Troublemakers Blog
May 10, 2011 /
Graduate workers across the University of California have voted to transform their union. The Academic Workers for a Democratic Union slate swept all 10 executive board positions and nearly 60 percent of Joint Council positions in United Auto Workers Local 2865. The local is the largest graduate worker union in the country and the largest UAW local in the West »
May 06, 2011 / Jane Slaughter
With a straight face, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker proclaimed Wednesday State Employee Recognition Day. In response, a group of union state employees proclaimed their own State Employee Depreciation Day Thursday, with a ceremony on the steps of the Capitol.
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May 05, 2011 / Mischa Gaus
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance released a groundbreaking plan yesterday to win health care for drivers. Classified as independent contractors, the city’s 50,000 licensed cabbies are uninsured at twice the rate of other New Yorkers—52 percent lack coverage, according to a city councilman’s 2009 survey.
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May 03, 2011 /
Afraid you might lose the vote? Stop the count and run. That’s what incumbent leaders did in United Auto Workers Local 2865, representing 12,000 graduate student workers at the University of California. Members of a reform caucus responded with sit-downs at their union headquarters, demanding their union resume the vote count immediately.
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April 29, 2011 /
When it comes to budget cuts and policies that hurt students and campus workers, student activists are refusing to sit down…unless it’s in their president’s office. This week and last, students at five universities staged sit-ins for student and worker rights, and this seems to be only the beginning.
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April 27, 2011 /
The U.S. and Colombian governments signed a “Labor Action Plan” on April 7 that sets the groundwork for a Congressional vote on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. But the trade deal is still a bad idea, “action plan” or no. USLEAP provides five reasons why.
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April 26, 2011 /
Peter Olney reviews Rebel Rank and File: Labor Militancy and Revolt from Below during the Long 1970s. He says the book provides a jolt of adrenalin; it's an antidote to labor organizing that does not begin with the centrality of power in the workplace.
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April 25, 2011 /
Thousands of graduate students across nine University of California campuses will vote this week on new leadership for their union. A slate of challengers is pushing to make the local more member-driven and active in the fight to save public education in the state.
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April 22, 2011 / Mischa Gaus
The National Labor Relations Board told Boeing this week that it can’t retaliate against workers who exercise their right to strike, a fundamental right guaranteed by labor law for 80 years. The airplane manufacturer took work away from union shops in Washington state, shifting its production to right-to-work South Carolina, where »
April 19, 2011 /
Deep into a six-month strike, the Detroit Symphony had cancelled the fall and spring seasons. Music fans were afraid management unwillingness to seriously negotiate with the musicians would cost Detroit its magnificent orchestra. But musicians ratified a contract last week in a rush of bargaining capped by a 27-hour negotiating session.
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