Thomas Frank on barriers to organizing

Thomas Frank, author of What’s the Matter with Kansas? and The Wrecking Crew, recently discussed the barriers to union organizing with Laura Flanders of GRIT TV.

DeMint rails against TSA collective bargaining

by Ron Moore Once again TSA is in the headlines as an aviation-related terror attempt on an international flight returns the issue of security after 9/11 back on the front pages. Once again TSA’s Transportation Security Officers are inundated with news cameras describing the attack on traveler’s peace of mind and sense of security creating [...]

The Crisis of American Labor

by Paul Garver It is a shopworn cliché that the American labor movement is in permanent crisis. Another cliché reminds us that a crisis represents a combination of danger and opportunity. But clichés can capture essential truths. It is the worst of times. A deep recession is draining workers’ incomes and earning power and further [...]

PR, the New York Times and Nicholas Kristof Advocating Sweatshops

by Jeff Ballinger “On the Media” with Brooke Gladstone in the anchor chair at NPR is always a good deal more than a diversion while cleaning the garage or running week-end errands; she explores many topics that you won’t see covered, or didn’t even appear to one as problems, opportunities, etc. But, when you do [...]

DSA says fix the Senate health care bill

Democratic Socialists of America shares the progressive community’s outrage at the version of the health care reform bill that appears to be emerging from the Senate. While the Senate bill would expand coverage to 31 million Americans and would eliminate “pre-existing conditions” as a barrier to insurance, the Senate bill, as is, represents a massive [...]

SEIU Fails to Sabotage California Hospital Organizing Victory

by Paul Garver On December 18, 2009, caregivers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in Sonoma County, California, voted for representation by the National Union of Health Workers (NUHW). SEIU had poured in forty organizers to block NUHW’s electoral victory, but secured only 13 votes for SEIU against 283 for NUHW. However SEIU’s ham-handed intervention, which [...]

Green Mountain Mustering for the War at Home or Abroad?

by Steve Early Earlier this month, the “People’s Republic of Burlington” had a busy weekend mustering its “troops” for active duty on several fronts, one at home and the other abroad. On Saturday, Dec. 5, two hundred labor and progressive activists gathered at the University of Vermont to plan more effective resistance to job cuts [...]

Trumka: Senate Health Care Bill Must Change

The health care bill being considered by the U.S. Senate is inadequate and too tilted toward the insurance industry, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said today. In recent days, as the Senate has debated health care reform, small numbers of senators have held health care hostage by threatening to block a vote. The new proposal by [...]

Labor History in the Schools

Labor History in Schools Bill Becomes Law! Calls for labor history to be state standard in Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle made it official Thursday, Dec. 10: He signed into law AB 172, the Wisconsin Labor History in the Schools bill, culminating 12 years of efforts by key legislators, workers, unions and others to pass legislation [...]

Temple community supports nurses union

by Marie Ernaux On the evening of December 1, members of Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) and union officials gathered together students, Temple staff and community members to educate the Temple community on the day-to-day realities of healthcare providers at Temple Hospital. President of AFSCME Local 1723 and Temple University Staff [...]