Though little remembered now, at the turn of the 20th century Cleveland’s socialists heroically fought Samuel Gompers for leadership of the American Federation of Labor — putting forward a revolutionary alternative to Gompers’s conservative unionism.
In his new book, Unions, Race, and Popular Democracy: Building a Progressive Labor Movement (Cornell), sociology professor Kim Scipes examines parallel efforts to build two CIO unions in the Midwest—via the Steel Workers and Packinghouse Workers.
The new crop of pro-worker legislators who have recently been elected at the state and local levels can pass laws that can rebuild the labor movement, even with Donald Trump as president. Here are six ways they can do it.
The gloves are on
Kate Bronfenbrenner, who retired this year from Cornell University, has studied how workers win unions, how employers stop them, how organizers can learn from one another for four decades. Her findings have changed how unions think about organizing.
Surveillance goes haywire
Legislation before the New York City Council would end Amazon’s subcontracting of delivery drivers. Jessica Schumer is the lead lobbyist against it.
BP has locked out about 800 refinery workers in Whiting without pay for months. The hardline tactic is raising fears about the future of union power.
The federal court–appointed official overseeing the UAW is taking sides in the union’s upcoming presidential election.
A history of five families in El Paso reveals the city’s significance as a bellwether of America’s immigration policy.
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