ITUC Supports General Strike Call and Welcomes New Independent Trade Union Federation

ITUC OnLine The ITUC has announced its strong support for the Egyptian opposition’s call for a general strike in favour of democracy and fundamental rights today.  The opposition’s move follows yesterday’s general-strike call by the country’s newly established independent trade union centre. “This is a hugely important step for all Egyptians, who have for so [...]

Organizing the jobless

Frances Fox Piven | December 22, 2010. The Nation. As 2011 begins, nearly 15 million people are officially unemployed in the United States and another 11.5 million have either settled for part-time work or simply given up the search for a job. To regain the 5 percent unemployment level of December 2007, about 300,000 jobs [...]

The Crackdown in Egypt Must Stop Now, Urges the ITUC

ITUC OnLine The International Trade Union Confederation urges the Egyptian authorities to immediately stop the violent crackdown against tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators who have been protesting in the last few days across the country, and to prevent any more bloodshed among the civilian population. The ITUC also vigorously condemns the detention of Mohamed [...]

Ten Things We Liked About the Labor Movement in 2010

By Stuart Elliott 1. NEW LEADERSHIP IN SEIU AND UAW. We welcome the elections of Mary Kay Henry and Bob King to the presidency of the SEIU and UAW, respectively. The election of a woman to the top role in the nation’s largest union illustrates the growing role of women in the leadership of the [...]

If Only Employees Enjoyed the Same Rights as Criminals

by Ellen Dannin Imagine being accused of a crime you did not commit, a crime so serious that the penalty was capital punishment. Naturally, with your life at stake, you would want the best attorney possible, someone who would stand with you and fight for justice. Among other things, your attorney would tell you that [...]

Obama’s State of the Union: No Jobs but More Business Tax Cuts

by Jack Rasmus Not a word about the 25 million still jobless. Nothing about how to help the more than 7 million homeowners who have, or the additional 4 million who will soon, face foreclosures and evictions. Absolute silence about the dozens of states and hundreds of local governments in deepening fiscal crisis and approaching [...]

Frances Fox Piven attacked by Glenn Beck

Union writer endangered by assault. Roger Ailes: It’s your responsibility to stop Glenn Beck’s dangerous attacks on Frances Fox Piven. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a public interest law firm, issued a written appeal to Beck’s boss — Fox News chairman Roger Ailes — to put a stop to the increasing threats against Piven [...]

Why Huffington Post ‘fired’ me

by Mike Elk Last Thursday, I was “fired” as a labor blogger from the Huffington Post by executive business editor Peter Goodman for helping a group of union construction workers disrupt a conference of bankers. (I put fired in quotations marks because I, like the majority of people who blog for the site, was not [...]

After the SOTU What We Want to Hear Next: The Fight for a Fairer Economy

By Amy Dean While I admired so much of what I heard from the President last night; after the applause dies away, we have to face the next difficult stage of this national conversation.  It’s the kind of conversation that gets to the tough decisions and real problems only alluded to last night. In his [...]

Dean Baker on Obama’s State of the Union Speech

Center for Economic and Policy Research Co- Director Dean Baker issued the following statement following President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address: “President Obama resisted the immense pressure from the financial industry and other opponents of Social Security and Medicare by refusing to call for large cuts in these programs in his State of [...]