Charleston Gazette - Last year, union membership for all wage and salary workers held steady at 11.3 percent. Labor leaders hope that's one sign that a decades-long decline in union membership may be slowing or stopping. Read"The national labor movement is holding its own right now. We haven't seen significant dropoffs in membership over the…
WVCBP in the News
West Virginia Public News Service - At the ripe old age of 79, Social Security is helping West Virginia residents and the economy. ReadWhile pensions have changed, jobs have been lost and homes have lost equity, a quarter of folks in the state rely on Social Security benefits. As the program celebrates another birthday, federal…
Washington Post - As Chico Harlan writes, the economy of the central Appalachian region has been tied to the highs and lows of the coal industry for decades. ReadHarlan's piece raises the question of whether West Virginia miners are better off moving away from the troubled local coal mining industry — and certainly some are…
Washington Post - For 51 years he'd lived in the same hollow and for two decades he'd performed the same job, mining coal from the underground seams of southern West Virginia. Then, on June 30, Michael Estep was jobless. His mine shut down, and its operator said "market conditions" made coal production unviable. ReadWhat has…
Charleston Gazette - Gaylene Miller, AARP West Virginia state director, would like to see greater access to affordable workplace retirement plans for all West Virginians. ReadWest Virginia is one of 12 states to dabble with the idea of implementing some form of employee retirement savings program for private workers lacking a workplace retirement plan."We are…
The State Journal - West Virginia has come a long way since former President John F. Kennedy visited the hillsides in 1963. Read"I would not be where I am, I would not have some of the responsibilities which I now bear, if it had not been for the people of West Virginia," Kennedy said during…
West Virginia Public Broadcasting - Over the past two years, 1,800 coal miners in Boone County have been laid off from work—that's a fifth of the county's total labor force. And the crisis doesn't show any signs of slowing. At the end of July, Alpha Natural Resources announced it expects to lay off 1,100 more…
West Virginia wives bring in more of their families' income than wives in all but one other state — according to a recent study as published in the Charleston Gazette. ReadIn the Mountain State, women provided 50.1 percent of their families' income, according to the July 29 study from the University of New Hampshire Carsey…
West Virginia Public News Service, Logan Banner - Medicare is now 49 years old, and there are some signs that fears about the program's future may be easing. ReadThe influx of baby boomers reaching retirement age and increasing medical costs had lawmakers looking for options to prevent the program from going bankrupt. But Sam Burnett,…
Charleston Daily Mail - West Virginia was one of 12 states to receive low marks in a new study about how state governments come up with official revenue forecasts. Read The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a national nonprofit think tank, released the study last week regarding the processes states use to issue annual…