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Labor movement

Labor Against the Next War, Too

August 31, 2013 by Penny Lewis Leave a Comment

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 War. The petition, co-sponsored by other peace and progressive groups, lays out clear rationales for its opposition to US military action: it will not solve the crisis nor make Syrians […]

Filed Under: Labor movement, Politics and Class Tagged With: budget cuts, militarism, teachers unions

Imagining a Labor Day without a Labor Board (It isn’t Hard to Do)

August 30, 2013 by Michael C. Duff Leave a Comment

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 the last year or so President Obama’s recess appointments to the labor board have also been widely discussed. But I am not especially interested in the details of the latest […]

Filed Under: Labor movement, Politics and Class Tagged With: National Labor Relations Board, unions

Labor’s Love Lost Over Obamacare?

August 30, 2013 by Steve Early Leave a Comment

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 and others worked hard for passage of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) three years ago.  Despite its failure to take health insurance issues off the bargaining table, as a […]

Filed Under: Labor movement, Politics and Class Tagged With: corporations, health care

Philly School Crisis Meets Pushback

August 15, 2013 by Maynard Seider 1 Comment

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, the powers-that-be in City Hall, Harrisburg and D.C. did nothing to avert an educational crisis that awaits 150,000 mostly poor and working-class students when school is due to open in […]

Filed Under: Classism in K-12 Education, Labor movement, Politics and Class Tagged With: budget cuts, education, protest, public school, public services, union-bashing

President Obama’s Middle Class: the Rhetoric and the Reality

February 18, 2013 by Maynard Seider Leave a Comment

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 six times, even calling it “our generation’s task…to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth – a rising, thriving middle class.” What the president didn’t mention was the critical […]

Filed Under: Classism in the Economy, Labor movement, Politics and Class Tagged With: deficit, low-wage jobs, Minimum wage, unions

What Declines in Union Representation Say About Class

January 23, 2013 by Michael C. Duff Leave a Comment

Labor law is in reality “play nice” law.  The law – much of which was set up in the 1930s – recognized that bosses would not “play nice” with workers unless forced to do so.  Tellingly, the law is centered on compelled “recognition” of unions, the elected workplace representatives of workers.  In other words, the […]

Filed Under: Classism in the Economy, Labor movement Tagged With: classism, union-bashing, working class

The law in our heads

January 2, 2013 by Michael C. Duff 2 Comments

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 wanted to work for a unionized company because there, I was told, I would experience justice in the workplace; I would be protected. Well, now that I am a Harvard-educated […]

Filed Under: Labor movement, Workplace classism Tagged With: academia, labor law, working class

Union Vote Declining But Still Crucial

November 12, 2012 by Jack Metzgar 2 Comments

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 our president. Though uneven from union to union, 16 years ago unions stopped simply giving money to their endorsed candidates and focused more intensely on member education and mobilization.  Since […]

Filed Under: Labor movement, Politics and Class Tagged With: elections, teachers unions, working class

A Forty Hour Week From the Other Side

November 5, 2012 by Lita Kurth 2 Comments

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 proposing to raise the minimum wage from $8 to $10 per hour. I will be precinct walking on Saturday to help make this happen. This raise is more important than […]

Filed Under: Class in the Media, Class in The News, Classism in Everyday Life, Classism in Politics, Classism in the Economy, Classist Corporations, Labor movement, Workplace classism Tagged With: classism, labor statistics, low-wage jobs, Minimum wage, money, part-time workers, poverty, Rationalizing privilege, service industry, working class

Who represents the working class?

June 25, 2012 by Maynard Seider Leave a Comment

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 Carter that party has moved to the right, supports so-called Free Trade, champions legislation that fosters financial speculation, has forgotten the poor as a group worthy of aid,  and goes […]

Filed Under: Labor movement, Politics and Class Tagged With: immigrants, middle class, Occupy Movement, teachers unions, unions, working class

What’s needed at this political moment? 5 well-known leftists, 5 strong opinions

June 12, 2012 by Betsy Leondar-Wright 10 Comments

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 Gonzalez of Democracy Now!, Frances Fox Piven, Bill Fletcher Jr. of Blackcommentator.com, and former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert of Demos, with conference organizer Michael Zweig, author of The […]

Filed Under: Classism in Politics, Labor movement, Politics and Class, Poverty, Race and Class Tagged With: debt, jobs, low-wage jobs, racism, unemployment, unions, working class

Occupiers’ Demands and Working-Class Activist Traditions

October 15, 2011 by Betsy Leondar-Wright

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 Occupy encampments say that it’s OK to put forward only general issues; it’s true that just being there spotlights the problems with the economy. But last Sunday’s New York Times […]

Filed Under: #Occupy, Class in the Media, Classism in Progressive Movement Groups, Labor movement Tagged With: social movements, speaking up

Verizon Strike: A Teachable Moment?

August 23, 2011 by Steve Early 3 Comments

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 Verizon strikers provided an inspiring display of picket-line militancy and resistance to contract concessions. From Massachusetts to Virginia, members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Classism in the Economy, Classist Corporations, Labor movement Tagged With: health care, middle class, public services, union-bashing

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