Troublemakers Blog
July 13, 2010 /
I can’t help but think that the folks behind the “America Speaks” town hall meetings, held June 26 in 19 cities across the country, were shell-shocked by the results. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and, principally, the foundation of Wall Street financier »
July 07, 2010 /
A tentative agreement has been announced in one of the longest-running and bitter strikes in North America, among the 3,500 nickel and copper miners and mill workers of Steelworkers Locals 6500 and 6200 in Ontario. The Steelworkers union and mine operator Vale Inco are withholding details until ratification votes today and tomorrow conclude. How has a year on »
July 02, 2010 /
The U.S. Supreme Court in mid-June knocked down 600 decisions by the National Labor Relations Board on the grounds that only two NLRB members lacked the authority needed to issue binding decisions. While pulling the rug out from under 600 decisions may seem cataclysmic, the bigger risk is that Senate Republicans now have a roadmap to hamstring the agency they " »
July 01, 2010 / Steve Early
In the last five years, the Service Employees (SEIU) has gone from being a media darling to generating more bad press for itself than any other labor organization. To bolster its fading progressive brand, SEIU has produced a slick $25 dollar coffee table book called Stronger Together: The Story of SEIU. It's a whirlwind of self-congratulatory and »
June 30, 2010 /
Labor Notes had a presence at the U.S. Social Forum last week, the gathering in Detroit of 15,000 activists from every different social justice movement you can think of. There was a workshop for every cause and strategy, from stopping “fracking” to »
June 29, 2010 /
The National Union of Healthcare Workers is filing for an election today for 43,000 workers at the Kaiser Permanente health care system in California to decertify the Service Employees union (SEIU). A recently published book, Labor’s Civil War in California by Cal Winslow, »
June 24, 2010 /
SIGA Technologies, “a company specializing in the development of pharmaceutical agents to combat bio-warfare pathogens,” announced Monday that Andy Stern, “labor leader and prominent advocate for reform,” has joined their board of directors.
»
June 22, 2010 / Jane Slaughter
GM workers in Saginaw, Michigan, voted down drastic concessions by a big margin June 17. It was the second time in three months that GM workers already working at substandard pay refused to be chopped any further.
»
June 21, 2010 /
Bay Area dockworkers refused to cross a picket line early Sunday, leaving a ship loaded with cargo from Israel floating offshore.
»
June 18, 2010 / Jane Slaughter
As the U.S. Social Forum approaches, here in Detroit, we at Labor Notes have been talking a lot about how unions can work with other movements to pursue common goals. In Brazil last week, I was lucky to meet activists who had a terrific example: a metalworkers union that helped organize a movement of poor people to take over vacant land and build houses for »