Berry Craig: Peabody, Arch and Patriot Coal appear willing to stand by and do nothing as these brave miners and their spouses suffer and die from their work-caused illnesses and injuries without the health care these companies promised them.
Don’t Count Out the Labor Movement
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Walter Brasch: It’s a time to honor the working class, and the unions that gave them the rights of collective bargaining. They may be struggling but they are far from dead.
Mission Impossible: Finding a Mini-Van Made in America by Union Workers
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Walter Brasch: We can wave flags and tell everyone how much more patriotic we are than them, but we still can’t buy a minivan made in America by unionized workers—even when the price is lower than that of the non-unionized competition.
West Coast Unions Cave to Democrats
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Shamus Cooke: In California, the unions agreed to a rotten compromise, which taxes the rich at a lower rate while including an increase in the state sales tax that disproportionally affects working and poor people.
Friday Feedback: Seeking Unity
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Friday Feedback: This week, Jim H. comments on Diane Lefer’s “Seeking Unity Across Sex, Race & Class” and then Diane responds.
Mine Strikes and Commie Songs
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John Hennen: Eastern Kentucky union fighters like Sam and Florence Reece, and the radical leftists of the NMU, laid the foundation for the American middle class.
The White Working Class Was Bamboozled
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David Love: If Stockholm Syndrome relates to the feeling of empathy that kidnap victims have with their captors, then certainly what we are witnessing today is a Stockholm Syndrome of those on the losing end of American capitalism.
Chris and David: Do Your Homework
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Berry Craig: I’m not against Romney just because he was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. Likewise, it makes no sense for any union member to vote for Santorum just because his grandfather was a coal miner.
The Right to Shirk
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John T. Cumbler: Indiana ’s proposed “Right to Work” Act is not just anti-union, it is anti-democratic. Under the law if a majority of workers in a plant vote for a union, those who opposed the union would not have to contribute dues to the union.
LA Times: Layoffs, Sabotage and Suicides?
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Steve Mikulan: Ed Padgett was driving in the rain to a union meeting when the L.A. Times called to tell him he was fired. The pressman, a third-generation Times employee, listened in shock.
Disclose Act: Save This Bill, Get a Rush
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We have about a day and a half to save a groundbreaking bill that will make corporations and big-spending One Percenters who buy political ads, reveal their identities in their commercials so you’ll know who’s trying to manipulate your vote. The California DISCLOSE Act, AB 1148, authored by progressive champion Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (D – [...]
State of the Union: The Only Time Congress Deals In Virtual Reality
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Anthony Samad: President Barack Obama laid out the reality of our nation, his accomplishments despite obstruction, in front of Congress and the nation. He did it in real time, in virtual reality, in jaw-dropping fashion.
Friday Feedback: Attacks on Teachers
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This week, an article by Mark Naison, “How Attacks on Teachers and Government Workers Will Impact All Our Lives,” drew the following exchange between Ryder and Steve Wider.
How Attacks on Teachers and Government Workers Will Impact All Our Lives
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Mark Naison: The attack on Teachers Unions has been driven by foundations and funding sources traditionally associated with the Democratic Party and has been enthusiastically endorsed by the Obama Administration.
Santorum Loves Unions — in Iran
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“I believe in the American worker,” says Rick Santorum, the new anti-Romney in the food fight for the GOP presidential nomination. A hero of social conservatives, Santorum claims he’s a blue collar sort of guy, too. The ex-senator and congressman from Pennsylvania promises he can make factories boom again. Santorum says he has a plan [...]
‘Right to Work Is a Cancerous Ideology’
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Berry Craig: Simply put, right to work laws are designed to weaken large unions, destroy small unions, and keep unorganized workers from unionizing.
Los Ángeles 1% Maneuvers to Privatize Public Education
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John Cromshow: Privatizing education has two goals: 1) increase the number of charter schools; and, 2) weaken the teachers’ union.
Professionals Moving to Organized Labor
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Sharon Kyle: Labor union membership has declined significantly in the United States over the last 50 years, but this segment of the labor market is booming.
Victory! Transforming Occupy Wall Street From a Moment to a Movement
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Peter Dreier: If the Occupy Wall Street activists join forces with the unions and community groups, they could catalyze a massive nationwide movement to resist foreclosures and block evictions.
Anti-Teacher Union “Reformers” Hoisted on Own Petard
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Randy Shaw: After years of teachers union bashing and corporate-led school “reform” efforts, anti-public school forces are now on the defensive. And the main reason is that the statistical measurements do not support their arguments, and even show a pattern of falsification.
Can Labor Confront Obama Over Jobs?
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Shamus Cooke: Hefty splits in the labor movement have already emerged on whether to support Obama’s reelection, based on his complete lack of action on creating jobs combined with his false promises in the 2008 election.
Prettying the Porker’s Puss, Republican Style
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Berry Craig: This union-card carrying Hubert Humphrey Democrat from Kentucky — where Steve Beshear, our second-term-seeking, union-endorsed Democratic governor is up two dozen points over his Scott Walker-wannabe Republican challenger in a recent bellwether poll — hopes Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s “way forward” will include a recall election that will unemploy him, too.
Profiteering and Union-Busting Repackaged as School Reform
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David Love: But the larger picture here is that corporate education reform is big business. And the rightwing, plutocratic agenda – of school privatization, government austerity measures and deunionization – clashes with the needs of poor, working class, and disproportionately black and brown public school students.
10 Lessons for Today’s Unions from Labor’s Militant History
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Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer: As a first step, organized labor should organize massive demonstrations in major cities across the country on Labor Day to raise these demands. Working people strongly oppose these cuts and desperately want job-creation programs.
Gerard Crashes Tea Party on TV
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Berry Craig: This AFT-card carrying teacher hopes more union officials will take off the gloves and take on tea party brass hats like Gerard did.
Crunch Time for Public Sector Unions
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Shamus Cooke: Public sector unions must mobilize their members and the community they serve to fight back. They have no other choice if they are to remain powerful or even relevant.
Our Hope for Change Still Not Fulfilled
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Walter Brasch: After significant compromise with the recalcitrant Republicans who want to continue to give the wealthy tax advantages while cutting significant social programs, President Obama has finally taken a stand on debt ceiling negotiations. However, in labor, wildlife management, and the environment he is still compromising rather than coming out forcefully for the principles he and the working class and environmentalists believe.
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Labor Must Choose Between Occupy and the Democrats
Shamus Cooke: The labor movement has a foot in both worlds; one in step with the Occupy Movement and the other with the Democrats, who are working to crush Occupy outright.