Magazine

  • Contracts Are Worth Defending, Even with No-Strike Clauses
    Guillermo Perez
    Jan 19 2012 - 1:51pm
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    After seeing hundreds of thousands of people demonstrate in Wisconsin and Ohio to defend collective bargaining, it seems odd to read in Labor Notes that union contracts are “a trap” that “hold unions back.”

    Stanley Aronowitz’s January 2012 Viewpoint said, “Labor is confined by contract unionism, whose core is the no-strike clause.”

  • Wage Laws Could Include Homecare Workers, Finally
    Jenny Brown
    Jan 19 2012 - 1:42pm
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    Two million homecare workers are finally getting a little respect under U.S. labor law. New Labor Department rules would extend overtime and minimum wage protections to home health aides and personal care assistants in the 29 states that don’t already cover them.

  • When Your Boss Doesn’t ‘Like’ You: Surviving in Social Media
    Mischa Gaus
    Jan 19 2012 - 1:37pm
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    Social media are presenting new challenges for unions as employers develop policies and discipline employees for their posts on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

    But whether workers are talking to each other in the lunch room or online, labor law still provides protections for private-sector workers to engage in concerted activities with their co-workers.

  • Postal Workers Need Support from the 99%
    Paul Felton
    Jan 19 2012 - 1:25pm
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    On December 19 Oregonians occupied post offices that were slated to close in 17 rural communities. Carrying Christmas cards, cookies, and gifts of appreciation for postal workers, the occupiers collected signatures on petitions to Congress to change the laws that caused the Postal Service’s $8.5 billion budget deficit.

  • Organize the Unemployed?
    Jenny Brown
    Jan 19 2012 - 12:20pm
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    Wrenching testimonies from laid-off workers are overflowing the internet, crying out from the pages of policy reports, and popping up in commercial media. But unions are still grappling with how to organize the unemployed, including their own ex-members, into a political force.

  • No-Strike Clauses Hold Back Unions
    Stanley Aronowitz
    Dec 15 2011 - 12:24pm
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    When leaders of the Occupy movement’s most reliable labor ally, the Longshore Union (ILWU), declared the union would not participate in Monday’s shutdown of West Coast ports, they illustrated a great weakness plaguing our unions.

  • Port Actions Spark Debate
    Labor Notes Staff
    Dec 15 2011 - 12:18pm
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    Every ILWU officer and international staffer reiterates the union’s solidarity with the Occupy movement and its goals. But the December 12 action annoyed many. Members and officials questioned why occupiers called for action without consulting the people that action would affect most.

  • West Coast Terminals Close
    Evan Rohar
    Dec 15 2011 - 12:05pm
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    For the second time in a month, the Occupy movement called for mass action to shut down ports. This time, the occupiers targeted the entire West Coast.

  • Egypt: Today Strikers Took Center Stage
    Jane Slaughter
    Feb 9 2011 - 7:04pm

    Though all eyes are on Cairo and its Liberation Square, few could know that Egyptian workers have been striking in huge numbers for years. Today, strikes became a central part of the protests, with more than 20,000 workers walking out.

  • Privatizers Chase Education’s Billions
    Mark Brenner
    Feb 1 2011 - 3:39pm

    Wonder what’s at stake in the charter school debate? How about a pot of money as big as the Pentagon budget? That’s about $562 billion in the 2006-07 school year, according to the latest numbers on local, state, and federal education spending.