Troublemakers Blog

May 05, 2020 /
By January 2020 I was feeling disenchanted with my union. As proud as I was of my colleagues and fellow members, I believed that we had a top-down organization. I knew we could do better but I didn’t know how to begin. »
protester for VSCS Thrive! with a sign and his car that has a pro-VTU slogan on the back windshield
May 04, 2020 /
Unionized faculty and staff at the Vermont state colleges are in a fight to defend their jobs and schools, which teach working class students mainly from rural parts of the state. Last month Chancellor Jeb Spaulding announced the immediate, permanent closure of three of the six state colleges. »
book cover says "STRIKE! Jeremy Brecher, 50th anniversary edition, revised, expanded, and updated edition, preface by Sara Nelson, foreword by Kim Kelly," and there is a quote from Eric Foner: "No book could be more timely for those seeking the roots of our current condition." Image shows a crowd of workers with farm implements approaching a mill.
May 04, 2020 /
This is an excerpt from the forthcoming revised and expanded 50th anniversary edition of Strike! by Jeremy Brecher, PM Press, June 2020. The publisher is raising funds on Kickstarter to bring the book to new audiences; give here. Also, today at »
NewsGuild members standing together in yellow, smiling holding signs with arms up
May 01, 2020 /
In a cataclysmic health crisis, it’s plain to see how essential the work of journalists has become. The public is turning to news media sources in record numbers, particularly online, to answer burning questions: »
Crowd of UTLA strikers in red in January 2019 strike
April 29, 2020 /
In United Teachers Los Angeles, our 34,000-member union, we used Contract Action Teams (CAT) in every school to build up to our winning strike in January 2019. »
handwritten signs "we miss you" hang on the fence outside a brick building labeled Hartford University School
April 29, 2020 /
My first teaching assignment was in a special education classroom in an elementary school basement; above the door in red were the words “Shelter Inside.” I read those words every morning on my way in. The relationships inside the classroom were our shelter, and the community we built together made learning possible. »
Nurses marching at Jacobi Medical Center
April 28, 2020 /
For most nurses and other health care workers it's been the most traumatic month of our careers. We knew we were going into this world-historic challenge with a crippled, fractured, understaffed, and under-capacity health care system. What we didn't quite realize was that there would be no real plan to protect us. »
UIC picketers on sidewalk
April 28, 2020 /
UPDATE: On May 1 graduate employees won free summer 2020 housing in the dorms for all international students who need it. The union continued to pressure the university administration after winning its MOU earlier. »
April 27, 2020 /
Unions at the three hospitals on the University of Washington campus asked management for protective Plexiglas barriers similar to what we are seeing at grocery stores. When management said no, we built them ourselves. »
April 27, 2020 /
Libraries are one of the last social services to normally be open to all. Our labor affects the community health in many ways. But New Orleans library workers understood that our workplaces’ social role also made libraries a potentially massive infection site for the at-risk populations we overwhelmingly serve. »

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