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Ebola Galvanizes Workers Battling to Join Unions, Improve safety

Mica Rosenberg Reuters
"Most workers were interested in forming a union before, but there was trepidation," said Anthony Reynolds, who cleans airplanes flown by American Airlines and US Airways, Lufthansa and others. "I think now this might be what puts us over the hump to get everyone on board."

Texas' New Voter ID Law Is Racist

Steven Rosenfeld Alternet
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Scathing Dissent Offers 12 Reasons Why Texas' New Voter ID Law Is Racist. Ginsburg dissent calls out thinly veiled GOP voter suppression.

Freeport-McMoRan Destroys Famous "Salt of the Earth" Labor Union

David Correria La Jicarita
The local Steelworkers union Shores decertified is the inheritor of Mine-Mill Local 890, a union made famous by the 1954 film “Salt of the Earth”, which dramatized Local 890’s 1951 Empire Zinc strike. A number of members of the creative team behind the film had been blacklisted by Hollywood.

If Not Now, When? A Labor Movement Plan to Address Climate Change

Jeremy Brecher, Ron Blackwell, and Joe Uehlein New Labor Forum
The labor movement has not adequately addressed climate change - primarily employment based, rather than a comprehensive strategy to truly address the problem. The authors argue that unions need to step up and mobilize for a real solution that includes a government program that puts people to work converting to a climate-safe economy.

Eyewitness to Police Terror in Ferguson - Protestors Shot, News Reporters Arrested

Jon Swaine in Ferguson, Missouri The Guardian
Raw fury over Brown's killing may slowly fade, but the underlying resentment among Ferguson's young black residents about their treatment by a white police force will likely continue to simmer. Washington Post and Huffington Post journalists detained. Today, Governor Jay Nixon ordered Missouri Highway Patrol to take over supervision in Ferguson, MO.

The Collapse of the American Jewish Center

Sarah Posner Religion Dispatches
The polarization of American Jews, said Dov Waxman, Professor of Political Science, International Affairs, and Israel Studies at Northeastern University, has increased with each large-scale eruption of fighting between Israel and Palestinians. Jewish Voice for Peace has seen an increase in new supporters, the formation of new chapters since Operation Protective Edge, and in three weeks 50,000 new people signed up for its email updates.

Thinking about Robin Williams, American Humor and the Troubled Mind

SAG-AFTRA; Stewart Acuff; Geoffrey Jacques; Patrick Murfin
Academy Award-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams committed suicide earlier this week. He was an artist that brought joy to millions. He starred in 80 films and over two-dozen television series. Yet few knew of his psychological demons, or about a family legacy steeped in the history of U.S. racism. These could be seen as both troubling and as a spur to creativity. Here are four takes on his life, work, and the tensions that may have informed his creative persona.