Mayor Daley should privatize household recycling, transfer control over city elections to County Clerk David Orr and let the county assume responsibility for "overflow patients" at city health clinics, according to a commission appointed to examine the scope and structure of government.

New figures from the Labor Department show 240,000 jobs were lost in October pushing the national unemployment rate up to 6.5 percent.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job losses over the last 3 months totaled 651,000 and, so far this year, payroll employment has decreased by 1.2 million.

The biggest losses in the month were in manufacturing (90,000 jobs) and construction (49,000).  

By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer

 WASHINGTON (PAI)--Overwhelming support from unionists and their families became the “firewall” of votes that provided victory for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in key swing states such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Minnesota, top AFL-CIO officials and their polling analyst said.

And the labor federation fully intends to take advantage of that key role to push its top cause next year, the Employee Free Choice Act, federation President John J. Sweeney said.

(Crain’s) — When Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats take power in Washington, D.C., restaurant operators are expecting them to push a minimum-wage hike and a union-friendly right-to-organize law — moves that could change the playing field for McDonald’s Corp. and others in the food industry.

Mr. Obama wants to boost the federal minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2011, up from $7.25 an hour in 2009. The president-elect also supports the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to unionize by eliminating secret ballots and requiring only a majority of a company’s employees to sign authorization cards.