Entries by Paul Becker

A NOTE FROM THE SUPREME COURT’S PAST

We describe on this page some episodes in the history of the American labor movement in the hope that it will prove inspiring to the generation of young workers in offices and restaurants and coffee shops and warehouses and factories around our country  who are fighting to build their unions, and in the process, to […]

PENDING SUPREME COURT CASE COULD CRIPPLE UNIONS’ BARGAINING POWER

The US Supreme Court is scheduled hand down a decision in April that may severely curtail labor unions’ most important weapon – the right to strike. The unions are nervously sitting on edge for the outcome of the case, which was argued before the court on January 10. The case involves Glacier Northwest, Inc., a […]

NYC AND UNIONS HIT IMPASSE OVER NEW CONTRACTS

The efforts by New York City Mayor Eric Adamas and the heads of municipal unions in the Municipal Labor Council to push retirees out of Medicare and into a cheaper Medicare Advantage plan have led to a stalemate that is stonewalling negotiations on a new labor contract for 300,000 unionized city workers. Under the proposed […]

JANUARY BITS AND PIECES

STRIKES ENGULF BRITAIN AS WORKER DISCONTENT RISES About 100,000 civil servants in the UK are set to strike next month, affecting services around the country. Workers for 124 government departments and agencies will walk out on February. 1, impacting a range of public services including driving tests, passport applications and welfare payments, the Public and Commercial […]

NYC NURSES STRIKE AGAINST CHRONIC UNDERSTAFFING

After several days on strike, nurses at two hospitals in Nw York City went back to work January 12 after the hospitals agreed to the nurses’ demands to hire more nurses to relieve the understaffing. The strike was less about pay (the two sides had already agreed to a 19.1 pay raise over three years) […]

THE HAYMARKET AFFAIR AND THE FIGHT FOR AN EIGHT-HOUR DAY

By Paul Becker His physical appearance was not very impressive. Small and slender, he liked to sing and recite poetry. His parents died when he was five and he grew up living with his older brother in Texas, raised by a Black woman slave, Aunt Esther, who became his substitute mother. He was 13 when […]

NYC Retirees Protest Attempts to Push Them into Privatized Health Care

We reprint below an article from the labor website Work-Bites by its editor Joe Maniscalco. Reprinted by permission. Giving ‘em Hell For The Holidays… DEC 22 NYC municipal retirees march down Broadway this week protesting the city’s ongoing campaign to push them into a for-profit, privatized Medicare Advantage plan. Photos by Joe Maniscalco By Joe Maniscalco […]

DECEMBER BITS AND PIECES

UNIONIZED STARBUCKS WORKERS STAGE WEEKEND STRIKE Starbucks workers at 100 of their unionized stores staged a weekend strike earlier this month to protest the company’s refusal to bargain with the union. Starbucks has engaged in illegal union-busting tactics like firing union organizers, denying workers at unionized stores the same benefits as other stores, closing unionized […]