E.P.A. | Boeing | N.L.R.B.

(1) Shameless Plug: We are almost done with our summer online fundraiser--thanks to everyone who's contributed so far!  Anyone who hasn't chipped in (or anyone who wants to chip in more), please do so soon. The undergraduates seem not to be buying textbooks at quite the rate that they used to, or they're buying them used, or they're sharing--one way or another, our textbook sales are down, so we need extra help meeting our budget.  Click here to donate.

(2) E.P.A. as "Job-Killer": NYT Fails to Fact-Check: A recent New York Times article, Bashing E.P.A. Is New Theme in GOP Race, goes on and on about how GOP presidential candidates like Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry are targeting the Environmental Protection Agency and its regulations as being "job-killers."  The opposing viewpoints on this claim are supposed to be presented by Republicans (like Mitt Romney) who express partial support for the E.P.A., the American people, who "are concerned about air and water pollution, and largely trust the E.P.A., national surveys say," and the Obama administration, which "says that it issued fewer new rules in its first two years than the George W. Bush administration issued in its final two years."

But what about the claim itself--that E.P.A. regulations kill jobs? On this, the New York Times is silent.  Luckily, Heidi Garrett-Peltier of the Political Economy Research Institute at UMass-Amherst wrote an article for our July/August issue assessing the claim. I just posted it--maybe blog readers can forward the link to John M. Broder, author of the Times piece.

(3) Boeing and the NLRB: My Internet connection is slow as molasses (Irene-related?), so I don't have all the proper links, but the NYT's Joe Nocera had a column last week (Tuesday I think) criticizing the NLRB's ruling against Boeing.  That prompted me to post the feature article by Josh Eidelson from our soon-to-be-distributed Sept/Oct Annual Labor Issue, which you can find here.

(4) New NLRB rule requires posting about rights: The National Labor Relations Board just issued a final rule (i.e. they received comments and responded to them and this is their final ruling) requiring private-sector employers (except the Postal Service, which is governed by other rules) to post a list of workers' rights to form unions, what constitutes unfair labor practices (for employers and unions), etc.  Find their press release here. When I was looking for the press release (which came out on 8/25) I noticed one from today announcing that NLRB chair Wilma Liebman is stepping down.  That is too bad.  I remember that she was quite forthcoming when D&S collective member Larry Peterson contacted her to interview her for an article on the Bush administration's labor record.

Ok, that's all for now--I need to go prepare for Irene.

--Chris Sturr