Unable to break the Mexican miners union at Cananea, one of the largest open-pit copper mines in the world, the mine owner is now trying to buy the workers with a big severance package.

The National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) chalked up an important win today in Southern California as hundreds of professional and technical workers at Kaiser Permanente voted to leave the Service Employees (SEIU) and join the upstart NUHW.

Verizon workers were out in force today, rallying on both coasts as California bargaining teams entered what promises to be difficult contract talks. They're battling layoffs and looking to halt givebacks started at AT&T.

A Massachusetts local union president called it early: “I’ve never seen this much anger at the Democrats from union people. It’s worse than NAFTA," said Jeff Crosby, from a General Electric factory near Boston.

Hospital work is thought to be recession-proof. No matter what the economy, people get sick and need care. The work is there, but at a cost: hospital workers and researchers say some hospitals are churning through a round of reorganization, strapping on more work, skimping on training, and trying to stuff contract concessions through.

The Restaurant Opportunities Center has launched workplace justice campaigns in four cities aimed at flipping the low-wage, high-discrimination industry.

Seizing on outrage over the Gaza bombardment and siege, a small but growing band of U.S. unionists are mobilizing behind a global call to pressure Israel with a boycott, divestment, and sanctions.

Rank-and-file members of the Locomotive Engineers are struggling to maintain their recently won and never exercised right to directly elect officers. The importance of one member, one vote elections, opposed by national union officers, is only too obvious after three top officers in four years have been removed for embezzlement or extortion. . . .

Most union workers laid off in the economic crisis had recall rights—a promise they’d get called back before their employer could hire new workers along with the ability to maintain seniority. But millions of workers simply lost their jobs. That’s what happened to nearly 200 workers at the Cummins engine plant in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in March last year. . . .

The age-old goal of unions has been to “take wages out of competition,” as an economist put it more than a hundred years ago. . . .

GM can’t live without parts supplier Delphi but can’t live with union wages. The United Auto Workers is trying break Delphi's master agreement, but didn’t anticipate rank-and-file anger, which has halted its concessions locomotive.

A few unions are forcing new types of pattern bargaining onto the table. While service sector unions usually have limited themselves to setting standards within local labor markets, UNITE HERE is using its Hotel Workers Rising campaign to push for a sort of pattern in the major chains it has organized. . . .

Four hundred education activists joined the Caucus of Rank and File Educators in January to map strategy for battling the next round of school closures in Chicago. CORE's also vying for control of the Chicago Teachers Union this spring.

The theory behind the so-called “Cadillac tax” on high-premium health plans is that people like Betty Diamond have too much health insurance, which causes them to get more medical care than they need. And if people like Diamond had thinner health care benefits, the theory continues, their bosses would pass the savings along in nice wage increases. But recent research studies argue such a tax will make employers cut benefits, make workers pay more or forgo health care, and put much of the savings back in management's pocket.

Sandi walks up to you, the steward, just as the hallways start filling with noisy high schoolers heading for the bus. She is ready to blow her top, and over the din she tells you her supervisor is demanding that she continue driving special education students in her own car—long a part of her job as a teaching assistant—despite a recent warning from her insurance agent that she’s not covered for it. . . .

The recent film “Invictus,” depicting Nelson Mandela’s first presidential term, might have you thinking about South Africa’s brutal recent history. While the present is undeniably better than apartheid, workers still have to hit the streets to win decent treatment—and they credit international solidarity for helping them weather a seven-week strike.

Haiti's earthquake has led to a humanitarian crisis, a tragedy compounded by longtime U.S. and European intervention. Some support now flows from corporations with interests in the status quo of poverty and pillage. Give instead to groups that meet direct needs and fight for justice.