All Articles

Searches titles and body text

Hotel/Casino Workers Strike Both Coasts as Union Puts National Strategy to Work »

November 1, 2004 | Sheila McClear

Strikes involving 14,000 workers in San Francisco hotels and Atlantic City casinos are shaking up the tourism industry on the East and West coasts, as part of a concerted effort by UNITE HERE to line up contracts to expire at or around the same time within industries. With this strategy, the...

L.A. Nurses Take Direct Action on the Hospital Floor To Protect Patients, Themselves »

November 1, 2004 | William Johnson

In case you hadn’t heard, there’s a health care crisis in the United States. Two symptoms of this crisis are understaffed medical centers and health care workers who are overworked and underpaid...

Steward System Is Key to Building Downtown Workers Union in Vermont »

November 1, 2004 | Tenaya Lafore

Supporters of an innovative city-wide union in Montpelier, Vermont are redoubling organizing efforts as the project enters its second year...

Discontent Spreads in East Coast Longshore Union »

November 1, 2004 | Marsha Niemeijer and Rachel Padgett

Four years after a southern-based reform group sprung up out of the campaign to defend the Charleston Five, a movement to democratize and strengthen the International Longshoremen’s Association has spread throughout the entire union...

Surrendering the Shop Floor Means Surrendering the Future »

October 1, 2004 | Charley Richardson

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, is famous for having said that if he had his way, he would put his factories on barges and drag them around the world, in search of the lowest wages and least regulation. . . .

8000 ‘Guest Workers’ Join Farm Union in North Carolina »

September 30, 2004 | Teófilo Reyes

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) and the North Carolina Growers Association (NCGA) signed in mid-September a historic contract covering 8,000 seasonal guest workers who travel each year from Mexico to work the fields of North Carolina...

Support the Million Worker March »

September 30, 2004 | Chris Kutalik

For many union members the presidential election season is known mostly for a few painfully predictable things: glossy magazine covers from the International featuring the candidate of choice; appeals for COPE money by local officers; repeat calls to come down to the union hall and pick up...

AFL-CIO Forms Special Committee To Ward Off Independent Unions »

September 30, 2004 | William Johnson

The AFL-CIO has created an Independent Union Raiding Committee that will explore ways to stem the tide of workers decertifying AFL-CIO affiliates in favor of independent unions. According to the Bureau of National Affairs, the committee began its work “by looking at raiding by non-AFL-CIO...

Strikes Loom at Major Hotel Chains on Both Coasts »

September 30, 2004 | Sheila McClear

With their contracts recently expired, hotel workers at three UNITE HERE locals in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. voted to authorize a strike against a group of major hotel chains, including Hilton, Four Seasons, Hyatt, and Holiday Inn...

Understanding the New Overtime Rules »

September 30, 2004 | Randy Voss

Changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) proposed by the Department of Labor and the Bush Administration went into effect August 23. In early September a bipartisan union-backed effort in the House of Representatives narrowly overturned the changes, but President Bush is expected to veto...

Companies Dump Pension Obligations on Taxpayers »

August 31, 2004 | Jennifer Biddle and Richard Turk

Here's a great Jeopardy question for any blue-collar union worker:


It was the biggest corporate entity for its industry in the nation and lost huge amounts of revenue to rivals who used low-wage, non-union labor in the United States to provide a cheaper product. A revolving door of top...

Deserting the Sick and Elderly, Some Unions Join Employers Seeking to Limit Lawsuits »

August 31, 2004 | William Johnson

"Health care for all!" is the Service Employees International Union's new battle cry, and the push for universal health care seems indeed to have become one of this massive union's top priorities...

Toyota Organizing and the United Auto Workers »

August 31, 2004 | Mike Parker and Gregg Shotwell

The rapidly growing number of unorganized auto plants in the US South challenges the UAW as its tries to hold on to its density in the industry. Asian and European manufacturers now operate 10 assembly plants in the region employing close to 50,000 workers-all non-union...

Why Organizing Toyota Should Be Job 1 for the United Auto Workers »

August 31, 2004 | Mike Parker

The future of the labor movement depends on the volunteer organizers at Toyota and workers like them in the growing number of auto plants without a union...

Volunteer Organizers Report Progress Slow, But Improving at Plant in Georgetown, Kentucky »

August 31, 2004 | Gregg Shotwell

Workers at Toyota in Georgetown, Kentucky have been pounding the union drum for 16 years and counting. For the workers, progress has been slow but steadily improving. Toyota is feeling the heat. Union supporters have been fired and the number of temporary replacements is skyrocketing...

Pages