Barbara Ehrenreich with the truckers

Barbara Ehrenreich has been arguing that the left and the Democratic Party ought to be paying attention to the travails and protests of the truckers. She blogged today about the protest in DC. Three truckers – two white and one black – speak about their dwindling livelihoods and the need for immediate government action to [...]

Workers Memorial Day–not just American anymore

Many of our readers no doubt participated in local Workers Memorial Day events. The AFL-CIO produces an excellent report each year entitled Death on the Job, which should be read and studied by every union activist, and not just members of the safety committee. But few realize that, like another labor holiday made in the [...]

SEIU California Cleaners Show Solidarity with Nestlé Russia Workers’ Struggle

In the midst of a difficult contract campaign for the janitors servicing commercial buildings in California (including Nestlé USA headquarters in Glendale), members of SEIU Local 1877 showed their solidarity with the union struggle at the Nestlé factory in Perm, Russia by distributing leaflets and displaying banners on April 16.

Connecting Capitalism & Immigration: Student Labor Week of Action 2008

David Duhalde YDS National Organizer Originally published on theactivist.org I gave several talks about the connection between capitalism and immigration as part of the Student Labor Week of Action. My second stop, after Butler University, was at Wooster College, where I am currently sitting in a college house scribbling through this entry. Both talks were [...]

ARAMARK Cafeteria Workers To March through Midtown to Highlight Unfair Two-Tier Economy

Struggling to make ends meet while working in the wealthiest corporate headquarters… Concerned about the effect of corporate giant ARAMARK’s business practices in New York and in communities across the nation, non-union ARAMARK workers at PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Citigroup cafeterias will be joined on April 22 by striking ARAMARK workers from Bank of New York and [...]

Is Maintenance Up in the Air or on Solid Ground?: A Look Inside the Hangars

April 14, 2008, interview by Carl Finamore with the Hon. John Goglia (ret), National Transportation & Safety Board. John Goglia is an internationally recognized expert in aviation maintenance and aircraft operations. In August 1995, he was sworn in as a Member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). He was the first working Airframe [...]

Change in Plans for Chicago DSA Dinner

Chicago’s 50th Annual Debs – Thomas – Harrington Dinner is coming up this weekend. This year’s dinner will honor Les Orear , founder and President Emeritus of the Illinois Labor History Society; Laurie Burgess, labor attorney with Jacobs, Burns, Orlove, Stanton, and Hernandez; and Dr. Mardge Cohen, Medical Director of Women’s Equity in Access to [...]

Security and Prosperity Partnership: Open Letter to Congress

On April 21 Democratic Socialists of America is joining with some thirty other U.S.-based organizations and networks to call upon the U.S. Congress to exercise its authority to reign in the opaque and undemocratic process called the Security and Prosperity Partnership. The SPP has been organized by top business CEOs and the chief executives of [...]

A Personal Reflection on the Labor Notes Conference

by Paul Garver Elsewhere on this page you will find a collective statement by the editors of TalkingUnion on the disruption at the recent Labor Notes Conference. But as a conference participant and contributor to that statement, I want to put it in perspective. For me, as for most of the thousand activists who were [...]

Debates, Yes! Assaults, No!- The Labor Notes Conference

 As labor movement  activists who are members of the Democratic Socialists of America, we are deeply disturbed by the attempt of some Service Employees International Union staff members to forcibly disrupt the Labor Notes Conference dinner meeting in Dearborn, Mich. on April 12.  We recognize that the demonstrators had every right to vigorously express their views [...]