Tom Gallagher, Common Dreams, February 6, 2012 Do state-level “job creation” programs work? Hard to say, according to a new study. The belief in cutting business taxes as a reliable method for increasing local employment is so widely shared in the US that every state – plus the District of Columbia – offers financial incentives for businesses to “create jobs” within its jurisdiction. So deep is that belief, in fact, that states frequently don’t even consider a cost/benefit analysis necessary. At least that’s the conclusion that a Washington, DC-based public policy center, Good Jobs First, reached in Money for Something, a review of 238 separate job creation programs ... On

Dave Zirin, The Nation, February 6, 2012 I emerge from the echo-chamber of Super Bowl Sunday energized and armed with a new set of heroes and folk-tales to pass on to others. My hero on our great (near) secular national holiday wasn’t Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who one suspects would be going to Disney World whether he won or lost. It wasn’t the incredible looking Madonna, spotted backstage drinking her daughter's stemcells, or M.I.A. with her middle finger malfunction. It also wasn’t Clint Eastwood who made a commercial where I think he threatened to murder Detroit. My new heroes are the people in the Occupy and Labor movements who gathered to protest on Super Bowl Sunday. ... The

Lockout taught us power of the team. Demaurice Smith, Concord (NH) Monitor, February 4, 2012 Granite Staters have a lot of things to be proud of: their magnificent Seacoast and White Mountains, their position as the first presidential primary state in America and the AFC Champion New England Patriots. But most important, they're proud of their "Live Free or Die" tradition. And they've shown that they'll fight to keep their freedoms safe. Last year, thousands of New Hampshire families came together to defeat a "right-to-work" bill pushed by out-of-state special interests that would have jeopardized the freedom of workers to organize as a team ... NFL

Jeffrey Collins, Associated Press, February 4, 2012 Columbia - When the power goes out in South Carolina, chances are a union member repairs that line. When someone sends a letter or a package, the mail carrier or UPS driver is likely a union member. There are 59,000 workers in unions in South Carolina, doing jobs as diverse as making paper, unloading ships, fighting fires and playing music. And a number of them are angry at the suddenly fiery comments Governor Nikki Haley is making about organized labor. Haley hasn't hidden her dislike of unions during her first year in office, using Boeing's battle with the national Labor Relations Board to boost her stance ... SC

Future Tense, February 3, 2012 This morning, I was having the usual breakfast and coffee with my girlfriend with CNBC on in the background on mute. We were discussing the Regis and Kelly show and who was going to be picked as her new co-host to replace Regis. A very big decision in our house. Then the jobs report hit at 8:30, the most important piece of economic data of the month, and so we took the TV off mute to listen. The report came in with an increase of 243,000 jobs in the month and the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%. The CNBC reporters were falling over themselves with excitement on how incredible the jobs recovery  was progressing. ... The

Indiana’s New Anti-Union Law Sparks Protest at Sport’s Biggest Spectacle. Democracy Now! February 3, 2012 Occupy protesters in Indianapolis are gearing up to use the media spotlight on Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVI to rally for union rights outside the statehouse. Earlier this week, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels signed a so-called "right to work" measure into law that critics say will result in lower wages and diminished collective bargaining rights. Indiana workers have received the backing of the National Football League Players Association, which has called "right to work" "a political ploy designed to destroy basic workers’ rights." ... Occupy

Tom LoBianco, Associated Press, February 3, 2012 Indianapolis - Indiana and NFL union leaders on Friday protested the possible layoffs of hotel workers at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Indianapolis as part of an ongoing labor fight with the hotel chain. 

Roughly 100 demonstrators marched outside the hotel chanting and carrying signs with the Hyatt corporate logo converted into a frowning face. The hotel is a few blocks from where the Super Bowl will be played on Sunday. 

"I love people who stand together to fight for what's right," NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith told protesters. ... Indiana

Isaiah J. Poole, Campaign for America’s Future, February 3, 2012 President Obama today will go to a fire house in the Virginia suburbs of Washington to tout his plan to promote hiring of veterans as first responders. It's a program that is sorely needed to address an American travesty: One out of every eight of the veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are out of a job. But as today's unemployment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows, the economy could still use a job corps for the rest of us as well. The news is good: 243,000 jobs were produced in January, and the unemployment rate went down to 8.3 percent. ... Jobs

David Moberg, In These Times, February 3, 2012 Warehouse workers from Wal-Mart distribution centers in metropolitan Chicago and southern California took two big steps this week toward enforcing laws on working conditions and wages, fighting retaliatory firings, and ultimately forcing Wal-Mart to live up to its responsibilities as an employer. Working through Warehouse Workers for Justice, workers at the Elwood, Il, distibution center - reputedly Wal-Mart's largest with 3 million square feet of space - filed suit against Eclipse Advantage and Schneider Logistics for firing roughly 65 workers on December 29. ... Wal-Mart

SEIU and others are embracing the movement that has succeeded as they have faded. Arun Gupta, Salon, February 2, 2012 Unions are in a death spiral. Private sector unionism has all but vanished, accounting for a measly 6.9 percent of the workforce. Public sector workers are being hammered by government cutbacks and hostile media that blame teachers, nurses and firefighters for budget crises. To counter this trend organized labor banked on creating more hospitable organizing conditions by contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to the Democratic Party the last two election cycles. In return Obama abandoned the Employee Free Choice Act ... What

Carl Bloice, Black Commentator, February 2, 2012 Next month, people in three Northern California communities will get to see and hear up close former senator Republican Alan Simpson, the man who once referred to Social Security as "a milk cow with 310 million tits," and his trusted sidekick, former White House chief of staff and Morgan Stanley director Democrat, Erskine Bowles. "Simpson-Bowles" is now a road show. These people never give up. The duo were appointed by President Obama in February 2010 to co-chair the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform ... Medicare

Jamilah King, Colorlines, February 2, 2012 Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels was not supposed to be among this year’s Super Bowl story lines. This year’s contenders, the New England Patriots and the New York Giants, should instead be taking center stage. Yet less than a week before America’s biggest sporting event of the year kicks off in Indianapolis, Governor Daniels’ fight with the state’s unionized workers over legislation that could curtail the power of their collective bargaining rights has given a new national platform to the right wing’s bitter, decades-old war against unions. Yet the NFL’s Player’s Association ... has ... come out in opposition to the proposed Right to Work ... Why

Theresa Moran, Labor Notes, February 2, 2012 Yesterday Indiana became the nation’s 23rd right-to-work state after the Senate approved the anti-union measure 28-22. In protest, thousands of right-to-work opponents poured out of the statehouse in Indianapolis and took to the streets, chanting “Occupy the Super Bowl” as they marched. Unionists and Occupiers are considering what actions to take as the nation’s attention focuses on the NFL championship in Indianapolis, with some saying the attack on workers merits a dramatic response. Governor Mitch Daniels signed the bill into law yesterday afternoon without the usual ceremony. ... Indiana

Steve Early, Labor Notes, February 1, 2012 As three unions at the Kaiser Permanente health care chain in California pulled a one-day statewide walkout yesterday, their solidarity went unmatched by the company’s largest union, the Service Employees. In Modesto, Shawna Stewart, a steward and board member for SEIU’s United Healthcare Workers West (UHW), began receiving calls from members asking whether it was OK to honor the picket lines of 22,000 members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, the California Nurses Association, and the Operating Engineers. ... Three

Keystone XL opponents need a jobs program. Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith, Grist, February 1, 2012 Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline are taking a well-deserved victory lap. The Obama administration’s decision to reject TransCanada’s pipeline proposal - at least for now - represents an historic win for the environmental movement, and reveals the potency of the emerging alignment between the environmental, anti-corporate, Occupy, and other movements. Real strides were also made to bridge the divide between environmental groups and unions. While Republicans relentlessly attacked environmentalists as “job killers” ... Green