In January 2012, some 285 Brooklyn Cablevision workers voted to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and have since been in negotiations for a fair contract, with little success. In April, two National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional directors issued complaints against Brooklyn Cablevision for failure to bargain in good faith and for illegally firing 22 workers.
 

Now the cable giant has filed a suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit claiming the court’s recent ruling that President Barack Obama's recess appointments of three members to the NLRB are invalid should reach even deeper into the NLRB and invalidate decisions by the board’s regional offices. (The D.C. Circuit ruling is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.)

On March 24, 60 workers at Belshaw Adamatic Bakery Group in Auburn, Wash., went on strike after they made concessions that would save the company $20,000 per month and the company refused to share a portion of the savings with workers through increased salaries.  The workers, members of the Machinists (IAM) Local 79, rejected the last offer from the company on May 10, and the company has hired replacement workers to fill 39 of the 60 jobs.

Last week in a 20-second meeting with Chicago Sun-Times Editor-in-Chief Jim Kirk, some 28 Sun-Times photographers and photo editors—the paper’s entire photo department—were told they were fired. 

Photographer John White, with 44 years at the paper, told Poynter Institute’s Kenneth Irby that the meeting was “intimidating” and said, “There was a toxic and unkind spirit in the office.”

Last week, 150 members of the Palermo Workers Union and their allies marched 18 miles from the Palermo's Pizza plant in Milwaukee to the Mequon, Wis., home of Palermo’s co-owner Angelo Fallucca to demand that he and his brother and co-owner, Giacomo, meet with them in their ongoing dispute over workers’ rights. A year ago, the Falluccas fired nearly 100 workers who were organizing to improve working conditions at the Palermo’s factory. More than 50 groups co-sponsored the March for a Slice of Justice.

Workers at the Jomar Car Wash in Flushing, Queens, went on strike Saturday after one of their co-workers, Guillermo Anzures, was fired after an altercation with the business owner, Jose Pires, The New York Times reported. In April, workers at the carwash voted to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). Since then, the workers claim their hours have been cut in retaliation, although the owners of the carwash deny that claim and state that the reduced shifts were based on reduced business.

Join David Moberg on Tuesday, June 4, 3–4 p.m. EDT for the fifth in the AFL-CIO series of live online discussions on how we build a movement for the future of working people. Moberg, senior editor at In These Times—and the AFL-CIO—want to hear your ideas on new ways the labor movement should change or adjust its structure. He poses this question:

Would unions need to change their organizational structure or methods in order to mobilize workers for large-scale initiatives that could strengthen the labor movement?

James and Trina Vetato knew about the freedom riders from history books.

This week, the Paducah, Ky., couple expects to join a civil rights movement-style protest against the world's largest retailer. The Vetatos are activists in the employees’ group Organization United for Respect at Walmart, or OUR Walmart for short. Trina currently works at a Walmart store and James is a former Walmart employee. 

From jobless worker organizing to better and more communication and stronger union solidarity, you had a lot to say yesterday about ways to organize to build a stronger movement for working people.

Workers at a Queens, N.Y., carwash are the first “carwasheros” east of Los Angeles to win a collective bargaining agreement. The new contract, announced Tuesday by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), is a part of the union movement’s continuing effort to bring workplace justice to low-wage immigrant workers.

Join Harold Meyerson on Wednesday, May 29, from 1–2 p.m. EDT for the fourth in the AFL-CIO series of live online discussions on how we build a movement for the future of working people. Meyerson, editor-at-large of The American Prospect and an op-ed columnist—and the AFL-CIO—want to hear your ideas on new ways to organize. He poses this question:

Since unions represent only a sliver of private-sector workers on their jobs, should labor open its rolls to other workers outside a collective bargaining context? Should the focus shift to organizing working people at the community level?