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The coalition of socialist, greens and communist parties could win about 205 seats says the Ifop poll. Jean Luc Melenchon is leading a effort by socialist parties to form the next government in France. It is the only alternative to Mr. Macron's party in the parliamentary elections on June 12 and June 19. Meenchon supports raising the minimum wage by 15%, introducing a wealth tax and lowering the retirement age. Another poll by BVA shows only 35% of French voters want Macron's party to win a majority. 

Germany under Scholz's socialist SPD and Greens has increased the minimum wage to 12 euros per hour as part of the election platform. The trend in Europe is now for support to workers and families to meet the high cost of living with inflation accelerated by the war in Ukraine, the energy shortages and higher food prices.

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Rep Marie Perez 34 years, of Washington State, is one of the new members of Congress who feel there is a sense of disrespect for people without college degrees, that Democrats have to go back to the days of John Kennedy when a majority of voters without college degrees supported him. John Kennedy had more support from people without collrege degrees than with college degrees. In 1960 John Kennedy had 52% of people with high school education, 65 years later Biden had only 41%. The 11 percentage points gap is what is needed to be filled to bring the Democratic party back to what its core values are, core values lost after entry of Silicon Valley people and finance industry people into the Democratic party -muddying up the core principles of the Democrats since Woodrow Wilson and FDR from the 1900's to Kennedy in the 1960's, standing up for the rights and aspirations of workers and families.

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Harris will visit United Autoworkers Union Local 652 in Lansing to remind autoworkers of the support of president Joe Biden for the labor movement in the US. And for the efforts for restoring jobs and wages after decades of neglect by both previous Democratic and Republican administrations. Biden was the first US president to stand on a picket line inthe history of the US. Harris-Walz now look to unions and labor support, support of workers and families in the industrial midwestern states. For the first time old rust belt factories are being revived with new infrastructure renewal and new technologies products in a new concept that is tried for the first time at a scale of investments of billions of dollars that was never done before. This is the breakthrough that Biden and now Harris  are putting through as The Way Forward for a new generation and the Renewal of America.

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After hurricane Helene only about 10% of FEMA workers are available for Hurricane Milton headed towards the Tampa Bay Area at 175 miles per hour.

Christopher Flavelle of NYT  points out FEMA desperately needs more funding and staff as it is responding simultaneously to many disasters. The full effects of climate change in more and more natural disasters all across the US have not been taken into account for the added funding and staffing needed. In this situation FEMA is spread thin causing other problems such as attrition and burnout and unfilled positions.

The Government Accountability Office report found in 2023 that 35% of FEMA's positions were unfilled, because of “rising disaster activity during the year, which increased burnout and employee attrition.”

There are also lot of people who are out of work in disaster areas who can be pulled in for disaster work.  

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Inadequate infrastructure, mismanagement and damage to pipelines is resulting in a energy crisis in Iran, a major oil and gas producing country. Supply is being continued to homes leading to cuts to about 40% of factories and to electricity producing plants. In Venezuela low prices of gas and mismanagement have led to waste and losses that created an energy crisis in another oil producing country. Lack of foreign investment means aging infrastructure and no updates in technology of production. Socialist administrations find their work backfiring in this way as in Venezuela, lack of experienced managers and people to run the economy leads to dire results including runaway inflation and shortages. Political rhetoric for workers disguises the problems building up in an economy that can tear the economy apart, as good relations with all countries are needed and the country's trained and experienced middle class and technical experts given an important role in development. ...

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The Harz labor reforms in Germany in 2003 changed the way unemployment was treated. The idea was to get the government to work more closely with private employers through several initiatives to fund jobs that did constructive work within these companies. This helped reduce structural unemployment because of the almost indefinite unemployment benefits that existed earlier, reducing it from 12.7% in 2005 to 7.1% in November 2008. In November 2009 even after a year of recesion it stands at 8.6%. Are there lessons for other countries in the German experience? THe Harz reforms directed the German Labor Agency to work closely with private employers to fund newly created jobs. One such program paid a Dutch staffing agency Randstad to teach 15,000 Germans information technology, business English an other skills. THe Labor agency funds jobs at a Daimler truck facility in Worth, near Stuttgart, where short term employees instead of being laid off work as mechanic trainees. Another initiative pays parts of the wages of workers hired from those who are jobless, so that the costs of retraining are shared by the government and the employer, making it more attractive to take a chance and go out and hire. And if you lose your job the Harz reforms made it possible to get unemployment benefits for an additional 6 months, if you went out and started a small business. Like the case of an employee who worked at a Kawasaki motorbicycle dealership, who started his own bike repair shop. There are political pressures to extend unemployment benefits as the recesssion becomes more severe. And the structural mismatch in jobs going unfilled, and the number turned out by universities is still a problem. One study by Adecco Institute, shows 29% of large German companies having trouble filling technical jobs, which is why these companies try to keep all their experienced employees....

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Mr. Lula Da Silva returns as president after 12 years after a closely contested win securing 51% of the vote.  It is a crucial time for saving the Amazon rain forest to tackle climate change, and for economic revival. About 33 million went hungry in Brazil in 2022 compared to 19 million in 2020 showing the difficulties Brazil faces. About 700,000 people died during the pandemic. The Worker's party pushed through a constitutional amendment last month to lift a spending cap so that about $28 billion in extra spending  can help alleviate these problems. 

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The true story of the two German scientists, children of immigrants from Germany, who did the research behind the Pfizer vaccine for coronavirus. One the son of a guest worker from Turkey who worked at a car factory in Cologne, another the daughter of a doctor who finished medical school and immigrated to Germany. They started primarily on cancer vaccines using new mRNA technologies. Much of their work focused on meeting the gap that had developed says Ozlem Tureci, between what was done in the labs and what was available to patients and doctors. 

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US president Biden has asked Democrats to first reach an agreement on a social and climate policy package and only then vote on an infrastructure bill. Republicans have supported investments in infrastructure, but not supported the social and climate policy package. Democrats progressive wing supports infrastructure but only after the social and climate policy package is approved. To pull together the different groups in the Democratic party and win support among some Republicans requires a skillful balancing act bringing in support from all sides in the national interest. The Biden plan for $3.5 trillion for Build Back Better has a$1 billion infrastructure plan, and a plan for workers and families on social issues confronting the country including child care, education, income related to reduce disparities, and healthcare. It also includes investments in green energy so reduce emissions to tackle climate change. Because Democrats have a thin majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives this balancing act will also require Democrats to reduce the size of the package to less than $3.5 trillion bringing in the most essential components for investment in 2021-2022 and making additional investments in the following years. ...

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How Toyota's labor cost advantage is disappearing. By late 2009 Toyota's Georgetown Kentucky plant, 23 years old, where most workers are at the top of the pay scale could be the highest labor cost auto factory in the USA. A large number of Toyota workers are at the top wage of $25 an hour. Detroit's 4 year deal with the UAW gives them a 2 tier wage contract where lower paid workers earn only $26 an hour including benefits according to the Center for Automotive Research. At GM in 2011 its estimated the number of workers will be down by 6500 to 68000 workers, and one third of them earning the lower wage. How is Toyota responding? New hires will take 5 years not 3 to get to the top wage. And starting pay at a plant in Mississippi will be lower than the traditional $16. Its also cutting health care costs by setting up medical centers on site as at its San Antonio factory.

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Full Yield is a startup in Boston that is trying to help address the nation's obesity problem by introducing healthier foods and meals in cafeterias. It plans to introduce a line of Full Yield branded food made from fresh items and natural ingredients for sale in corporate cafeterias and prepared food sections of local supermarkets. It is based on a simple idea that if you eat healthier food you will be healthier. A study in the Jan-Feb issue of journal Health Affairs says 75% of the $2.5 trillion in health care spending deals with obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. And how much of this traceable to obesity and bad eating habits, smoking and lack of exercize? This study says most of the cases are preventable by changing these behaviours. Dr. Kenneth Horpe, chairman of the department of health policy and management at Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, shows that if trends continue U.S. annual health care costs related to obesity would reach $344 billion by 2018, which is 20% of total health care spending. In 2009 it accounts for 9%. Thorpe says if even the 1987 levels of obesity were reached it would free up enough money to cover the uninsured population today. For American companies the problem has grown to alarming proportions and yet no nationwide coordinated plan bringing together companies, government, universities, public interest organizations, and other groups exists in the U.S. The CEO of U.S. grocery chain Safeway, Steven Burd, says Safeway was spending $1 billion to cover health care insurance for workers by 2005, with costs rising 10% a year- this meant putting out twice in health care insurance than Safeway's earnings and hitting another $500 million by 2010. Between 2004-2009 the costs of insurance surged 31%, making this the fastest growing single corporate expense, according to Towers Perrin. This reduces incomes of workers as companies pass on part of the extra cost, and reduces the profits that can be put back in new investment for economic growth....

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The problems that arise when grocery stores merge and consolidate by closing stores can be seen in Portland, Oregon. As the Albertson's and Safeway's are replaced by Kroger's cities can see the effects in supply, price and quality. During a time of cost of living issues for most families and workers, cost of living action by the government is needed to maintain access to grocery store food and supplies.

13% of the US people live in a food desert, low income areas where there is limited access to grocery stores. Many of these people are Latinos in low income occupations. When companies in grocery stores business merge stores close hurting the local population. This is one piece of the cost of living stress faced by ordinary workers and families in 2024 where the government needs to take preventive action to ensure access to food supplies for communities.

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The stories of Dylan Roberts, 32 years, in Rockford, Illinois and Alfred Butt, 42 years,in Hohenlockenstedt, Germany. Roberts lost his job at aChrysler plant in Belvidere, near Rockford, Illinois, and Butt lost his job a German auto parts maker. Roberts gets a $64,000 severance package, and 59 weeks of unemployment insurance, with apossible additional 13 weeks, with monthly check of $1426 that is 27% of his income of $64,000 a year when employed. attribute 33 weeks of the 59 weeks to the stimulus measures of President Obama. Butt has 4 months as atransfer worker at full pay, which can be as long as 1 year, then he has till May 2010 at 80% of his pay when employed full time of 2700 euros amonth. The transfer company gives job training and job hunting advice. He continues getting his medical insurance benefits which are provided by the state. Roberts loses his health insurance with his job, and hopes to pay his expenses for a2 bedroom apartment with his girlfriend who makes close to $1500 as an elementary school teacher. He will take a2 year electronic engineering course with a local college using $6000 from Obama's Dislocated Worker's Program. But he isn't sure if he can do his studies after one year when his unemployment benefits expire. Butt can afford to take a vacation to Cyprus and his lifestyle is not much affected he says. His wife works as a nurse at a rheumatism clinic. Butt is like the 64% of Germans who say the crisis is not affecting them personally. Roberts is like the 87% of Americans who say this crisis id hurting them in their persdonal lives. To pay for the state funded benefits the total wage tax burdenas a percentage of labor costs for Butt is 52% in Germany. FOr Roberts it is 30% in the USA. France is at 49% Spain at 39% and the UK at 34%. Germany's public expenditures for these labor benefits are 2.97% of GDP in 2006, the USA's are 0.38%. Spain and France are at 2.32% and the UK at 0.61%. This also explains why the impact in countries like Germany and Spain is not felt so badly as in the USA. In SPain there is also the lower mobility and the safety net of family support helping people cope making it possible to cope with 20% unemployment without serious distress and hardships. See the link to Spain's unemployed....

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Bob King , an electrician with alaw degree, who has worked since 1970 at Ford Motor, will be the next head of the United Automobile Workers

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Independent oil companies are eager to invest in Venezuela says Treasury Secretary Bessent at the Economic Club of Minnesota. He says phone are ringing non stop from these companies. Big Oil such as Exxon is taking longer. Chevron is already in Venezuela and Bessent says in a few months it can increase production by 40-50%. Oil revenue from Venezuela will be in a special fund that will be used for the people of Venezuela. Under Maduro since 2013 the oil revenue was used for regimes in Cuba and not managed well for the investment in infrastructure and modernization. US sanctions made it hard to modernize the oil industry which will now take place. Bessent calls Cuba's economy decrepit and now in bad shape. It also shows that realistically modernization and good standards of living are not possible in the western hemisphere by regimes of the Cuban or Bolivarist type which descend into corrupt regimes and lack foreign capital and technologies. Lula adopted an approach in Brazil that worked with the US and EU to modernize the economy creating a workable model for a Workers party. There is much to learn from these experiences in Latin America which come at considerable cost and suffering. ...

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GM is willing to sell amajority stake in Opel to the German government. Opel employees want to see that happen, as they say GM never understood Opel's potential. The unions favor this with IG Metall saying about 400,000 jobs will be affected in the car and related businesses with an Opel collapse. And directly at Opel in Russelsheim near Frankfurt the plants employ 29,000 German workers. This is now a big issue in Germany. The bailout of German banks is as unpopular in Germany as it is with Americans, with their own bailout of banks and financial institutions. And Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats are seeing polls showing voters shifting allegiance to the Free Democrats, which reflects opinion of people in smaller independent businesses unhappy with the bank bailouts.

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As the coronavirus surges in India with over 300,000 cases a day on April 26, a clear picture on the vaccination drive in the country is critical. The following is the picture of the vaccination progress from Union Health Ministry in India as shown in The Hindustan Times. India has vaccinated 140 million people with at least one dose says this report in The Hindustan Times.  On Saturday 24th April 2.4 million doses were given for that day at 8 pm. This was done over 99 days. This means about 12% of the population of 1.2 billion has been vaccinated.  This compares with the vaccination in Germany for about 21% of people vaccinated with over 18 million getting the first dose in Germany by around April 25. Both Germany and India have suffered from vaccine shortages, some skepticism about vaccinations. Gradually sentiment is shifting in both countries so that once skeptical Germany now has about 75% of people willing to take vaccine on April 25, 2021. In India about 6 million healthcare workers have 2 doses of vaccine, and about 9 million have 1 dose. About 6 million frontline workers have 2 doses and 12 million frontline workers have 1 dose of vaccine.  There is a shortage of vaccine supplies and a bold decision was made by the Indian government on April 25th 2021, after the surge of cases to a world wide maximum of over 300,000 cases a day. The decision was to give immediate regulatory approval for the three major vaccines in the US to be brought and used in India. And delivery will be speeded up - no customs duties and fast processing of supplies access to speedy logistical supply routes. This is a huge step forward for the vaccination drive as this means Pfizer, Moderna and J&J vaccines can now be used in India. The government is also urging the companies to make in India or export to India with prices that provide flexibility in pricing for the private market. The locally produced Covishield Astra Zeneca based vaccine produced by Serum Institute will be allowed to be sold to the private market at 600 rupees or close to about $10. Pfizer and Moderna, J&J can price in a way that would be somewhere around this price range. The access to more vaccines and the ability of the companies to make a reasonable profit in the Indian private market means that vaccine supplies should open up in May and June.  This could give a huge boost to vaccination numbers so that India's vaccination percentage of population vaccinated should keep up with that in countries like Germany and France that were slower to get started in Europe but are now catching up quickly. This is a massive achievement because the population numbers are huge compared to Europe. ...

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After many banks and financial companies did not admit wrongdoing in the last two decades even after huge losses to families and working class communities from financial activities, the SEC may finally be asking the right questions after president Biden's democracy summit. Democracy can be damaged as much from inside by impunity for wrongdoing as it is from outside by failed states and authoritarian states. President Biden's initiative in getting together countries was to think of new initiatives as the lessons for democracy have to be relearned by every new generation anew.  The appointment of Mr. Gurbir Grewal can only be seen in this light as Mr. Biden's initiative for democratic processes that work for families and American workers. Gurbir Grewal who takes the top job of making the correction America needs is straightforward about malefactors in finance and banking- "We can't arrest them. We can get them out of the industry." Gurbir Grewal is the the new director of the SEC's enforcement program after serving in difficult jobs in New Jersey and NY state, first as prosecutor and then as Attorney General of New Jersey.  Democracy can be shattered as much by hate crimes as by financial crimes. Either way families and working class families in the US are affected, as are minorities and the less well off sections of the community affecting the credibility of the commitment of the well off to honest governance and to fairness. This credibility was severely damaged in the 2009 financial crisis and the situation continues to this day. To understand first hand by being in the shoes of families and workers, minorities and the less well off, gives Gurbir Grewal the courage to take on this job. He told the New York City Bar Association that Americans have grown cynical about how business and government agencies interact- "the perception that we, the regulators, are failing to hold them appropriately accountable, or worse still, the belief by some that there are two sets of rules."  Mr. Biden can see that if anything can make democratic processes lose even more credibility with the people is when new administrations fail to act. Mr. Obama and particularly Mr. Trump raised the issue of revolving door between government agencies and the finance industries, more recently Tech, yet strong action on wrongdoing was missing leading to a loss of faith in democratic processes working for families and workers in the US. The result is weakening the fabric of society from within just as mounting national security challenges grow for the US from outside in in its industrial competitiveness, and its technological leadership, something that affects all Americans and America's allies overseas in Asia, Africa and Latin America.   ...

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Chinese company investments in Korean companies are not doing well because of widespread feeling among Korean workers in these companies that the Chinese company is only interested in transferring the Korean company technology to China. Also hopes of selling products in the Chinese market have not been realized. Instead the experience is that the Korean company ends up up laying off most of the employees after being hollowed out. In 2003 BOE a Chinese company paid $380 million for Hydis, a Korean maker of displays for cellphones and laptop computers. After the transfer of technology to build a new display panel factory in Beijing, Hydis was left o hollow out and went into bankrupptcy protection in 2006. Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation bought a controlling stake in Ssangyong Motor of South Korea in 2004. Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, one of China's top state owned companies saw this as a push abroad, as China accumulated large dollar reserves from foreign trade, and a chance to acquire foreign technolgy for SUV and luxury car manufacture. Shanghai Automotive has partnerships with GM and VW to use foreign technology to make cars in China. The Korean economy after the financial crisis of 1997 was opening up to foreign investment. In this climate the Korean side was expecting China to open its market to Korean cars from Ssangyong, but this did not happen. Instead Korean workers say the company transferred technology to its Chinese parent, and after 5 years the partnership is falling apart in protests by the workers, layoffs and bitter battles amid declining sales. The Korean workers even have a word for such foreign companies that have come to Korea, during Korea's opening to foreign investors after the 1997 banking crisis, when Korean firms went for fire-sale prices. That word is "meoktwi", a slang term that means "a thief who eats and runs away." This has hurt China's reputation in South Korea, and its reputation as an enlightened investor in other countries. It also is what may be happening with Taiwanese investment in China in this downturn. Companies like Hon Hai, with its Chinese subsidiary Foxconn, are reported by the Economist to be shrinking their Chinese operations in a large industrial city sized campus employing 250,000 workers in the Shenzen area, to 100,000 workers. That factory city made laptops, PC's cellphones for Western companies using foreign technology....

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This story in the WSJ is about pregnant Emergency Room doctors still working. These three doctors are in the University of Maryland Medical System. They have leave but are working because if all three were to take leave it would pose significant strain on their group and their colleagues.

They have to reuse their respirator masks for a week till they are soiled and visibly damaged says this report in WSJ, which should be unacceptable in America. The risks they take are also unacceptable in the face of so much happening at hospitals. How long will this go on in hospitals across America with shortages of basic protection equipment for healthcare workers putting their lives at risk is what everyone is asking.

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A new $490 billion aid package in Japan is designed to help families and small business. Families with small children will get $900 per child and small business will get $22,000 each if they can show they were affected by the pandemic. Wage increases for nurses and care workers. Economy minister Yamagiva in the new Fumio Kishida government says this aid will "bring security and hope to the people by rebuilding the economy." Japan is following the US by providing aid to the people and business to help rebuild after the lingering effects of the pandemic. In the US president Biden is expected to pass a $2 trillion package including help for child care, paid leave for caregivers and mothers, other aid, and a big investment to tackle climate change.

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Over zealous interpretation of data privacy laws is leading vaccination workers to in Lower Saxony state of Germany to guess people's age by their names. The Deutsche Post database used for finding names of people over 80 years only partially includes date of birth. Health ministry of Lower Saxony admits that not all people will receive letters for vaccination who are over 80.  Official records are held by 5283 local authorites across the country. Once again say former federal commissioner for data protection and other data protection officials, "the false impression is created that data protection is the highest good and prevents necessary measures." Post office data should not be used and minimal access ensured for vaccination purposes with a little common sense.

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Karishma Vaswani of the BBC provides this report showing sexual harassment in the workplace is increasing in Asian countries. A recent ILO report shows over 50% of women participation in the workforce. With more women in the workplace the threat is growing for women. As many offences are unreported-and more so with women who have never been in the workplace before- the 30 to 40% incidents reported to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) for women workers in Asia-Pacific may be understated.

The culture in many Asian companies is also not friendly to women. A lot needs to be done to change this considering the slow progress to ensure a safe environment for women at work, and governments need to make this a priority.

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Stephanie Clifford of the NYT provides this exceptional profile of a low profile prosecutor in action on cases ranging from civil rights to organized crime and terrorism. Clifford describes the calm and rigorous style of Loretta Lynch as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York as she handled the case of a Haitian immigrant and the New York Police in 1997, rarely bringing up race and focussing on justice and fairness. Other prosecutions included Pedro Espada, a former Democratic New York state senator from the Bronx, and William Boyland Jr., a Democratic assemblyman from Brooklyn, gang and Mafia cases, and terrorism. Her style is to let others take the spotlight including answering questions at news conferences, getting the job done by involving other colleagues and co-workers in a case.

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Fewer workers will support the elderly in the U.S. and the process is accelerating, posing new problems for Social Security programs. Census figures show in 2017 there were 25 Americans 65 years or older for every 100 people in working years, by 2030 this figure goes up to 35 retirees. By 2025 it will reach 33 retirees. By comparison in 2025 Canada would be 40 retirees, Germany 44, Japan 58, and on the lower side India at 13, Mexico 16, China 22. Trustees for Social Security are dipping into the Trust fund in 2018 to pay benefits for first time since 1982.

States are in worse shape $2.6 trillion in assets cover $4 trillion in liabilities in fiscal 2016, according to data from Pew Trust.