BY HANK REICHMAN Lacking any special insights or ideas that I wish to share in recognition of this first Labor Day since the infamous Janus decision, I thought I would instead call attention to some useful analyses of labor’s state published elsewhere today. So what follows are excerpts from a number of different pieces from…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH For the Labor Day newsletter distributed by the L.A. Progressive, W. J. Astore has contributed a very succinct article on labor and democratic socialism. It makes the very important point that voters have to look beyond the ideological catchphrases that focus exclusively on the supposed implications of political labels. Instead, voters…
BY HANK REICHMAN “Union Maid,” written in 1940 by the great folk singer Woody Guthrie, is one of the classic anthems of the American labor movement. Pete Seeger, who would help make the song famous as a member of the Almanac Singers, wrote of its creation: I’m proud to say I was present when ‘Union…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Earlier this week I posted an item about how contract negotiators for the University of California have refused to acknowledge the faculty status and academic freedom of the system’s librarians. Yesterday, the Council of University of California Faculty Associations (CUCFA) and the California Conference of the AAUP (CA-AAUP) issued the following…
BY HANK REICHMAN Librarians in the University of California system are represented by the American Federation of Teachers. They are currently engaged in bargaining a new contract. In the course of that process the UC-AFT proposed that the following underlined language be added to Article 1, Recognition, in the new contract: The University recognizes librarians…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Almost lost in all of the attention to the special congressional election in Ohio’s 12th district has been a major push-back against the Right’s attacks on union rights. Voters in Missouri repealed, by an overwhelmingly majority in a referendum, the right-to-work statute that had been passed by the GOP dominated legislature.…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This item is from Labour Start, which reports on labor issues and supports worker activism internationally. The details on the workers’ hours and compensation are pretty shocking: In South Korea, workers at IT software giant Oracle have been on strike since 16 May after negotiations for a first collective bargaining agreement with the…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Any resurgence of the American labor movement is going to have to focus on workers in the most exploited categories—from warehouse workers to misclassified “independent contractors” to adjunct faculty—whose numbers will continue to increase due to automation and the corporatization of the public sector. Under the headings “A Prime Day for…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The following item is from Labour Start, which reports on international labor issues: Maxim Balashov, a professor of mathematics, has been working at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) for nineteen years. He also serves as chair of the trade union at his university, known as UNISOL. The bosses…