Portside

Socialists from many organizations took jobs in NYC transit in the 1980s. A new paper examines: What were the strategies that guided them? What did they accomplish? What caused the collapse of their union reform project? What are lessons for today?

Despite the ravages of deindustrialization, the United Auto Workers remain the US’s most important industrial union. Members recently elected a new leadership promising democracy, militancy, and an end to corruption. But change isn’t coming easy to the UAW.

The UAW has 400,000 members and a strike fund of a billion dollars. The new leaders campaigned on a militant approach to organizing, internal democracy, and solidarity against tiers, similar to the leadership shakeup in the Teamsters in 2021. The Members United slogan was “No Corruption, No Concessions, No Tiers.”

Last November, Trumka tried, unsuccessfully, to block any state convention discussion of a general strike contingency plan in the event of a constitutional crisis (of the sort which did occur on January 6).

Through “pro-labor” conservatives like Oren Cass, the populist right is offering an updated fantasy that Republicans are champions of the working class. They aren’t and never will be.

In the wake of former UAW President Gary Jones pleading guilty last week to stealing more than $1 million, U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider is demanding 'serious action' on reform inside the United Auto Workers 'within a couple of months.' 

What happens when new leaders run for office and beat an eight-term incumbent? In the Baltimore Teachers Union, it seems, the incumbent tries for a second bite at the apple.

Union President Laura Glading stepped down in October—under pressure from angry members, who were pushing for a special recall election. American Airlines announced in January that it had hired her as a consultant.

Unions face an existential problem: If they can’t represent more than a sliver of American workers on the job, what is their mission? Are there other ways they can advance workers’ interests even if those workers aren’t their members? A new labor movement might resemble a latter-day version of the Knights of Labor, the workers’ organization of the 1880s that was a cross between a union federation, a working-class political vehicle, and a fraternal lodge.