Every February, people across the country celebrate Black History Month. We honor the heritage and struggle of African Americans in the United States while looking with hope toward the future. This year, I am honored to look back at organizers and activists who inspire me daily in my work as a leader in the labor …
Every morning, workers at Golan’s Moving & Storage in the Chicago suburb of Skokie are ordered to arrive at work by 6 a.m. to prepare trucks for the day. If they are late, they can be suspended for several days or otherwise disciplined. Yet they typically don’t even start getting paid until about 8 a.m.—when …
Labor haters love to claim that unions only care about their own members. The claims are baloney of course. Unions advocate for more than just men and women who pack union cards. Unions champion the whole working class. No one understood that better than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said: “The labor movement was …
Labor unions in the Washington, D.C. area got an early Christmas present December 20, when Maryland state officials announced their approval of a plan to build a massive MGM Resorts International casino complex just a few miles from the nation’s Capitol building. The news comes as a welcome sign of organized labor’s vitality in Maryland, which has seen falling …
Maryland Unions Hit Jobs Jackpot with New Casinos Read More »
This Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, union talent will be on full display at the 2014 Golden Globes Awards, hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Union members involved in making, creating and starring in the movies and TV shows include SAG-AFTRA, the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM), Theatrical …
Cheer on Your Union Brothers and Sisters at the 2014 Golden Globes Read More »
For the past several Christmases, workers at Honeywell’s uranium plant in Metropolis, Ill., have had little to celebrate. Most of the workers at the plant have spent the best part of four years in a series of labor struggles with the company: first a tense 13-month lockout ending in 2011, then post-lockout disputes in which the union …
Honeywell Workers Get Rare Good News for Christmas Read More »
There is a big strike in Colombia, and you probably don’t know about it. Farmers and others are protesting over a variety of grievances including the devastating effect of free-trade agreements, privatization and inequality-driven poverty. Corporate-owned American media is not covering it. These trade agreements make the really rich really richer while outsourcing jobs to …
Strike in Colombia Highlights Free Trade Failure Read More »
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 …
Unionized workers at Aker Philadelphia Shipyard breathed a collective sigh of relief late last week with news that an agreement to build as many as eight new oil tankers has been finalized. The investment, estimated to be worth $1 billion, should keep the yard humming for the next four years. The contract to build the …
Oil Drilling Boom Boosts Boilermakers, Other Shipyard Unions Read More »
Information about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) working in secret to push state-level policy to more extreme levels is coming to light more and more and America’s working families are starting to stand up to the group’s corporate-driven agenda. While ALEC’s agenda is all over the policy map, the organization has a particular focus on pushing …
Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.
