Troublemakers Blog
January 06, 2012 /
The push to dismantle the U.S. Postal Service’s distribution and delivery network is a scheme by corporate privatizers to crush the largest organized workforce in federal employment, pick apart a trusted government service, and grab the most profitable parts of the business for their own enrichment.
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December 29, 2011 /
Coming at the beginning of the Reagan-era conservative ascendancy, the 1981 PATCO strike is often cited as the defining labor struggle of our time. Yet the union's intense solidarity, insularity, and ultimate miscalculations are little understood today. A new book, Collision Course, explains much about this important chapter in labor history.
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December 23, 2011 /
Just as the cherry blossoms fell from their trees as summer began in Washington, D.C., the 170,000 registered nurses who are members of National Nurses United, the nation’s largest nurses union, launched their Main Street Contract campaign.
Six months later, NNU’s campaign is resonating on an international stage and shifting what’s politically possible here at »
December 15, 2011 /
After a year of fruitless attempts to meet with management, frustrated Comcast technicians at the Fall River and Fairhaven garages in Massachusetts sought an NLRB supervised election six weeks ago.
Votes were counted Wednesday and union supporters fell short. Labor law would have compelled management to finally begin the long-sought-after negotiations if techs »
December 13, 2011 /
When leaders of the Occupy movement’s most reliable labor ally, the Longshore Union (ILWU), declared the union would not participate in Monday’s shutdown of West Coast ports, they illustrated a great weakness plaguing our unions.
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December 09, 2011 /
As usual at any Labor Notes school or conference, the main complaint about the December 3 Detroit Troublemakers School was, “I wanted to go to all the workshops.”
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December 08, 2011 / Mischa Gaus
Verizon unleashed another salvo in the company’s six-month battle against its unionized workers, firing 40 East Coast workers over the weekend for picket-line activity during August’s two-week strike.
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November 30, 2011 / Jane Slaughter
Clerical workers at United Auto Workers headquarters in Detroit are protesting layoffs that will take effect Friday. They picketed this month carrying signs that read “What about shared sacrifice?” and “Justice for ALL workers.”
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November 28, 2011 /
Frank Bardacke's Trampling Out the Vintage explains better than any other book how the United Farm Workers under the leadership of Cesar Chavez rose in the 1960s to become one of the most remarkable and successful unions in U.S. history but then crashed and burned so breathtakingly fast that by 1990 it had essentially disappeared from the California »
November 22, 2011 / Mischa Gaus
Verizon, look out—there’s a new union in town. A reform group took over a big New York City telecom local yesterday, pledging to re-energize the union. The election took place against the backdrop of a wrenching contract fight that’s dragged on since a two-week strike at Verizon in August.
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