Skip to main content

A Four-Day Workweek Trojan Horse

Adam Barrington Labor Notes
Management’s four-day workweek proposal delivers a two-fold blow to workers: It allows them to manipulate our contract without negotiating with us, and it distracts from the question of higher wages.

Books Bob Dylan’s the Philosophy of Modern Song

Raymond Foye Brooklyn Rail
Dylan, writes reviewer Foye of this new coffee table-size book, "is sweeping out the ashes from the cave of a long career. He is casting a light on the Jungian shadows of popular song, examining both mechanics and metaphysics."

Auto Workers Convention Lurches Towards Reversing Concessions

Keith Brower Brown and Jane Slaughter Labor Notes
With the election breakthrough by a rank-and-file caucus, the UAW is set for a landmark test of how union reformers, both at the very top and in the ranks, will be able to turn the course of a major industrial union.

Law of Tehran Review – Gritty Iranian Crime Thriller Takes No Prisoners

Mark Kermode The Guardian
Iranian American screen polymath Payman Maadi (who made such an impact in films such as Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation) is Samad, a cop waging an apparently unwinnable war on drugs in the Iranian capital. Having rounded up a vast community of addicts living and dying within a hellscape of giant concrete pipes, Samad and his deputy, Hamid (Houman Kiai), treat their captives like cattle, stripping and humiliating them, herding them from one overcrowded prison space to the next.

Alon Shaya Is Cooking for Connection

Laine Doss Broken Palate
Alon Shaya believes food can help people connect; sharing a meal is a powerful tool against the rising hate against Jewish people and everyone else. “Through cooking, you can share these stories with the goal of stopping prejudice and ending hate."

Can the UAW Rise Again?

Alex N. Press Jacobin
Despite the ravages of deindustrialization, the United Auto Workers remain the US’s most important industrial union. Members recently elected a new leadership promising democracy, militancy, and an end to corruption. But change isn’t coming easy to the UAW.

Employers Spend More Than $400 Million on Union Busting

Celine McNicholas, Margaret Poydock, Samantha Sanders, and Ben Zipperer Economic Policy Institute
While the law requires employers and consultants to disclose their union-avoidance agreements, it provides an important exception when the consultant is merely providing the employer with “advice”.