With a new website—TMobileWorkersUnited.org—workers at T-Mobile US are connecting with each other to build strength in their drive for workplace justice and respect.

Working with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), T-Mobile Workers United (TU) is an alliance of hundreds of call center representatives, retail associates and technicians who are standing up to discuss the issues and challenges they face at the new T-Mobile US, a merger of T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS.

While business is booming in the Maine lobster industry, significant concerns have driven the men and women who catch the delicacy organizing the industry's first union. This past Sunday, the new organization—the Maine Lobstering Union—held its first official meeting, nominated officers and members paid their first dues.

Members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) who work at Patriot Coal operations in West Virginia and Kentucky yesterday ratified a settlement the union reached with the company late last week that makes significant improvements in terms and conditions of employment over a federal Bankruptcy Judge’s order from last May.

Shenita Simon is a shift supervisor at a New York City KFC. The mother of two started out at $7.25 an hour two years ago and now earns $8 an hour. Taking part in the nationwide wave of fast-food strikes earlier this month, she tells BillMoyers.com:

$7.25 is not enough for the workers. They gave me $8 to shut me up. But obviously it’s not working….It’s a struggle, a great struggle. 

A Los Angeles Times article reported today that workers get more vacation time these days but fewer paid sick days.

The article reveals that workers have gained more vacation days over the past two decades, but they have not gained or have actually lost paid sick days. So is more vacation days the route companies are taking to make up for fewer paid sick days?

Some 2,000 telephone workers in Puerto Rico recently voted to affiliate with the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU). The members of the Independent Union of Telephone Workers (UIET) voted by a 10–1 margin to become part of OPEIU.

Workers at Guitar Center’s flagship Chicago store voted last week to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). Earlier this summer workers at the Manhattan Guitar Center voted overwhelmingly to join the RWDSU. RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum said the Chicago vote "proves that retail workers are ready and willing to stand up and demand change."

What's choreographer Marty Kudelka's favorite part of being on tour? He doesn't have to make his bed every morning.

Kudelka, who has worked with Mariah Carey and Justin Timberlake, is part of a group of performers, including singers, dancers and choreographers, who regularly tour with big name acts as part of their jobs. While many performers have a voice on the job when they work in music videos or on TV and film, they do not have the union contract for their tour work. This affects everything, from access to health insurance to retirement benefits and safety on the job. 

Meet Shenita Simon. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., with her husband and three young daughters. She earns $8 an hour as a shift supervisor at a Brooklyn KFC.

“It’s not enough to support us,” says Simon, whose husband also works. “I work hard to provide for my family. In 2012, my overtime hours were routinely paid in the following week’s check as regular hours.”

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.