In recent years, workers and unions have found it harder and harder to resist plant closings. But when the world’s largest producer of aluminum, Alcan, announced it was shutting down the Jonquière Soderburg smelter in Arvida, Québec, the 550 affected workers decided that they would not only resist-but would seize and run the plant too.

A brewing fight over pension cuts is shaking the ground inside the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). Wide-scale rank-and-file dissatisfaction over cuts in pension benefits last year by the Central States Pension Fund (CSPF) has sparked a member-driven campaign that has challenged the highest levels of leadership in the union.

Guerrilla theatre (or at least cow theatre) came to Franklin High School in Seattle recently during the height of the “mad cow” scare, when a rank-and-file officer from Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 609 in cow costume met with students there during a lunch period.