Troublemakers Blog
February 10, 2010 / Paul Abowd
It’s apparent now more than ever why restaurant workers are urgently organizing. While members of the Restaurant Opportunities Center roll on with workplace justice campaigns in several cities, »
February 09, 2010 / Paul Abowd
An outspoken critic of D.C. schools Superintendent Michelle Rhee has entered the race to lead the Washington Teachers Union (WTU). Nathan Saunders, the union’s current vice-president, says the May election is a chance for teachers to take a different direction in contract talks with Rhee, which have dragged on for »
February 08, 2010 /
Call center workers in New York overcame a brutal yet predictable anti-union campaign, but are stuck as management stalls first-contract talks. The National Labor Relations Board, with only two of five seats filled as the Senate dithers, is painfully slow to respond to workers' pleas. They and their union, the Communications Workers, aren't waiting, and took »
February 05, 2010 /
I can remember it like yesterday, one of the great thrills of my sports-watching life. Tragically, Larry Morris, now living in a nursing home with dementia, can’t remember it at all. Absent a union that puts health and safety first for active and retired players, the NFL has discarded its injured performers.
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February 04, 2010 /
Here’s my 2 cents on the NUHW win among the Kaiser Permanente professionals. In my view, it was the result of several key ingredients—but especially the existence of stewards councils that continued on their own even under the SEIU trusteeship:
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February 03, 2010 /
The slumlord at the GM-owned Delphi plant in Lockport, New York, turns off the heat every day between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. "Little Hitler," as the general foreman is known, thinks his dial-down saves GM money. Hammering pipes and raining asbestos may ring a different tune on the company cash register, but Little Hitler can’t see the dollars wasted for the »
February 01, 2010 /
After unsuccessfully demanding workers take a 33 percent pay cut, Hugo Boss gave notice of their intent to shutter their plant and lay off 400 workers. Cleveland Jobs with Justice is standing with the workers and their union in a fight to save the last clothing manufacturer in the city.
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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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