SEIU Massachusetts Hospital Organizing Campaign Director Resigns

The organizing director of SEIU’s successful hospital organizing campaign in Massachusetts has resigned to protest SEIU’s actions in California. Writing to his colleagues on May 11, Dana Simon submitted his letter of resignation, saying: “I am beyond sadness in saying that I cannot in clear conscience continue working for SEIU, the union that I have [...]

We need more than EFCA

Brofennbrenner’s research and the testimony of workers like Warner, suggests that EFCA shouldn’t be weakened. If anything labor law reform needs to go further. As Brofennbrenner notes, EFCA merely beefs up existing labor laws, which still leave domestic workers, farm workers, graduate students, university faculty, workfare workers, and any employees considered supervisors outside what little protection the National Labor Relations Act offers. And the penalties that EFCA would incur against abusive employers, the provision most likely to be unmolested, aren’t even stiff enough to dissuade heavy-hitting, anti-union companies like Wal-Mart. Or Rite Aid.

UE statment on health care

Meeting at the union’s national headquarters in Pittsburgh on May 14-15, UE‘s General Executive Board discussed the national debate on healthcare and the reform proposals now being considered by Congress and the Obama administration. The union’s national leadership board adopted the following statement on healthcare reform.  Talking Union believes that the UE statement  will be [...]

“Wage Theft in America” Reviewed

by Richard Negri I don’t recall reading a more insightful book about this topic than Kim Bobo’s latest work, Wage Theft in America. Bobo says wage theft in America is the crime wave no one talks about, and she is right. Billions of dollars’ worth of wages are stolen from millions of workers in the [...]

Colombian Banana Workers Win Strike

by Paul Garver On 20 May 17,000 banana workers in Colombia ended their two week long mass strike on nearly 300 plantations in Urabà province, agreeing on a two year contract with improved wages and benefits. The agreement was reached a few hours ahead of a projected global support mobilization by the IUF.

Buyouts, Bread Sticks, Biscotti – and Challenges for the Obama Administration

by the IUF (International Union of Food Workers) The IUF web-site posted an article that situates the courageous strike of BCTGM Local 50 against the private equity owners of Stella D’Oro in a global context. The 136 workers on strike for 9 months at the Stella D’Oro bakery at West 237th Street in the Bronx [...]

The Case for Single Payer

With the help of  Vice-Chair Steve Max, Democratic Socialists of America has developed a short slide show on health care that makes the case for single payer as well as the public option.

UFW Supports New AgJobs bill

Who are America’s farm workers? You don’t see them in the restaurants, grocery stores or farmers’ markets where you buy your food. They are part of an invisible world where the food just appears on the shelves. Here are some facts about the people who labor in our fields. They work in substandard conditions for [...]

Working Together for Justice: Chicago Debs-Thomas-Harrington Dinner

by Bob Roman Chicago DSA Working Together for Justice” was the theme of the 51st Annual Eugene V. Debs-Norman Thomas-Michael Harrington Dinner. In keeping with the tradition of these events, it brought together a broad cross-section of Chicago’s left to honor two individuals, Timuel Black and Jane Ramsey, who have spent their lives working for [...]

Harold Meyerson: Card Check and Gut Check

by Harold Meyerson If our nation was governed by business’s version of democratic choice, we would hold elections to determine the winner, but nearly half the time the incumbent would remain in power even if he lost. In its campaign to derail the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), business has fearlessly depicted itself as the [...]