Ten thousand casino workers in Atlantic City, New Jersey, returned to work November 4 after a month-long walkout, the longest strike the city’s industry has seen since gambling was legalized there 26 years ago. Close to 6,000 bartenders, cocktail servers, housekeepers, food servers, cooks, and other members of UNITE HERE Local 54 from seven of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos approved the contract by a 96 percent margin . . . .

The re-election of George W. Bush is cause for concern on many levels. Anti-worker appointments to the NLRB and the Supreme Court can be predicted for the near future. Card-check organizing may be eliminated by the NLRB in the next year, and OSHA will likely be under further attack . . . .

Like many other industries, railroads have undergone dramatic restructuring over the past few decades. Advances in radio, telecommunications, computers, and other forms of technology have decimated the ranks of the nation’s railroaders, from brakemen and switchmen to clerks and car inspectors. . . .

After 9/11, airline managers saw the opportunity to do what they had wanted to 9/10, 9/9, and every day before. They pushed hard for concessions, and won. Alongside the huge reductions in pay and benefits that made the front pages of many papers, the companies also pushed hard for and won workplace restructuring inside the airplane cabin. . . .

The labor movement is a mess and drastic reform is in order. Some say that if drastic reform can’t occur through internal struggle and commitment, then maybe it should all be blown apart and scrapped to start over....