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union-bashing

Roseanne and the Changing Working-Class

March 27, 2018 by Owen Cantrell Leave a Comment

When ABC’s Roseanne premiered in 1988, it arrived in the era of Reaganomics with policies that stripped power from unions, sent blue collar jobs overseas and flattened wages throughout the Rust Belt.[1] Roseanne Barr, creator and star, argued the show intended to “speak directly to working-class viewers in an active feminist voice over the people’s airwaves […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Class Themes in Film and Fiction, Electoral politics, Gender Class Intersections, Politics and Class, Pop Culture Classism, Race and Class Tagged With: class cultures, race and class, stereotypes, union-bashing, working class

Janus v AFSCME:

February 24, 2018 by Bill Fletcher Jr. Leave a Comment

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 States. The prospects inherent in a much anticipated – and in many places feared – Supreme Court decision in the case Janus v AFSCME has the political Right giddy. Among […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Class prejudice, Classism, Classism in Politics, Classist Corporations, Corporate power, Labor movement, Politics and Class, Workplace classism Tagged With: blaming the victim, labor law, low-wage jobs, privilege, teachers unions, union-bashing

Trump One Year Later: Most of Us Live in Dread

January 29, 2018 by Bill Fletcher Jr. Leave a Comment

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 the anxiety that I felt about the Trump regime was affecting me physically. My doctor responded very seriously and with a straight face. He replied that many of his patients […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Classism, Classism in Politics, Classism in the Economy, Dismantlng Classism, Labor movement, Politics and Class Tagged With: activism, budget cuts, bullying, classism, community organizing, owning class, super-rich, tax cuts, union-bashing, working class

Brexit:  Race and Class 

July 7, 2016 by Bill Fletcher Jr. 1 Comment

I had very mixed emotions about the Brexit vote. Having watched the manner in which the European Union strangled Greece, I have not been very sanguine about the EU as a project. The guiding vision of the EU is neo-liberal globalization. And it is determined to impose this on the continent. At the same time, […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Classism in Politics, Classism in the Economy Tagged With: blaming the victim, class cultures, classism, immigrants, race adn calss, race and class, racism, union-bashing, working class

Brexit – A Class Issue

July 7, 2016 by Milan Rai 2 Comments

Two weeks on, a lot of progressive people in Britain are still in deep shock or fury or despair – or alternating rapidly between all three emotional states. A full 51.9% of British people voted to Leave the European Union (Brexit), and 48.1% voted to Remain in the EU. It was 17.4 million votes to 16.1 million. […]

Filed Under: Class cultures, Classism in Politics, Classism in the Economy, Money, Politics and Class, Poverty Tagged With: budget cuts, class cultures, downward mobility, low-wage jobs, middle class, poverty, privilege, union-bashing, working class

SCOTUS: Public Sector Unions Safe for Now

March 30, 2016 by Bill Fletcher Jr. Leave a Comment

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 districts). The 4-4 vote, for now, leaves undisturbed a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which found itself bound by a prior SCOTUS precedent upholding a system […]

Filed Under: A World Without Classism, Building Economic Alternatives, Classism in Politics, Labor movement, Politics and Class Tagged With: labor law, public sector, public sector unions, Supreme Court, union-bashing, unions

The Worker Center Boogyman

December 9, 2013 by Michael C. Duff Leave a Comment

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 community-based and community-led organizations that engage in a combination of service, advocacy, and organizing activities to provide support to low-wage workers. The vast majority of the Centers were created primarily […]

Filed Under: Labor movement, Politics and Class Tagged With: labor law, union-bashing, unions, worker centers

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

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

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

Who represents the working class in Massachusetts?

April 29, 2011 by Maynard Seider Leave a Comment

The vote to take away public employee health care bargaining rights took place thirty minutes before midnight, on April 26th,  while most of the state slept, oblivious to the event.    The scene would have brought a big smile to the face of Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker.   But this wasn’t Madison.   This was Boston, and […]

Filed Under: Classism in the Economy, Politics and Class Tagged With: budget cuts, health care cuts, union-bashing

Caregiver Unions: Much Needed But Most Vulnerable Now

February 22, 2011 by Steve Early Leave a Comment

Often overlooked amid the current attacks on long-established public sector unions around the country is the threat to recently organized workers, who are the lowest paid and most badly treated. When “regular” state workers are under attack, it’s not easy to improve the conditions of a contingent workforce of direct care providers at the bottom […]

Filed Under: Classism in Politics, Classism in the Economy, Poverty Tagged With: budget cuts, poverty, union-bashing

Modern-day Pirates: the Republicans vs. the Public Sector

February 21, 2011 by Bill Fletcher Jr. 1 Comment

So, let’s be clear:  it’s not about the budget.  As the facts have emerged in the 2011 Wisconsin crisis with Governor Scott Walker’s move against public service unions, it is not about Wisconsin lacking funds.  There is no credible way that Walker and his clique can argue that eliminating a worker’s right to collective bargaining […]

Filed Under: Classism in the Economy, Politics and Class Tagged With: budget cuts, public services, Republicans, teachers unions, union-bashing

Who Gets Plowed in New York?

February 6, 2011 by Nicole Renee Brown 1 Comment

 After the first huge snow storm on December 26, my family was asking two questions: a) where are the damn snowplows in our Brooklyn neighborhood?; and b) why is Manhattan clear?  Smells like a class issue here.  I was born and raised in this neighborhood, which saw white flight in the 70s, the crack epidemic […]

Filed Under: Class in the Media, Class in The News, Classism, Classism in Everyday Life, Classism in Politics, Race and Class Tagged With: budget cuts, classism, public services, racism, union-bashing

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