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Social media are presenting new challenges for unions as employers develop policies and discipline employees for online behavior. But whether workers are talking to each other in the lunch room or on Facebook, labor law still provides protections for private-sector workers.

It’s a strange disconnect: what union leaders expect from their political allies and what they actually get. The latest example comes from the largest federal workers union, which Democrats just forced to take a pension hit estimated to cost workers $15 billion.

With more than 44 million Americans lacking access to paid sick leave, coalitions to win time off have emerged in half a dozen cities and several states. Enforcing the laws once they're won has proved challenging.

The idea that the 99% can actually stand up to the 1% is contagious. How can stewards build on this moment of opportunity? Several unions are drawing members into home defense actions.

Activists have won more than 125 living wage ordinances in cities and counties, and state and federal minimum wage increases. Yet the number of workers earning poverty wages remains as high as ever. Are the laws worth the effort?

Members of the United Electrical Workers won another reprieve for a Chicago window factory, re-occupying the plant they famously held in 2008. UE took over the plant yesterday after local management said it would close immediately.

Parents raised the stakes in the battle over the corporate takeover of education when they occupied a Chicago school Friday. They didn't reverse the school board's "turnaround," but they did crack a wall of silence from city leaders.