Labor Notes - Magazine Story feed

Longshore Workers Shut Down Ports to Protest Iraq War

Thu, 08 May 2008 12:22:13 -0400

Author(s):
Chris Kutalik and Mischa Gaus

Excerpt:

Thousands of dock workers refused to move cargo containers on May 1 at all 29 West Coast ports as part of a protest against the war in Iraq. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Labor Notes Conference 2008: Enthusiasm and Inspiration

Thu, 01 May 2008 00:43:49 -0400

Author(s):
Jane Slaughter

Excerpt:

The labor movement has been hurtin’ for certain, so what made the Labor Notes conference April 11-13 in Detroit seem an oasis of enthusiasm and inspiration. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

SEIU’s Disruption Draws Wide Criticism from Union Leaders and Members

Thu, 01 May 2008 00:42:13 -0400

Author(s):
Chris Kutalik and Mischa Gaus

Excerpt:

Leaders of the Service Employees International Union launched what appeared to be a carefully crafted plan on April 12 to disrupt parts of the Labor Notes conference, where contingents from a dissident SEIU local, a new reform caucus within SEIU, and a competing union were in attendance. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

As Talks Drag, American Axle Strike Enters Third Month

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:34:10 -0400

Author(s):
Jane Slaughter

Excerpt:

Although the two-month-old strike at parts-maker American Axle has shut down 30 General Motors plants and idled more than 40,000 GM workers, the United Auto Workers appear unable or unwilling to make use of their leverage to reach a settlement. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

SEIU’s Internal Divisions Spill into Delegate Races

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:33:27 -0400

Author(s):
Mark Brenner

Excerpt:

Mounting conflicts within the SEIU have spilled into the delegate election process for the union’s convention, scheduled for June 1-4 in Puerto Rico. SEIU opposition activists, particularly from several large locals on the West Coast, are crying foul. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Members Drive Flight Attendant Organizing at Delta

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:08:06 -0400

Author(s):
Joshua DeVries

Excerpt:

Flight attendants at Delta Airlines are pushing to join the ranks of unionized cabin crews. With almost all major airlines organized for decades, only Atlanta-based Delta has held out. Now a growing number of flight attendants there—aided by a huge team of Association of Flight Attendants member - organizers from other airlines — have decided their time has come. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Tomato Pickers Say Burger King Spies on Allies

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:47:00 -0400

Author(s):
Tiffany Ten Eyck

Excerpt:

Members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers have exposed Burger King for its role in attempts to infiltrate and spy on the inner workings of a CIW-allied organization, the Student/Farmworker Alliance. Both CIW and SFA are headquartered in Immokalee, Florida, where tomato pickers are demanding Burger King join with other tomato purchasers to better the wages and working conditions throughout the tomato industry. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Copper Miners Get Help from Women in Long Strike in Mexico

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:37:32 -0400

Author(s):
Dan La Botz

Excerpt:

The miners of Local 65 of the Mexican Mine and Metal Workers Union at Cananea marked their ninth month of striking against Grupo Mexico, the country’s largest mining corporation and third-largest copper producer in the world. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Conference-Goers Push for Labor Solidarity, Rebound From Disruption

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:45:40 -0400

Author(s):
The Labor Notes Staff

Excerpt:

Troublemakers Unite! More than 1,000 union activists and supporters met at the Labor Notes conference April 11-13 to strategize and debate how to rebuild labor's power...

Available Online:
Yes

Next Stop on Corporate Low Road: Vietnam

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:49:08 -0400

Author(s):
Jeff Ballinger

Available Online:
No

Auto Parts Workers Battle Demand to Cut Wages in Half

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:58:47 -0400

Author(s):
Wendy Thompson

Excerpt:

Picketers at American Axle talk about the need to draw a line in the sand—or snow—against spiraling concessions on wages, health care benefits, and pensions. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Members Decry Loyalty Oaths, Cozy Deals: Reform Movement Forms in SEIU

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:47:53 -0400

Author(s):
Paul Krehbiel

Excerpt:

On the heels of a public fight over the Service Employees (SEIU) International’s move toward labor-management partnership deals and hyper-centralization, members are joining a newly founded national reform group. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Quiet Deal Leads to Bitter Fight in Ohio Hospitals

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:27:11 -0400

Author(s):
Mischa Gaus

Excerpt:

Accusations of sweetheart deal-making and union busting flew thick and fast in mid-March as the Service Employees and the California Nurses Association fought over SEIU’s bid to quietly gain wall-to-wall representation at nine Ohio hospitals. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Things Aren’t Always What They Appear to Be

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:47:04 -0400

Author(s):
Herman Rosenfeld

Excerpt:

The ongoing debate about the Canadian Auto Workers in these pages isn’t about particular tactics, it isn’t about whether or not to consider new and creative approaches (who could oppose that?), and it isn’t about underestimating the very real challenges that Canada’s largest private sector union (and all unions) face today. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Teachers Strike Stops Classes in Puerto Rico

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:32:08 -0400

Author(s):
José A. Laguarta Ramírez

Excerpt:

Striking members of Puerto Rico’s teachers union, the Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR) voted to end their strike March 5. Lasting two weeks, the teachers’ strike paralyzed classes at most of the island’s 1,500 public schools, thanks in large part to the hundreds of thousands of parents who kept their children home from school. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

SEIU International Attempts Disruption at 2008 Labor Notes Conference

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:58:16 -0400

Author(s):
The Labor Notes Staff

Excerpt:

When you are trying to put the movement back into the labor movement, you’re going to meet resistance. Labor Notes supporters are no strangers to heated debate—and the SEIU International is not the first union to protest at our conference...

Available Online:
Yes

Viewpoint: CAW Committed to Militancy, Movement Unionism

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 09:50:08 -0500

Author(s):
Jim O’Neil

Excerpt:

Labor activism has never been limited to a single tactic or channel. It is this point that Herman Rosenfeld fails to recognize in his Viewpoint criticizing the recent direction of the Canadian Auto Workers union (see Labor Notes February 2008). . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Is Fighting for Justice at Smithfield Racketeering?

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:56:18 -0500

Author(s):
Jane Slaughter

Excerpt:

Is it illegal for an activist group or union to criticize a company’s business practices? Is it a “conspiracy” if advocates call for boycotts, organize rallies, or press for resolutions from elected bodies? Smithfield Foods, the largest producer of pork products in the world, is hoping so, after a lawsuit it filed last October passed an initial court challenge. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Health Care Local Charges SEIU Is Shutting Members Out of Bargaining & Organizing

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:36:24 -0500

Author(s):
Mark Brenner

Excerpt:

A long-simmering dispute over the direction of the Service Employees has erupted inside the union, pitting leaders of the 150,000-member United Healthcare Workers—West against top International officials. UHW President Sal Rosselli and other executive board members contend that the International is taking too much control of organizing and bargaining contracts away from local unions. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Shortcuts Hamper Unions in South, Say the UAW’s Fired ‘Freightliner Five’

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:49:02 -0500

Author(s):
Tiffany Ten Eyck

Excerpt:

Pounding the pavement in a two-month tour of cities throughout the Midwest and West Coast, four fired United Auto Workers members have been busy speaking to supporters in a quest to get their jobs back. Questions about the effect concessionary bargaining and shortcut neutrality agreements may have on the future of new member organizing in the South are frequently raised at their meetings. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Verizon Workers Prepare for Contract Fight: At Stake, Health Care, Job Security, Wages, Internet Access

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:30:21 -0500

Author(s):
Pam Galpern

Excerpt:

Thorny issues are coming to a head in the six-month countdown to the contract expiration at Verizon, the nation’s second-largest telecommunications firm. The contract covering 55,000 Communication Workers (CWA) and more than 10,000 Electrical Workers (IBEW) expires August 2. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

District of Columbia Nears Vote Requiring Employers To Provide Paid Sick Leave

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:39:12 -0500

Author(s):
Karen Minatelli, Ruth Castel-Branco

Excerpt:

It could have been an episode of “ER” or “House”: a popular patient battles against the odds, survives a near-death experience to triumph in the end, but still faces challenges in the next episode. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

California SEIU Leader Mounts Battle for Local Control, Union Democracy: An Interview with Sal Rosselli

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:27:37 -0500

Author(s):
Mark Brenner

Excerpt:

Sal Rosselli is the president of United Healthcare Workers—West, the third largest local in the Service Employees union. He resigned on February 9 from his position on SEIU’s executive committee—a top-level advisory board to International President Andy Stern....

Available Online:
Yes

Part-Time Professors: Little Pay, No Pensions, No Health Care, No Seniority, Now Organizing Unions.

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:30:54 -0500

Author(s):
Paul Abowd

Excerpt:

One at a time, the teachers came out of the sub-zero January cold and into the lobby of Wayne State University’s McGregor Hall in Detroit. By the time the board of governors meeting began—where the teachers had three minutes total to detail their concerns—they were together in force. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Viewpoint: Canadian Auto Workers Moves from Fighting Back to Cooperating

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:50:10 -0500

Author(s):
Herman Rosenfeld

Excerpt:

For many labor activists around the world, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), a union born in the refusal to accept the concessions agenda of the 1980s, has been an inspiring example. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Battles Over Nurse Staffing Ratios Spread Across Nation

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:59:21 -0500

Author(s):
Mischa Gaus

Excerpt:

After a patient quietly died in registered nurse Danielle Magaña’s hospital hallway, she decided she’d had enough. Although an autopsy later said the woman had died of natural causes, Magaña said the incident was waiting to happen at her chronically short-staffed San Antonio hospital. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Labor’s Political Game Falls Short Without Pressure From Below

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:21:51 -0500

Author(s):
Chris Kutalik

Excerpt:

The noise, exhilaration, and sheer drama of horse races don’t lend themselves to sober reflection. As the political fortunes of the Bush administration have waned, many labor activists have been on their feet with excitement, watching the wide-open presidential primary contest unfold. But serious questions remain. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

As Cargo Chains Grow, So Does Workers’ Leverage

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:07:40 -0500

Author(s):
Mark Brenner

Excerpt:

Truck drivers at HUDD Distribution, a division of shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk, walked off the job December 17 at the company’s facilities in South Gate and Mira Loma, California. The drivers, primarily Latino immigrants known as troqueros, shuttle goods between the massive port of Los Angeles/Long Beach and the company’s inland warehouses. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Call Center Workers Win in Test of Card Check Ruling

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:21:31 -0500

Author(s):
Mischa Gaus

Excerpt:

In New Hampshire's biggest private sector organizing win in four decades, 588 AT&T call center workers who handle passport processing questions joined Communications Workers (CWA) Local 1298 in early January...

Available Online:
Yes

Minus Members’ Power, Unions Face Mounting Bargaining Woes

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:19:29 -0500

Author(s):
Mark Brenner, Mischa Gaus, Chris Kutalik

Excerpt:

William Ehman got acquainted with the current direction of collective bargaining in his industry from the back of a squad car. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

In New York City: Carpenters Embrace Immigrant Organizing

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:30:19 -0500

Author(s):
Tiffany Ten Eyck

Excerpt:

It wasn’t long ago that unionized carpenters were more likely to attack immigrant workers as they worked on construction sites than welcome them into a union hall. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Book review: Tony Mazzocchi: The Man Who Never Sold Out

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:09:19 -0500

Author(s):
Mark Dudzic

Excerpt:

Tony Mazzocchi hated work. Don’t get me wrong. He was the hardest working labor leader I’ve ever met. The work he hated was the coerced, soul-numbing labor performed by untold millions in factories, offices and other hierarchical workplaces. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

‘Card Check’ Takes a Hit

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 18:33:25 -0500

Author(s):
Kim Moody

Excerpt:

The National Labor Relations Board rewrote in September a 40-year-old doctrine that will undermine one of labor’s more successful organizing tactics—card-check recognition. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

After Wildcat Strike Against Concessions, Freightliner Workers Fight for Their Jobs

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:35:51 -0500

Author(s):
Tiffany Ten Eyck

Excerpt:

Cleveland, a small town with less than 1,000 residents in western North Carolina, is an unlikely home for an active autoworkers’ union. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Writers Walk Pickets For Share of New Media

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:29:47 -0500

Author(s):
Mark Brenner

Excerpt:

TV lovers get ready for more re-runs ahead. On November 5 more than 12,000 television and screenwriters, members of the Writers Guild of America, traded in their pens for picket signs. Industry insiders predict the strike could last well into 2008, and writers are preparing for a long battle. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Teamsters Trade Gains of 1997 UPS Strike for Deal to Organize Members at Freight Division

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:25:03 -0500

Author(s):
Mark Brenner

Excerpt:

In mid-November Teamsters at United Parcel Service approved a controversial five-year agreement, more than eight months before the expiration of their current contract. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Canadian Auto Workers Surrender Right to Strike, Shop Floor Independence in Magna Agreement

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:19:44 -0500

Author(s):
Herman Rosenfeld

Excerpt:

The Canadian Auto Workers unveiled a plan in mid-October for organizing Magna, the largest automotive employer north of the border and a notoriously anti-union company. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

New York School Aide Booted from Ballot

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:16:15 -0500

Author(s):
Mischa Gaus

Excerpt:

Tripping up an insurgent campaign among school aides, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 372 disqualified in mid-November a dissident candidate for the union’s executive board. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Labor Notes Interviews Former Teamsters General President Ron Carey on the UPS Contract

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:09:22 -0400

Author(s):
Mark Brenner

Excerpt:

Labor Notes recently talked with Ron Carey, former General President of the Teamsters, about his thoughts on the tentative agreement between UPS and the Teamsters, the 1997 UPS strike, and the state of the labor movement...

Available Online:
Yes

Staffing Ratios, Retiree Benefits Sticking Issues as California Nurses Strike Sutter Health

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:42:17 -0400

Author(s):
Eileen Prendiville, Mischa Gaus

Excerpt:

Leading a strike that one hospital administrator said cost her $1 million a day, 5,000 registered nurses at 10 Northern California hospitals in the Sutter Health chain walked off their jobs for two days in mid-October. Five facilities locked out striking nurses for an additional one to three days when the strike, the largest among nurses in a decade, was over. Represented by the California Nurses Association. . .

Available Online:
Yes

Viewpoint: One-Sided Class War: The UAW-GM 2007 Negotiations

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 12:43:10 -0400

Author(s):
Sam Gindin

Excerpt:

In 1978, then United Auto Workers (UAW) President Douglas Fraser, frustrated with corporate America's new aggressiveness, accused employers of waging a "one-sided class war against working people, the unemployed, the poor, the minorities, the very young and the very old, and even many in the middle class of our society." In response, he warned, "we in the UAW intend to reforge the links with those who believe in struggle: the kind of people who sat-down in the factories in the 1930s and who marched in Selma in the 1960s." . . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Farmworkers Target Tobacco Giant After Deaths in the Fields

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 12:03:02 -0400

Author(s):
Paul Abowd

Excerpt:

Tobacco kills in many ways. Long before that first puff lies yet more lethality, hidden in the fields where the tobacco leaf is grown. Last year alone, heat stroke claimed nine North Carolina field workers. A new force is joining tobacco pickers as they go about their dangerous, backbreaking work, one that promises to organize the workers to change those conditions. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Opposition Swells Against Concessionary Auto Contracts

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 07:09:00 -0400

Author(s):
Tiffany Ten Eyck and Chris Kutalik

Excerpt:

Negotiations between the Big Three automakers and the United Auto Workers (UAW) were anything but predictable this year. Nationwide strikes at both General Motors and Chrysler, givebacks on an unprecedented scale, and the stirrings of a strong “vote no” opposition inside the union rocked the old auto pattern agreement playbook. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

UAW-General Motors Proposed Contract At a Glance

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:41:30 -0400

Author(s):
Dianne Feeley, Tiffany Ten Eyck

Excerpt:

After a brief two-day strike in late September, United Auto Workers (UAW) negotiators signed a tentative agreement with General Motors. Members began voting on the proposed contract local by local in early October. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

National Auto Strike Leaves Lingering Questions

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 21:54:21 -0400

Author(s):
Tonyia Young

Excerpt:

For the first time in 37 years the United Auto Workers (UAW) launched a two-day nationwide strike against General Motors in late September. More than 73,000 production workers poured out of GM plants after an 11 a.m. strike deadline was passed on September 24. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Two Years after Katrina Workers Center Organizes Day Laborers in New Orleans

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:41:51 -0400

Author(s):
Matt Olson

Excerpt:

In a modest office in the central business district of New Orleans, two years after Hurricane Katrina, the Workers Center for Racial Justice organizes the city’s guest workers and day laborers. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Help Build the 2008 Labor Notes Conference

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 22:44:27 -0400

Author(s):
Ellen David Friedman

Excerpt:

Labor Notes is not just a magazine; it’s a project built by and for labor activists. The upcoming 2008 Labor Notes Conference is a prime example, drawing on the work of labor activists from around the country—and the world. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

New York Taxi Workers Strike over Tracking Devices

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:08:52 -0400

Author(s):
Mark Brenner

Excerpt:

It was a good day to ride your bike in the Big Apple. New York City cabbies launched a two-day strike on September 5, leaving the city's streets quiet and would-be passengers scrambling...

Available Online:
Yes

Smithfield Agrees To Talk to Union After Big Rally at Annual Meeting

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:40:03 -0400

Author(s):
Mark Brenner

Excerpt:

A boisterous crowd of more than 1,000 meatpacking workers and supporters was on hand to greet Smithfield Food shareholders at their annual meeting August 29 in Williamsburg, Virginia. Demonstrators called on Smithfield executives to respect the organizing drive. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

VIEWPOINT: Former UAW Leaders Say Vote No on GM-UAW Agreement

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:00:33 -0400

Author(s):
Paul Schrade, Warren Davis, and Jerry Tucker

Excerpt:

We regret the decision by the UAW negotiators to tentatively agree to place the future health care protection of hundreds of thousands of UAW retired members under a union run Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, or VEBA. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

The Deportation of Elvira Arellano

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:50:33 -0400

Author(s):
Dan La Botz

Excerpt:

The deportation of immigrant rights activist Elvira Arellano by federal authorities on August 20 was a blow aimed at the immigrant rights movement. Arellano, a 32-year old single mother who had spent a year living in a Chicago church in defiance of a deportation order, had become a spokesperson for the New Sanctuary Movement, which focuses on how immigration law and immigration authorities have separated families, and a symbol of resistance for the broader immigrant rights movement.

Available Online:
Yes

The Role of Staff Unions in the Labor Movement: Interview with Paul Krehbiel

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:16:05 -0400

Author(s):
Guillermo Perez

Excerpt:

[Editor’s Note: The following interview with Paul Krehbiel, a long-time labor activist, is meant to spark dialogue and debate about the role staff unions play inside unions.] Paul Krehbiel has been active in the labor movement since 1968, first as a rank-and-file member in an auto parts factory in Buffalo, and later as a full-time union representative. In 1998, he went on staff at Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 660 in Los Angeles, and helped organize stewards councils at the two largest L.A. County hospitals...

Available Online:
Yes

Baseball Stadium Cleaners in Baltimore Fight for a Living Wage and Win

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 12:12:21 -0400

Author(s):
Sean Sellers

Excerpt:

Just two blocks away from the birthplace of one of baseball’s legendary heroes, Babe Ruth, lies Camden Yards. It’s also home to some of Baltimore’s most impoverished workers who, through the organization United Workers, are fighting back for a living wage and dignity on the job. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Hot Summer: Thousands Strike in Western Canada

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 12:00:51 -0400

Author(s):
Marsha Niemeijer

Excerpt:

What do you get when you mix almost 8,000 striking forestry workers and 5,300 striking municipal workers with a scattering of strikes throughout British Columbia (B.C.) and Alberta? You get a hot summer in Western Canada with 15,000 workers walking picket lines in one province alone. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Atlanta Sizzles with High Energy at Grassroots Social Forum

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 10:41:36 -0400

Author(s):
Robin Alexander and Alan Hart

Available Online:
Yes

Auto Makers Push VEBA Solution for Industry Crisis

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 09:42:39 -0400

Author(s):
Chris Kutalik

Excerpt:

A rising chorus of business gurus is singing the praises of a new solution to the U.S. auto industry’s ongoing crisis: one big health care trust for all the Big 3’s workers. According to the proposal’s cheerleaders, by making giant one-time pay-ins the Big 3 auto makers can slice off an estimated $116 billion worth of retiree health obligations from their balance sheets in one swoop and restore profitability. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Landmark Ruling Guarantees Canadian Workers Collective Bargaining Rights

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:22:08 -0400

Author(s):
Glen Chochla

Excerpt:

A coalition of health care unions in British Columbia scored a groundbreaking victory on June 8 when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down key provisions of the province’s Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act. Overturning two lower court decisions and a number of its own decisions dating back to the 1980s, the country’s top court ruled that collective bargaining is constitutionally protected as part of the guarantee of freedom of association in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

German Railroad Workers Stage ‘Warning Strike’ in Fight for Pay Hikes

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 11:48:07 -0400

Author(s):
Ben Weinthal

Excerpt:

German rail workers staged “warning strikes”—limited work stoppages—July 2-4, bringing Germany’s massive rail network virtually to a halt. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

New Jersey Health Care Workers Beat Back Anti-Union NLRB Rulings

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:39:58 -0400

Author(s):
Mike Slott

Excerpt:

It’s not often that a union successfully blocks the impact of an anti-union National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling. But our union, the Health Professionals and Allied Employees/AFT (HPAE), recently did just that through a combination of legal research, membership education and involvement, savvy public outreach, and coordinated bargaining among our local unions. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

On the Russian Waterfront: Kaliningrad Dockworkers Leader Beaten, Stabbed

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:31:27 -0400

Author(s):
Liz Vladeck

Excerpt:

Union members from all over Russia flocked to a picket line outside the entrance to the city of Kaliningrad’s port on June 20. They gathered to support independent union leader Mikhail Chesalin, who was brutally attacked and stabbed outside his office a few weeks earlier. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

General Electric: Local Members’ Actions Key to National Contract Settlement

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:10:09 -0400

Author(s):
Al Hart

Excerpt:

At the end of June, workers at General Electric (GE) ratified a new four-year contract. Despite a determined push by the company for deep concessions on retirement benefits of future hires, a rollback of early retirement opportunities, and drastically increased medical cost shifting, the unions made gains on wages, health care coverage, paid time off, and pensions—including an increase in current retirees’ pensions. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Korean Unionists Protest Free Trade Agreement with U.S.

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 07:54:49 -0400

Author(s):
Sunny Lim

Excerpt:

Korean metal workers are on the front lines in the fight against the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the South Korean and U.S. governments. Protesting the agreement, which was signed on June 30, about 110,000 Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) members in 157 locals across the county organized a five-day strike starting on June 25.

Available Online:
Yes

La Huelga de los Carpinteros Pone un Alto a la Explosión de Construcción en Pórtland

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:23:37 -0400

Author(s):
Margaret Gorman

Available Online:
Yes

Carpenters Strike Halts Construction Boom in Portland

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 06:57:46 -0400

Author(s):
Margaret Gorman

Excerpt:

These days, it’s impossible to make your way through Portland, Oregon without noticing the commercial construction boom. That steady boom was brought to a standstill June 1, however, by raucous picket lines. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Service Employees End California Nursing Home Partnership

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 06:36:51 -0400

Author(s):
Mark Brenner

Excerpt:

Following months of criticism and sharp internal debate, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) ended its controversial partnership agreement with a group of California nursing homes on May 31. The four-and-a-half-year-old deal was a quid pro quo arrangement that brought over 3,000 workers into SEIU after the union secured higher state government payments to nursing homes that care for Medicaid patients. In addition to giving SEIU organizing access to a number of nursing homes, the agreement provided “template” contract language for these newly organized workplaces. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Public Sector Strikes Sweep through South Africa

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 06:11:15 -0400

Author(s):
William Johnson

Excerpt:

One million workers across South Africa went on strike June 1, shutting down public services throughout the country. The strike is the country’s largest since apartheid rule ended in 1994. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Eleventh Labor Notes Conference Reflects Struggle And Change Across The Country & Around The World

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Author(s):
by Kim Moody

Excerpt:

Hundreds of chanting demonstrators marched through the streets of downtown Detroit at mid-day April 21 to protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas being negotiated and protested in Quebec City.

Available Online:
Yes

Jobs, Wages, Health Care, Pensions--All in Jeopardy as Chrysler Is Sold to Private Firm

Mon, 28 May 2007 07:36:56 -0400

Author(s):
Chris Kutalik, Tiffany Ten Eyck

Excerpt:

Auto workers are bracing for a bumpy road ahead at Chrysler. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Give Your Union a Dues Checkup

Sun, 27 May 2007 22:54:21 -0400

Author(s):
Mark Brenner

Excerpt:

Dues are the bricks and mortar of our labor movement, but in many unions dues are a taboo subject. From per capita taxes to initiation fees and special assessments, rank-and-file members rarely get a full picture of their own union’s dues structure, much less a sense of what’s happening across the labor movement as a whole. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Viewpoint: Labor Should Fight for Single-Payer Retirement, Health Care

Sun, 27 May 2007 22:17:10 -0400

Author(s):
Al Hart

Excerpt:

Working people in the United States are being hammered by twin crisis affecting what were once called “fringe benefits”: health care and retirement benefits. In recent years, nearly all unions face employer attacks on one or both of these vital lifelines when they go to the bargaining table. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Airbus layoffs unite German, French, British and Spanish workers.

Wed, 09 May 2007 00:03:03 -0400

Author(s):
Ben Weinthal

Excerpt:

Thousands of workers across Europe walked off the job from late February through April, protesting plans by Airbus, Europe’s largest plane manufacturer, to cut some 10,000 jobs. In four different countries, Airbus workers struck intermittently, severely disrupting the company’s production. Airbus employs 57,000 workers across Europe. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

'New Economy' High-Tech Jobs Look Much Like Old Economy Low-Wage Work

Tue, 01 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Author(s):
Patrick Moran

Excerpt:

The “new economy” is another name for an old bag of tricks where promise and reality don’t match up. E-workers counting on valuable stock options, a revolutionized workplace, and premier wages and benefits have instead gotten mediocre wages, useless stock options, relentless production pressure, and maximum job insecurity.

Available Online:
Yes

McDonald’s Agrees to Higher Pay for Florida Farmworkers; Next Target is Burger King

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 22:15:25 -0400

Author(s):
Tiffany Ten Eyck

Excerpt:

Immigrant farmworkers with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers had planned to escalate their campaign, but instead they're celebrating. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Farm Labor Organizer Is Murdered in Mexico

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 22:10:25 -0400

Author(s):
Dan La Botz

Excerpt:

Santiago Rafael Cruz, an organizer for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, was found murdered in the union’s Monterrey, Mexico office on the morning of April 9. He had been bound hand and foot and beaten to death. Circumstances suggest labor contractors may have had him killed. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

A Look at Three ‘Strategic Campaigns’

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 22:00:37 -0400

Author(s):
Steve Early

Excerpt:

How can unions tear down the wall erected by management to keep organized and unorganized workers apart within the same company? This is the central question in several campaigns involving major employers that have gone “doublebreasted.” . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Neither Victory Nor Defeat at Northrop Grumman: 28-Day Strike Wins 28 Cents More

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 12:49:58 -0400

Author(s):
Christian Roselund

Excerpt:

On the Mississippi coast, cranes are moving again over Navy warships at the sprawling Ingalls shipyards. Half a mile from the sleepy town of Pascagoula, the median at the entrance to the yards where striking workers chanted, sang, and sometimes prayed is quiet, and at the end of the workday a steady stream of cars and pickup trucks flows down the four lane road towards town. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Still Reeling from Hurricane Katrina: Mississippi Shipyard Workers Strike for Fair Pay, Benefits

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 11:16:39 -0400

Author(s):
William Johnson

Excerpt:

Seven thousand workers at defense company Northrop Grumman’s Pascagoula, Mississippi shipyard went on strike March 8, following their rejection of the company’s proposed contract. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

West Virginia Walkout: Fed Up with Low Pay, Teachers Take to the Picket Lines

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 01:24:49 -0400

Author(s):
Mark Brenner

Excerpt:

“People were just sick and tired of feeling like nobody would pay any attention to them,” said Doris Tuckwiller-Wood, one of 5,000 teachers in 14 different West Virginia counties who went on strike March 14. “We can’t just go back in the classroom and be good little teachers because they threw us a bone,” she continued. “When people didn’t get what they wanted, they started talking about a strike.” About 70,000 students were affected by the one-day walkout. . . .

Available Online:
No

Viewpoint: How To Revitalize the UAW

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 01:21:16 -0400

Author(s):
Elly Leary

Excerpt:

The latest news from the Big Three auto makers is bad. As of Valentine’s Day, the permanent force reduction exceeds over 100,000 jobs. Most of the jobs eliminated are hourly workers, United Auto Workers and Canadian Auto Workers members, in fact. The majority of the job losses will take place in the United States. . . .

Available Online:
No

Delphi Workers Fight Plant Closing in Spain

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 01:17:54 -0400

Author(s):
Tiffany Ten Eyck

Excerpt:

Tens of thousands of auto workers and community supporters marched in the port city of Cadiz, Spain on March 1 to protest the decision of auto parts maker Delphi to close its plant in nearby Puerto Real. The decision, announced February 22, would cost up to 1,600 Delphi workers their jobs. The plant produces steering equipment and suspensions. . . .

Available Online:
No

What is Single Payer Health Care? Why Would it Be Better?

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 01:13:20 -0400

Author(s):
Kip Sullivan

Excerpt:

A single-payer system is one in which one payer, namely a government agency like Medicare, reimburses providers (clinics and hospitals) directly. Those features — one payer for the public and direct payment to providers — are the main reasons why single-payer systems are so efficient. . . .

Available Online:
No

Viewpoint: AFL-CIO Endorses Medicare for All, While Change To Win’s Andy Stern Trashes It

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 01:09:43 -0400

Author(s):
Kip Sullivan

Excerpt:

The AFL-CIO has finally endorsed a solution to the health care crisis that looks and sounds a lot like a singlepayer system. A statement released March 6 by the federation’s executive council during its meeting in Las Vegas did not use the phrase “single-payer,” but it heaped praise on Medicare, which is a rough approximation of a singlepayer program. Then the statement endorsed “building on Medicare to move toward a universal program” for the whole country. . . .

Available Online:
No

Social Forum To Be Held in Atlanta

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 01:07:16 -0400

Author(s):
Milton Tambor

Excerpt:

The first U.S. Social Forum will happen in Atlanta from June 27 through July 2. Inspired by the 1999 mass antiglobalization action in Seattle and the 2001 World Social Forum (WSF) in Brazil, 150 social forums have been held throughout the world, but none until now in the United States. . . .

Available Online:
No

Defeating Employee Free Choice Act Is Top Priority for the Union Busters

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 01:03:39 -0400

Author(s):
John Logan

Excerpt:

The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is one of the most important pieces of legislation being considered by the new Congress, yet many working people have probably never heard of it. If they have, they have most likely heard the version that corporate America wants them to hear: that the bill would deny employees the right to vote in workplace elections and leave them exposed to coercion by unscrupulous union organizers. . . .

Available Online:
No

Will the UAW Fight Assembly Line Outsourcing Inside Ford's Most Important Plant?

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 14:36:39 -0400

Author(s):
Ron Lare

Excerpt:

Workers making the profitable Ford F-150 pickup in the Dearborn Truck Plant are witnessing company outsourcing inside their building, just a line over. As whole lines of Ford’s flagship plant get staffed by temporary workers not covered under UAW contracts, only the rank and file is showing up for the showdown. . . .

Available Online:
No

Legal Threats, Power Struggle Derail Conductors Strike at Canada’s Largest Railroad

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:30:21 -0400

Author(s):
Chris Kutalik

Excerpt:

Nearly 3,000 United Transportation Union (UTU) conductors and yard service workers faced down Canada’s largest rail carrier, Canadian National (CN), in a two-week strike that began February 10. It was the second time in less than three years, that a small unit of rail workers shut down CN by taking advantage of the power that comes from being able to disrupt North America’s heavily-used, over-extended freight networks. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Organizing "Big Boxes" is Big Challenge for Labor

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:27:08 -0400

Author(s):
Eli Jelly-Schapiro, Tiffany Ten Eyck

Excerpt:

For the 15 million retail workers in the United States, the odds of being in a union are low. According to the nonprofit Labor Research Association, retail unionization was just 6.2 percent in 2003. While the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) has made some gains for grocery and food retail workers, workers in the rapidly expanding world of non-food retail stores and chains are barely a blip on organized labor’s radar. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Strategic Drive Takes on California Agribiz Leader

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:24:23 -0400

Author(s):
Marcy Rein

Excerpt:

Their organizing has taken them from their manager’s front door in a well-groomed suburb of Sacramento, California to the raging streets of Seoul, South Korea, from the halls of Congress to the stuffy chambers of the National Labor Relations Board. The workers at Blue Diamond Growers (BDG) have circled the world to bring the world’s largest almond processing plant into the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).

Available Online:
Yes

Volunteer Organizers Can Add Muscle To Major Union Recruiting Campaigns

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:16:50 -0400

Author(s):
Harry Kelber

Excerpt:

There are many reasons why unions fail to win organizing campaigns, why they abort them soon after launching, and why many campaigns don’t get off the drawing board. These failures explain why unions are especially reluctant to target corporations that employ thousands of workers in multiple plants and facilities throughout the United States. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Strategy and Resource Shift Needed: Auto Workers Union Need Organizing Campaign Based on an Army of Member-Organizers

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 00:02:18 -0500

Author(s):
Wendy Thompson

Excerpt:

As the UAW prepares for this summer’s negotiations with the Big Three auto companies, UAW leadership is strangely silent. With the companies seeming poised to demand major concessions, the union cannot afford to look weak. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Labor Law Reform Could Turn Tide on Organizing

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 23:48:31 -0500

Author(s):
Chris Townsend

Excerpt:

The most ambitious labor-driven attempt in more than 25 years to win congressional approval of sweeping labor law reform is now before Congress. The goal is to remedy the outlandish violations of human and labor rights that are routinely visited on workers who attempt to organize a union in their workplace. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Don't mourn. . . . As Membership Keeps Sliding, How Can We Organize Our Way Out?

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 23:40:19 -0500

Author(s):
Chris Kutalik

Excerpt:

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual report on U.S. union membership has, for years, sounded like a broken record: decline, decline, decline. After a pleasant break in 2005, when gains in new membership for once kept steady with the loss of union jobs, was short-lived, according to this year’s report. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

In Health Care Reform Debate, Single-Payer System is Labor’s Only Clear Choice

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 23:31:11 -0500

Author(s):
Rose Ann DeMoro

Excerpt:

Union members have a huge stake in the present debate on health care reform. At a time when employers routinely slash or eliminate health benefits for workers and their families or force union members on strike to preserve those benefits, when insurance plans routinely restrict workers’ choice of doctors and prescription drugs, and when more working families declare bankruptcy due to medical debt, only one reform can provide the health care security working people need: single-payer. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Memory of 1997 Strike Strengthens Union’s Position: UPS and Teamsters Working for (Very) Early Contract Settlement

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 23:24:26 -0500

Author(s):
Chris Kutalik

Excerpt:

The 1997 Teamsters strike against UPS was one of the biggest events for U.S. labor in the 1990s. Relying on rank-and-file member mobilization, innovative tactics, and a campaign that captured public support, the Teamsters (IBT) won a victory that buoyed union morale far and wide. Though the current UPS master contract is set to expire more than a year from now on August 1, 2008, Teamster officials opened up early negotiations with the company last year. Ken Hall, director of the Teamsters small package division, even announced recently that a possible settlement could be on the table as early as next month. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

Remembering Where Flowers Come from on Valentine’s Day

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 11:41:39 -0500

Author(s):
Alexandra Early

Excerpt:

Every year on Valentine’s Day, millions of Americans head to their local florist or supermarket to buy flowers for a friend, spouse, or family member. If there’s a romantic relationship involved, we’re mainly concerned about getting our gift to the recipient--on time. Few of us ever ask where all these flowers come from or who helped grow and pick them. . . .

Available Online:
Yes

News Watch

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Excerpt:

“Gary Rusnell will come back inside over my dead body,” Detroit Newspapers labor relations boss Tim Kelleher once vowed. That was more than a year ago. A court had reversed the firing of Rusnell, a rank and file leader of the newspaper strike, and Kelleher was appealing. But recently, the court ordered management to take Rusnell back immediately while the case proceeds. Not wanting Kelleher to have to eat his words, members of the Workers Justice Committee dusted off a papier maché Tim Kelleher head that they’d stuffed with play money during the strike. They attached it to a mannequin body and laid it at the door, where Rusnell stepped over it on his way to claim his job in the composing room.

Available Online:
Yes