Rewriting our economic rules requires putting the needs of America’s wage earners—black, brown, white, immigrant, male and female—at the center of our politics, not invisible in the margins.
The NLRB Just Dealt a Major Blow to the Fight for $15. Now’s the Time to Take Stock of the Campaign.
Unions in Canada suffered some setbacks in 2017. However, movements like the Fight for $15 and Fairness show a potential way ahead. In 2018, those looking to renew the labor movement need to build power from below, encourage greater membership involvement, forge international solidarity, and confront governments, even those that are ostensibly friendly.
With the help of a new municipal law, a new advocacy group seeks to become an organizing model for low-wage workers.
For a generation after World War II, America was far more equal than we are today. Can we ever get that back? Of course we can—the obstacles are political, not economic.
Almost every single province in Canada is ruled by a government committed to deep austerity cuts and assaults on workers rights. The tasks seem large, but as with various local labour battles, campaigns like the Fight for $15, and organizations like Iron & Earth, workers are constantly being pulled together in common struggles against common enemies.
There were the most minimum wage victories in 2016 of any year since Fight for $15 began. Campaigns are underway in more than a dozen additional jurisdictions to continue movement’s winning streak in 2017 and 2018.
The Fight for 15 has grown into one of the nation’s largest progressive movements, alongside movements by undocumented immigrants, Black Lives Matter and environmental activists fighting global warming. Beginning with fast-food workers four years ago, the Fight for 15 now includes other groups, including childcare workers, home-care aides, airport workers and adjunct professors.
A new report links the drop in union membership with the rise in income inequality. But labor activists are finding new ways to help workers.
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