Truthout
Economy & Labor
![Participants of a hunger strike, advocates and local politicians attend an excluded workers rally on 3rd avenue in front of Governor's office in New York City on April 4, 2021.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2018/05/2021-0407-excluded-workers-400x300.jpg)
New Yorkers Previously Excluded From COVID Payments Win $2.1 Billion Relief Fund
The fund provides $2.1 billion in relief for those who have been excluded from the federal stimulus packages.
![Vector illustration of a woman struggling to complete mountains of paperwork](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/04/2021_0407-WORK-400x300.jpg)
Work Isn’t Fulfilling Because Capitalism Is a Death March
We live in a system that conditions us to celebrate each other for sacrificing ourselves to work.
![President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the national economy with Vice President Kamala Harris and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in the State Dining Room at the White House on February 5, 2021, in Washington, D.C.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2018/05/2021_0406-biden-harris-yellen-400x300.jpg)
Biden and the Democrats Are Getting Serious About Raising Corporate Taxes
Democrats want to raise taxes on multinational corporations to help fund Biden's infrastructure plan.
![People hold pro-union signs and rally outside a Whole Foods Market after marching from Amazon headquarters in solidarity with Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, who hope to unionize, in Seattle, Washington, on March 26, 2021.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2018/05/2021_0405-amazon-u-400x300.jpg)
Amazon Illegally Fired Activist Employees, Labor Board Finds
The employees were outspoken about the company’s climate impacts and poor labor conditions during the pandemic.
![The Amazon fulfillment warehouse at the center of a unionization drive is seen on March 29, 2021, in Bessemer, Alabama.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-1232004234-400x300.jpg)
Bessemer Workers Subsidize Amazon Through Local Tax. A Union Could Challenge It.
Alabama enticed Amazon to build the Bessemer facility by offering a subsidy financed by an income tax on residents.
![](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-1151552326-400x300.jpg)
Not Far From Bessemer, Over a Thousand Alabama Coal Miners Are on Strike
1,100 miners in Brookwood, Alabama, are on strike for a better contract and an end to unfair labor practices.
![A "we are hiring" sign is seen in front of a store on March 5, 2021, in Miami, Florida.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/04/2021_0402-hiring-400x300.jpg)
Economy Adds 916,000 Jobs in March, But Long-Term Unemployment Remains High
The strong productivity growth from last year seems to be continuing.
![President-elect Joe Biden announces Miguel Cardona as his nominee for Education Secretary at the Queen theatre on December 23, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2018/05/2021_0401-biden-r-400x300.jpg)
Biden May Be Exploring $50K Student Loan Cancellation, Hints His Chief of Staff
Democrats have pressured Biden to cancel $50,000 in student debt, though he has previously come out against the idea.
![Protestors march across the Brooklyn Bridge holding a sign to "tax the rich" to demand funding for excluded workers in the New York State budget on March 5, 2021, in New York City.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/04/2021_0401-tax-the-rich-400x300.jpg)
Without a Wealth Tax, COVID’s Legacy Will Be Acceleration of Inequality
The world's 2,365 billionaires have seen their collective fortunes grow by $4 trillion during the pandemic.
![President Franklin D. Roosevelt (left) rides in an automobile with Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes (center), and Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace (right). The photo was taken in August of 1933, at the beginning of the New Deal administration.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/03/2021_0330-fdr-new-deal-400x300.jpg)
Descendants of FDR and His Cabinet Urge Biden to Embrace Public Jobs Program
An open letter urges Biden to embrace a “New Deal-scale” public jobs program to set the stage for an equitable recovery.