Organizing

  • Unions’ Top-Heavy Salaries a Drag on Organizing
    Mark Brenner
    Mar 15 2010 - 2:50pm

    According 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.

  • Bus Drivers Win First Contract After Strike and Lockout at University of Alabama
    By Jake DaSilva
    Mar 9 2010 - 6:40pm

    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.

  • Women's Day March in San Antonio Says “Ya Basta” to Abusive Treatment of Workers
    by Chris Kutalik
    Mar 9 2010 - 11:17am

    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.

  • NY Boutique Boss Arrested, Faces 4 Years in Jail for Stealing Wages
    by Mischa Gaus
    Feb 25 2010 - 4:41pm

    The owner of a New York boutique chain accused of shorting workers by $1.5 million was taken away in handcuffs Tuesday. The charges grew from a union-backed drive to remake retail by attacking its worst employers.

  • Restaurant Workers Launch Multi-City Campaign to Transform Low-Wage Industry
    Paul Abowd
    Feb 4 2010 - 11:26am

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

  • Viewpoint: Pink Sheeting Debate Only a Pretext for Attack
    Chuck Hendricks
    Jan 8 2010 - 11:00am

    I am not aware of any current UNITE HERE staff who think pink sheeting is a real issue—either important or widespread enough—for us to pursue. Nor have I seen abuses like those claimed. Most of us, however, are clear about how the allegations of pink sheeting have been used against UNITE HERE.

  • Viewpoint: Pink Sheeting and Harmful Organizing Methods at UNITE HERE
    Arlen Jones, Greg Hoffman
    Jan 8 2010 - 11:00am

    UNITE HERE is known as a dynamic organizing union that mobilizes its members around effective comprehensive campaigns. But it suffers from a deeply undemocratic decision-making structure that uses abusive methods to recruit and retain low-level staff and members—and to quiet dissent.

  • UNITE HERE Won't Concede to Big Hotels
    Paul Abowd
    Oct 28 2009 - 10:22am

    UNITE HERE has launched another round of contract battles with hotel giants. After civil disobedience actions workers in Chicago and San Francisco authorized strikes, escalating a nationally coordinated “bargain to organize” campaign.

  • Philadelphia Museum Guards Finally Win Their Own Union
    Warren Davis
    Oct 27 2009 - 1:00am

    Seventeen years after security guards at Philadelphia’s Museum of Art lost their union in a Democratic mayor’s privatization spree, they joined students and Jobs with Justice to beat long odds and vote in an independent union.

  • Housekeepers' Giant “Hope Quilt” Puts Hotel Job Injuries in Spotlight
    Chris Kutalik
    Oct 16 2009 - 5:38pm

    Hotel housekeepers are on a seven-city tour with a gigantic “hope quilt” that memorializes injuries on the job. It's also a symbol of their determination to rally union and non-union hotel housekeepers against harsh working conditions and workplace injuries.