Troublemakers Blog

April 27, 2010 /
Labor organizing requires grueling hours on the road, which is why most of us have become devout podcast subscribers. Built on a solid reputation of entertaining and nuanced storytelling, "This American Life" is often at the top of most organizers’ playlists. But as organizers we still remain expert listeners trained to recognize the siren call of an anti- »
April 25, 2010 /
Locked out Rio Tinto miners from Boron, California received the 2010 "Troublemakers" award at Labor Notes national conference in Dearborn. The miners are members of ILWU Local 30. »
April 24, 2010 /
WHAT DO STERN AND BLANKENSHIP HAVE IN COMMON? In early April, Andy Stern, the head of SEIU resigned right after
the highly contentious court battle with the NUHW. There has
been a flurry of assessments of Stern's very controversial role in
the labor movement across the spectrum -- from the Wall Street
Journal to Labor Notes. I believe »
April 23, 2010 /
Since about 1980, taxi drivers have been forced to sign an Independent Contractor Agreement. We are beginning to recognize the mistake in letting that happen. It killed the union. In the early 1900's, taxi drivers contributed to the labor movement with Organizers being jailed, and strikers being shot at. »
April 19, 2010 /
There’ll be more music and spoken word than ever at the Labor Notes Conference this weekend: Anne Feeney, Evan Greer, George Mann, Will Copeland, Lynn Marie Smith, and the cast of the jazz opera "Forgotten" will perform. »
April 16, 2010 /
SEIU President Andy Stern walked away from his post this week, and the fight is on to define his legacy and the future of one of the country's most important unions. Stern asked the right questions but drew the wrong conclusions. »
April 11, 2010 /
A federal jury in San Francisco awarded damages to the Service Employees union on Friday in its suit against the new National Union of Healthcare Workers. After initial confusion about the award amount, it appears that the jury ordered a total of nearly $750,000 to SEIU and that the amount could come either from the new union or from 16 NUHW leaders who must »
April 09, 2010 / Paul Abowd
After nearly three years without a contract, Washington Teachers Union President George Parker and DC Schools Chief Michelle Rhee announced a tentative agreement this week. Flanked by Mayor Adrian Fenty and AFT President Randi Weingarten, the two lined up behind a privately-funded agreement that would institute merit pay while continuing to whittle away at »
April 07, 2010 /
Four years after the horror of the Sago Mine disaster, another West Virginia mine explosion has claimed dozens more miners' lives. One thing requires no further investigation: The mine owner, like so many American employers, does everything they can to fight the regulation and union organizing that empowers workers to protect themselves. And now another 25 »
April 06, 2010 /
Temporary staffing agencies are trumpeted by economists as a bellwether of an economic recovery, but for those blue-collar workers who gather each morning in the waiting rooms of light-industry staffing agencies hoping to “catch out” and get a work ticket, each day brings uncertainty, and little hope of a bridge to stable, living-wage employment. Dick J. Reavis »

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