|
Appraisal
of American Employees' Job Dissatisfaction
Assessment
from a recently released AFL-CIO survey of American workers:
- 68
% feel workers' rights need "much more" or "somewhat
more" protection
- 63
% don't trust employers to treat employees fairly
- 57
% say management has too much power compared to workers, a
10 % increase since 1996
- 56
% say new laws are needed to hold employers to a higher standard
of responsibility in the way they treat workers, a 12 % rise
since 1996
- 54
% rate personal economic situation as "good" or
"excellent"
- 47
% of blacks say they've suffered from racial discrimination
- 41
% of high-tech workers feel insecure about their jobs
- 37
% would never under any conditions work for the last employer
who laid them off
- 32
% have had more job insecurity in recent years
- 14
% say workers' rights are protected OK now
Sources:
As
for my personal experiences/opinions and further references
on job insecurity, job dissatisfaction, layoffs, and the like,
from the perspective of someone laid off in the high-tech sector
in March, and currently still unemployed, see
Livable
Wage Can Dramatically Improve Health/Human Welfare
With
a raise to a minimum livable wage, San
Francisco city contract worker currently living beneath the
standards of a livable wage would have 5 % less chance of death.
Their children would have a 34 % greater chance of completing
high school and overall, those workers' children would have
a 22 % lower chance of a teenage pregnancy.
The
statistics are based on research at the University of California,
San Francisco, assessing the health benefits of wages on San
Francisco city contract workers.
Source:
- Yahoo
/ Reuters [link inactive]
|
Protest
of Federal Research Blocks on Stem Cell Research
Netscape
founder Jim Clark announced Friday that he was reducing his
contribution to Stanford University, to build a biomedical research
center, from $150 mil to $90 mil to protest federal restrictions
on stem cell research. Jim indicated it would be futile to try
to supplant federal medical research grants with private funds.
Quotes
from Jim Clark on his decision and his feelings regarding federal
efforts at blocking all cloning and slowing embryological stem
cell research:
- "Our
country risks being thrown into a dark age of medical research"
- "It
now seems that creating genetically compatible new skin cells
for burn victims, pancreas cells for diabetics, nerve cells
for those with spinal cord injuries and many, many other potential
advances will soon be illegal in the United States"
- "Driven
by ignorance, conservative thinking and fear of the unknown,
our political leaders have undertaken to make laws that suppress
this type of research"
- "Having
taught electrical engineering at Stanford and benefited there
from federal research funds, I can say that with no prospect
of federal support, significant scientific inquiry in a field
like stem cell research will stop"
- "It
is futile to think that private funding can make up what is
being lost to laws driven by conservative politics. I therefore
have reluctantly decided to suspend further contributions
until our lawmakers decide to pursue what I believe to be
a rational course in this vital part of our national future."
Sources:
Gene
Stem Cell Marker Found
Finding
undifferentiated stem cells among adult tissue is challenging.
For example, out of 100,000 bone marrow cells, only one or two
may be stem cells.
Scientists
have discovered a gene known as ABCG2/Bcrp1 that "turns
off" once a cell becomes differentiated. Therefore, by
search for that particular gene, scientists may have found the
marker needed to spot the adult stem cells which may some day
be capable of being differentiated into desired tissue with
the potential to cure diseases.
Source:
- Yahoo
/ Reuters [link inactive]
|
