Web Exclusive
Paul Abowd
| March 5, 2010
Walkouts, student strikes, and marches shook every level of California’s embattled public education system on March 4. College students and campus workers joined forces with K-12 teachers and students for the day of action.
By Jake DaSilva
| March 9, 2010
Bus drivers at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa won a first contract after they were locked out last week following a one-day strike. The deal secures a $1.50 an hour raise and employment security, key sticking points that led to the strike. The drivers endured nine months of bargaining where their employer—a contractor—demanded at-will employment and frozen wages.
by Chris Kutalik
| March 9, 2010
International Women's Day often gets short shrift in the United States, its places of birth, but in San Antonio, women's groups are raising its profile—and a little hell—while bolstering a hotel organizing drive.
Magazine
by Margaret Butler
| February 18, 2010
Faced with more public services blood-letting, Oregon voters chose to tax those most able to pay. It’s given union activists hope that relentless organizing can settle bulging state deficits by targeting recipients of the bubble economy's billions.
Bill Balderston
| February 20, 2010
Print onlyPresident Obama’s “Race to the Top” fund sounds well-intentioned: the program will dole out more than $4 billion to “turn around” low-performing schools and set new curriculum standards that will produce students who can compete in the global economy.
Evan Rohar
| March 1, 2010
As budget-butchering legislators and executives slash away at public services and public workers, they’re reaching for a familiar tactic: privatization. Bus drivers at UC Berkeley have led the push back, scoring a victory against outsourcing in late February.
Larry Bradshaw
| February 28, 2010
Reform forces from across Service Employees Local 1021 swept out appointed leaders in the local’s first-ever elections. The reform slate took 26 of 28 positions, including the top seven spots, in an important test of SEIU's "megalocal" model.
Tom Kertes
| March 12, 2010
Poverty conditions for workers in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor are threatening to become routine. That doesn't make them tolerable, said a worker center. They're pursuing living-wage agreements by targeting developers.
Marcel Paret
| March 3, 2010
Sights are set on a March 4 Strike and Day of Action to resist business as usual: layoffs, fee hikes, and program cuts in a call for expanded federal education funding, open admissions, and democratic schools.
Mark Brenner
| February 20, 2010
Print onlyAccording to data filed under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), the number of union officials and staff earning high salaries has exploded in recent years.
Michael J. Goldberg
| February 22, 2010
The National Labor Relations Board, crippled for years, will continue its dysfunction as political wrangling in the Senate and President Obama’s failure to make recess appointments leaves three of five board seats unfilled. That means Bush-era anti-union decisions will stay on the books for years.
With all eyes on Obama’s fraught health care push, his plans to overhaul public education have sped along with relative ease. The first leg of the federal "Race to the Top" competition finished January 19 when 40 states sent applications for a piece of the $4.35 billion in stimulus funds.
Mischa Gaus
| March 10, 2010
As Steelworkers at the Granite City Works outside St. Louis finally got back to work after a long idle, management surprised them with a new drug-test policy that's wreaked havoc.
by Bill Resnick
| February 18, 2010
Yes, Oregon voters raised taxes on the rich. Slightly. But instead of countering right-wing fear-mongering about taxes, we almost seemed to agree. We need to tell people why taxes, always defined as the price of civilization, have now become even more necessary.
Steward's Corner
David Cohen
| March 10, 2010
Under the guise of concern for employees’ safety and health, employers demand the right to conduct drug and alcohol testing. Most use it as just another hammer to hold over workers’ heads. Employers often try to divide the membership on this issue, but we can turn this around and fight. What are the union’s rights? What are the best policies to fight for?
Solidarity Network
Labor Notes Staff
| February 26, 2010
Copper miners occupying pits in northern Mexico are bracing for an invasion by federal troops after refusing to give up their two-and-a-half year strike. In Southern California, borate miners are locked out, insisting that the good union jobs don't become “junk jobs.” And in Ontario, nickel miners are in the same fight, holding strong after six months on pickets. Show your solidarity today.