Locked-out workers at American Crystal Sugar plants in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa will soon be returning to work after they ratified a contract late last week. The company locked out 1,300 workers, members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM), in August 2011.

Artists are finding it harder and harder to get paid...is it time for them to strap on a hard hat and form unions? Salon writer Scott Timberg asks this question in his new article, Can Unions Save the Creative Class? This article is part of a Salon series brought to you by the AFL-CIO.

In cities across the country this holiday season, theaters will be packed for performances of the Christmas classic ballet, the "Nutcracker Suite"—in many cases performed by dancers of the Musical Artists (AGMA). Symphony halls will be full as orchestra musicians—many who are members of American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM)—fill the air with holiday-themed concerts.

But in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., the home concert halls of Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra will be dark.

American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) Local 47 member wil.i.am is most famous for being the mastermind behind the multiplatinum record-selling hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas. Now he's done something that no other recording artist has ever done—debuted a song from the surface of another planet.