unions

Kagan, Sotomayor Join SCOTUS Cons in Sticking it to Unions

By an 8-1 vote, with only Ketanji Brown Jackson in dissent, the Court allowed employers to bypass the National Labor Relations Board to seek potentially crippling tort judgments against unions for business losses related to strikes, removing a major incentive for good-faith negotiation by employers. 

Ayn Rand's Defense of an Anti-Union Massacre

by Greg Mitchell

The screenwriter and novelist was inspired by the 1943 memoir of Republic Steel head Tom Girdler, in particular his refusal to apologize for collaborating with Chicago Police to crush a march of striking steelworkers and their families in 1937. 

The Writers' Strike Opens Old Wounds

by Kate Fortmueller

The plot of each sequel of negotiations between the producers and writers has followed a formula of compromise for mutual self-preservation. Technological advances have convinced studio heads that they no longer need the labor of writers enough to keep compromising. 

Buried Footage Helped Chicago Police Get Away with Killing 10 Labor Activists in 1937

by Greg Mitchell

Paramount's newsreel division shot footage of the murderous attack on a steelworkers' march in 1937. They sided with the bosses by burying the footage. Even after Senator Robert LaFollette pushed for the film's release, cities banned it from the screen as Chicago prosecutors ruled the killings justifiable. A new documentary tells the story of the film. 

Wins at Amazon and Starbucks Shouldn't Obscure the Hard Road Independent Unions Face

by Erik Loomis

The improvised and worker-led efforts to organize the new economy giants has led some commenters to proclaim the end of big labor. A labor historian says that workers still need the resources and support of legacy unions – if they commit to organizing new workplaces – to win against employers more determined than ever to bust unions. 

Howard Schultz Gets Roasted More than Starbucks Beans by Senators

by Kim Kelly

The CEO's reluctance to appear before a Senate Committee was made clear when Senator Bernie Sanders, labor law experts, and Starbucks workers confronted him with allegations that he violated labor laws in seeking to keep the coffee chain union-free. 

ChatGPT Wants to Join SEIU in Breakthrough for Organized Labor

by Jim Castagnera

Business owners looking to replace workers with automation beware; ChatGPT is a union bot. 

Graduate Student Strikes Fight Back Against Decades of Austerity, Seek to Revive Opportunity

Participants in these actions explain that the goal isn't only pay and benefits for graduate student workers, but returning public higher education to a state of accessibility for millions of students and opportunity for millions of workers after decades of budget cuts and privatization. 

Why are Universities so Disrespectful of their Organized Workers?

by Maximillian Alvarez

From teaching assistants to cafeteria workers, labor exploitation and union busting are the shady underside of the modern university, according to three scholars active in the academic labor movement. 

Debate: Should Workers Organize Workplaces or Industries?

The history of broad organizing in whole industries like automobiles offers both inspiration and caution to workers who see organizing in the service industry as the key to a fairer economy. Two labor experts discuss. 

Academic Workers Looking to History for Organizing Strategies in Antiunion States

The United Public Workers of America were pioneers in organizing academic workers across professional and occupational lines, until being red-baited. 

It's Time for Labor Spring

by Cindy Hahamovich, William P. Jones and Joseph A. McCartin

In 1996, labor unions connected with campus activists to support anti-sweatshop movements, living wage campaigns for campus workers, and graduate student union organization. Now, labor must expand that effort for "wall-to-wall" organizing to make campuses better and more democratic workplaces. 

Temple Revives Old-Time Union Busting against Grad Students

by Heather Ann Thompson

Temple's decision to revoke the tuition remission of striking grad students (and threaten their ability to complete degrees) is the kind of hardball tactic that bodes ill for workers in every workplace in America, and a reminder of the need to understand the country's labor history. 

Want to Reverse Polarization and Democratic Decline? Support Unionization

by Jacob M. Grumbach

The need for a renewed labor movement is a key component of democratic renewal that is too often ignored by Democratic strategists, says a political scientist who studies antidemocratic politics. 

What's Pushing White-Collar Workers Toward Unions?

Labor historian Lane Windham discusses the surge in pro-union activism among academics, journalists and other knowledge workers. 

"Amtrak Joe" Leaves Rail Workers in the Dust

by Kim Kelly

Why did the "most pro-union president" in modern times push through a negotiated settlement rejected by the majority of railroad union members, and what would Eugene Debs think? 

Is this Labor Surge a New CIO Moment?

Do militant worker actions signal a wave of mass organizing like occurred in the 1930s, when workers established unions regarded as unorganizable took matters into their own hands? Labor historian Erik Loomis and scholar Marilyn Sneiderman discuss how to turn anger into strategy and strategy into organization.

Is Biden Really the Most Pro-Union President?

Labor historian Erik Loomis says Biden is spending limited political capital to support workers and strikers, and that the bar for pro-labor presidencies is set extremely low. 

What Casey Jones Tells Us about the Past and Present of America's Railroad Workers

by Scott Huffard

Although it's difficult to separate fact from fiction around his life, the famed railroad engineer had something in common with today's rail workers: being stretched to the limits of health and safety by companies' pursuit of profit. 

Centuries-Old Union Busting Playbook is Alive and Well

by Henry Snow

Since the days of labor agitation in the Royal Dockyards in the 18th century, employers have fought collective action by workers by keeping them separate and isolated. Modern unionization drives need to recognize and overcome this tactic.