Magazine Article

  • Immigration Reform: What's Labor Up To?

    Tiffany Ten Eyck

    In an interview, longtime immigrant rights activist David Bacon says labor's new joint position on immigration is inconsistent—and too friendly to employers. It wasn’t always like this. What happened?


    Yes
  • Viewpoint: What Way Forward for Immigration Reform?

    Christine Neumann-Ortiz

    Labor's new position on immigration is a step forward, although some details are problematic. The bigger questions are whether a legalization will be tied to citizenship, and whether labor and immigrant coalitions can force the administration to rethink our disastrous trade policies.

    Yes
  • D.C. Teachers Resist Attacks on Tenure

    Paul Abowd

    Teachers and D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee haven’t agreed on much during 18 months of contract talks with the Washington Teachers Union (AFT), but there’s consensus on one point: any agreement will affect schools far beyond the capital.


    Yes
  • Rite Aid Campaign ‘Poster Child’ for Faltering Employee Free Choice Act

    Jennifer Sargent

    As debates behind closed doors in Congress look to compromise the Employee Free Choice Act, a years-long fight to organize a million-square-foot warehouse in California makes clear that in today's workplace battlegrounds, half-measures aren't going to restore workers’ freedom to join a union. . . .


    Yes
  • Viewpoint: SEIU Staff Fight for Their Union

    Malcolm Harris

    SEIU announced plans to lay off 75 organizers and other field staff, a "reorganization" that reveals SEIU’s cynical view of organizers and organizing—and another step toward the increasing centralization of the union.


    Yes
  • Quiet on the Western Front? Behind the SEIU-CNA Alliance.

    Mark Brenner

    When the Service Employees and California Nurses Association called a truce in March, many union observers were confused—but breathed a sigh of relief. What does the SEIU-CNA deal mean for health care unions in California and beyond?. . . .


    Yes
  • Public Sector Unions Fight Budget Woes in California

    Mischa Gaus, Tanya Smith

    The strains on public budgets in California are emboldening officials to come after union workers, producing rumblings of dissent throughout the state. Teachers in Los Angeles voted for an illegal one-day walkout May 15 to protest thousands of threatened layoffs, but after a court issued an injunction they chose to picket instead. . . .


    Yes
  • California Ballot Proposals Fail, Leaving Unions Wondering What's Next

    Paul Abowd

    Five of six budget proposals failed to pass on California's May 19 statewide ballot. The state’s unions lined up on both sides of the vote, and spent millions of dollars while sending members to knock on doors ahead of the vote. The proposals were Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed solution to a budget shortfall, which is now projected to reach $21 billion. . . .


    Yes
  • Hope in Chicago

    Adam Kader

    At the crossroads of the immigrants’ rights fight, advocates are faced with a government that could be the impediment or the vehicle for their demands.


    Yes
  • New Zealand Union Makes Fast Food Pay

    Roger Annis

    New Zealand’s newest union, Unite, has captivated a workforce ignored by most unions around the world: young service-sector workers, many of them people of color in fast-food jobs.


    Yes