Verizon, look out—there’s a new union in town. A reform group took over a big New York City telecom local yesterday, pledging to re-energize the union. The election took place against the backdrop of a wrenching contract fight that’s dragged on since a two-week strike at Verizon in August.

On the top floor of AFL-CIO headquarters, overlooking the White House, a new union was born this afternoon. Or more accurately, it was given an official blessing. Taxi workers in New York had built their union for 15 years at the city’s airport taxi stands, restaurants, and kitchen tables, but today they became the first new union chartered by the AFL-CIO in five years.

Ohioans needed 231,000 signatures to put a repeal of their state’s union-busting bill before voters this fall. They blew away expectations this week, filing a record-breaking 1.3 million signatures.

The National Labor Relations Board told Boeing this week that it can’t retaliate against workers who exercise their right to strike, a fundamental right guaranteed by labor law for 80 years. The airplane manufacturer took work away from union shops in Washington state, shifting its production to right-to-work South Carolina, where executives had already crushed the Machinists union.