labor

Outcome of Boeing-SPEEA Dispute Could Have Major Implications

Dan Catchpole HeraldNet
If the union wins a dispute over whether two engineers in Miami can join the union that represents more than 25,000 workers at Boeing and other companies, it becomes much easier and less costly for the union to organize workers outside metro Puget Sound. That means the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace has a better chance of re-unionizing the more than 4,000 engineering jobs that Boeing has moved, or plans to move, out of Washington.

Mr. and Mrs. Labor-Management: Struggling to Make Their Marriage Work

N.B., SpeakOut Op-Ed Truthout
It became obvious that the logical thing for Management and me to do was to ratify our relationship by getting married. It's true that prenuptial agreements have the tendency to kill the romance, but Management and I had reached a place where the only key to listening to one another's proposals and keeping our heartfelt promises alive in our increasingly one-sided relationship was a collective bargaining agreement - AKA the CBA.

Tidbits - February 27, 2014

Portside
Reader Comments - Ukraine; Venezuela; Chokwe Lumumba; UAW-Volkswagen; North Carolina; State Pensions; Wisconsin; Prisons and Solitary Confinement; Jordan Davis; Announcements - Freedom Rider Diary - Book Signings - Coast-to-Coast - Mar 3 - 10; Celebration of Working Women & International Women's Day! - New York - Mar 7; Cecily McMillan Trail Postponed - Again - Motions to be presented Mar 19; Seventh CCDS/Kendra Alexander Foundation Banquet - Berkeley - Mar 30

labor

More Views on the UAW Volkswagen Election

NY Times The New York Times
Union members, journalists, academics and others express differing viewpoints on the significance of the United Auto Workers union loss in the representation election at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in this New York Times' "Room for Debate" piece.

Los Angeles Walmart Workers on Strike, Stage Sit-in, Dozens Arrested

Jway; Mike Hall; OUR Walmart SoCal
In a preview of what will be a nationwide day of action on Black Friday, Walmart workers at several Southern California stores walked off the job this morning to protest Walmart's low wages. Just minutes ago, sixty Walmart workers were arrested for engaging in a peaceful sit-in in downtown Los Angeles.

North Carolina, Come On and Rise Up

Amy B Dean, Truthout Report Truthout
This is a movement, not a moment...Moral Mondays have really caught fire. It took several months last spring and early summer for the Moral Monday protests to reach a crescendo. While early statehouse rallies in North Carolina started by attracting about 50 protesters, by July thousands of people from around the state were swarming the state capitol. After three consecutive months of action, there had been around 920 arrests for civil disobedience at the weekly rallies.

labor

Supreme Court to Inspect Neutrality Agreements

Jenny Brown Labor Notes
The case the Supreme Court will hear involves a South Florida greyhound track, now known as Mardi Gras Gaming, where UNITE HERE reached an agreement with the employer in 2004. The company would allow union representatives to speak to workers in non-work areas during non-work times and would provide the union with contact information for employees. It would also “remain neutral” about unionization.

labor

Do private-sector unions still have a future in the U.S.?

Brad Plumer The Washington Post
Brad Plumer's blog post summarizes a long and interesting essay in the latest issue of "Democracy" that analyzes the decline, and long-term outlook, of private-sector unions in the United States. He highlights 3 factors: Taft-Hartley was the beginning of the end for unions in the private sector; labor’s recent attempts to launch new organizing drives aren’t working; and organized labor tends to expand only at rare points in history.
Subscribe to union organizing