NewsHour Backgrounders
August 22, 1997:
The NewsHour reports on Teamsters' President Ron Carey's election troubles.
August 20, 1997:
Paul Solman explores the fallout from the UPS strike on labor/management relations.
February 20, 1997:
John Sweeney, the newly elected president of the AFL-CIO, discusses the state of the labor movement.
February 20, 1997
Paul Solman leads a discussion on whether an unfettered economy is best.
October 21, 1996
Paul Solman explores the bud vase economy and the wage gap.
September 2, 1996:
The Online NewsHour and the NewsHour's regular panel of historians explore the history of labor day in separate reports.
May 14, 1996
The NewsHour reports on the debate in the Senate over the Teamwork Act.
March 25, 1996
The NewsHour historians examine the history of economic insecurity and economist Harris Sussman on coping with the modern workplace.
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When it was conceived in the late 1890's, Labor Day was viewed by Samuel Gompers, then president of the American Federation of Labor, as "the day for which the toilers in past centuries looked forward, when their rights and their wrongs would be discussed...that the workers of our day may not only lay down their tools of labor for a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it."
 In the original spirit of Labor Day, the Online NewsHour is exploring the current state of the American workplace in an economic and historic context. Unemployment is at record low levels, but issues pertaining to part-time versus full-time jobs, the gap between rich and poor and corporate downsizing continue to trouble the workers of America.
 Even the physical workplace itself has changed. More and more people are telecommuting to work or opening their own business. With technological and social changes, some say that many offices are becoming more democratic and less hierarchal. Yet, as recent revelations in New York and Los Angeles indicate, some in America are little more than slaves to their employers working 60-70 hours a week for less than minimum wage.
 So what is the current state of work in the United States? Is it the low unemployment and closing wage gap that some economists believe? Or is it simply a veneer of stability with serious problems just below the surface? And what does the future hold for businesses and workers?
Your questions will be answered by two experts in the history and future trends
of work. Edward Potter, president of the Employment Policy Foundation,
has recently issued a report entitled "The American Workplace 1997."
Walter Licht is a professor of work and labor history at the University
of Pennsylvania.
Issues addressed in this forum: What is the status of the American Workplace at the end of the 21st Century? Is the very idea of a workplace obsolete? What is the balance of power between employee and employer? How does the labor movement fit into the new workplace?
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