Troublemakers Blog
January 29, 2010 / Steve Early
For trade unionists already frustrated and disappointed with Obama, the collateral damage of the Democrat's defeat in Massachusetts is far worse than giving up on the unworkable mess of his health plan. As one dismayed union official in Washington, D.C., told me: “It’s the end of labor law reform for another generation.” There's no time to waste: We need a “ »
January 29, 2010 / Tiffany Ten Eyck
“A job is a right, we’re going to fight, fight, fight!” The chant filled the cavernous hotel conference room with anger and enthusiasm as the largest rank-and-file auto worker meeting in many years came to a close. Nearly 100 retired and active workers from the Big 3 and a dozen parts suppliers met outside of Detroit last weekend to discuss strategies for rank- »
January 28, 2010 /
With all eyes on Obama’s fraught health care push, his plans to overhaul public education have sped along with relative ease. The first leg of the federal "Race to the Top" competition finished January 19 when 40 states sent applications for a piece of the $4.35 billion in stimulus funds.
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January 26, 2010 /
Besides raising basic constitutional issues with the regard to the right to privacy, it is highly debatable whether a safety board's ruling to put video cameras in locomotives will diminish the likelihood of railroad accidents. But what it will do is place blame for accidents squarely on individual worker behavior, giving little incentive for the company to »
January 20, 2010 /
Book Review: In and Out of the Working Class by Michael D. Yates.
A memoir blending real and created stories, and one that never loses sight of where the author stands as he turns his back on fellow economists who believed “they were learning the secrets of God himself” and navigates the minefields of a dangerous economic system while attempting to remain true »
January 19, 2010 /
Interview by Bill Balderston, Oakland Education Association and U.S. Labor Against the War
Iran has seen incredible tumult in the last few months, with massive street protests challenging the government, even as the U.S. and allied nations continue to threaten the Iranian government under »
January 18, 2010 / Tiffany Ten Eyck
If you're one of the fortunate workers that gets Martin Luther King Jr. Day off, keep in mind that MLK probably didn't write his famous "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" in comfy pj's and bunny slippers. Join up with local events commemorating the civil rights movement, or »
January 15, 2010 / Jane Slaughter
Yesterday Rich Trumka announced a deal with the White House: high-cost union health care plans won’t be subject to an excise tax till 2018—five years later than almost everyone else. Trumka made clear that the intent of the changes the unions brokered is to make so many groups exempt from the tax that in practice it will almost never be applied. But why build a »
January 14, 2010 /
Chanting “Si se puede! Yes we can!,” a feet-stomping, fist-pumping crowd squeezed into St. Anne’s Church for a rally yesterday urging Congress not to waste any more time and reform the nation’s immigration laws.
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January 14, 2010 / Jane Slaughter
In 2007 Teamsters in scores of small Chicago shops, and a few big ones, capped years of organizing against corrupt leaders and stolen elections by electing a reform slate to head 11,000-member Local 743. Attendees at the 2008 Labor Notes Conference heard President Richard Berg tell the inspiring story of how persistence had enabled the slate to slash officers’ »