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Written by Josh Lucker
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Tuesday, 02 March 2010 |
 This article explains how the janitors of SEIU Local 26 have been fighting for a contract, and since this article was written, they won that contract. It took the threat of strike action, but it goes to show that a willingness to fight is necessary to win. |
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Written by Tom Trottier
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Monday, 01 February 2010 |
 An opposition group recently won the election and will become the new leadership of Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100. Even though the election was held last June, the ballots were not counted until December! This was one of the many tactics used by the incumbent Toussaint leadership, which was seeking to install its handpicked successors. |
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Written by Josh Lucker
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Thursday, 03 December 2009 |
 This December marks the one year anniversary of the occupation of Republic Windows and Doors, a struggle that captured the attention of working people across the country and the world, as it symbolized the hardships faced by millions due to the economic crisis and a willingness to fight back. However, even as the economy improves on paper, this “improvement” is not being felt by most workers and the growing ranks of the unemployed. |
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Written by David May
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Saturday, 28 November 2009 |
 In September, the country’s main labor federation held its national conference, electing a new leadership slate that pledged to fight for jobs, universal single payer health care, new laws to open the road to organizing the unorganized, and for an economic recovery in the interests of working people. This was a step forward which many union members and activists welcomed, including those of us in the Workers International League. But since September’s convention in Pittsburgh there has been no sign yet that these words will be turned into action. |
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Written by David May
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Monday, 05 October 2009 |
 On September 15th, the AFL-CIO union federation’s national convention unanimously voted in favor of endorsing the demand for single-payer, universal health care. The AFL-CIO is the largest union federation in the US, and despite the 2005 split of several large unions from the body, the AFL-CIO still represents more than 10 million workers in 56 national unions.
The vote represents a tremendous step forward in the fight to guarantee free, quality health care for all US workers, whether they are organized into unions or un-organized. This is a class question, and ultimately single-payer will only be won by mass movements on the economic and political planes by the working class. Now is the time to begin translating words into action, for the unions to begin mobilizing a mass, nation-wide movement demanding single-payer health care. Now is the time for the unions to break with the Democratic Party, which has taken single-payer “off the table” and instead is proposing what is in effect a massive subsidy of the HMOs at the public’s expense. |
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Written by Mike Perez
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Tuesday, 29 September 2009 |
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 Public education teachers have always been assailed as “greedy” whenever the organizations that represent them call for a strike action. In the United States, the two largest associations of public education workers are the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA).
...Given such a political climate, it has become obvious in recent years to many in the rank and file caucuses of the AFT and the NEA that our organizations will have to take the upper hand in the so-called “education reform” discussion, which is currently led by privatization forces sponsored by the corporate sector all over this country. ...So when public school instructors in Kent, Washington, made the decision to strike over classroom size a few weeks ago, it marked a qualitative step forward in the collective bargaining struggles of teachers everywhere... |
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Written by Karl Belin
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Friday, 25 September 2009 |
 On August 25 at 5:30 am, members of Teamster Local 743 at SK Hand Tools Corp. in Chicago and McCook, Illinois set up their first pickets. SK forced the workers into a strike by eliminating health insurance for all 75 workers at the company without any prior notification. In fact, workers weren’t even aware that their coverage had been dropped until they received their paychecks in May and noticed that there were no deductions for health coverage! |
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Written by Socialist Appeal
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Wednesday, 12 August 2009 |
 On Thursday, August 6th, following a town hall meeting staged by Representative Russ Carnahan (D-MO) in St. Louis, MO to tout President Obama's health reform plan, violence was instigated by right-wing "protesters" against members of the Service Employees International Union. The SEIU members, three organizers and a shop steward, had turned out to demand health care for all. Among the SEIU members was recent St. Louis Mayoral candidate Rev. Elston McCowan, who ran an independent campaign on the Green Party ticket, fighting for single payer health care and concrete measures to create jobs and defend public education. McCowan was assaulted by "tea party" protesters and his shoulder was dislocated. |
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Written by Tom Trottier
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Wednesday, 15 July 2009 |
 Across the US, the economic crisis caused by the wealthy elite is leading to deep cuts in the standard of living for many workers. This includes workers in the public sector. California, the most populous of the 50 states, is at the center of the state and local fiscal calamity. If California was a separate country, it would be the 35th most populous country and have the 10th largest economy in the world. California alone has more people than all of Canada! |
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Written by Paul Joseph Poposky
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Monday, 29 June 2009 |
 On Wednesday, May 27th, a small but diverse group of labor and community organizers, concerned citizens, union workers and retirees gathered at the Center for Theology and Social Analysis in St. Louis, MO to meet Laura Kurre, one of the organizers of the new National United Healthcare Workers union (NUHW) in California. Ms. Kurre spoke at length about the recent dispute between the NUHW and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), born of the contested trusteeship imposed by SEIU on their third largest affiliate, United Healthcare Workers-West (UHW). |
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Labor Movement 
On April 5, 29 miners were killed in an explosion at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch coal mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia. This is the worst mining accident in the United States since 1970. Graeme Anfinson in the United States points out that Massey Energy's prime objective was profit and nothing is allowed to get in the way of that, not even the lives of these hardworking miners who produce the profit in the first place.