The Postal Service laying off 120,000 workers is just about the worst thing that could happen to the economy. Mark Andersen suggests a simple solution to fix the USPS problems: The fix for our postal service is simple and it does not have to mean mass lay-offs, broken contracts, busted unions or anything else that […]
Category: labor
Mark Engler has an excellent discussion of why the Verizon strike is so important, or as he puts it, the next Wisconsin: The parallel to Wisconsin is apt for several reasons. First, like the Republica
1. Thirteen unions are boycotting the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte because North Carolina is a “right to work” state. These are mostly the building trades, for whom usi
There’s been a surprising number of union victories of late. I discuss several of them in my new piece at Alternet and consider their possible implications. With all of this pretty good to great news all of a sudden, one wonders, is this coincidence? Or is it a sign of a rejuvenated labor movement ready […]
Over 45,000 Verizon workers in nine eastern states, under the leadership of the Communication Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have gone out of strike. This i
I have a piece at Alternet on the new proposal issued by the Smart Globalization Initiative at the New America Foundation and the United Steelworkers. Entitled “A Vision for Economic Renewal: An
A lot of interesting labor stories out there right now: 1. Sarah Jaffe has an excellent piece on unemployment at Alternet. Unlike all too many (almost all) reports on the unemployed, she actually focuses on people who are unemployed, gathering their stories with a particular interest in those organizing unemployed workers. Another Coxey’s Army is […]
It’s possible that some education “reformers” really do care about improving childhood education. But many of them care about union-busting much, much more.
I’ve talked before about how young progressive bloggers don’t seem to have too much interest in labor history or labor issues more broadly. Of course, most of the voices in this debate are
Some labor notes for your Friday: 1. Verizon is attacking its own workers, attempting to force 45,000 workers to tie pay to performance and pay into their own health care plans. The CWA and IBEW are organizing their members to protest. One would hope that they would talk strike here, though that’s probably unlikely. Verizon […]
On July 14, 1877, the Great Railroad Strike began in Martinsburg, West Virginia. After the Civil War, industrialists engaged in an enormous rail building program. Much of this was funded through shaky
The summer of 1917 was tense in the United States. The entrance of the nation into World War I that spring seemed to place the entire nation on edge. Progressivism, a diverse movement with widely mixe