Word: laborers
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...Still, as she sat at the witness table on Oct. 7 at a hearing of the House Committee on Education and Labor, running through the litany of what's wrong with the 401(k) and other defined-contribution retirement plans - they have high fees, for one - Ghilarducci didn't think she was courting controversy. "I was saying things that seemed completely milquetoast," she recalls. Ghilarducci did bring up a bold proposal to replace the 401(k) with a mandatory, government-run pension plan and suggested that Congress immediately allow retirees to swap 401(k)s battered by the stock market...
...widespread agreement among those who study retirement matters that the 401(k) has so far proved a less-than-adequate replacement for disappearing corporate pensions. "It may be a good tax-free-savings system for wealthy individuals," sums up George Miller, the California Democrat who chairs the Education and Labor Committee and plans to spearhead a re-examination of the 401(k). "It may not be the best retirement-savings system for working families...
Highlight Reel:1.Manufacturing and Labor: When it comes to automotive parts and major equipment in New England, folks ain't interested. Companies there reported double-digit sales declines since last winter, with some firms describing the market as "the worst they can remember." Nearly half of the manufacturers surveyed said they expect their profits to decline through the end of 2009. "The outlook," the Book notes, "is pessimistic." One Boston respondent told Fed officials that the economy's "bearish mood" has even spread to the higher-education sector. Staffing centers are gloomy on the East Coast; says one contact,"Everybody...
...matter what congress or President Obama does, there is one aspect of the industry that is beyond rescue. The Detroit of the American Dream, the Benevolent Manufacturing State - the big-metal, Big Labor, big-brother, bigger-than-its-britches Detroit - is deader than Studebaker...
...Detroiters made the pilgrimage to Fremont en masse to see the miracle of NUMMI. Some dismissed what should have become a model for the entire industry. True, the technology wasn't that innovative. But Toyota had made the workforce integral to improving the system. Workers were not mere labor inputs. GM had no problem understanding the just-in-time inventory system Toyota used, but executing it required a buy-in from the shop floor so that everyone was dedicated to improvement. The Toyota system, says MacDuffie, "relies on contributions from employees. It feels vulnerable, but your willingness to be open...