Andy Stern’s big sell-out

The Wall Street Journal reports on a highly unusual development in the area of labor relations law:
Two of the nation’s largest labor unions [SEIU and UNITE-HERE] have struck confidential agreements with large employers that give the companies the right to designate which of their locations, and how many workers, the unions can seek to organize.
The [...]

Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Mountaintop” speech, delivered in Memphis on the eve of his assassination.

King was in Memphis to support the city’s sanitation workers, who were on strike over appalling working conditions. It was the Memphis strikers who introduced the now famous slogan, “I Am a Man“, which so [...]

Pacific coast port workers to shut down ports in anti-war protest

The International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents dockworkers on the West Coast (and which I had the privilege of representing during my California stint), will stage a one-day shutdown on May 1st to protest the ongoing U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq.

KBR uses off-shore shell companies to evade U.S. taxes on Iraq contracts

The Boston Globe reports:
More than 21,000 people working for KBR in Iraq - including about 10,500 Americans - are listed as employees of two companies that exist in a computer file on the fourth floor of a building on a palm-studded boulevard here in the Caribbean. Neither company has an office or phone number in [...]

Elaine Chao: Bad for Workers, Bad for DOL

Unlike so many other Bush administration officials who have rightfully come in for public criticism, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao — Bush’s longest-serving cabinet member — has somehow managed to fly beneath the radar. American Rights at Work are seeking to rectify that oversight, shining a spotlight on Chao’s dismal record as head of the agency [...]

Free Osanloo!

Today is the global day of action today in support of jailed Iranian trade unionist Mansour Osanloo, organized by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). Rallies and other events have been taking place all around the world and beyond.

Free Osanloo

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) are staging a global action day on March 6 in support of jailed Iranian trade union activist Mansour Osanloo.
Mansour Osanloo believes that Tehran’s bus drivers deserve a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. For that he has been thrown in prison for five years.
Please join us [...]

What have the unions ever done for us?

Clever Monty Python spoof in support of the Australian labor movement.

(Thanks to Crooked Timber for the tip.)

California court deals big blow to FedEx, big victory for workers

The California Supreme Court has denied a request by FedEx Ground to review a lower state court ruling that the company’s pickup and delivery drivers are employees despite the company’s labeling them “independent contractors”. As a result, FedEx will have to pay approximately $11 million in back compensation and penalties to its Ground and Home [...]

Report slams FedEx Ground on workers’ rights and civil rights

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and American Rights at Work have issued a report detailing FedEx Ground’s atrocious record of employment discrimination and union busting:
America’s workers have fought long and hard for workplace dignity and a fair share of our nation’s economic prosperity. With the help of leaders from the civil rights and labor [...]