Six months after Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf Coast struggles with a new challenge—who will do the rebuilding? The region is awash in clean-up and reconstruction projects, but with more than 1.5 million people displaced by the hurricane, ready hands are in short supply...

Non-union water and sewer workers work on the water supply in New Orleans East after the hurricane. While the politically-connected contractors are doing well, conditions are challenging for many of those doing the cleanup. Photo: Jim West.

Six months after Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf Coast struggles with a new challenge—who will do the rebuilding? The region is awash in clean-up and reconstruction projects, but with more than 1.5 million people displaced by the hurricane, ready hands are in short supply.

Tom Leedham, principal officer of Teamsters Local 206 in Oregon, is challenging IBT President James Hoffa on a reform slate in this year’s Teamster elections. Leedham’s Strong Contracts/Good Pensions slate — and its rank-and-file supporters — won a big victory when their campaign was accredited for the 2006 International elections...

Tom Leedham talks to Teamsters at United Parcel Service. On Hoffa’s watch, Leedham says, UPS has made a major part of its business non-union. Photo: Jim West.

Tom Leedham, principal officer of Teamsters Local 206 in Oregon, is challenging IBT President James Hoffa on a reform slate in this year’s Teamster elections. Leedham’s Strong Contracts/Good Pensions slate — and its rank-and-file supporters — won a big victory when their campaign was accredited for the 2006 International elections.

More than 250,000 miners and steelworkers from central to northern Mexico walked off the job March 1-3 in wildcat strikes at 70 companies that virtually paralyzed the mining industry. While the strike has ended, this may be the only first act in an unfolding drama that could challenge Mexican employers, the corrupt “official” unions, and the conservative Mexican government...

More than 250,000 miners and steelworkers from central to northern Mexico walked off the job March 1-3 in wildcat strikes at 70 companies that virtually paralyzed the mining industry. While the strike has ended, this may be the only first act in an unfolding drama that could challenge Mexican employers, the corrupt “official” unions, and the conservative Mexican government.

The strike was a response to a government attempt to remove the Mexican miners union’s top officer, general secretary Napleón Gómez Urrutia, and replace him with Elías Morales Hernández, a union member who is reportedly backed by the Grupo Mexico mining company. In many mining towns and cities, however, strikers not only demanded the restitution of their leader, but also safer working conditions. The wildcat strike erupted little more than a week after a mining accident on February 19 in San Juan de las Sabinas that left 65 dead.

In the face of dismal working conditions and company and government repression, workers in a key Mexican clothing factory successfully organized an independent union over the past year, winning official labor board registration on February 10. The mostly women workers at Manufacturas Lajat (which makes jeans for Levi Strauss & Co.) won by using militant tactics and rallying support in the maquiladora area of north central Mexico...

A demonstration at Levi Strauss Plaza February 17. The banner has dozens of signatures of anti-sweatshop student activists who had attended a convention in San Francisco the week before. Photo: Alejandra Domenzain.

In the face of dismal working conditions and company and government repression, workers in a key Mexican clothing factory successfully organized an independent union over the past year, winning official labor board registration on February 10. The mostly women workers at Manufacturas Lajat (which makes jeans for Levi Strauss & Co.) won by using militant tactics and rallying support in the maquiladora area of north central Mexico.

Fresh from organizing and first- contract battles in largely-immigrant shops, rank-and-file United Electrical Workers (UE) leaders from Chicago will be attending this year’s Labor Notes Conference eager to learn new skills and share experiences...

Fresh from organizing and first- contract battles in largely-immigrant shops, rank-and-file United Electrical Workers (UE) leaders from Chicago will be attending this year’s Labor Notes Conference eager to learn new skills and share experiences.

Immigrant workers have led a series of UE organizing struggles at low-wage manufacturing plants over the past two years, proving that factory workers are indeed willing to organize--even in the face of an anti-union climate and anti-worker trade laws.

Out of these victories emerged Acción Chicago, a joint project between the UE and the United Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (UNIRR). Acción Chicago focuses on education, organization, and leadership development for immigrant factory workers.

Stacey and Don Kemp, both auto workers in Michigan, are looking forward to the Labor Notes Conference. Stacey sits on the steering committee of Soldiers of Solidarity (SOS), the rank-and-file group of auto workers that has been organizing against concessions. She’s a member of UAW Local 467 and works at the Delphi Energy & Chassis plant in Saginaw. Don is a GM worker at Flint Truck & Bus...

Stacey and Don Kemp, both auto workers in Michigan, are looking forward to the Labor Notes Conference. The hard-working couple has decided to mix business with pleasure and report that they’ve booked a Jacuzzi room at the Dearborn Hyatt.

Who said being a rank-and-file activist couldn’t be fun?

Stacey sits on the steering committee of Soldiers of Solidarity (SOS), the rank-and-file group of auto workers that has been organizing against concessions. She’s a member of UAW Local 467 and works at the Delphi Energy & Chassis plant in Saginaw. Don is a GM worker at Flint Truck & Bus.

The group Grocery Workers United for a Democratic Union was formed in 2003 by two members of UFCW Local 588, a 23,000-member local in north and central California. Both members were long-time friends and ex-shop stewards concerned about the future of their union. Two years later, the GWU has more than 10 grocery workers in its core group, mostly from Albertsons or Safeway stores in the area...

The group Grocery Workers United for a Democratic Union was formed in 2003 by two members of UFCW Local 588, a 23,000-member local in north and central California. Both members were long-time friends and ex-shop stewards concerned about the future of their union. Two years later, the GWU has more than 10 grocery workers in its core group, mostly from Albertsons or Safeway stores in the area.

The push to get the group started came first from connections we made online, but really took off after the southern California grocery strike and lockout in 2003.

Bus workers with the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (UWTSBC) in Tehran, Iran went on strike at the end of January. When they arrived at the picket lines, government security forces used physical abuse and intimidation to get them back to work. Those who refused were arrested, along with their family members, who were taken from their homes in the middle of the night. The physical abuse continued while the bus workers were in jail at Evin prison, which is notorious for torture and other abuses.

The striking bus workers are demanding the right to bargain collectively and protesting the month-long detention of UWTSBC Director Mansour Osanloo. Osanloo is being detained without any formal charges, access to his lawyers, or proper medical attention.

Nestlé, the largest food company and chocolate manufacturer in the world, continues to ignore the social responsibilities that go along with its position. Through a subsidiary in the Ivory Coast, a nation producing over 40 percent of the world's cocoa, Nestlé takes full advantage of the poverty conditions suffered by local farmers and exploits child labor.

In 2001 Nestlé signed on to an industry protocol to eradicate the worst types of child labor on cocoa farms, but the July 2005 deadline set by that agreement has come and gone without noticeable change in the way Nestlé does business in West Africa. The company still refuses to treat workers with respect, which is necessary to certify products as Fair Trade. The Fair Trade Federation guarantees products that are labeled Fair Trade are sold at a fair price, are produced in an environmentally sustainable way, and are not made through abusive child labor.

Students and workers are coming together for the National Student Labor Week of Action March 31-April 4. This annual week of protests will draw attention to working conditions on college campuses, the fight for living wages, and the increasing cost of higher education.

In 2000, the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) celebrated April 4 as the first National Student Labor Day of Action to commemorate the lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez. Since then, it has grown to a full week filled with thousands of people participating in over a hundred actions on university campuses across the country.

In an effort to improve their working conditions and wages, agricultural workers at Dole's Splendor Flowers plantation in Colombia formed the independent union Sintrasplendor in November 2004. Dole, however, refuses to negotiate with the more than 700 workers because the company has already signed a contract with Sinaltraflor, an industry-friendly union.

As another slap in the face to the Sintrasplendor workers, Dole is ignoring two court orders to reinstate four union workers that were illegally fired.

Dole has a team of lawyers on hand to oppose the legalization of the Sintrasplendor union, despite workers' compliance with every step of the legal process.