Employers Are Using the Crisis to Push Concessions They Don't Need
Employers never let a crisis go to waste. Like clockwork, after this awful year, here come the demands for concessions.
Steelworkers at Allegheny Technologies are on strike to defend their benefits. The company wants them to start paying more, though it’s flush with cash. If you ask why, you’re not thinking like an employer.
The mountain climber George Mallory, when asked why he wanted to climb Mt. Everest, supposedly answered, “Because it’s there.”
Viewpoint: A ‘Union’ That Pushes to Deport People Is the Labor Movement's Opponent
What if I told you an employer had agreed that it could no longer make any change to policies affecting members without “prior affirmative consent” from the union?
Wow, you might say—that’s what I call worker power! But hold your applause till you hear who the employer is: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that detains and deports immigrants.
Rest in Power, Anne Feeney (1951-2021)
This week the U.S. labor movement lost its best-known and best-loved troubadour: the great folksinger-songwriter Anne Feeney. She died of Covid on February 3, at age 69, with her children at her side. With her fantastic songs and feisty spirit, she made an incalculable contribution to the movement. She is irreplaceable, and gone too soon.
VIDEO: Signed, Sealed and Delivered: Film and Discussion of Rank-and-File Militancy at the Post Office
Mandatory overtime, speed-up, and union-busting at the U.S. Postal Service—sound familiar? Here’s how postal workers in 1978 confronted grueling and dangerous conditions: they walked out on a wildcat strike.
North Pole Elf Sickouts Score Masks from Santa
Holiday toy production season got off to a chaotic start this year. Santa Claus at first resisted the elves’ demands for COVID safety measures—prompting a wave of sickouts around the toy workshop.
Many elves joined the sickouts, especially in candy striping and wrapping and ribbons, despite frantic efforts by Elves, Reindeer, and Candy Stripers Local 1224 President Zack Keebler to tamp down the risky resistance. The crisis peaked when a batch of candy canes was shipped out unstriped—an error unprecedented in polar history.
We Need a Disability New Deal, Too
The subway is something I’ve always loved about New York City life. But my family can’t ride it together, because my daughter has cerebral palsy and 3 out of 4 stations have no elevator.
One in seven U.S. adults has serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs or can’t do so at all. People with disabilities generally, including vision and hearing impairments and intellectual disabilities, make up 1 in 4 adults: that’s a huge minority.