public sector

  • What’s Behind Postal Crisis? Privatization.

    The push to dismantle the U.S. Postal Service’s distribution and delivery network is a scheme by corporate privatizers to crush the largest organized workforce in federal employment, pick apart a trusted government service, and grab the most profitable parts of the business for their own enrichment.

  • Occupy Wake-Up Call Caps Remarkable Year
    Jane Slaughter
    Dec 30 2011 - 8:42am

    It’s been an exhilarating year, with people finally moving into resistance after decades of misrule. The new-found energy is rejuvenating, making it easy to forget that we haven’t won most of these battles yet. Still, we’re way ahead of where we were this time last year.

  • Chicago Teachers Battle Mayor 1%
    Howard Ryan
    Dec 26 2011 - 10:02am

    Rahm Emanuel, whom Occupy Chicago dubbed Mayor 1%, fired a shot at the city’s public schools this month. He proposed to close schools, fire teachers and staff, and hand over space to charter schools. A transformed teachers union is fighting back.

  • Anti-Union Law Squeezes Wisconsin Teachers
    Evan Rohar
    Dec 5 2011 - 11:00am

    Wisconsin teachers are feeling the pinch as the consequences of Governor Scott Walker’s anti-union bill set in. Unions are using the struggle to recertify and press a recall vote for Walker.

  • Millions Set to Strike in Britain
    Kim Moody
    Nov 29 2011 - 9:18am

    As many as 2.5 million public sector workers will strike across Britain on November 30. The one-day action contests the government’s plan to make public employees work longer, contribute more to pensions, and receive less.

  • Illinois Faculty Unions Resist University Attacks
    Nancy Traver
    Nov 24 2011 - 10:53am

    At colleges around Illinois, faculty are under siege and looking to their unions for support. They're organizing, striking, resisting cuts, and defending contingent adjunct professors. “It’s the ripple effect,” said a faculty union president.

  • Can Ohio Unions’ Rebuke To Republicans Be Sustained?
    Dan La Botz
    Nov 22 2011 - 9:26am

    Ohio’s unions won a tremendous victory November 8 when they turned out voters to defeat an anti-union law by 22 points. Why'd they win so big, and what can unions in other states learn from their success?

  • VIDEO: Taking on FOX News - Are Public Workers the Problem?

    As state and city budget battles come to a head everywhere, FOX News is stepping up its steady stream of public sector union-bashing. This week I had a chance to counter with my two cents, laying out who’s responsible for the red ink and what we can do about it.

  • Democrats Join the Raid On Union Bargaining Rights
    Howard Ryan
    May 23 2011 - 9:34am

    Rarely have labor-backed Democrats targeted the right of public employees to collectively bargain. That’s now changing. In several states, Democrats are betting they can cut into public employee rights and still win union backing.

  • Shock and Law: Politicians Push Anti-Worker Bills
    Mark Brenner
    Feb 22 2011 - 4:41pm

    Labor’s 2011 political battles don’t end at the Beltway. Anti-union forces are pushing bills and ballot measures to limit workers’ rights and curb union power from Maine to Hawaii. A special Labor Notes map keeps track.