An Academic Defense of Grad Student Unions - An Open Letter to Columbia Provost John Coatsworth

Hank Reichman Academe Blog
As a proud Columbia alum (College '69) and an officer of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) I was excited to learn of the NLRB's decision last week. However, I was shocked and, frankly, disgusted to read your condescending and arrogant message to the campus community. As one graduate student put it, your letter 'simply encourages graduate workers to eschew this newly right, like telling workers management will look to their interests.'

labor

Temp Organizing Gets Big Boost from NLRB

Harris Freeman and George Gonos Labor Notes
Thanks to a National Labor Relations Board decision, workers employed by temporary staffing agencies may find it easier to organize and bargain.

Tidbits - August 25, 2016 - Reader Comments: Gabby Douglas and Ryan Lochte; Temp Organizing Gets Big Boost; Black Lives Matter; Progressive Groups Demand Clinton Publicly Oppose Lame-Duck TPP Vote; and more...

Portside
Reader Comments: Douglas and Lochte- Tale of Black and White; Temp Organizing Gets Big Boost; New Memorial Will Honor Victims of Lynching; Black Lives Matter; Progressive Groups Demand Clinton Publicly Oppose Lame-Duck TPP Vote; Henry Kissinger; More response to Portside post on Syria; Announcements: Labor Journalism Award-Apply Now; Thirty-six Views of One World Trade Center; Peace in Colombia - What Can I Do?; Faculty Condemn New McCathyite Canary Mission Blacklist

Tidbits - July 21, 2016 - Reader Comments: Racism in Police Shootings; NLRB More Activist than Labor?; Abdication of the Left?; Free State of Jones; Tair Kaminer Released; Jay-Z and Beyoncé; and more...

Portside
Reader Comments: Tair Kaminer Released; Racism in Police Shootings; NLRB Become as More Activist than Labor?; Socialism Comes to Philadelphia; Portside readers have differing views on both the Abdication of the Left and the movie, the Free State of Jones; United States-Land of Terrorists and Massacres; Is Anti-Zionism Inherently Anti-Semitic?; Jay-Z and Beyoncé are donating $1.5m to Black Lives Matter

labor

When the Hell Did the NLRB Become More Activist Than Labor?

Shaun Richman In These Times
The NLRB even potentially has the power to reverse “Right to Work.” One open question is whether the legislative intent of the Taft-Hartley act was merely to ban union membership as a condition of employment—not whether unions could negotiate mandatory fees for grievance representation services.

labor

NLRB Curbs Justification for Permanent Replacements

Mark Gruenberg Workday Magazine
The decision is extremely important. Especially since the 1981 PATCO air traffic controllers strike – when President Ronald Reagan fired all the controllers, who struck over safety issues, and permanently replaced them – employers routinely fire striking workers and bring in “permanent replacements,” or threaten to, sometimes even before a strike begins.

books

Can "Solidarity Unionism" Save the Labor Movement?

Eric Dirnbach Waging Nonviolence
In any case, union contracts and the working conditions they codify are the current compromise between labor and capital in any given workplace. With or without a contract, workers will have to struggle. Staughton Lynd doesn't seem to consider the possibility that some workers may not be looking for constant class warfare on the job, and that settling a decent contract offers a much needed respite to lock-in gains.

Tidbits - October 15, 2015 - Kunduz bombing;; NLRB at 80; Grace Lee Boggs; Pinochet Murder - CIA knew; prison divestiture, Ethel Rosenberg, Announcements and more...

Portside
Reader Comments: Kunduz, Doctors Without Borders and War Crimes; U.S. Labor Law at 80 - a dissenting view; Grace Lee Boggs; Congress in Chaos; Pinochet Murder and the CIA; Connecticut's Malloy attacks college unions; TPP; Henning Mankell; Prisons and Campaign to Divest from Private Prisons; Ethel Rosenberg Celebrated on 100th birthday in New York; Announcements: Eastampton, MA; New York; San Francisco; Brooklyn' Labor Notes is Hiring
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