More than 2,000 SEIU members who work for the University of Massachusetts (UMass) left SEIU in late 2005, just as SEIU was leaving the AFL-CIO. What's most surprising is that SEIU preferred to lose these workers, rather than let them have a democratic local...

More than 2,000 SEIU members who work for the University of Massachusetts (UMass) left SEIU in late 2005, just as SEIU was leaving the AFL-CIO. What's most surprising is that SEIU preferred to lose these workers, rather than let them have a democratic local.

Members on four UMass campuses, in 10 bargaining units, were represented by four different SEIU locals until 2003. Through a top-down reorganization of locals under SEIU's New Strength Unity Plan, all these units were placed in the newly created Local 888.

While new and unknown, two discouraging things were known about the local: the bulk of its members would be spread over 200 small-sized municipal units, and the appointed interim president of Local 888 was to be Susana Segat, a long-time SEIU official, with no track record running a local.

Rank-and-file United Auto Workers members stepped up their organizing efforts in December, forming a group called Soldiers of Solidarity (SOS) and planning actions to confront concessions.

Rank-and-file United Auto Workers members stepped up their organizing efforts in December, forming a group called Soldiers of Solidarity (SOS) and planning actions to confront concessions.

This is why we are fighting!

Meanwhile, auto parts maker Delphi pushed back the deadline for its bankruptcy proceedings twice--leading observers to wonder whether the corporation was dragging its feet now that its workers do not seem ready to concede.

Things seem to keep going from bad to worse for workers at Northwest Airlines (NWA). While striking mechanics and cleaners face a bitter winter after more than four months on the picket line, pilots, flight attendants, gate/ramp agents, baggage handlers, customer service reps, and other union workers face a fresh round of givebacks against the backdrop of a bankruptcy court.

Things seem to keep going from bad to worse for workers at Northwest Airlines (NWA). While striking mechanics and cleaners face a bitter winter after more than four months on the picket line, pilots, flight attendants, gate/ramp agents, baggage handlers, customer service reps, and other union workers face a fresh round of givebacks against the backdrop of a bankruptcy court.

A New York City bankruptcy court ordered NWA's non-striking unions to accept interim concessions on November 16. Machinist union (IAM) members took 19 percent pay cuts (sending wages back to 1980s levels), hefty health care cuts (doubling deductibles up to $400 for some), layoffs, and wide-scale outsourcing.