workers

Tea party protests and labor unions might not seem at first to have much in common, but both groups are angry about bailouts of massive banks and the struggles of working people to make ends meet while jobs disappear overseas. Is the dispute between the tea parties and the progressive left just one of the means to an end? To discuss their differences and talk about finding common ground, Michael Johns, Tea Party organizer and Ed Ott, former executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council and Disinguished Lecturer at the Murphy Institute at CUNY, join us in studio.

Sixteen workers a day die from work-related injuries, according to this latest video from Brave New Films. Charles Jeffress, former Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, notes that there are hardly any consequences to employers for failing to comply with guidelines -- and with four million injuries on the job each year, it seems that employers have decided that it's easier to flout the law than to comply. The law is inadequate, Jeffress says.