organizing

  • Common Ground on the Kill Floor: Organizing Smithfield

    Organizing the union at the Smithfield Foods plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, was a bruising 16-year battle, the fight brought together African American, white, and Mexican immigrant workers, who were able to find common ground despite the company’s attempts to use racial division and immigration enforcement to try to defeat them.

  • Unions Seek to Regain Foothold at GE
    Mischa Gaus
    Apr 10 2012 - 11:24am

    If the war against unions has reached a tipping point, Wilma Smith is among those determined to rebalance the scales. Workers like her are losing their fear and leading a spurt of organizing at General Electric.

  • Supply Chain Workers Test Strength of Links
    Jane Slaughter
    Mar 29 2012 - 1:00pm

    Workers in the nation’s sprawling distribution network hold enormous potential power. Today warehouse workers are organizing in three hubs: the “Inland Empire” east of LA, a giant complex near Chicago, and the centers along the Jersey Turnpike.

  • Pressing Grocery Chains, Florida Tomato Pickers Start to Feel Gains
    Eduardo Soriano-Castillo
    Mar 22 2012 - 12:45pm

    As Florida's tomato pickers turn their attention to grocery chains, they're training farmworkers to form committees and stand up for themselves on the job—and reporting notable success.

  • Struggling to Organize, Adjuncts Succeed at American University

    Adjunct professors at American University in Washington, D.C., won a union last month, but not before two years of organizing made it possible.

  • Obama, Democrats Deal Setback To Airline Workers
    Theresa Moran
    Feb 16 2012 - 5:49pm
    ** Print only

    Two years after President Obama and Democrats abandoned labor’s much-anticipated Employee Free Choice Act, they have refused to block Republicans intent on making life miserable for airline and rail workers.

  • ‘Union Stooges'? The NLRB Is No Panacea for Workers

    Three New Year appointments to the National Labor Relations Board assure that it will continue to operate. But while unions are celebrating the NLRB’s ability to keep the lights on, along with a handful of union-supportive decisions by the board, the hard fact is that even when the NLRB is operational, it doesn’t work for workers.

  • Cablevision Workers Lead MLK Day March as Disparities Fuel Union Drive
    Mischa Gaus
    Jan 16 2012 - 10:05am

    Cablevision's Brooklyn technicians will lead a Martin Luther King Day march with the Reverend Al Sharpton to protest the company's racial disparities and prepare for a January 26 union election vote.

  • New York Governor, SEIU 1199 Raise Hackles with Medicaid Deal
    Mark Brenner
    Jan 9 2011 - 9:48am

    New York’s Medicaid redesign will privatize the state's home care network, costing 700 city jobs and tossing 40,000 low-income elderly and disabled into managed care agencies that a union says cut corners. AFSCME says SEIU 1199 OK'd the deal.

  • Comcast Techs Fall Short after Six Weeks of Intimidation

    After a year of fruitless attempts to meet with management, frustrated Comcast technicians at the Fall River and Fairhaven garages in Massachusetts sought an NLRB supervised election six weeks ago.

    Votes were counted Wednesday and union supporters fell short. Labor law would have compelled management to finally begin the long-sought-after negotiations if techs won a majority vote.