Troublemakers Blog
March 31, 2010 /
What a disappointment was last week’s This American Life. This episode of the popular one-hour show on public radio was a snapshot of how the auto industry could have been saved—if only executives had learned from the innovations pioneered at the NUMMI plant in California, a joint Toyota-GM experiment created »
March 29, 2010 / Mischa Gaus
Bill Fletcher, ex-AFL-CIO staffer and Center for Labor Renewal co-founder, diagnoses the disarray in the U.S. labor movement in a short interview with "The Real News Network," arguing it results from an excessive reliance on an inside-the- »
March 25, 2010 /
Teachers at four charter schools on Chicago’s northwest side went public last week with their organizing campaign, marching into their buildings to present principals with cards. The schools, run by ASPIRA Inc., are the latest campaign by the fledgling charter organizing project called the Chicago Alliance of »
March 24, 2010 / Jane Slaughter
What’s weird about the whole health insurance fracas is that Republicans and some insurance company execs fought just as hard against the crappy bill we have before us as if it were really what they claim it is: a vast government “intrusion” into health care.
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March 23, 2010 /
Two myths have surrounded Toyota’s rise to dominance in the global auto industry: (1) Toyota is about quality for the customer, and (2) Toyota’s quality and productivity are forged on respect for its workforce.
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March 22, 2010 /
The hope was for 100,000 people to get to D.C. for yesterday’s "March for America." But the first day of spring saw at least that many activists turn out to push Congress and President Obama to reform immigration law this year. The crowd surpassed organizers’ expectations, with estimates ranging around 150,000, one of the biggest marches on the National Mall »
March 22, 2010 /
The version of health insurance legislation that passed the House of Representatives Sunday will affect workers in ways both obvious and not so obvious.
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March 18, 2010 /
March 17, 2010 / Jane Slaughter
Electrical utility workers in Mexico called for a national strike yesterday to support their fight against the liquidation of their company, and some of the country’s more militant unions responded—including by blocking highways. Police responded with tear gas and »
March 16, 2010 / Jane Slaughter
It was a day like today—60s and sunny, decades ago—when I swung from the top of a telephone pole and thought I had the best job in the world. A few months earlier, in the Detroit winter, not so much. I remember phoning a customer from the pole behind her house and hearing her tell me she could see a man working on the pole back there. When I visited another »