- Could a New NLRB Case Limit Bosses’ Best Anti-Union Tool, the Captive Audience Meeting? (2/4/2016) - The captive audience meeting, “management’s most important weapon” in an anti-union campaign, is finally being challenged in a petition to the National Labor Relations Board that could help re-balance the scales in union representation elections. Held in all-staff, small-group or one-on-one formats, employers use these mandatory meetings to confuse and intimidate employees into voting against union representation. In a 2009 study, labor relations scholar Kate Bronfenbrenner found that nine out of ten employers use captive… …
- How ‘Friedrichs’ Could Actually Unleash Unions from Decades of Free Speech Restrictions (1/22/2016) - As the spring semester starts up at the City University of New York, union activists continue the painstaking work of preparing for a strike authorization vote. Faculty and staff at CUNY have been working without a contract for over five years. While Governor Cuomo disinvests in the primary college system for working class New Yorkers, management proposes salary increases that amount to decreases after inflation. The parallels between the struggle to save CUNY and the… …
- As Attacks on Unions Continue, Bringing Back the Strike May Be Our Only Hope (1/13/2016) - On December 14, Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey announced the results of the union’s strike authorization vote. For the second time in three years, the union’s membership voted overwhelmingly to strike if necessary. "Our ability to withhold our labor is our power," declared CTU President Karen Lewis on the eve of voting. That axiom, that strikes are where unions derive their power, is pretty out of favor these days. A wave of disastrous… …
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- How the Friedrichs v. Calif. Teachers Association SCOTUS Case Could Actually Be a Boon for Unions (12/11/2015) - As unions file their legal briefs in the epic Friedrichs vs. CTA anti-union Supreme Court case, one clever legal scholar argues that Friedrichs is “an unexpected tool for labor.” University of Chicago Teaching Fellow Heather Whitney’s forthcoming paper in the NYU Journal of Law and Liberty makes a compelling case that an adverse decision in Friedrichs would hand unions a first amendment argument to refuse to represent non-members. And, as I have argued, that is… …
- Labor Law Is Failing Us. It’s Time To Push for a New Labor Act. (11/23/2015) - The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was a bad bill, and it is deader than dead. It is time for labor to propose a comprehensive set of amendments to the nation’s primary collective bargaining law, the National Labor Relations Act. EFCA would have guaranteed a union’s right to a first contract, imposed punitive fines on employers that break the law and certified new union bargaining units by card check. EFCA was labor’s stalking horse for… …
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- How a ‘Right to your Job’ Law Could Help Unions Fight Back Against ‘Right to Work’ (11/16/2015) - The sword of Damocles hangs over the head of the American labor movement. This spring the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on Friedrichs vs. CTA, a case that could end automatic union membership in all government jobs. If this “right to work” effort goes the way the right wing hopes, it would be followed by an aggressive and well-funded direct mail and robo-call campaign to encourage public sector employees to “give yourself a raise” by… …
- The Promise and the Peril of Members-Only Unions (11/6/2015) - Unions have taken some hard hits in recent years, with even greater existential threats on the horizon. Labor must consider alternative forms of organization if they want to survive. But unions should watch out for unintended consequences of those new forms of organizing. In their report for the Century Foundation, Moshe Marvit and Leigh Anne Schriever highlight case studies in “members-only” organizing, where unions cannot reach majority status for legal certification but maintain a workplace… …
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- Prez, Smart Satire Or Has the 2016 Election Sunk That Low? (10/27/2015) - I can’t tell if Prez is a smart satire, or if American politics are so dumb that the 2016 campaign trail can be so effortlessly lampooned by a comic book. The limited series reboot of an obscure 1970’s title began publishing in June. Its first four issues have uncannily predicted a number of summer’s political lowlights. Penned by Mark Russell, the DC book details the rise of a 19-year-old fry cook from Oregon, Beth Ross,… …
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- This Is His Testimony: Jon Langford of the Mekons (12/23/2006) - This is his testimony. In 1991, Jon Langford and his mates from Leeds, the Mekons, had just missed their opportunity as rock-n-roll's latest last best hope. After almost 15 years of lineup changes, a bunch of classic albums with lousy distribution, countless raucous alcohol-soaked tours and stylistic shifts from punk to country, dance and back, the Mekons were on the verge of saving rock music from big hair and empty heads when fights with A&M… …
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- Rise of the Loompa Proletariat (12/22/2006) - In the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," Willy Wonka employs in his factory Oompa Loompas, strange little orange men who seemingly work for free. The Oompa Loompas, who sing while they work, seem to be charged with much manual labor. They mix the chocolate and other confections, carry out Wonka's orders, manually power his personal yacht and otherwise do his bidding-all at the beck and call of his whistle. After seeing just one… …