Guatemala’s Killing Fields

Another Banana Union Leader Assassinated in Guatemala by Paul Garver This year Guatemala is overtaking Colombia in the contest for killing the most advocates of rights for workers and peasants. On May 26, Joel Hernandez Godoy, finance secretary of the banana workers union SITRABI, was shot dead by a gunman on motorcycle while driving to the union [...]

NDP surge gives Canada’s unions a new opportunity to organize

by Fred Wilson For as long as I can remember, progressives have argued that one of the basic political roles of the trade union movement was to engage in extra parliamentary action and to “make space” for a social democratic political party to move into. What a strange occurrence that it is the party that [...]

The Hidden History of U.S.- Mexico labor solidarity

Working people on both sides of the border are not only affected by this integration. Workers and their unions in many ways are its object. These policies seek to maximize profits and push wages and benefits to the bottom, manage the flow of people displaced as a result, roll back rights and social benefits achieved over decades, and weaken working class movements in both countries.

All this makes cooperation and solidarity across the U.S./Mexico border more important than ever. After a quarter century in which the development of solidarity relationships was interrupted during the cold war, unions and workers are once again searching out their counterparts and finding effective and appropriate ways to support each other.

SEIU’s Medina: “Business Death Penalty” Wrongly Upheld by U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. – SEIU International Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina made the following statement today following the United States Supreme Court’s narrow ruling in favor of Arizona’s so-called “Business Death Penalty” law that strips business licenses away from employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. “Today’s United States Supreme Court decision upholding a narrow part of Arizona’s controversial [...]

Unions: G8 Summit Must Deliver on Jobs

ITUC This week’s G8 Summit of World Leaders must deliver leadership to end the global jobs crisis, according to the world’s trade unions. Over 30 million people who lost their jobs due to the crisis are still unemployed. “Worldwide, employment has still not recovered from the 2008 financial fiasco, and too few governments are taking [...]

Chicago DSA In Praise of Public Service

by Bob Roman It was a really good time. The 53rd Debs — Thomas — Harrington Dinner was one of our better Dinners: fun, educational, inspirational, convivial. Chicago Democratic Socialists of America held it this year at the Crowne Plaza Chicago Metro on what should have been an inauspicious day, Friday the 13th of May. [...]

Labor’s Hail Mary Pass

By Harold Meyerson This is a maddening time for anyone concerned about the lives of working-class Americans. The frustration and anger that suffused AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s declaration last week that labor would distance itself from the Democratic Party was both clear and widely noted. Not so widely noted has been a shift in the [...]

New Evidence on Public Pensions and States’ Budgets

by Jack Rasmus A new study released May 18 by a pro-business source, Meredith Whitney Advisory Group LLC, confirms what this writer and others have been pointing out about current State budget crises: namely, state employees’ pensions and retirement health benefits are not the cause of States’ current budget deficits. Moreover, the underfunding gap in [...]

Boston DSA Awards Reception to Honor Rocio Saenz and Matt Taibbi

Boston DSA’s annual awards reception will honor a long-time advocate for low wage workers and community empowerment along with a best-selling author — Rocio Sáenz and Matt Taibbi.  Co-Chairs for the June 11 reception are Lisa Clauson, Co-Director of  Community Labor United  and Chuck Collins of the  Institute for Policy Studies. Date: Saturday, June 11 [...]

KPFA Union Workers Fight Management… By Raising More Money for KPFA

by KPFA Worker Union activists everywhere know that the surest way to win a campaign to hit the boss where it hurts — in the pocketbook. But not at noncommercial broadcaster KPFA, where CWA-affiliated workers are involved in a protracted struggle with the management of their corporate parent, Pacifica. In November 2010, Pacifica, which usually [...]