At the crossroads of the immigrants’ rights fight, advocates are faced with a government that could be the impediment or the vehicle for their demands.
Labor's new position on immigration is a step forward, although some details are problematic. The bigger questions are whether a legalization will be tied to citizenship, and whether labor and immigrant coalitions can force the administration to rethink our disastrous trade policies.
In an interview, longtime immigrant rights activist David Bacon says labor's new joint position on immigration is inconsistent—and too friendly to employers. It wasn’t always like this. What happened?
New Zealand’s newest union, Unite, has captivated a workforce ignored by most unions around the world: young service-sector workers, many of them people of color in fast-food jobs.
When the Service Employees and California Nurses Association called a truce in March, many union observers were confused—but breathed a sigh of relief. What does the SEIU-CNA deal mean for health care unions in California and beyond?. . . .
As debates behind closed doors in Congress look to compromise the Employee Free Choice Act, a years-long fight to organize a million-square-foot warehouse in California makes clear that in today's workplace battlegrounds, half-measures aren't going to restore workers’ freedom to join a union. . . .
The strains on public budgets in California are emboldening officials to come after union workers, producing rumblings of dissent throughout the state. Teachers in Los Angeles voted for an illegal one-day walkout May 15 to protest thousands of threatened layoffs, but after a court issued an injunction they chose to picket instead. . . .
Five of six budget proposals failed to pass on California's May 19 statewide ballot. The state’s unions lined up on both sides of the vote, and spent millions of dollars while sending members to knock on doors ahead of the vote. The proposals were Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed solution to a budget shortfall, which is now projected to reach $21 billion. . . .
SEIU announced plans to lay off 75 organizers and other field staff, a "reorganization" that reveals SEIU’s cynical view of organizers and organizing—and another step toward the increasing centralization of the union.
Chrysler’s concessions-or-die deal is the end of auto as the pace-setting, high-wage industry that it was for 60 years. No longer will it set standards all blue-collar workers could aspire to—nor outmatch many white-collar jobs. From now on, working for the auto companies will be just another bust-your-hump factory job. . . .
Instead of emptying auto factories and dispersing thousands of skilled workers in the Midwest who’ve spent a lifetime shaping metal into useful things, why doesn't Obama take a page from an exhausted steel plant now making wind turbines? . . . .
Since workers at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago occupied their factory last December—and won—many people have been trying to remember the big wave of sit-downs that swept through the U.S. during the Great Depression. Could there be a similar wave today?
Since the birth of television, Hollywood has given doctors a permanent starring role in prime-time hospital dramas. But most doctor shows have relegated the nation’s largest healthcare profession - nursing - to the status of bit players.
Teachers and D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee haven’t agreed on much during 18 months of contract talks with the Washington Teachers Union (AFT), but there’s consensus on one point: any agreement will affect schools far beyond the capital.
Workers and homeowners, union members and community activists—all had a reason to march against Bank of America this spring. In Lynn, Massachusetts, our protest was another step in building the relationship between unionized working people and working-class community organizations, especially among immigrants. . . .
Rob Williams, local convenor (chief steward) of the Unite union, was fired April 28 at the Linamar car parts factory in Swansea, Wales, for “irretrievable breakdown of trust”—that is, managers didn’t trust him to take their side. Williams had been active in supporting sit-downs at three Visteon plants in the U.K. (see page 16), and Linamar, which had bought the Swansea plant from Visteon, is now seeking pay cuts.
As managers called police to escort Williams from the factory, he ran through the plant to the union office, which was quickly surrounded by workers who left their jobs on the line. The police backed off and management backed down—but only temporarily. They fired Williams again May 6 and removed the door to the union office.
Human Rights Watch released a report May 4 calling on the Vietnamese government—and the Western multinationals that do business in Vietnam—to end suppression of the country’s independent unions.
At least five of the most prominent activists organizing independent unions in the country are currently imprisoned on what HRW calls “dubious national security charges.” Some are thought to have been kidnapped by the government’s security forces.
Between double-digit inflation and stresses caused by the global economic crisis, labor unrest in the country continues to escalate. Thousands of workers, most of them employed at foreign-owned factories, have joined wildcat strikes to demand raises and better working conditions. About 5,000 garment workers struck in January, saying they were docked a month’s pay for an absence.
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