Working Life

Last year sometime (the old mind tends to forget when) we had a bit of a discussion about Working America and whether its strategy would work: sign up non-union workers to a kind of close relationship with the AFL-CIO, allowing labor to, then, turn those people out to vote. Steve Greenhouse has a story today […]

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The New York Times editorial page can make me laugh and scream at the same time. This morning, the page has what can only be described as a strong editorial about the attack on unions. Entitled “Kicked While Down,” the editorial comes down on the Bush National Labor Relations Board for its ruling in the […]

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The question is being asked, legitimately, if it is now time to abandon the National Labor Relations Board in light of the Kentucky River decision? I’ve been among those that for a long time have advocated abandoning the NLRB process. Even without the Kentucky River decision, as veteran organizers and negotiators know, winning an election […]

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If you wanted another great reason to drive this Administration and its enablers from power, the Bush majority at the National Labor Relations Board has just posted its ruling in a significant group of cases known collectively as Kentucky River. And it’s very bad. The board’s ruling has now classified many nurses as “supervisors” if […]

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Sounds like a start of a piece about Paris Hilton, huh? Nah. Several hundred people went to jail yesterday in Los Angeles for blocking a main street near the airport as part of a protest in support of unionizing Hilton and Westin hotels. Which brings up the tactic of civil disobedience. It says something when–if […]

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This came across my desk and is worth noting: a group of janitors is fasting literally on the freeway on-ramp of a strip mall in an all-white, wealthy suburb outside of Boston. It’s a five-day, water-only fast to protest alleged sexual misconduct and other charges at Burlington, Mass.-based Gutierrez Co. Here’s what the union sent […]

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It’s not an avalanche but nice job on the part of CWA–the union negotiated the return of about 2,000 jobs that AT&T had outsourced: AT&T is bringing back 2,000 outsourced jobs Sanford Nowlin Express-News Business Writer In a move hailed as a union victory, San Antonio-based AT&T Inc. has agreed to return 2,000 outsourced jobs, […]

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Worth reading today in the Metro section of The New York Times (one can reasonably say “buried in the Metro section) is an update on the federal lawsuit by six anonymous day laborers who are arguing that they are being harrassed by the Village of Mamaroneck, NY: The case accuses village officials of harassing the […]

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My friend Barbara Ehrenreich has launched a new organization: Washington, DC Sep 07, 2006 Two days after Labor Day, best selling author Barbara Ehrenreich announces the launch of United Professionals (“UP”): “We waited until after Labor Day because UP represents the next step in the mobilization of wage earners. While working on Bait & Switch […]

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Hey, everyone’s using YouTube to get the message out. The janitors get into the game.

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