Subject: Jobs and Labor

• The Last Word on Funk's Alleged Pay Cut

  April 24, 2008

• Daily Briefs: God hates seasoned curlies. PLUS: The regional light-rail initiative is leaving the station.

  May 5, 2008

• Hallmark's Hairball: A Former Artist Told How He Didn't Get Sucked Down Its Drain

  May 21, 2008

• Hallmark's Latest Layoffs Come with Some Honesty

  June 5, 2008

• Feature

  Hallmark doesn't care enough to give the very best to the Mexican workers who make its gift bags.

  August 17, 2000

• More layoffs coming at the Star

  November 5, 2008

• A Brown Out

  September 21, 2000

• And Now For A Live Update

  April 11, 2002

• Best Happy Hour

  October 17, 2002

• Sprint to the Finish

  December 5, 2002

• KCPD considering collective bargaining

  Kansas City Police Department Captain Rich Lockhart confirms that, in March, officers will cast secret ballots to determine whether the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge #99, will become the department's union representation.Lockhart says the FOP has been pushing the department to become unionized for years, but only recently got traction when a Missouri Supreme Court decision overturned a previous ruling that had barred Missouri schoolteachers, firefighters and police from unionizing.As a union,

  February 2, 2009

• Party Raider

  April 17, 2003

• Senate hopefuls get raspberries on human rights

  Roy BluntGay right advocates are not impressed with some of the candidates vying to represent middle America in the Senate. Change.org writer Michael A. Jones notes that Roy Blunt and Jerry Moran scored zeroes on the Human Rights Campaign's scorecard. Blunt represents the Springfield area in the U.S. House. He is reportedly asking fellow Republicans to support to his bid to take the place of the retiring Kit Bond.Moran has served western Kansas in the House since 1997. He wants the seat Sam Brow

  February 4, 2009

• Mark Zieman's bleak memo to Star staffers

  Mark ZiemanKansas City Star publisher Mark Zieman says a fourth round of layoffs is coming at the daily. The Star's Dollars & Sense blog ran Zieman's letter to staffers, and it's pretty bleak."At The Star, we are still developing our plan to address these expense cuts. Unfortunately, we know these cuts will include job eliminations. But we also are exploring several other alternatives to limit the number of layoffs. We will share these details with you just as soon as they are final."My sugg

  February 5, 2009

• Regarding the minimum wage in Kansas

  Minimum wage, which the federal government has set at $6.55, is not the real minimum wage. In many cases workers with disabilities or full-time students are allowed to be paid under minimum wage. Same with people under 20, whose minimum wage is $4.25 for their first 90 days of work. Then there's the tip-based worker, who, according to the government, is anyone who "regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips." They have to be payed $2.13 and hour. If the person doesn't make enough tips to c

  February 16, 2009

• Layoffs suck: Mike Parker, 37

  Layoffs suck. Take it from my friend Mike Parker, who's been laid off three times in four years. Parker started working at a major telecommunications company based in Overland Park back in 1996. (We've agreed to use thinly veiled euphemisms for Parker's former employers.) He started in Bethesda, Maryland, but bought a house in Lee's Summit when the company moved his operations to an office there in 1999. Shortly after Parker moved to Lee's Summit, he was relocated again, to the company's main

  February 24, 2009

• More than 2,000 kids show up for Bright Future Employment Fair

  The kids get a really bad rap in the KCMO School District. You hardly hear a peep about them unless the TV news is covering their bad test scores or the times when a fight draws police to their campuses. So I was glad to see KMBC Channel 9's cameras, among others, filming as young people ages 15-22 came streaming through the doors of the convention center as early as six this morning to check out the fifth annual Bright Future Employment Fair. Six of the metro's school districts are on spr

  March 16, 2009

• Net Prophet

  June 29, 2006

• After 20 years, Kansas finally passes minimum wage raise

  Back in February I wrote about Kansas' paltry minimum wage of $2.65 per hour and how it hadn't been raised in 20 years. A minimum-wage bill was making its way through the Kansas Senate, and experts weren't giving it much chance of passing.Well, School-House Rock style, the bill managed to get out of committee, get passed in the Kansas Senate and then overwhelmingly passed in the Kansas House. Now, after tweaks, it will wind up on Governor Sebelius' desk.

  March 26, 2009

• First person: Black Friday at City Hall

  City of Kansas CityA dreadful budget outlook has forced the City of Kansas City, Missouri, to cut hundreds of jobs. Someone who works at City Hall provides this account of what happened on Friday.It was ugly. People who have worked there a long time were laid off. The Capital Improvements Management Office lost 18 people.The reports say they were managers and clerical workers, but the people I know about didn't manage anyone or supervise anyone -- they just are in the "administrative officer" ca

  April 6, 2009

• Another round of layoffs coming at the Star?

  McClatchy Watch reported today that another round of layoffs could be coming at McClatchy, the parent company of The Kansas City Star, in June if the newspaper chain violates its debt covenants. But that's not all: Look for asset sales. Expect McClatchy to sell buildings and lease them back. And as more employees are laid off, the value of the product becomes degraded, causing more subscribers to bail. McClatchy's situation might very well be irreversible.If the Star goes through another round o

  April 8, 2009

• Broken Piggy Banks

  March 5, 2009

• Rushin Roolet

  Kocane Cowboy 2.2
  (Major Factor Records)

  February 26, 2009

• Hallmark cares enough to send the very best ... jobs to China

  May 15, 2008

• Baby Face

  May 8, 2008

• Week Day Backpacking Trip

  April 24, 2008

• Thong Distractions

  So, stripper clothes guy, do you use the gentle cycle?

  June 7, 2007

• Bike to the Hospital

  We answer the question why so few people got hurt during Bike to Work Week.

  May 31, 2007

• Veritas in Advertising

  June 22, 2006

• Always Low, Always

  February 2, 2006

• X-Dash

  January 19, 2006

• Union Haul

  September 8, 2005

• Fan the Flames

  The Arcade Fire is unaccustomed to praise, but that feeling won't last long.

  November 25, 2004

• You're in Kansas, Dorothy

  An outdated anti-discrimination law keeps women in their place.

  November 21, 2002

• Screwed by Sprint

  While the top brass parachuted out with millions, most workers got a brand new pink slip.

  November 21, 2002

• Wrench Mob

  The city's pipeline office gets sued for notorious behavior.

  April 11, 2002

• Get To Work

  At KCPL, doctors say the darndest things to injured workers.

  April 11, 2002

• Impractical Nursing

  Death and mayhem visit Kansas City's biggest hospital chain.

  July 26, 2001

• Doubting Thomas

  UMKC's sports boss makes Kangaroo coaches jumpy.

  April 12, 2001

• The White Power Company

  Kansas City Power & Light was as unfriendly to Hispanics as it was to blacks.

  September 21, 2000

• Trying to fix the game

  Bob Costas' book Fair Ball, A Fan's Case for Baseball seeks to lay the groundwork for change in the game.

  May 18, 2000

• Former AWG warehouse manager says union 'bent over backward'

  There's more to the Associated Wholesale Grocers/Teamsters struggle than meets the eye. A former AWG manager says union officials made deep concessions to keep union workers in jobs but that the company would not budge.

  April 20, 2000

• Fast food industry readying for next month's minimum wage hike

  Only July 24, the federal minimum wage will increase 11 percent to $7.25. And even though more than half the states in the country have a minimum wage that's higher than that, fast food restaurants are worried it will mean the end of profits. As a restaurant economist tells CNN Money, even in normal times "profit margins for an average fast-food company stand around 4 percent before tax." And these aren't normal times. Although fast food restaurants have stayed busy during the recession, the mov

  June 24, 2009

• Hope for jobless vets at the upcoming RecruitMilitary Career Fair

  The RecruitMilitary Career Fair is coming to the Uptown Theater in Kansas City on Thursday, July 23, according to Karen Galvin of RecruitMilitary, LLC. The event is free for veterans and their spouses, who are invited to interview with national, regional and local employers from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.A list of the companies confirmed to attend so far includes: American College of Technology, Baker University/Apollo Group, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, Centura College, Columbia College,

  July 1, 2009

• City Manager Wayne Cauthen sued for age, race discrimination

  Wayne CauthenNow Vulcan Mayor Mark Funkhouser has someone to commiserate with over the racial discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit against him. A couple of older, white women fired earlier this month from their jobs as budget analysts are claiming reverse discrimination and suing City Manager Wayne Cauthen. The lawsuit brought by 61-year-old Jordan Griffin and 53-year-old Colleen Low alleges racial and age discrimination and retaliation brought against them by Cauthen and the city. Griff

  July 21, 2009

• Now Hiring: Job fair at the Plaza Marriott Monday

  ​This is short notice, but there's still time to get your resume together. Kansas City Hires is holding a job fair at the Kansas City Marriott on the Plaza (4445 Main St.) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.  I'd tell you what employers will be there, but the site makes you register up to see 'em (actually, I signed up once and got an error message, so you're on your own).

  October 19, 2009

• Not to be outdone by American Airlines, Missouri cuts 700 jobs

  Jay Nixon dropped the ax today​Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced today that 700 jobs will be cut to make up for a shortfall in state tax revenues. Prime Buzz says the cuts are on top of $430 million in budget slashing earlier this year. Add that on top of American Airlines closing its overhaul base at Kansas City International Airport (and the announcement of 700 job cuts nationwide), and it's been a really bad day.

  October 28, 2009

• More layoffs coming at Sprint

  ​More layoffs are coming at Sprint Nextel. This time, they're cutting "dozens" of jobs in the wholesale division, which employs 575 people.There have probably been other layoffs that I don't recall, but in January, Sprint announced that it would shed 8,000 jobs Sprint layoffs is always a familiar story.

  November 4, 2009

• Unhappy New Year: Sprint cutting thousands of jobs

  ​Sprint Nextel could cut as many as 2,500 jobs. Just saw the "breaking news" from KMBC Channel 9, which says the cuts are company wide and should be done by December 31. There's no good time for layoffs, but these reek of especially shitty timing. This also comes on the heels of last week's announcement of "dozens" of job cuts in the wholesale division.In January, Sprint announced that it would cut 8,000 jobs

  November 9, 2009

• Long Ago, Not Far Away

  November 12, 2009