- SCOTUS Is on the Verge of Decimating Public-Sector Unions—But Workers Can Still Fight Back (9/28/2017) - On Thursday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Janus vs. AFSCME, the case that will likely turn the entire public sector labor movement into a “right-to-work” zone. Like a lazy Hollywood remake, the case has all the big money behind it that last year’s Friedrichs v. CTA did, with none of the creativity. In Friedrichs, the plaintiffs argued that interactions between public sector unions and government employers are inherently political. Therefore, the argument went, mandatory… …
- The Right Wing Has a Vast, Secret Plot to Destroy Unions for Good. Here’s How to Fight Back. (9/15/2017) - The vast right-wing network of Koch brother-funded “think tanks” is now plotting to finish off the public sector labor movement once and for all. In a series of fundraising documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy of Madison, Wis., and published in the Guardian, the CEO of a cartel of 66 well-funded arch-conservative state capitol lobbying outfits promises funders a “once-in-a-lifetime chance to reverse the failed policies of the American left.” Tracie Sharp,… …
- A New Bill of Rights for Workers: 10 Demands the Labor Movement Can Fight for and Win (9/4/2017) - ON A CLOUDY AFTERNOON IN APRIL 2006, ROGER TOUSSAINT LED A PROCESSION OF UNION WORKERS ACROSS THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE. Toussaint, president of Transport Workers Union Local 100 and an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago, was on his way to surrender himself to the authorities to serve a 10-day jail sentence. His crime? He led the largely Black and Latino union membership in a 60-hour strike the previous winter, shutting down the city’s subway and bus… …
- The Right to Organize at Work Deserves Constitutional Protection (9/1/2017) - On Labor Day, alongside stories about parades and final trips to the beach, we can expect to read the usual depressing statistics about the decline of labor unions in the United States. The problem with this coverage isn’t the facts, which are undeniable — it’s the tone of inevitability. Today, less than 11 percent of workers, including just 7 percent in the private sector, are members of a union — a dramatic drop from the… …
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- Want to Really Help Workers? Protect their Speech! (8/2/2017) - When does free speech stop being free? At the entranceway of one's job, apparently. That was the implication of a ruling this month from the Eighth Circuit Court, which found that the sandwich conglomerate Jimmy John’s was within its rights to fire six employees for making signs that protested the company’s policy of forcing workers to come to work when ill. While the decision came as a surprise to many, the logic underlying it—that employees… …
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- How Union-Busting Bosses Propel the Right Wing to Power (6/23/2017) - U.S. bosses fight unions with a ferocity that is unmatched in the so-called free world. In the early days of the republic, master craftsmen prosecuted fledgling unions as criminal conspiracies that aimed to block their consolidation of wealth and property. During modern times, corporations threaten the jobs of pro-union workers in over half of all union elections—and follow through on the threat one-third of the time. In between, bosses have resorted to spies and frame-ups,… …
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- Trump Wants To Privatize Air Traffic Control. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (6/6/2017) - Promising “cheaper, faster and safer travel,” the Trump administration announced a plan this week to privatize the nation’s air traffic control system. The announcement Monday marked the first day of the administration’s “infrastructure week,” a series of publicity events around one of the only areas of the president’s agenda that has intrigued some union leaders and Democratic legislators. What they had hoped for was an increase in public spending to create good jobs and repair… …
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- Republicans Will Turn the NLRB into a Force for Union Busting. We Can Turn It Back. (5/17/2017) - Here comes the anti-union crackdown. According to a recent Bloomberg report, Donald Trump has submitted the names of two anti-union lawyers to the FBI for vetting. This is a precursor to nominating them to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by June to cement a Republican majority that will reverse many of the pro-worker decisions and policies that the federal agency has advanced in recent years. Marvin Kaplan works for the Occupational Safety and Health… …
- What the Big May Day Strike in a Small Pennsylvania City Teaches Us About Organizing (5/5/2017) - The first May Day of the Trump era saw scores of major actions in cities across the United States, but perhaps the most impressive demonstration of worker power took place in the small city of Reading, Pennsylvania. There, 127 stores—about three-quarters of the businesses in the city—shut down in protest, and an additional 500 mostly agricultural and construction workers participated in the general strike, according to organizers. The protest even spread to nearby Allentown, where… …
- When Labor Fought Rock-and-Roll (4/14/2017) - Facing the world ain’t easy when there isn’t anything going Standing at the corner waiting watching time go by Will I go to work today or shall I bide my time So begins the Kinks’ song, “Get Back in Line,” one of the most hauntingly beautiful paeans to the forced idleness and stress of unemployment ever committed to tape. I’ve turned to this song for solace, a little too often for comfort, but I’ve always… …