By The Indypendent Staff

Hard times don’t seem to be going away fast. Unemployment continues to rise and there has been no ebb in foreclosures. Wall Street continues to reap astronomical profits, and inequality increases with it.

Yet there is no widespread labor movement in this weak economy. Businesses continue to shed jobs, and the Obama administration has reneged on a key provision of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Abby Scher, a sociologist and editorial director of the progressive think tank Political Research Associates, writes, “Despite the urgent need for labor law reform and the fact that labor reportedly pumped $350 million into the Democrat Party in 2008, enabling its sweeping electoral victory, the business lobby has pressured congressional Democrats to back away from EFCA one by one, like Blanche Lincoln of Wal-Mart’s home state of Arkansas. Senators like Lincoln have bargained away what was once the heart of EFCA, called “card check.”

Card check would let workers form a union if a majority sign cards saying they want one. This would take away employers’ ability to ignore the cards and demand secret ballot elections. Many government workers currently organize through card check. The Hawaiian legislature just gave this option to farm workers and others in the state not covered by federal labor law.”

For the rest of the article, see the link below for “Fighting for the Union Label.” Also included in this issue: Jessica Lee and Mike Burke highlight the grassroots actions being taken by environmentalists around the world in the lead up to the Copenhagen summit on climate change in December; Stanley Aronowitz, noted author and professor at CUNY, writes on the death of neo-conservative Irving Kristol; and Karen Yi and Jaisal Noor uncover police harassment of day laborers in Jackson Heights, Queens.

For all that and much, much more, see the rest of the issue below.

It’s No Walk in the Park for Day Laborers || Working for Change: An Interview with Dan Cantor, Executive Director of the Working Families Party || Ridge Gets Schooled || Community Calendar || Reader Comments || Fighting for the Union Label || Stella Workers Hoping for a Miracle || Countdown to Copenhagen || Labor Needs to Bring the Street Heat || Kristol, NeoCon Man || Music to Take You to the Streets || The Weather Will Kill Us All: A Review of The Dark Heart of Meteorology || Labor Debates Its Dilemma: Democracy or Power? A Review of Embedded With Organized Labor

Keywords: News, Global, Government, Economy, Culture, Political Theory, Labor,