumbent City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, elected in 2008, deserves credit for molding his agency into a politically powerful entity. While his record is far from spotless, the more general thrust of developing a well-coordinated keeper of the flame for business interests has proven to be a valuable asset for the local moneyed classes.

Today we’ll take a sneak peak at the four candidates vying to replace Goldsmith, along with my general assessment of where they stand in relation to preserving the status quo.   [Read more…]

If California is Such a Hostile Business Climate, Why is it Kicking Everyone Else’s Ass (like Texas)

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By Kos / Daily Kos

You hear conservatives tell it, the key to a job-creating positive business environment is … drum roll … low taxes! So the conservative Tax Foundation will rank the best and worst business climate states:
California and New York are ranked way low (48 and 49, respectively), with New Jersey coming in last at 50. And on the “positive” side, you have Wyoming leading the pack, with Texas at #10.

CNBC has its own rankings, with Texas at #2, and California down at #27 and New York at #36. (These rankings, for example, favor right-to-work anti-union states.)

And how about crazy-ass ALEC?
  [Read more…]

Uber Capitalist, Martin Shkreli, the Most Hated Man in America, Arrested

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The Poster Boy for Corporate Greed

Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, who bought the drug, Daraprim and then raised the price from $13.50 to $750. a pill was arrested on December 17 by the FBI on fraud charges having nothing to do with his price gouging with Daraprim. Shkreli seemed to back off on his 5000% increase for a life-saving drug after he received a lot of negative publicity but later said that he wished that he had raised the price of the drug even more. A silent chorus went up all over America, “He’s getting what he so richly deserves!” It does seem like Karma, doesn’t it?

Earlier this month Shkreli talked about his second thoughts at a health care conference sponsored by Forbes. “I probably would have raised the price higher. That’s probably what I would have done. I think health care prices are inelastic. I could have raised the price higher and made more profits for my shareholders which is my primary duty. And again no one wants to say it, no one’s proud of it, but this is a capitalist society, capitalist system and capitalist rules and my investors expect me to maximize profits, not minimize them or go half or go 70% but to go to 100% of the profit curve …”

So the ultimate solution for this capitalist is maximizing value for his shareholders (and for himself, by the way) and if a few people who can’t afford this life-saving drug have to die along the way that’s just the cost of dong business, collateral damage, because what’s most important is profit maximization. The Ultimate Solution becomes synonymous with Hitler’s Final Solution.   [Read more…]

Progressive Activism in 2015: Fighting for $15 and/or Anything Else They Can Get

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This was the year that growing inequality became too big a problem to ignore. A growing chorus of voices broke through the white noise of the media’s slavish subservience to the concept of ‘trickle down’ as a viable economic choice.

None-the-less, all the national contenders for the presidency continue to swear allegiance to the failed idea. They are rarely challenged in interviews, editorials or debates, even though the preponderance of data demonstrates a growing disparity between the very rich and the rest of us. Why they don’t get laughed off of any stage where this bad idea gets bandied about is a mystery to me.

Today, we’ll look at some labor advocacy from 2015, focusing on the Fight for Fifteen campaign. Modern-day political reality dictates that the struggle to increase wages will be fought on the local level.   [Read more…]

Barrera Out at Labor Council, SDPD Shooting Video Released, and Other News Ladled Out on Tuesday

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San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council Secretary-Treasurer Richard Barrera announced his resignation via a press release on Tuesday.

Barrera simultaneously announced he would be starting at the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) on February 1st as Executive Assistant and Secretary-Treasurer.

ALSO: Earlier today, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis released a private surveillance video capturing the police shooting claiming the life of Fridoon Rawshan Nehad.   [Read more…]

Progressive Activism in 2015: Addressing Climate Change in Many Different Ways

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Everybody is in favor of saving the environment these days. Or so they say.

The modern-day litmus test for whether an individual or company is serious about the environment comes down to whether or not they acknowledge climate change to be a man-made phenomenon.

This evolution of public consciousness didn’t come easy. It was built on the work of environmental activists and organizations. Throw a metaphorical rock in San Diego and chances are it will land at the feet of an organization working on some aspect of saving the planet. Today we’ll look back at the actions of the environmental movement locally, nationally, and internationally over the past year.   [Read more…]

Monsanto Polluted San Diego with PCBs and GMOs

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PCBs Pervade San Diego Bay

A San Diego group of attorneys is suing Monsanto to get millions of dollars for remediation projects to clean up San Diego Bay. Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) have been linked to cancer, neurological damage, thyroid problems and reproductive complications.

Monsanto is all about the profits even when it has knowledge that what it’s selling is poison. Cases have been filed in Federal Court in San Jose, Oakland and Spokane in addition to San Diego. Dozens more cities across America may soon follow suit.

Municipalities have been forced to shell out millions to clean up rivers, creeks and bays. It has been established that fishing in such places and consuming those fish is dangerous to human health. PCBs have shown up in breast milk and sea lions among other places. They are ubiquitous in our environment.   [Read more…]

Chargers Set to Lose Their Last Game in San Diego

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The Chargers are an apt metaphor for San Diego politics.

Both are led by a skilled and popular quarterback, yet unable to score when push comes to shove. Both suffer from a foundational rot, precluding the fixes the public is led to believe would address their obvious shortcomings.

One year ago, the football team announced it would be playing in San Diego through 2015. This year the only question seems to be what date the moving vans will be pulling out.

Sunday could well be their last appearance at Qualcomm stadium. However, our feckless mayor will have to wait a few years before moving on. It’s likely he’s also headed upstate.   [Read more…]

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