Is There Blood on Your iPhone?

by Paul Garver Please support the LabourStart campaign listed in the right hand column of this blog.  It demands that Foxconn, the world’s largest manufacturer of electronic products, including most of Apple’s iPhones and iPads, reform working conditions that have led to the suicides of a dozen young workers between 18 and 24 years of [...]

Labor Campaigns Subject of Atlanta Workshop

by Milt Tambor, Metro Atlanta DSA At Atlanta DSA’s all-day program, “May Day Summit: Toward an Economic Bill of Rights,” labor workshop panelists reported on key organizing drives taking place in the Atlanta area to about 25 progressive activists from a variety of backgrounds. Ayketa Iverson, AFL-CIO Organizing Department, outlined the Atlanta Airport Solidarity Committee’s [...]

Labor Unions May Have To Abandon Obama to Beat Corporate America

By Mike Elk As president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka is emerging as the voice of an increasingly irrelevant labor movement. As unionized work sinks to only 7 percent of the private sector, the labor movement is losing its influence within the Democratic Party. To revitalize labor, Trumka must not only challenge Democratic leaders, but [...]

A Century+ of May Days: Labor and Social Struggles International Conference

by Bill Pelz “May 1st is the only truly universal day of all humanity, the only day when all histories and all geographies, all languages and religions and cultures of the world coincide.” It was in describing a visit to the city of Chicago, where International Workers’ Day was born, that the Uruguayan author Eduardo [...]

Bring America Home: Chicago’s 52nd Debs-Thomas-Harrington Dinner

by Bob Roman Chicago DSA‘s 2010 Debs-Thomas-Harrington Dinner gathered together people representing Chicago’s legal, labor, liberal, and left communities to honor the People’s Law Office and the United Electrical Workers’ Western Regional President Carl Rosen. Author William Greider was our featured speaker. The event was held on Friday evening, May 7, at what is becoming [...]

SEIU to “Create WWIII” to Drive NUHW Out of Hospitals

by Randy Shaw According to published minutes from an April 10, 2010 SEIU-UHW meeting, SEIU plans to “Basically create WWIII” in order to drive NUHW organizers and supporters out of California hospitals. SEIU specifically intends to closely coordinate with Kaiser Security and Human Resources Department to “remove NUHW” from hospital cafeterias and other areas, and [...]

A Fair Deal for Mexican Workers – Richard Trumka

When President Calderon of Mexico meets with President Obama and addresses a joint session of Congress this week, it’s unlikely anyone in this country will ask him about the human rights of the miners his government has persecuted. He will not stand before Congress and explain why Mexican police shot and killed two striking mineworkers [...]

Labor activists protest visit of Mexican President

by James Park Some 160 members of the United Steelworkers (USW), union staff and supporters from around Washington, D.C., today protested Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s visit to the nation’s capital and condemned his government’s repression of workers’ rights in Mexico. The USW and the AFL-CIO have both denounced the Mexican government’s four-year long campaign to [...]

Union Reformers, Meet the Press

AUD (the Association for Union Democracy)  is bringing together four exceptional labor journalists for a discussion of unionism and union reform on May 25: Juan Gonzalez  (The Daily News, Democracy Now!) Tom Robbins  (The Village Voice) Mimi Rosenberg  (Building Bridges) Richard Steier  (The Chief Leader) Location: Musicians Local 802 Club Room, 322 West 48th Street [...]

Need to Respond to Right-Wing Populism is Theme of Detroit Douglas-Debs Dinner

Over 200 people attended the eleventh annual Frederick Douglass-Eugene V. Debs Dinner at historic UAW Local 600 in Dearborn on Saturday, May 8th. Local 600 was the home local of the hunger marchers of the 1930s and is adjacent to the site of the “Battle of the Overpass” which launched Walter Reuther into national prominence. [...]