Economist Paul Harrington has lots of data about manufacturing employment in Massachusetts, and all of it is ugly. In 1984, about 670,000 people were employed in making things, or about one in every four non-agricultural workers; just a decade later, manufacturing was down to 447,000 employees, or about 16 percent of the state’s private sector […]
Phil Primack
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The Numbers Game
For years the Massachusetts AFL-CIO has boasted 400,000 union members in its ranks. Today there are 404,000, to be exact, according to AFL-CIO officials. But thousands of those workers–including the 55,000 police officers and other public employees who belong to the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE)–claim not to belong to the state AFL-CIO. Confused? […]
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Which Side Are They On
Labor was showing its muscle and the television news cameras were rolling. Inside stately Faneuil Hall in Boston, the two candidates for governor, just eight days away from last fall’s election, were preparing for their final debate. Outside in the October night, thousands of placard-waving union supporters – most for Democratic candidate Scott Harshbarger, a […]
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Communication Breakdown
Rep. Daniel Bosley, a Democrat from North Adams who is known around the State House as a master of public policy, has a complaint: “No one covers all the serious stuff we do seriously any more.” Bosley has been at the center of such major legislative decisions as whether to legalize casino gambling and how […]