Working Life

The last couple of weeks, a lot of people have wanted to know what Ed McElroy is up to. As president of the American Federation of Teachers and, so far, a John Sweeney supporter, he carries 1.3 million votes. I did not believe one rumor that he was angling to run and instead, I believe, […]

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Well, actually, I’m not sure…my previous post about the issue emanated from what I think now is a bad rumor. There is too much information flying around and sometimes (as Newsweek discovered) it may be wrong, I’d say forget it—and I’ve also taken the step of deleting this information from this post. Ah, the beauty […]

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A few tidbits today from 16th Street. A good friend, deep inside 16th Street, says that based on a draft job description of the new job categories decreed by Chairman Welsh, “there is no way the AFL-CIO is going to win any arbitration because they are so similar.” My friend knows the details of the […]

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Today’s a day when I’m worried about the tone of the debate inside the labor movement (maybe because it’s my sister’s birthday and I’m feeling touchy-feely). Mind you, I’m glad there is a debate about how to save a movement that is on life support. Until the Service Employees International Union kicked the can last […]

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Here’s a wacky, radical idea: why not let the 13 million members of the affiliated unions of the AFL-CIO vote on the competing proposals put out by the two main camps in the past couple of weeks? There’s a debate going on about which side has the best ideas or strategies—but it’s a debate within […]

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Okay, folks, here it is: Restoring the American Dream: Building a 21st Century Labor Movement That Can Win (The final version is now posted. Apologies for confusion). I’m going to do a more detailed side-by-side comparison of this proposal versus the AFL-CIO officers proposal released a couple of weeks ago (by the way, I’ll just […]

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The new salvo from the insurgents will be available for your reading pleasure at 1 p.m. today!!! A few tidbits ’til then: All five of the insurgent unions (Laborers, SEIU, UNITE-HERE, UFCW and Teamsters) are on-board for the program; the UFCW will put out a letter of support pending approval of its Executive Board. At […]

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Today is going to be a wild, red-hot day in the debate over the future of labor—and there is new movement to report in the forces at play here. The insurgents (UNITE-HERE, Teamsters, Laborers, SEIU and UFCW) will be releasing a new set of proposals and initiatives today that was hammered out at the recent […]

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So, late last night I got a report from the Teamsters big conference in Vegas, where the heads of the five unions composing the “insurgent caucus”— the Teamsters, SEIU, Laborers, UNITE-HERE and UFCW—came together in front of a raucous crowd composed mainly of Teamsters but also including rank-and-file members from each union scattered through the […]

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Late last night, I heard just a bit of information out of Vegas (I had other commitments so cannot be on the scene, unfortunately…need to win back that money from March). There is not yet a candidate to challenge John Sweeney. Obviously, as I reported, John Wilhelm doesn’t want to jump in unless there seems […]

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