Labor leaders who want desperately to chase the Republicans from the White House are confronting a hurdle in their outreach to members: the question of race. Obama’s record on economic issues, they say, should put him way ahead of John McCain with working-class voters. But will the facts be enough to overcome some members’ deep-seated prejudice?

Aircraft maker Boeing has been groaning under a $275 million backlog of orders for new airplanes that waste less fuel. The company booked a $4.1 billion profit last year, and its principal union, the Machinists (IAM), says Boeing’s profits have soared by 828 percent in recent years.But all that cash didn’t stop the company from demanding concessions from 27,000 employees. IAM members called the company’s bluff and struck, after rejecting a final offer on September 4 with an 80 percent vote....

It’s crunch time for the November election, but top officials in SEIU are struggling to focus as corruption scandals and internal divisions over a threatened trusteeship spread across the union....

On May Day 2006, hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers walked off their jobs to protest restrictive immigration legislation. Some were fired, and brought complaints to the board. Ronald Meisburg, the National Labor Relations Board general counsel, responded by posting a directive on “political advocacy” this July that enables bosses to immediately fire employees who participate in work stoppages of a political nature....

Joanne Thompson found out the hard way how management is exploiting a loose definition of a supervisor to strip workers of the ability to form unions. She had spent five years as a “charge nurse” at West Houston Medical Center, checking up on medication schedules and juggling workloads for the nurses on her floor, who monitor heart patients....

That’s the question United Electrical Workers Local 274 and the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) asked when their wastewater treatment plant was threatened with privatization....

“Why privatize? We can run it better!” That’s the question United Electrical Workers Local 274 and the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) asked when their wastewater treatment plant was threatened with privatization.

The city council—called a Selectboard—in Montague, Massachusetts, a town of 8,500 in the western part of the state, was concerned about the treatment plant because it had lost a large industrial customer. But the Selectboard never thought to ask the people who worked there what to do.

Instead, it solicited bids to privatize the plant in hopes of saving the town money. Soon four companies had handed in proposals, most of which promised big savings. Because of intense pressure from union members, none of the proposals called for layoffs or wage cuts (except, perhaps, cuts in management).

More than 3,000 garment workers in Bangkok staged a factory walk-out in support of their fired union president at the end of July. The striking workers stated that they refused to return to work at the Body Fashion Thailand Ltd. Factory until their union leader was reinstated.

Body Fashion Thailand (BFT), a subsidiary of Triumph International, a large underwear manufacturer, removed the union president, Jitra Kotshadej, for wearing a controversial T-shirt. The shirt was printed with the quote “Those who do not stand are not criminals. Thinking differently is not a crime,” which supports the right to not stand while the royal anthem is played in Thailand.

A group of 25 workers at a Boeing subsidiary in Sydney are fighting for the right to collectively bargain after Boeing’s repeated refusals to meet their demands. The workers, employed with Hawker de Havilland, have demanded union recognition since 2007.

Boeing’s Australian subsidiary has 1,300 employees and close to 80 percent are covered under contracts. Despite this union density, the employer has shut some workers out of bargaining—and the pay and work standards that accompany it.

Hawker de Havilland has refused to enter into negotiations with the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists & Managers. The company brought scabs in from the U.S. to replace striking workers after they began holding 24-hour work stoppages in May. Help these workers gain union recognition by writing to Boeing executives in protest: patrick.c.mckenna@boeing.com and mark.d.ross@boeing.com. Find out what more you can do to help support the APESMA members by emailing infonsw@apesma.asn.au.

Workers at the Vinnitsa Ball Bearing plant in central Ukraine have been locked in an eight-year battle to keep their jobs since their factory was privatized and sold to the Interprodukt Corporation.

The conditions of the sale stated that the formerly state-owned factory would remain open and be modernized. After the switch-over, however, the plant was closed and workers found themselves out of a job. As the workers organized and picketed, Interprodukt’s agents attempted to enter the factory multiple times to sell the equipment for scrap. The striking workers resisted by blockading the factory and have prevented the factory from being gutted for eight years.