Working Life

It’s just a smidgen but every time you get a chance to hear about the shake-ups needed in our beloved labor movement, it’s worth saying “yeah, baby”. And, sisters and brothers, we have a double-barreled shot for you today. I chat first with MaryBe McMillan, the new president of the North Carolina AFL-CIO, about organizing […]

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Start by being inspired by Billy Bragg’s “There Is Power In The Union”. Then, listen as I talk to a Nissan worker who is at the center of a critical campaign to win a union at Nissan’s plant in Canton, Mississippi—a two-day vote that will start tomorrow (and we will update the result for our […]

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A common myth: the auto industry is dying. The reality: no, it’s increasing employment but largely in NON-UNION assembly plants in the South owned by foreign companies like Mercedes and Nissan, and at independent parts suppliers. Let’s see if this breaks open some new opportunities.

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   I’ve heard this talked about…well, as long as the grey cells can recall. But, this feels like it has some content to it: The United Auto Workers outlined a new push to recruit U.S. workers at one or more foreign auto makers and will bolster the effort by training and sending activists abroad to […]

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   They are always looking for a new way to nickle-and-dime people: General Motors Co. wants pay for union-represented workers be tied to employees’ work performance and the company’s financial health—much like the way its salaried workers are paid—in what would be a major shift in how generations of auto workers have been compensated. GM […]

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    I always shake my head when I read that the country no longer has industry and has evolved into a "service economy". That simple isn’t true. The main problem is that we have jobs–whether industrial or service–that don’t pay decently and are largely non-union.     Someone thinks we should do something about that: The […]

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So-called "free trade" is part of the relentless class warfare under way in America. And the so-called "free trade" deal with South Korea is no exception. That said, a lot of the shallow criticism of the UAW’s support for the deal is–well, shallow. Here’s my view about how we should engage the UAW–my union–via an […]

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   Some day, one would hope, journalists would stop accepting the usual erroneous assumptions. One of the biggest has to do with the unionized auto industry. Today, The Wall Street Journal has a piece that bemoans the lack of increase in workers hired at General Motors at a much lower wage, per recent concessions agreed […]

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   A few days ago, I wrote about the coming crisis of retirement that could last for decades. Here’s another example: And even as its pension fund faces this giant bulge in payouts, G.M. is not putting any new money in — the company is not required to make any contributions to the fund until […]

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   As I noted yesterday in connection with the bankruptcy of General Motors, I am in favor of spending money on trying to save peoples’ jobs–we are talking about the survival of communities and the lives of thousands of people. But, having now spent the morning reading various media reports about the GM bankruptcy, it’s […]

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