Fantastic Vanessa Veselka piece about her attempt to organize an Amazon warehouse. Inspired by the WTO protests in Seattle, Veselka took it in her hands to get a job in an Amazon warehouse, contact labor, and start organizing. It didn’t necessarily go very far, but that’s hardly uncommon. Her article is a great look at […]
Tag: labor
Union-hating companies and the unionbusters they hire to consult with them are aghast at the new NLRB rules allowing for quick union elections, which undermine corporate ability to spent a year underm
Today, the Occupy movement chose to shut down ports in Oakland, Portland, and Longview. But did they do it with the consent of workers? Mike Elk and Andrew Leonard are skeptical and I tend to agree. E
I’m fascinated enough by David Stern blocking a trade to engage in some rare NBA-related blogging. A few points: I don’t really know enough to make this judgment, so correct me if I’m wrong, but is it even obvious that the Lakers won this trade? Trading their big men to build around stars at the […]
Steven Greenhouse has a thought-provoking piece in the Times detailing how and why Boeing came to a labor agreement with its workers and wondering whether this is not the beginning a new “Grand
On this day in 1955, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged into the AFL-CIO. During the 1930s, dissatisfaction over the AFL’s conservatism and its
Today we celebrate the 65th anniversary of the Oakland General Strike. The Oakland general strike came out of the massive changes to the Bay Area during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of Americans moved to San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond, and other cities to work in wartime industries. During World War II, the AFL and […]
Newt clarifies his comments from last week that poor students should replace janitors in schools. They shouldn’t do all the work. Just jobs like cleaning the bathrooms. And doesn’t this ma
Scott Walker using prison labor to decorate the Christmas tree (and in this administration, it ain’t no holiday tree like here in Rhode Island) in the Wisconsin state capitol building. The use o
This story has received very little coverage, but today was nearly the day the National Labor Relations Board, for all intents and purposes, died. The NLRB is supposed to have 5 members, but presently has 3 because of Republican obstructionism. There are 2 Democrats and 1 Republican, Brian Hayes. Angry about new rules designed to […]
1. Conditions at Chinese computer manufacturing plants remain horrible. Apple has claimed they will look into these problems, but actual action remains unlikely. The workers themselves are fed up and
Very disappointing piece from Kevin Drum supporting Alan Haus’ call for unions that only negotiate wages and nothing else. Haus, an employment lawyer, is packaging old-school company unionism in