Troublemakers Blog
October 24, 2009 /
It started with a simple question, “Can you hear me?” United Auto Workers International Vice President Bob King was inside Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant, near Detroit, ready to tell a crowd of rank-and-file members why they should vote for more concessions to the profitable automaker.
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October 22, 2009 /
This skit was written by a postal worker. It asks the question: What would mail service be like in the U.S. if it was run by health insurance companies, with all their restrictions, extra fees, and bureaucracy?
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September 15, 2009 / Jane Slaughter
Stewart Acuff, coordinator of the AFL-CIO's Employee Free Choice Act campaign, told Labor Notes that a deal on EFCA has been made: it’s the same three provisions as the original bill except that we’ll get expedited elections—seven days—instead of card check. (The other two are heavier penalties for labor law violations during organizing drives and some »
September 15, 2009 / Mark Brenner
Looking for a break from the palace politics and spit-shine glitz of the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh (where, behind our reporters just hours ago, they turned back on the booming sound system to give tomorrow's speeches a dry run)? Let us transport you to downtown New Haven, where a gathering of a totally different stripe is underway.
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September 15, 2009 / Mischa Gaus
After President Obama speaks later today, the AFL-CIO convention will consider two health care resolutions, but won't vote them against each other.
Both are expected to pass unanimously.
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September 15, 2009 /
Michael Moore’s new film “Capitalism: A Love Story” premiered to a rowdy—and wholly appreciative—labor audience at the AFL-CIO convention. The event, following a noisy march from the convention center to a theater down the street, was organized by the California Nurses Association and the Labor Campaign for Single Payer among others. It offered a refreshing »
September 14, 2009 / Jane Slaughter
Asked whether the AFL-CIO would stick to earlier statements that the federation will not support a health care reform bill without a government-insurance “public option,” incoming federation President Rich Trumka ducked this morning.
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September 13, 2009 / Mischa Gaus
Labor Notes started the AFL-CIO convention week with a little something to celebrate: we took home first place for general excellence among national labor publications, in the International Labor Communications Association Labor Media awards. ILCA is the organization of editors and reporters who put together local and national union newspapers, magazines, and »
August 17, 2009 / Steve Early
When California health care workers gave up on the project of democratizing the Service Employees (SEIU) and launched a rival organization instead last winter, the road to union recognition didn’t seem so long and hard. Soon after the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) was formed in January, in response to SEIU’s trusteeship of the United Healthcare »
June 08, 2008 / Mark Brenner
Today was Anna Burger's day in the spotlight. Her stump speech was about the 2008 elections, and why politics was so important to SEIU's future. Burger, who heads up Change to Win, is apparently the czar of SEIU's political operations, and it was nice to hear her say, "There is no question that organizing and politics go hand and hand," acknowledging the link »