Labor and Politics

  • As Toxic Health Care Debate Peters Out, Labor's Medicare-for-All Activists Dig In
    Jane Slaughter
    Mar 20 2010 - 1:02am
    ** Print only

    Whether Congress passes a weak health care bill this month or puts the debate out of its misery altogether, labor’s single-payer activists are showing no signs of slinking out of sight. . . .

  • To Change Labor Law, Put Union Busting on Trial
    Al Hart
    Mar 19 2010 - 6:17pm
    ** Print only

    Labor’s campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) appears to have failed. It’s time for our movement to rethink a long-term strategy to change this country’s dysfunctional labor laws. . . .

  • Oregon Unions Save Services, Tapping Voter Anger to Tax Wealthy
    by Margaret Butler
    Feb 18 2010 - 4:45pm

    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.

  • Oregon Tax Fight: Did We Win the Battle to Lose the War?
    by Bill Resnick
    Feb 18 2010 - 3:14am

    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.

  • Bronx Battle Line: Development on City's Dime Must Push Up Wages
    by Mischa Gaus
    Jan 7 2010 - 5:49pm

    Refusing to promise a living wage, a New York retail developer lost out on about $60 million in subsidies. Campaigns nationally are tying public money used in mega-projects to decent wage and working standards.

  • Labor Bargains for Too Little on Health Care, Gets Even Less
    Jane Slaughter
    Nov 23 2009 - 6:01pm

    Single-payer supporters were sidelined from the get-go this year. With a public option now in the balance, "Medicare for All" activists keep building, worried that incomplete reforms could do more harm than good.

  • National Work Stoppage in Mexico Demands Reversal on Power Co. Takeover
    Dan La Botz
    Nov 13 2009 - 4:36pm

    Tens of thousands of Mexican workers joined a national work stoppage to restore the Electrical Workers union, but despite large and militant protests, it's unlikely the government will be moved.

  • Labor Anti-War Group Refocuses on Afghanistan
    Jane Slaughter
    Oct 29 2009 - 1:04am

    U.S. Labor Against the War is preparing for its third national assembly in December as the original motivation for its founding—the Iraq war—is winding down to a more limited but permanent presence. No worries that the nearly seven-year-old USLAW coalition has outlived its usefulness, though: delegates to the Chicago meeting will debate the Afghanistan war.

  • Mexican Government Prepares to Seize Power Stations and Break Electrical Workers Union
    Dan LaBotz
    Sep 29 2009 - 4:56pm

    The Mexican Preventive Police are preparing to occupy the facilities of the Central Light and Power Company in Mexico City in an attempt to break the militant Mexican Electrical Workers Union.

  • Rallying for "Medicare for All," Union Activists Shift Focus to States
    Chris Garlock and Mischa Gaus
    Jul 31 2009 - 5:33pm

    In blazing midday heat in Upper Senate Park, a small but vocal crowd of about 1,000 sweated it out Thursday for single-payer health care. The rally was organized by Healthcare NOW to celebrate the 44th birthday of Medicare, the federally administered system of health insurance for the elderly.