Troublemakers Blog

August 06, 2012 /
Last week four disabled former General Motors workers in Bogotá, Colombia, sewed their lips closed to begin a hunger strike that they say they will continue until GM responds to their demand for other jobs, or until they die. »
August 03, 2012 /
Many of us hesitate to read books, or watch movies, where we’re familiar with the subject matter, because it’s so painful when the author gets it wrong. Attorneys wince watching the many lawyerly TV shows, because it just doesn't happen that way. »
July 31, 2012 /
Students or workers? As grad employees wait for the NLRB to consider allowing them to unionize, some aren’t waiting for the legal right to bargain to start acting like a union. On several campuses, they’ve spent years organizing. »
July 25, 2012 / Theresa Moran
The Chicago Teachers Union won a major victory yesterday when the city halted its plans to increase teacher work hours. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago school board announced in April that they were unilaterally increasing the school day by 20 percent in the fall—without increasing teaching staff or providing proportional compensation for the additional »
July 16, 2012 /
Service Employees 1199 New England is striking five Connecticut nursing homes to defend contracts against sweeping concessions. »
July 10, 2012 /
It surprised many when the National Union of Healthcare Workers—a quintessential service sector union—announced in February its intent to affiliate with the Machinists, which has an extensive industrial union history. An interview with three principal players delves into the thinking behind the match. »
July 06, 2012 /
Community supporters are turning out once again at a small grocery store in the Kensington neighborhood in Brooklyn to aid workers fighting for their union. »
June 28, 2012 /
A racially mixed workforce in an Alabama poultry plant defeated management’s attempts to exploit their diversity, turning aside the divide-and-conquer tactics and voting in the union. »
June 25, 2012 /
Postal and community activists began a hunger strike today to protest cuts that could devastate the Post Office. A new coalition, Communities and Postal Workers United, announced the four-day fast to put heat on Congress for starving the U.S. Postal Service to the point where drastic service cuts have been announced. The 10 hunger strikers in D.C. are members »
June 22, 2012 / Steve Early
While the nation waits for an overdue Supreme Court decision that will decide the fate of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, another health care drama with wide implications for universal health care is just starting in Vermont. »

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