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Cash payments to persons who become unemployed through no fault of their own was a part of the original Social Security Act and continues to function under the Act's authority, although today it is administered by the United States Department of Labor. Even though the cash payments are essential for the unemployed who are unable to find work, the program is hobbled by its funding mechanisms, definitions of employment, complex state differences over the extent of unemployment coverage, and policy questions of whether this program best serves the unemployed or their employers. This social insurance program is most in need of drastic reform if it is to meet the requirements of American labor in twenty-first century America.

This chapter focuses on the work of African American activists in the Department of Labor (DOL) during the Progressive era, and on two men in particular: W. E. B. Du Bois and George E. Haynes. The labor problem was in many ways at the heart of the Progressive project, and the establishment of the DOL and its forerunner, the Bureau of Labor, represented an early victory. Like many of these early institutional victories, the DOL was not a huge success. Its power was at the margins, and it rarely used such power for anything more than conciliation and tepid reformism. In the area of race, the DOL did little to disturb a racially fragmented labor market dominated by white employers and by unions that discriminated against African Americans. But the department, following the Progressive spirit of believing in the power of knowledge, science, and expertise to expose societal problems and begin the process of solving them, participated in a quite wide-ranging examination of black labor in American life. Some of this was through issued reports. Du Bois wrote three of these reports for the Bureau of Labor in the years around 1900. In addition, the DOL created the Division of Negro Economics, headed by George Haynes.

This chapter explains how worker centers can deal with forces in society that would like to harm or destroy them. It first highlights the important lessons that can be learned from the experience of ACORN, a community organizing voice for low-income families that had to contend with right-wing forces. It then discusses current attacks against worker centers, including those by the website called Worker Center Watch and goes on to consider the issue of 501c3 tax exemption leveled against worker centers, along with the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor definitions and requirements relevant to the problem. It also discusses the importance of the National Labor Relations Act for worker center organizers; the strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP) filed against worker centers; and other areas where worker centers may be vulnerable and should shore up their operations. Finally, the chapter looks at the main opposition to bills strengthening enforcement against wage theft and outlines steps for training worker center staff and volunteers in laws and areas of concern.

This chapter traces workplace safety laws and regulations from after the Civil War to the passage of the OSHAct. It features the activists, journalists,social scientists and workplace disasters that were instrumental in raising public awareness of the need for worker safety laws that finally resulted in national legislation in 1970, as well as the opposition to the OSHAct that continues today.

This chapter focuses on the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization's (PATCO) conversion to unionism after its failed national sickout in 1970. It considers PATCO's decision to make itself a full-fledged union in order to resolve the ambivalence about its identity as a labor organization and to ensure its survival, as well as the measures taken by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) managers to restore respect for their authority after the PATCO sickout, with particular reference to the dismissal of sickout leaders and the suspension of passive participants. It also looks at PATCO's national convention and the selection of John Leyden as its new president, along with its goals of affiliating with the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association and getting rid of F. Lee Bailey. Finally, the chapter examines how Leyden turned PATCO around, how PATCO won certification from the Department of Labor, and how it forced the FAA to rehire the activists who had been fired for their role in the 1970 sickout.

This chapter discusses the increased intervention from the Office of Economic Opportunity and the North Carolina Fund in Craven Operation Progress matters. Federal officials within both the OEO and the Department of Labor had begun to conclude, similarly to Fund staff, that local control of community action would never allow the types of social and institutional change they believed were necessary to meet the needs of the poor. From their perspective in Washington, D.C., too many businessmen, elected officials, and other power-structure types served on local boards. Moreover, these men and women were either incapable of making or unwilling to make the kinds of decisions likely to enhance the poor’s political influence or economic standing. Eventually, save for the rare instances in which the poor made up a majority of a Community Action Agency board, local community action experiments began to be seen as a roadblock to the War on Poverty’s goals of improving opportunities and justice for indigent populations (especially in the South, where many of the long-term poor were black). The executive director ultimately resigns following pressure from both groups to step down.

This introductory chapter discusses the coverage of this volume about the proposed new architecture of the U.S. national accounts and the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs). The chapters in this volume are from the proceedings of the conference “A New Architecture for the U.S. National Accounts” held in Washington D.C. on April 16–17, 2004. This chapter describes the features of the new architecture and discusses the role of various government agencies including the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Department of Labor, the Census Bureau and the Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

This chapter describes the normal daily routines that bishops follow and compares their averages (in terms of hours spent sleeping and working) to those of other American males in their same age category. Analysis is also made of the amount of time that they spend praying and exercising each day. Some interesting results come to the fore such as the fact that bishops sleep two hours less per day and work two hours more per day than men their own age. We also delve into their preferences for both secular and Church news sources, noting (not surprisingly) that the more traditional bishops choose conservative outlets and the more progressive ones choose liberal sources.