Wall Street and market ideology has been at war with any part of our economy that benefits customers or workers.

Starbucks, Costco, and Whole Foods like to hold themselves up as "progressive employers"—but that's not stopping them from banding together to lobby against the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as the Cardcheck Bill. The anti-labor coalition's proposed changes would eliminate important labor rights including mandatory arbitration. This is a critical development in the fight for employee rights in America.

"Like other businesses, the three companies are opposed to two of the Employee Free Choice Act's components -- a provision that would allow workers to form a union if a majority sign pro-union cards, without having to hold a secret ballot election, and one that would impose binding arbitration when employers and unions fail to reach a contract after 120 days. But the companies' CEOs say that they also recognize that just opposing the legislation, dubbed 'card-check,' is not enough, because of the widespread perception in Democrat-dominated Washington that there is not a level playing field between labor and business. So the CEOs have come up with ideas they hope will form the basis of new legislation. Their proposal would maintain management's right to demand a secret ballot election, and would leave out binding arbitration. The proposal would keep the third main element of the 'card-check' bill -- toughening the penalties for companies that retaliate against workers before union elections or refuse to engage in collective bargaining. But it would also toughen penalties for union violations, and it would make it easier for businesses to call elections to try to decertify a union."

There may be nowhere left to hide from rising prices. In today's tough economy, food and commodity prices, which have long been directly affecting consumers, have begun to take a toll on big discount chains. Costco and similar discount stores have had to increase prices, placing an added burden on consumers searching for value. (AP Images)"Big-box" stores like Costco have tried to resist passing on their cost increases to consumers, but they cannot provide discounts as they did before. Costco has announced that it will have to raise its prices, on some items by as much as 15 percent. It's tough because we're already on a budget," said Nikky Hughes, a mother of two who shops at Costco. "I don't want it to go up. It makes budgeting harder."