Future of Work
NAFTA By Any Name Is Built For The Rich
Mick Mulvaney, the millionaire who is President Trump’s acting chief of staff and director of the Office of Management and Budget, has now awarded himself another job: spokesman for labor. Referring to the proposed new NAFTA, he told the Wall Street Journal, “We know...
How To Protect The Right To Organize
Abigail Disney, granddaughter of the co-founder of the Walt Disney Co., called out the family business’ current CEO last month for making what’s supposed to be the happiest place on earth pretty darn miserable for its workers. All of the company profits shouldn’t be...
This Is How Medicare For All Will Save Lives
Last month, in a Pittsburgh parking lot following a conference on type one diabetes, three women stood crying. Two of them, mother and teenaged daughter, had just handed a stranger, 25-year-old Michelle, three shopping bags full of insulin pump supplies. Michelle was...
Why I’m Striking Against Uber
Today, I’m doing what Uber drivers all around the world are doing: I’m going on strike. I’m far from alone. What started on a Chicago streetcorner last September has blossomed into an international movement: we’re now joined by thousands of rideshare drivers - in New...
Victims of Workplace Safety Abandoned by OSHA
Last year, on Halloween just before midnight, Frank Leasure left work at American Standard in Salem, Ohio. To get to his car in the employee lot, he had to walk across two sets of Norfolk Southern railroad tracks. He waited in frigid, driving rain for a westbound...
Grad Students Stand With Steelworkers
“Steelworker” generally evokes images of hulking mill buildings, steel-toed boots, and molten metal – not ivory towers, doctoral dissertations, and university research. But 2,000 graduate students at the University of Pittsburgh are voting this week on whether to...
Hard Knocks Turned Alison McIntosh Collectivist
Alison McIntosh learned early that life is a little easier with help from friends. Her first professional job reinforced that notion. And now, as a University of Pittsburgh graduate student, she is asking her co-workers to embrace collectivism....
Solidarity Against Hate
The union I lead, the United Steelworkers (USW), believes in unity, that “all working men and women, regardless of creed, color or nationality” are eligible for membership. That was the guiding principle of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) when it formed...