Working Life

    This past week, I pondered how immigration was going to end up conjuring up the Willie Hortons of the 2008 election. If you had any doubt about the power of fear on immigration, check out what happened in the union representation vote at Fresh Direct in NYC. Two weeks before the vote, the company […]

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    I’m here in the Windy City for the Change To Win convention. I’ve only got a few minutes before the convention goes back into session–and there is no wireless in the hall so it’s tough to get real-time stuff up (memo to unions: if you want reporters to get the message out, set up […]

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Note to reader: Natasha Winegar, Jonathan’s assistant, wrote this post. While Jonathan is away on vacation for the next week, I will be posting in his place. There has been quite a buzz on DailyKos the past few weeks about a new campaign to organize school bus workers. Progressive bloggers have often written about labor […]

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    The immigration bill is headed back to the Senate floor today. It is unclear whether there will be enough votes–60 are needed–to allow the bill to proceed. And, even some of the Senators who say that they will vote to allow the bill to proceed–i.e., they will vote to cut off any filibuster–are saying […]

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My email box runneth over with various statements from union leaders on the trade deal struck between the Administration and Charlie Rangel and some of his sidekicks in the Democratic leadership. Anna Burger, chair of the Change To Win federation, had this to say. Jim Hoffa, president of the Teamsters, weighed in. AFL-CIO President John […]

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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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Here’s a run-down of the press conference held just a little while ago. The scene was the Al Dente restaurant just off the main casino area. Double long tables covered with linen table clothes sat in the center of the room. Sitting at the head of the table were UFCW president Joe Hansen (UFCW) and […]

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It’s 4:30 and there’s about to be a sit-down between John Sweeney and Jim Hoffa. Sweeney will try to sway Hoffa but I don’t think Hoffa will bite. I don’t think Sweeney really understands the depth of frustration with the bureaucracy at 16th Street. Take the Firefighters—they are not part of the rebels but if […]

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