Remaking Labor–From the Top-Down? Bottom-Up? or Both?

by Steve Early Review of: Milkman, Ruth. L.A. Story: Immigrant Workers and the Future of the U.S. Labor Movement. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 2006. 244 pp.$24.95 (paper). Moody, Kim. U.S. Labor In Trouble And Transition: The Failure of Reform from Above and the Promise of Revival from Below. New York, NY: Verso, 2007. [...]

Imagining International Solidarity (with Chinese Unions)

 by Paul Garver The UC Santa Cruz Center for Labor Studies hosted a public conference titled “Imagining International Solidarity: Models for U.S. Labor Solidarity with Workers in Latin America and China,” on Saturday, February 2. As one of the conference participants who had much to learn about China, I have since been imagining how we [...]

March 6: Solidarity with Iranian Workers

On 6 March, trade unions around the world are holding an international day of action in solidarity with the workers of Iran. The day will include protests, meetings, and other actions. An on-line petition has been launched to support the campaign. The Iranian government has been arresting workers who have stood up and tried to [...]

SEIU debates leadership and direction

A major battle has broken out within the Service Employees International Union, one of the country’s largest unions with 1.9 million members. It involves questions of organizing strategies, union democracy, leadership and unity. In the final analysis, it’s up to the members of SEIU to sort out what best serves their needs. But the debate [...]

The Decline of Tenure: Contingency and the Right to Organize

Joe Berry , professor of Labor Education and History at the University of Illinois and the Roosevelt University will speak at in Columbus, Ohio at the Thursday, February 21st , meeting of Democratic Socialists of Central Ohio (DSCO). Berry is author of Reclaiming the Ivory Tower. The program for this meeting, starting at 7:30 PM [...]

Black and white CAN unite for a fair hiring system in construction

By Herman Benson Democratic Left Winter 2008 These comments are stimulated by Bill Fletcher’s interesting piece on black labor (Democratic Left, Fall 2007). He wrote, “Black labor must not only speak for the black worker but black labor must be the voice speaking on behalf of all workers.” This excellent principle could be put into [...]

SEIU and Obama Labor muscle

AFSCME’s Alternative Union Break

Are you a college senior or graduate interested in social justice work after you graduate? Does that describe a young person you know? In either case, you might want to look into AFSCME’s Alternative Spring Break

Hotel Summer Internship

Learn Social Justice Organizing Skills while Empowering Workers LEARN UNION ORGANIZING SKILLS WITH ONE OF NORTH AMERICA’S MOST PROGRESSIVE AND SUCCESSFUL UNIONS! UNITE HERE is a progressive labor organization, representing approximately 440,000 workers in the hotel, textiles, industrial laundry, gaming and food service industries in North America. These service industries employ large numbers of women, [...]

Have a Labor Friendly Valentine’s Day!

From the International Labor Rights Forum         FLOWERSOn holidays like Valentine’s Day, many consumers do not think about the labor behind their flowers. We have a new urgent action e-mail to Colombian flower executives calling on them to respect workers rights in the cut flower industry. Stand in solidarity with flower workers [...]