I’m a former West Virginia newspaper reporter, staff writer for the United Mine Workers Journal and managing editor of the Seafarers Log. I came to the AFL- CIO in 1989 and have written for several federation publications, focusing on legislation and politics, especially grassroots mobilization and workplace safety. When my collar was still blue, I carried union cards from the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers, American Flint Glass Workers and Teamsters for jobs in a chemical plant, a mining equipment manufacturing plant and a warehouse. I’ve also worked as roadie for a small-time country-rock band, sold my blood plasma and played an occasional game of poker to help pay the rent. You may have seen me at one of several hundred Grateful Dead shows. I was the one with longhair and the tie-dye. Still have the shirts, lost the hair.
UAW President Bob King tells In These Times’ Molly M. Ginty:
If we restructure the city just like we restructured the auto industry, there’s hope that Detroit, too, can see a turnaround.
On today’s 78th anniversary of Social Security, a new survey (see video) from the National Academy of Social Insurance finds that most of America's workers support increasing benefits, protecting benefits against inflation and lifting the Social Security tax cap so that wealthy people pay their fair share as working families do now.
You can add your voice to the call to strengthen, not cut, Social Security by signing this petition from the Alliance for Retired Americans.
More than 2,000 Mine Workers (UMWA) members and retirees, other union members and faith and community activists rallied outside the St. Louis corporate headquarters of Peabody Energy in the latest action demanding fairness for the active and retired miners caught in the 2012 boardroom-orchestrated bankruptcy of Patriot Coal.
Most fast-food and other low-wage workers are back on the job after a series of rolling strikes earlier this month demanding a living wage and the right to join a union without employer retaliation. More strikes are planned around Labor Day. But the struggle continues for economic justice for the workers who earn the minimum wage ($7.25) or just above.
Two articles you may have missed show that boosting the workers' pay to $15 an hour just might not cut into the profits of companies like McDonald's or cost consumers much more for their favorite burger.
Tomorrow, hundreds of cars from more than 30 California cities will join a caravan to Bakersfield to visit Rep. Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) office to tell him to support an immigration policy with a road map to citizenship. This is the first of many activities in support of a new immigration policy that California's working families are planning.
The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor sends us this piece on why two members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) are joining the caravan—with the support of their employer.
Social Security turns 78 on Aug. 14 and you can join the celebration and help ensure Social Security stays strong for years to come by signing this petition from the Alliance for Retired Americans.
Alliance Executive Director Edward C. Coyle says that thanks to Social Security, millions of seniors are able to pay their bills, buy groceries and maintain their independence. But proposals to cut those vital Social Security benefits through schemes such as “chained” CPI threaten seniors and others who rely on Social Security.
Bayard Rustin, one of the most prominent activists in the civil rights movement and co-founder of the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI), will be posthumously honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House announced Thursday.
Rustin, who worked closely with Randolph, was a major figure in organizing the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. A week of actions and celebrations is planned later this month to mark the 50th anniversary of the march. Read more here.
The U.S. Postal Service just released a series of “Made in America: Building a Nation” first-class Forever stamps. The 12-stamp series features images of industrial workers from the early 20th century, and 11 were taken by famed photographer Lewis Hine.
While no one can argue with USPS’s decision to honor the coal miners, construction workers, textile workers and others who helped build the nation (and continue to do so), the gesture would mean a lot more if the USPS treated its current workers with the same respect.
Aug. 28 marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. To celebrate that half-century anniversary, civil rights, labor, faith and other groups will hold a weeklong series of events Aug. 21-28 in the nation’s capital under the banner of “Freedom, Jobs, Peace and Social Justice.”
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) announced today that it is affiliating with the AFL-CIO. UFCW President Joe Hansen said, “We join the AFL-CIO because it is the right thing to do for UFCW members, giving them more power and influence."
It is about fostering more opportunities for workers to have a true voice on the job. It is about joining forces to build a more united labor movement that can fight back against the corporate and political onslaught facing our members each and every day.
Sign the petition and tell House Republicans to stop holding our nation hostage and fund the government.
Click here »
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