labor

Strikes, Alliances, and Survival

Harold Meyerson The American Prospect
Out of sheer existential necessity, then, unions have entered a period of experimentation. The fast-food campaigns that SEIU is backing won’t plausibly conclude with a contract with McDonald’s and Wendy’s. The more likely scenario is that those protesting will try to win minimum-wage increases for workers—either generally or in particular industries—at the city level, either through the vote of city councils or of voters at the polls.

labor

Who Should Fund Alt-Labor?

Josh Eidelson The Nation
As the AFL-CIO prepares for its upcoming national convention, the issue of non-traditional workers' organizations looms heavy on the agenda. As so-called alternative labor organizations - a.k.a. "alt-labor" - have multiplied, the question of funding organizations and activities without a traditional negotiated dues check-off system is being debated.

What Dr. King didn't Say - Misremembering the March on Washington

Moshe Z. Marvit Washington Monthly. July/August 2013 issue
The March on Washington grew out of a clear understanding of the problems facing African Americans, and presented a discrete list of demands, including a comprehensive and effective civil rights law that would guarantee access to public accommodations, "decent housing, adequate and integrated education, and the right to vote." Also a "massive federal program to train and place all unemployed workers - Negro and white - on meaningful and dignified jobs at decent wages"

labor

The Expendables: How the Temps Who Power Corporate Giants Are Getting Crushed

Michael Grabell ProPublica, Posted on Talking Union
In cities all across the country, workers stand on street corners, line up in alleys or wait in a neon-lit beauty salon for rickety vans to whisk them off to warehouses miles away. Some vans are so packed that to get to work, people must squat on milk crates, sit on the laps of passengers they do not know or sometimes lie on the floor, the other workers’ feet on top of them.

Protests Spread to 77 Cities in Turkey

By Molly McGrath AFL-CIO Now
The AFL-CIO supports these Turkish labor federations’ call for immediate end to the brutal police crackdown in Turkey. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka sent a letter to Prime Minister Erdogan supporting the demands of the unions.

Fletcher Calls for Urgency and New Approaches to Organizing in Book Talk

Keith Quinnell AFL-CIO Blog
Many in the labor movement recognize some of the problems that working people face, however there isn't enough urgency and there isn't a recognition that fundamental change is necessary. The opposition sees this as a tremendous moment to eliminate unions as a viable force for working people.

Can Unions Prevent Austerity from Killing Off the Middle Class?

By Gregory N. Heires The New Crossroads
If the September convention lives up to the spirit of today’s internal debate and AFL-CIO pursues policies recommended by the white paper, it stands to be the most significant convention since the 1995, when John J. Sweeny and his backers ousted the old guard Cold War warriors.

High-Tech Workers, Jobs, College Graduates and Immigration

Richard Trumka, Hal Salzman, Daniel Kuehn, B. Lindsay Lowel
Companies want a massive expansion of visa holders so they can pay them less. This is about powerful companies pursuing lower wages. "Immigration helps America. People who come here to pursue their dreams and aspire to be citizens strengthen our country. America's unions embrace immigrants and new citizens. We worry about corporations firing or passing over qualified American workers in order to import temporary foreign workers at lower wages." (AFL-CIO)

labor

World Climate Crisis and Organized Labor

Joe Uehlein and Jeremy Brecher, Rebecca Burns
With atmospheric carbon dioxide levels having reached the 400 ppm point - way above the 350 ppm considered to be the upper limit for avoiding environmental catastrophe - organized labor is struggling with the tension between the immediate need for jobs in a crisis-ridden economy and the perils to humanity's future of avoiding the sacrifices required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The following two articles discuss those tensions from different angles.
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