All Articles

Searches titles and body text
Three black-and-white photos show a Black man, dressed in the white coat and black slacks of a Pullman porter, putting up a bed on an upper berth, resting on a bench seat looking out the train window, and standing on the train stairs. It is not clear whether the three photos show the same man or different men.

100 Years Ago, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Changed Black Politics »

December 18, 2025 | Paul Prescod

The fact that the meeting was even happening was enough to produce an air of subversive excitement. One hundred years ago on August 25, 1925, Black sleeping car porters, hoping to form a union at the Pullman company, packed the Elks Hall in Harlem.
Three women work around a table with blue cloth grocery bags, outdoors. A man in a red T-shirt walks behind them. A truck is also visible.

Union Members Distribute Food for Federal Workers »

December 17, 2025 | Kerry Taylor

More than a dozen volunteers gathered on November 14 at the Community Resource Center in North Charleston for a large-scale food distribution aimed at supporting federal employees reeling from the effects of the recent government shutdown.
Several Black workers, women and men, sit around a conference table. In the middle of the frame, a man in an orange T-shirt is talking, looking around at the group; others are listening thoughtfully. Everyone's expression is serious.

From Temp Trap to Union Jobs: Building Pathways for Workers with Criminal Records »

December 17, 2025 | Maya Ragsdale

During a factory organizing drive, the Steelworkers in Chester, South Carolina, saw how criminal legal barriers were undermining its organizing efforts.
People, mostly white, rally outdoors on building steps. Printed signs say "Kill the cuts, save lives" and "UAW says: Fight for our future!" Handmade signs can't all be read but one says "Science belongs to everyone."

One Battle After Another: The Big Contract Fights Coming in 2026 »

December 16, 2025 | Keith Brower Brown | Natascha Elena Uhlmann

The coming year could keep the strikes rolling through steel mills, state offices, telephone lines, axle plants, baseball diamonds, and hospitals from coast to coast.

'We Are Fed Up': Winnipeg Bacon Workers Unite for Better Contract »

December 16, 2025 | The North Star Manitoba Committee

Originally published in The North Star, an independent newsroom covering labor and people's struggles in Canada.
Eight people hold printed signs, many in the yellow/purple SEIU style: "AB 715 = genocide censorship." "Fight back my ass!" "Opposed AB 715: CFA, CFT, ACLU, CTA, CNA... [but not] SEIU." "SEIU CA: Selective + politically safe. Fight back!" "You can't be neutral on a moving train." "When we fight we win! When we're neutral we lose!" Big white signs with black & red letters: "AB 715 censors education on Palestine." "What's next? Censoring education on: Slavery, Queer/Ethnic Studies, Japanese Internment?"

Viewpoint: SEIU California Sits Out Fight Against Classroom Censorship »

December 15, 2025 | Larry Bradshaw, Anne Wolf, and Noga Wizansky

SEIU California routinely uses fighting words. Unfortunately, when it was time to “stand up” and “fight back” against legislation that threatens the working conditions of tens of thousands of SEIU education workers, our union’s spirited rhetoric dissipated. SEIU California stood down.
A group of excited people hold blue signs saying “Yes on 1”

We’re Making ‘Tax the Rich’ More Than a Slogan »

December 10, 2025 | Max Page

Taxing the rich should bring a smile to your face. It certainly brings one to mine.

Fourteen workers, mostly Black and mostly women, pose smiling in a school classroom. Most are wearing yellow "Baltimore Teachers Union" T-shirts.

To Get on Offense, Offer Workers Many Ways In »

December 8, 2025 | Diamonté Brown

[This article is part of a Labor Notes roundtable series: How Can Unions Defend Worker Power Against Trump 2.0? We will be publishing more contributions here and in our magazine in the months ahead.
A crowd raise huge red cups that say “Baristas on Strike”

Red Cups Raised in Rebellion, Starbucks Strike Spreads »

December 5, 2025 | Jenny Brown

Several hundred more Starbucks baristas walked out Thursday, the 22nd day of their growing unfair labor practice strike. It is now the longest strike the coffee giant has faced, spreading to 145 stores in more than 100 cities.

Maybe a General Strike Isn’t So Impossible Now »

December 4, 2025 | Alex Han

[This article is part of a Labor Notes roundtable series: How Can Unions Defend Worker Power Against Trump 2.0? We will be publishing more contributions here and in our magazine in the months ahead.

Review: Who’s Got the Power: Hope for Troubled Times »

December 3, 2025 | Eric Dirnbach

Every few years a book comes out that tries to explain what’s happening in the labor movement and maybe cheer us up from the bad news of union decline.
A teacher holds a sign between a school bus and the front of a school, with students visible in the background

ICE Raids Turn Schools into Battlegrounds to Defend Students »

December 2, 2025 | Barbara Madeloni

Educator Carolyn Brown was meeting with school counselors when she got the call: ICE agents were out front. By the time she got out of the building, ICE had abducted a woman and her 17-year-old daughter, an American citizen.
A woman holds a sign at a rally that reads Stop the Kidnappings! Protect Our Neighbors!

Today's Labor Movement Needs a Bigger Vision »

December 2, 2025 | David Bacon

[This article is part of a Labor Notes roundtable series: How Can Unions Defend Worker Power Against Trump 2.0? We will be publishing more contributions here and in our magazine in the months ahead.
Tom Alter, a white man with a short haircut, squints into the sun and speaks into a megaphone, He is surrounded by a tightly packed crowd, diverse in race and gender, holding signs with slogans like "Defend Free Speech," "Defend All Public Workers," and "Reinstate Tom Alter."

Texas College Teacher Fired for Free Speech »

November 25, 2025 | David Finkel

Support is building within the labor, academic, and Palestine solidarity movements in defense of Tom Alter, a history professor at Texas State University in San Marcos.

Viewpoint: Why Our Members Put in 650 Hours Canvassing for Katie Wilson for Seattle Mayor »

November 20, 2025 | Natalie Wellen

Much is going to be written about the path to victory of Seattle mayor-elect Katie Wilson—a political newcomer who came from behind to win an incredible upset. They will say how her campaign benefited from Trump’s presidency and some vague generalized anger toward all politicians.

Pages