Decades before the modern LGBTQ+ movement, a small but militant union of maritime workers on the West Coast with openly gay members and leaders coined a slogan linking discrimination against gay men, racial discrimination, and red-baiting. For the better part of two decades, the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union fought discrimination on the ships where …
Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. The San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council recently organized a rally in support of …
Some of its employees have described an environment allowing mistreatment of minority and LGBTQ employees. A legal aid organization leading the fight against several Trump administration policies, including health care for LGBTQ and low-income people, is facing its own internal allegations of discrimination. The National Health Law Program, or NHeLP, was founded in 1969 to …
Discrimination complaints hit group fighting Trump’s health policies Read More »
Black women in the U.S. face “the legacy of decades of systemic discrimination,” and on the eve of attending the Essence Festival to speak to thousands of black women, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has laid out her plan to “demand that companies and the government properly value the work of Black women—and hold them accountable if they don’t.” …
Elizabeth Warren heads to Essence Festival with plan to ‘value the work of Black women’ Read More »
This article is adapted from Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area. Used with the permission of the University of Illinois Press. Copyright © 2018 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. It has been modified for this article, with the introductions and conclusions reworked. From its inception in …
Dockworkers Show Us How Unions Can Be a Powerful Force Against Racism Read More »
A federal court in Kentucky is allowing a transgender workplace discrimination suit to proceed, recognizing that mistreatment in regards to gender identity constitutes illegal discrimination on the basis of sex. Plaintiff Mykel Mickens sued General Electric Appliances (GE) for harassment and disparate treatment in the workplace. He was not permitted to use the men’s restroom, …
Federal judge concludes transgender worker can sue for sex discrimination Read More »
The Black Lives Matter movement has brought much-needed attention to the disparity in the way our criminal justice system treats African Americans. But there’s another side of American justice that matters too: our civil courts. In the United States today, the civil justice system is the last line of defense for workers who have faced …
Black Livelihoods Matter: The Civil Justice System Needs Reform Too Read More »
Today we commemorate “African American Women’s Equal Pay Day,” the day in the year when African American women’s wages finally catch up to what men earned last year. It is important to note that African American Women’s Equal Pay Day comes nearly four months after “Women’s Equal Pay Day,”which included wages of women of …
We’ve Finally Reached 2016 African American Women’s Equal Pay Day Read More »
According to a recent study by MTV, the majority of millennials believe that they live in a “post-racial” society. They cite Barack Obama’s presidency as a great achievement for race relations. Having a black President even influenced a majority of the study participants to believe that people of color have the same opportunities as white …
Unfortunately, our “post-racial” society isn’t post-bias Read More »
More than a dozen low-level hotel workers in Indianapolis have filed a class-action lawsuit against ten of the city’s hotels and a labor staffing agency, claiming they were routinely cheated out of pay with the knowledge of hotel management. The workers — most of them Hispanic immigrants employed as housekeepers, dishwashers and bussers — say …
Hotel Workers Stiffed Millions In Wages, Lawsuit Alleges Read More »
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.
