Future of Work
An Epidemic of Insecurity
Photo credit: Alex Proimos / flickr / cc The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its worst loss since the 2008 financial crisis in a single day this week because of the coronavirus’ impact on global trade, leaving many Americans sick with worry. It’s not just a...
I Know Firsthand Why Unions Should Endorse Bernie
Photo credit: Max Goldberg / Wikimedia Commons / cc One late summer evening in 2000, my home phone rang in Moretown, Vermont. “Can you please hold for Congressman Sanders?” the voice on the line asked. At the time, I had been doing what union organizers do when...
Why We Must Remember Berta Cáceres
Photo credit: goldmanprize.org On July 15, 2013, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), led by Berta Cáceres Flores, went to protest the construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque River. This river, in western...
How Corporations Force Their Way Into America’s Public Schools
Photo credit: Virginia Department of Education / flickr / cc In the expanding effort to privatize the nation’s public education system, an ominous, less-understood strain of the movement is the corporate influence in Career and Technical Education (CTE) that is...
Facing Retirement With Fear
Glen Heck spent 28 years sweating in a Campti, La., paper mill that he likes to say was “hotter than nine kinds of hell.” But now, Heck’s sacrifice may have been for nothing because his multiemployer pension plan is one of about 150 nationwide set to go broke. If that...
The Time is NOW For The PRO Act To Protect Workers
Jim Staus had one goal: To make the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) a better place to work. Jim worked hard, he got stellar reviews and he was proud of his job as a supply technician. But his pay was so low that one winter, he and his wife had to melt...
We Need A Real Trade Deal With China, Not Just A Truce
Trump crows the “Phase One” trade agreement with China is a "promise kept" to his supporters to rebalance trade between the two nations. But it is really just a temporary truce in his trade war. This truce may not last long or deliver anything close to the outcomes he...
America's Do-Nothing Senate
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore / flickr / cc Patients have punched Marketa Anderson. They’ve kicked and head-butted her. They’ve slammed her into walls. One threw a shoe, hitting her. Then he threw a chair at her—and missed. Health care workers like Anderson, president...
Trump's EPA Is Selling Out Safety
Photo credit: CSB.gov / cc The March 2005 fire and explosions at BP’s Texas City, Texas, oil refinery killed 15 contractors and injured 180 other workers in ways that will haunt them forever. Some lost limbs. Others suffered horrific burns, head injuries or wounds...
Corporate Spies Keep An Eye On Organized Labor
Google’s computers are spying on its workers. Anytime a Google employee uses an online calendar to schedule a meeting involving more than 100 co-workers, management gets an alert—a great way for the anti-union corporation to sniff out union organizing efforts. Lots of...
