Failing to Deliver: Manufacturing Wages Aren't What They Used to Be

Though nine out of ten Americans perceive blue-collar jobs as "good jobs" and policymakers tout the benefits of expanding the country's manufacturing base, the truth is that factory wages now rank in the bottom half of those for all jobs in the U.S., according to a new study from the National Employment Law Project (NELP).

The report, Manufacturing Low Pay: Declining Wages in the Jobs That Built America’s Middle Class (pdf), reveals that while the manufacturing sector has experienced a rebound in recent years, in fact "the quality of too many of the returning jobs is low and fails to live up to workers’ and the overall public’s expectations."

"Manufacturing jobs are... highly sought after by our federal and state policymakers," write co-authors Catherine Ruckelshaus and Sarah Leberstein, "lauded as 'advanced industries' that generate investments, create a high number of direct and indirect jobs, enhance worker skills, and generate additional economic activity in related industries."

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/11/21/failing-deliver-manufacturing-wages-arent-what-they-used-be

Video: Defend the social rights of Detroit workers!

First they came for the communists.

And we said nothing because... Stalin.
Then they came for the socialists because... aren't they really just communists?
Then they came for the Liberals because... aren't they just socialists?
Then they came for the unions because... aren't they just greedy socialists?
Now they have come for the well paid workers... because they had gotten rid of all of the above.

Republicans, Obama prepare post-election escalation of war, social attacks

In the wake of Tuesday’s electoral drubbing of the Democratic Party, the victorious Republicans and the Obama White House have begun an elaborate and highly orchestrated political charade. Amid talk of compromise and finding “common ground,” what is being organized in Washington is a gang-up of two right-wing, corporate-controlled parties against the working class.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Obama made media appearances only an hour apart Wednesday. Each pledged to collaborate with the other.
The American people “have chosen divided government” for the next two years, McConnell said. “We all have the same goal” of creating jobs and improving the living standards of the American people, Obama reciprocated, pledging to “get stuff done” with the Republicans, who will control both houses of Congress.
McConnell warned Obama not to issue an executive order exempting millions of undocumented workers from deportation, calling it “waving a red flag in front of a bull.” At his press conference, Obama reiterated a previous pledge—already postponed multiple times—to take executive action along those lines. But behind the scenes, talks will begin on an immigration measure along the lines demanded by corporate America to guarantee a secure supply of low-wage, brutally exploited labor.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/11/06/elec-n06.html

Another Wonder Drug Isn’t So Great Once It Goes Off Patent

Did you or your children use the blockbuster asthma drug Singulair? World sales of Merck’s drug were about $5 billion a year until 2012 when its patent expired and it was the U.S.’s seventh best-selling drug. But last month, data from an FDA committee were presented that acknowledge “safety concerns” about “neuropsychiatric adverse events, including suicide and suicide attempts” with the drug. Singulair was used by almost 9 million patients, many under 16, in less than two years according to FDA data and four deaths are linked to it. Like Vioxx, Fosamax, Paxil and Ambien, now that the patent has run out on Singulair, its dangers are being acknowledged.

Singulair is one of several “asthma controller” drugs that debuted in the last few years that are supposed to be added on to rescue inhalers and inhaled corticosteroids instead of replacing them. In addition to the cost of adding a third drug to two drugs that are already used, Singulair cost almost $200 a month until it went off patent.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/11/another-wonder-drug-isnt-so-great-once-it-goes-off-patent/