The Work to Be Done This Labor Day
On Labor Day 2018, it’s hard to maintain hope. Many will labor on Labor Day (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Growing up in a... Read More
Janus v AFSCME:
What the Supreme Court May Strip from Workers The roar of the approaching storm can be both heard and felt in workplaces across the United... Read More
Trump One Year Later: Most of Us Live in Dread
I had a discussion with my doctor late spring 2017. I was having gastrointestinal issues, and I said to him that I kept wondering whether... Read More
Beyond Trump: Donald Trump Needs Our Racism
Part of the White, Working Class, and Worried about Trump (#WhiteWorkingClassVsTrump) Campaign*: Throughout the 2016 election cycle, the U.S. electorate has subjected to overt and systemic racism... Read More
SCOTUS: Public Sector Unions Safe for Now
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it was deadlocked in the case of Friedrichs v California Teachers Association (representing 325,000 teachers in 1,000 school... Read More
Class and the Labor-Environmental Divide
How do we address the deep class and culture divide that has opened up between workers and environmental activists? We are heading to a potentially... Read More
Where is labor on Labor Day 2014?
With every passing year, Labor Days becomes increasingly surreal. Labor, as a movement, receives decreasing attention and, to the extent to which Labor Day is... Read More
Open Shop Trend Makes Organizing “the Organized” Top Union Priority
For many years, American unions have been trying to “organize of the unorganized” to offset and, where possible, reverse their steady loss of dues-paying membership.... Read More
Against Silencing Race & Class Resistance, in Ferguson & Everywhere
Recently I read an essay on the Huffington Post written by Baptist theologian and activist, Jeff Hood, about developments in Ferguson, Missouri. Hood took issue... Read More
Labor Day, American Values and the Status Quo
For the past two years I’ve traveled across the country to film festivals, labor events and public forums to show my documentary, “Farewell to Factory... Read More
Beneath the Veneer of Harris v. Quinn
Harris v. Quinn is a recent Supreme Court opinion, featured often on the news, holding that “partial” public employees – home health care providers –... Read More
“Sixteen Tons” brings mine wars of ’20s and ’30s alive
“Are the mules okay?” Not to diminish hard-working mules, but the mine boss’s urgent question after an accident captures the cruel reality thrust upon generations... Read More
Grassroots Voices Rising for a New Economy
Imagine an event where the people in control were the house cleaners, the nannies, the family farmers and the unemployed! A little over two weeks... Read More
Trying to survive on $8.25 an hour
On Thursday December 5th in 130 cities across the country fast food workers walked off their jobs calling for $15 in wages and the right... Read More
Isn’t it Time for All Workers to Have More Job Security?
The United States is alone among industrialized countries in allowing workers to be considered “at will” employees and dismissed for any reason – justified or... Read More
The Worker Center Boogyman
Lately the Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber) has been complaining loudly that Worker Centers are a kind of front group for unions. Worker centers are... Read More
Why I became an adjunct (against the advice of everyone that I knew…)
When I was finishing my master’s degree in creative writing I started telling my professors and family members that when I graduated I wanted to... Read More
Destroying Labor Law in the “Sharing Economy”
Many a magazine, including the usually liberal New Yorker, has gone ga-ga about Taskrabbit, AirBnB, Elance, and other new companies that in one fell swoop... Read More
Labor Day, 2013: Realities and Hopes
I like to listen to Bruce Springsteen’s “Wrecking Ball” album from time to time, at moments when my spirits need lifting up. In “Jack of... Read More
Labor Against the Next War, Too
With the drumbeat of war sounding once again, the first petition I was sent opposing US strikes on Syria came from United States Labor Against... Read More
Imagining a Labor Day without a Labor Board (It isn’t Hard to Do)
Recently there has been much congressional skirmishing over the funding of the National Labor Relations Board, often referred to as simply the “labor board.” During... Read More
Labor’s Love Lost Over Obamacare?
Like many labor negotiators, I looked to health care reform for legislative relief from endless haggling with management over employee benefit costs. My own union... Read More
Philly School Crisis Meets Pushback
While a group of determined teachers, parents and community activists rallied a small crowd in front of South Philadelphia High School on a rainy weekday,... Read More
President Obama’s Middle Class: the Rhetoric and the Reality
It should come as no surprise that President Obama focused on the “middle class” in his State of the Union speech. He mentioned that term... Read More
What Declines in Union Representation Say About Class
Labor law is in reality “play nice” law. The law – much of which was set up in the 1930s – recognized that bosses would... Read More
The law in our heads
I don’t want to sound like a Paul Simon song, but in my little town I grew up believing in the rule of law. I... Read More
Union Vote Declining But Still Crucial
In the past decade unions have greatly improved the way they do electoral politics, and if they hadn’t, Barack Obama would probably never have been... Read More
A Forty Hour Week From the Other Side
As this election nears, I find myself passionate about a local issue: San Jose, following the stronger leads of San Francisco, Seattle, and Albuquerque, is... Read More
Who represents the working class?
There was a time when if one asked, ‘Who represents the working class?’, a reasonable answer would have been the Democratic Party. But since Jimmy... Read More
What’s needed at this political moment? 5 well-known leftists, 5 strong opinions
At the Working-Class Studies conference last weekend, I heard an amazing dialogue about class, race and movement-building by five progressive journalists and activist scholars: Juan... Read More
Occupiers’ Demands and Working-Class Activist Traditions
Thanks to Occupy Wall Street and its spin-offs, a national conversation has broken out over the purpose of protesting. I understand why defenders of the... Read More
Verizon Strike: A Teachable Moment?
Why Health Care Strikes Should Demand “Health Care For All,” Not Just “Hands Off My ‘Middle Class’ Benefits” For two weeks in August, thousands of... Read More