CEOs off to a good start

By Mark Iype, Canwest News ServiceJanuary 5, 2010

As most Canadians dragged themselves back to work Monday after the lazy holiday season, many were also faced with the reality of high credit card bills and Christmas expenses that were a mere afterthought as they made their way through the packed shopping malls.

But according to a study released Monday, Canada's 100 highest paid CEOs need not worry -- they will have earned Canada's average annual salary of $42,305 by just after lunch on Jan. 4.

"The top 100 CEOs pocket that amount by 1:01 p.m. on Jan. 4 -- the first working day of the year," said economist Hugh Mackenzie, a researcher on a study done by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

The stocks bubble of the late 1990s was succeeded by a bubble in housing; these were the engines of our economic growth. America's production of goods no longer received the level of investment that had made it the engine of our economic growth from the mid-19th century through the 1970s. The change began at the outset of the Reagan years, when the percentage of corporate profits retained for new investment dropped sharply. A report from the International Labor Organization published last week shows where the money went: to shareholder dividends, disproportionately benefiting the wealthy. In the prosperity years of 1946 to 1979, dividends constituted 23 percent of profits. From 1980 to 2008, they constituted 46 percent.

After fixing health care, Mr. Obama's next big promise to his social and union supporters was to right the lopsided U.S. labour relations system. Collective bargaining is weaker in America than in any other developed country. Unionization has been battered for decades by sophisticated (often illegal) employer campaigns, so-called right-to-work laws and a Labour Board that stood by while unions were creamed. Mr. Obama's proposed Employee Free Choice Act would arrest, and perhaps modestly reverse, this long decline in collective bargaining. New laws would enhance workers' shots at forming a union, and their chances of getting a first contract once they have one.

CBC News - Saskatchewan - Nuclear plant for Sask. ruled out for now

CBC News - Saskatchewan - Nuclear plant for Sask. ruled out for now

“Many of our contractors continue to ask me about our prospects in SK, as they, notwithstanding the current economic slowdown, are in a position to bid on a variety of infrastructure and private sector construction projects that continue to be released. These contractors are very keen to see evidence that they/we can operate legally within the province.

“Any updated information you could provide about the legislative process would be much appreciated.”

"The difficulty with labour issues is that they are seldom as simple as one side or the other purports them to be."

NuCoal Energy Corp. of Saskatoon plans to build $6.5-billion plant

How big? How does a $6.5-billion polygeneration plant producing 150,000 barrels per day (BPD) of gasoline and other fuels, plus up to 700 megawatts (MW) of electricity, sound?

And from Johnstone

Turning coal into gas fuels future for NuCoal Energy

Friday's With 2067

Sears Canada outsources 250 Regina call centre jobs to Philippines where minimum wage in Manila is 382 pesos or $8.63 CAD per day; CEO rolling in cash

zombie doctrine of Reaganism

The Powell Memo and the Teaching Machines of Right-Wing Extremists

"The notion that any action by government is bad, except when it benefits corporations and the rich."

also a good read from Harold

Economists for an Imaginary World

Talks fail; Hydro workers hit picket line

Wages, length of contract said to be issues

By: Aldo Santin - Winnipeg Free Press

PICKET lines went up at several Manitoba Hydro facilities across Winnipeg and the province Friday night, after talks broke down between the utility and one of its unions.

The strike affects about 3,000 mem­bers of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2034 -- linemen, truck drivers, meter techni­cians, mechanics and welders.

"Hopefully this will not be very long but no talks are scheduled," Lauris Kleven, business manager for Local 2034, said Friday night while walk­ing the picket line at the hydro yard in Point Douglas at 35 Sutherland Ave.

Hydro president Bob Brennan told media earlier in the day that the union's demands exceeded what the utility's customers can afford to pay.

The main issues have only been de­scribed as wages and contract length.

Read more from Santin HERE

Senator Sanders and Michael Moore

Michael Moore's Message to Barack Obama and Blue Dog Democrats

Mexican consul tampered with migrant farm vote

Threatened Mayfair Farms workers with blacklisting before union decertification vote was held.

Winnipeg (17 Aug. 2009) - The Mexican consul visited migrant Mexican farm workers in Manitoba and threatened to blacklist them from ever coming to Canada again if they did not vote to decertify their union at Mayfair Farms in Portage La Prairie, says a spokesperson for group supporting the workers.

The vote to abandon the union, which they had previously chosen to join, was announced earlier this month.

Read more Here

Why We Need Health Care Reform

By BARACK OBAMA
Published: August 15, 2009 NYT