Troublemakers Blog
October 25, 2010 / Dan DiMaggio
The unemployment crisis in this country coincides with a decades-long growth in employment by temp agencies, making millions of Americans’ search for secure, decent-paying jobs even more difficult. The bizarre experience I had last week along with more than 500 other Twin Cities job-seekers sheds some light on what “flexibility” means in today’s labor market.
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October 20, 2010 /
In a time when politicians are wringing their hands over “out-of-control” spending, Pennsylvania’s Office of Homeland Security has contracted the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, a private company, to assess terrorist threats--like Jobs with Justice.
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October 13, 2010 / Mischa Gaus
The farmworker group Coalition of Immokalee Workers announced today it has reached a landmark deal with a Florida tomato grower to govern conditions in the fields.
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October 13, 2010 /
Striking musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra received an additional bravo after their successful self-produced concert October 10. As they left the stage they learned that their campaign to get internationally acclaimed violin soloist Sarah Chang to cancel management's replacement concert had succeeded.
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October 12, 2010 /
What are workers to do when, after they file a petition for a union election, the employer declares the entire workforce no longer employed? That’s what happened early this summer to adjunct faculty trying to organize at East-West University in Chicago.
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October 08, 2010 /
[This article was written for the newsletter of the American Postal Workers Union Greater Seattle Area Local, where David Yao is vice president.]
The following is my own transcribed version of the notorious September 16 episode of a Fox Business Network show that insulted postal workers, called for postal privatization, and said that much of the American »
October 07, 2010 / Jane Slaughter
The United Auto Workers have signed an agreement to let General Motors pay half wages to 40 percent of its employees at a suburban Detroit assembly plant. The “Tier 2” workers would make roughly $14 working alongside so-called “legacy” or Tier 1 workers making the current production wage, about $28.
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October 05, 2010 / Mark Brenner
Saturday’s One Nation rally on the Mall in Washington, D.C. proved one important point: unions can still turn out. The big question is whether it will be the launching pad for a more challenging relationship with labor's “friends in Washington.”
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September 30, 2010 / Mark Brenner
Update! Thursday, Sept. 30
Larry Hanley was elected president today of the 190,000-member Amalgamated Transit Union, which organizes bus drivers in cities across the U.S. and Canada, by delegates to the ATU Convention. Hanley helped found the Keep America Moving coalition to build support for mass transit. Labor Notes' Mark Brenner interviewed him this »
September 24, 2010 /
Worker centers in Windsor and Toronto, Ontario, are fighting a proposed bill that would make low-wage workers "self-enforce" their minimum wage and overtime rights, thus making it easier for businesses to break the law and cheat workers through wage theft.
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