Try to Buy a Baloney Sandwich with That

Try to Buy a Baloney Sandwich with That

As an old popular song asks: What do you get if you “work your fingers right down to the bone?” Boney fingers. As housekeepers in the sprawling Marriott hotel chains know, that’s more than a cute lyric. It’s the truth. These “room...
We’re All in This Together

We’re All in This Together

Lolita Lledo spends all day talking on her cell phone, texting, and checking her Facebook page, though not for the reasons you might think. As the associate director of the Pilipino Workers Center in Los Angeles, she relies on social networking to keep in touch with...
Let Them Eat Tips

Let Them Eat Tips

Just when you thought the plutocratic profiteers running America’s exploitative, low-wage economy couldn’t get any more clueless, self-serving, pious, and mingy — along comes Lady Maria of Marriott, magnanimously saying: “Let them eat tips.”...
That Gosh Darn Minimum Wage

That Gosh Darn Minimum Wage

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wanted to share his long-repressed feelings about a traumatic event. “It was,” the Kentucky Republican confided, grim-faced, “the worst day of my political life.” Was he talking about the 9/11 terrorist...
Clamping Down on the Labor Extortion Racket

Clamping Down on the Labor Extortion Racket

This Labor Day, you can mull some good news about American jobs for a change. Take the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour — please! That poverty pay is a shameful stain on our extremely rich nation. But don’t count on Washington, D.C. to lift our wage floor....