Troublemakers Blog
August 04, 2010 /
The women at Houston's port have endured disgusting conditions in their bathrooms over three decades, constantly jousting with our ILA officials and management over them—until just this summer, an aggressive campaign was launched and women finally benefited from a little outside help, courtesy of Houston’s new mayor, Annise Parker.
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July 30, 2010 /
When billionaire Meg Whitman, who has never held any political office and seldom even bothers to vote, decided to use her personal fortune to run for California’s highest office, the California Nurses Association challenged her with political satire.
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July 29, 2010 /
A pair of contentious resolutions marked the Communications Workers convention in the capital this week. One highlighted widespread discontent among local leaders and activists over fragmented bargaining and concessions in telecommunications bargaining last year, and the other shifted conventions from every year to every two, reflecting the union’s financial »
July 22, 2010 /
The recession has hammered transit agencies across the country. Some 700 New York City transit workers—mostly bus operators and station agents—have been laid off since May and another 200–300 may be gone by the end of the summer.
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July 21, 2010 / Tiffany Ten Eyck
Twenty-two undocumented students risked deportation at the nation’s Capitol yesterday, staging sit-ins in the offices of five senators. After leaving the offices the group unfurled a banner in the Senate building—considered a felony—and held a second sit-in in the atrium. All were arrested by the time the building closed in the evening.
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July 20, 2010 / Mischa Gaus
Dockers in Montreal were locked out Monday in a dispute over income security for new workers. Longshore workers with the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 375 have refused to work overtime since July 9, telling their employer to call in more help before assigning OT.
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July 15, 2010 / Jane Slaughter
Less than 6 percent of Ascension Health’s 110,000 workers are union members, but apparently that’s 6 percent too many for the country’s largest Catholic health system. Management is on a concerted campaign to bust unions at its hospitals in Michigan, say the Teamsters, the Michigan Nurses Association, and their ally Interfaith Worker Justice, a national »
July 13, 2010 /
I can’t help but think that the folks behind the “America Speaks” town hall meetings, held June 26 in 19 cities across the country, were shell-shocked by the results. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and, principally, the foundation of Wall Street financier »
July 07, 2010 /
A tentative agreement has been announced in one of the longest-running and bitter strikes in North America, among the 3,500 nickel and copper miners and mill workers of Steelworkers Locals 6500 and 6200 in Ontario. The Steelworkers union and mine operator Vale Inco are withholding details until ratification votes today and tomorrow conclude. How has a year on »
July 02, 2010 /
The U.S. Supreme Court in mid-June knocked down 600 decisions by the National Labor Relations Board on the grounds that only two NLRB members lacked the authority needed to issue binding decisions. While pulling the rug out from under 600 decisions may seem cataclysmic, the bigger risk is that Senate Republicans now have a roadmap to hamstring the agency they " »