Troublemakers Blog
March 11, 2022 /
Content warning: This piece mentions death and suicidal thoughts. —Editors
February 2020: “I don’t want to see anyone in the hallway with a mask on,” the manager said.
We were standing at the nurses’ station, in what was to be the Covid unit. “Um, the CDC is saying this is airborne,” I said. “Not only do we need masks, we need N95s!” »
March 08, 2022 / Joe DeManuelle-Hall
When “microtransit,” the new rage in transit privatization, showed up in Denton, Texas, union activists decided to fight back. »
March 02, 2022 /
Ignacy Jóźwiak of the Polish union Workers' Initiative interviewed Witalij Machinko, leader of the Workers’ Solidarity Trade Union in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 27. This interview comes to us via the International Trade Union Network of Solidarity and Struggle. »
March 01, 2022 /
A wave of worker activism has shaken the labor movement and captivated the public’s attention as the pandemic stretched into its second and third year—and this wave couldn’t have come at a more important time. »
February 21, 2022 / Jonah Furman
In January our movement got its annual punch in the gut from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, whose 2021 report shows 241,000 fewer union members than the previous year. Just 1 in 10 workers belongs to a union; in the private sector it’s 1 in 16. »
February 17, 2022 / Sarah Hughes
Holding a union sign at a picket line or rally is a rite of passage for a fighting union. But how often do we stop to think about how we are using these moments of collective action to strengthen our sense of unity, pride, and power? »
February 17, 2022 /
We in the U.S. have never had a national strategy for dealing with the adjunct/contingent problem in higher education, even as this precarious workforce grew to nearly 75 percent of all faculty in colleges and universities. »
February 16, 2022 /
A day before the planned strike by 1,200 City of Portland, Oregon, workers, members accepted the city’s last-minute offer in a 58 percent “yes” vote. »
February 15, 2022 /
Throughout the pandemic, transit workers have kept our cities in motion. In California’s East Bay, even when most residents were isolating at home, AC Transit bus operators were on the front lines ensuring that people could get where they needed to go, including to other essential jobs. »
February 14, 2022 /
Despite the short flurry of support (it seems so long ago) for workers on the front lines, many of the folks who help hold our health and the economy together feel abandoned and used up. The Covid calamity and the escalating climate crisis are creating worker sacrifice zones. »