politics

  • Auto Workers Sanctioned Over Raiding Charges

    Author(s):
    by Marsha Niemeijer

    Excerpt:
    A dispute over which union will represent 30,000 Ontario health care workers is threatening to split the Canadian labor movement. The Canadian Labour Congress has imposed far-reaching sanctions on the Canadian Auto Workers, following accusations that the CAW had attempted to raid eight Ontario locals of the Service Employees International Union. The CLC stripped CAW delegates of the right to vote in district labor councils, provincial labor federations, and other CLC bodies.

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Global Labor Stands Up to Global Capital

    Author(s):
    by Kim Moody

    Excerpt:
    They didn't start in Seattle. Protests against the impact and institutions of corporate globalization have been mounting around the world for some time. As global capital pokes its sticky fingers into one corner of the planet after another in search of profits, disrupting lives and communities, destroying jobs and the environment, spreading low-wage high-stress work, and subordinating entire nations to its goals, resistance has grown.

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Labor Stood With the Direct Action Folks...

    Author(s):
    by David H. Richardson, AFGE Local 12

    Excerpt:
    On April 16 and 17, the 29 or so police agencies that share jurisdiction in the national capital closed down the town in order to keep the International Monetary Fund open, an effort they described as a "victory."

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Reformers Criticize Hoffa's Anti-Corruption Program

    Author(s):
    by Barry Eidlin

    Excerpt:
    As part of his quest to end federal oversight and demonstrate his commitment to running a clean union, Teamsters President James Hoffa has launched a widely-publicized anti-corruption program, known as Project RISE (for "Respect, Integrity, Strength, Ethics"). Although RISE is still in its formative stages, the record so far casts serious doubt on the program's potential to help Teamster members.

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Carpenters Launch International Organization for Democratic Reform

    Author(s):
    Matt Noyes

    Excerpt:
    On March 4 in Boston, 100 rank and file carpenters from across the country formed the Carpenters for a Democratic Union International. It is the first national rank and file reform organization in the history of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.
    The group's founding conference was sponsored by the Boston carpenters' reform group, Carpenters for a Democratic Union, and the Association for Union Democracy. The conference included carpenters from reform groups in Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Tacoma, New York, and other cities.

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Unions Must Inform Members of Their Democratic Rights

    Author(s):
    by Carl Biers

    Excerpt:
    In a landmark decision, a federal appeals court has ruled that labor unions have an ongoing responsibility to inform their members of their rights under the federal Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959. The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, reversed a lower court's decision.

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • What to Know About the WTO: A Union Activist's Guide

    Author(s):
    by Kim Moody

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • Diverse Coalition Shuts Down WTO

    Author(s):
    by Teofilo Reyes

    Excerpt:
    For seven days, a motley coalition of locked-out steelworkers, tree-hugging environmentalists dressed as sea turtles, black-clad anarchists, Tibetan monks, Catholic nuns, crusty punks, and wave upon wave of working-class students and youth were in the streets of Seattle to fight the World Trade Organization.

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • In The Midst of Tear Gas History is Made

    Author(s):
    by David Bacon

    Excerpt:
    Those who marched or stood or sat in the streets of Seattle made history, and they knew it. And like the great marches against the Vietnam war, or the first sit-ins in the South in the late 50s, it was not always easy to see just what history was being made, especially for those closest to the events of the time.
    Tear gas, rubber bullets, and police sweeps, the object of incessant media coverage, are the outward signs of impending change--that the guardians of the social order have grown afraid. And there's always a little history in that.

    Available Online:
    Yes

  • 'The Kids Are All Right'...and other thoughts from IUE visitors to Seattle

    Author(s):
    by Jeffy Crosby, President IUE Local 201

    Excerpt:
    I went to Seattle with 15 members of the North Shore (Massachusetts) Labor Council. Eleven were from IUE Local 201 at the GE plant in Lynn and Ametek Aerospace in Wilmington. Contrary to the musings of Robert Reich and others that the primary loss of jobs in the United States through "free trade" would be unskilled work, both GE and Ametek aircraft engine work are headed to Mexico, Russia, China, Brazil, and other countries. The engineering and planning work is going as well.

    Available Online:
    Yes