Race to the bottom extends below Mexico
TOLEDO, Ohio (PAI) - Shouldn't we have expected this?
Faced with their jobs being sent from Mexico to China, the 10,000 union workers at Volkswagen's plant in Puebla, Mexico, plan a worldwide meeting - and possible strike - of VW workers, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) says.

The Toledo Union Journal reports Kaptur told UAW retirees in mid-December that many Mexican autoworkers who got jobs due to NAFTA are paid $25 daily "but they're scared their companies will downsize them because they're getting paid too much."

Chinese workers with similar jobs earn 20 cents an hour. The Mexican VW union, which is independent, wants a worldwide meeting of VW workers to plan their next moves to counter the trend of moving to lowest-cost nations.

Jobless rate ends 2003 at 5.7 percent
WASHINGTON (PAI)- The nation's unemployment rate ended 2003 at a December figure of 5.7 percent, with 8.398 million people out of work, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

The figures continued the high-unemployment trend seen since the George W. Bush took over the Oval Office. As of December, the number of additional jobless during his reign totaled 2.442 million.

The number of unemployed in January 2001 - the last data gathered under President Clinton - was 5.956 million and the adjusted jobless rate that month was 4 percent.

The number of unemployed dropped in December, in good part to a huge one-month decline in total numbers of people in the workforce. BLS said 309,000 people left the labor force in December. Of those, 255,000 disappeared from the jobless rolls and 54,000 disappeared from employment rolls.

Many of them became "discouraged" and aren't seeking work, or have accepted part-time work.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said in reality, 9.6 percent of the U.S. workforce is jobless, discouraged or forced to toil involuntarily part-time when they really want full-time work.

And 23.5 percent of jobless workers have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks, meaning that for many, their benefits have run out. Those people are left without any income because the GOP-run Congress refused to extend federal jobless benefits, which ended Dec. 31.

Detroit does well in union density
A study on urban sprawl looked at construction union density in several cities, and Detroit turned up in the top five.

Chicago led all U.S. cities in construction union density, at 49.5 percent of the market, followed by Milwaukee (45.7 percent), New York (34.4 percent), Detroit (31.1 percent) and Philadelphia (30.8 percent).

Detroit, the study said, was unique in that it maintained its relatively high level of density despite being the only city of those five that is in a "sprawl" area, where there is a lot of urban growth and work available beyond its borders.

Dallas (4.2 percent construction union density) was at the bottom of the list, and also had a high level of urban sprawl.

"There is a strong suggestion that sprawl creates conditions that are not conducive to the ability of construction workers to gain union representation," the report concluded, which was prepared by Good Jobs First, a labor-backed economics institute.