If This Is A Boom Why Does It Feel Like A Squeeze?

The U.S. economy records a red-hot 7.2% growth rate-- fueling hopes for a sustained recovery. But many workers don't see any reason to celebrate. Here's why

Judging from the grim faces of the cashiers, clerks and butchers picketing California supermarkets, you would think we were in a deep economic slump. Golden State grocery workers are on strike for the first time in 25 years, over a plan by Kroger, Safeway and other chains to shift a bigger chunk of the cost of health care to their unionized labor force of some 70,000. Under competitive siege from nonunion superstores like Wal-Mart, whose health packages for hourly workers are stingier, the grocery chains complain that they are paying 50% more on health coverage than they were four years ago....

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