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Showing blog posts by Kenneth Quinnell

Kenneth Quinnell

I am a long-time blogger, campaign staffer and political activist.  Before joining the AFL-CIO in 2012, I worked as labor reporter for the blog Crooks and Liars.  Previous experience includes Communications Director for the Darcy Burner for Congress Campaign and New Media Director for the Kendrick Meek for Senate Campaign, founding and serving as the primary author for the influential state blog Florida Progressive Coalition and more than 10 years as a college instructor teaching political science and American History.  My writings have also appeared on Daily Kos, Alternet, the Guardian Online, Media Matters for America, Think Progress, Campaign for America's Future and elsewhere.  I am the proud father of three future progressive activists, an accomplished rapper and karaoke enthusiast.

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Report: Young People Continue to Face Jobs Crisis

Report: Young People Continue to Face Jobs Crisis

In a new report for Demos, Stuck: Young America's Persistent Jobs Crisis, authors Catherine Ruetschlin and Tamara Draut examine the state of the youth workforce in the United States and find that while the overall economy is showing signs of improvement, young workers are still in a state of crisis. The authors warn that if policy isn't changed to address the challenges young people face, "we risk a generation marked by the insecurities of the Great Recession for the rest of their working lives."

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Current Patriot Coal CEO Agrees with UMWA Claim That Patriot Seemed Designed to Fail

Current Patriot Coal CEO Agrees with UMWA Claim That Patriot Seemed Designed to Fail

As previously reported, the Mine Workers (UMWA) contend that Patriot Coal was set up by Peabody Energy and Arch Coal purposely to fail in order to dump costs associated with retirees who had worked for the two companies. Now Ben Hatfield, the current CEO of Patriot, says that he agrees with UMWA President Cecil Roberts that the creation of Patriot seemed destined to fail. Hatfield was, at the time, CEO of International Coal Group. Patriot recently has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to shed retiree costs, mostly from Peabody and Arch.

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Want to Understand the Economy? Attend These D.C. AFL-CIO Book Club Events

Want to Understand the Economy? Attend These D.C. AFL-CIO Book Club Events

AFL-CIO will be hosting two powerful Book Club events in Washington, D.C., that will help explain the current state of the U.S. economy, income inequality and the politics of austerity. On Monday, April 15, Nobel Prize-winning author Joseph Stiglitz will be discussing his book The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future. On Tuesday, April 16, Robert Kuttner will talk about his book Debtors' Prison: The Politics of Austerity Versus Possibility.

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Students and Polar Bears Play Tug-of-War with Wall Street Bankers

Photo courtesy Friends of the Earth U.S.

On one side of the rope, students, workers, a polar bear, a walrus and Robin Hood stood. On the other side, a series of fancily dressed Wall Street executives.  The tug-of-war was over a proposed half penny tax on Wall Street transactions designed to raise billions of dollars to pay for education, climate change mitigation and the improvement of public infrastructure. That was the scene Thursday when working family activists who are part of the U.S. Robin Hood Tax Campaign rallied at Hotel Palomar in Washington, D.C., where finance and environmental ministers of select developed countries met.

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Missouri Residents: Take Action to Stop Paycheck Deception Bill

Photo courtesy: We Are Missouri

Despite testimony overwhelmingly opposing the bill and universal opposition from the committee's Democrats, the Missouri legislature's House Workforce Development and Workplace Safety Committee passed S.B. 29, a paycheck deception bill, which is now headed to the House floor. Missouri working families went door to door last week to tell their neighbors about the problems with the bill, held numerous public rallies in opposition and flooded the Capitol with thousands of emails, letters and phone calls telling legislators to oppose the bill, which shut state workers out of the political conversation in Missouri.

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Minnesota Legislature Advancing Strong Pro-Working Family Agenda

Photo courtesy Minnesota AFL-CIO

At a time when it seems nearly every state legislature is assaulting the rights of working families, Minnesota's House and Senate are bucking the trend and are likely to soon send Gov. Mark Dayton a series of strong pro-working family bills. According to Minnesota AFL-CIO Communications Director Chris Shields, this is the first time in 20 years the state government has been unified under one-party control, with the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party holding the governorship and the majority in both houses of the legislature.

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Missouri Working Families Go Door to Door to Fight Anti-Worker Attacks

Photo courtesy We Are Missouri

This weekend, Missouri working families went door to door to tell their friends and neighbors about a series of anti-worker bills Republicans are pushing in the state legislature. Across the state, Missourians described the right-wing push that is advancing paycheck deception, anti-prevailing wage and "right to work" for less bills.

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Coloradans Do 'Harlem Shake' in Support of Jobs Bill

Working people in Colorado have the shakes—actually, the Harlem Shake. The Colorado AFL-CIO created a Harlem Shake video in support of House Bill 1292, the "Keep Jobs in Colorado Act," which is being heard Monday in the State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee. The bill is sponsored by Democrats Pete Lee (Colorado Springs) and Dan Pabon (Denver).

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