In Firefighters Election, Can a Veteran of the Wisconsin Uprising Come Out on Top?
A rare contested race for president of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) has given its members a clear choice between a union traditionalist from Boston and a progressive activist who backed massive labor protests against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker a decade ago—and then joined electoral efforts to oust the anti-union Republican.
Iraqi Labor Unions Still Struggling with U.S. Occupation’s Yoke
In the wake of last year’s long overdue U.S. troop withdrawal, media coverage of Iraq has dwindled to near zero. The fate of costly U.S.-funded projects and institutions is little known or largely forgotten, $800 billion later. Among the many problematic U.S. efforts to remake the country was the Coalition Provisional Authority’s assistance in quashing one type of non-governmental organization: trade unions.
Can SEIU Help Vermonters Win Single Payer?
While the nation waits for an overdue Supreme Court decision that will decide the fate of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, another health care drama with wide implications for universal health care is just starting in Vermont.
The Teamsters---Will Reality TV Be Stranger than Fiction?
From "Jersey Shore" to the short-lived "All-American Muslim" to the glitzier "Shahs of Sunset," there seems to be no ethnic community left untouched by the national carny show known as reality TV. Always dissed or ignored by the mass media, the multi-ethnic enclave of organized labor might have been the last holdout against letting it all hang out in this shamelessly exhibitionist genre.
100 Years Later, the Cry for ‘Bread & Roses’ Still Resonates
One hundred years ago today, thousands of angry textile workers abandoned their looms and poured into the frigid streets of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Like Occupy Wall Street in our own gilded age, this unexpected grassroots protest cast a dramatic spotlight on the problem of social and economic inequality. In all of American labor history, there are few better examples of the synergy between radical activism and indigenous militancy.
Verizon Showdown Calls for New Strike Tactics
Telephone workers at Verizon have voted to strike if no agreement is reached this weekend. But would it be wiser to stay on the job and strike selectively over grievances?