Volume 72, Issue #2 | Summer 2012
Why We Need Unions
The age of inequality has coincided with a dramatic decline in the power of organized labor. Union membership in the United States reached its historic peak in 1979 at about 21 million, representing about 21 percent of the workforce. Today membership stands at about 15 million and represents about 12 percent. When you exclude public-employee unions (more than half of all union members today work not for a private company but for the government), union membership has dropped to about 7 percent of the private-sector workforce.
Spreading the Word: Verizon is VeriGreedy
Hundreds of CWA members, activists and allies descended on Verizon's annual shareholders meeting in Huntsville, Ala., to make that message crystal clear.
Agents Face "Irreparable Harm" Over Latest Delay
The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Terry Means granting a temporary restraining order to block the vote by nearly 10,000 passenger service agents at American Airlines is an attack on democracy and workers' rights. Workers will suffer irreparable harm - the standard for such an order - by being denied their democratic right to vote, not the airline.
Union Workers Join Forces at American Airlines
Workers at American Airlines, from passenger service agents to flight attendants, mechanics and pilots, are in the fight of their lives.
Working Together: Lessons from Wisconsin
June 5 was a dark day as GOP Gov. Scott Walker won his recall election. Wisconsin must be a huge wakeup call for all of us ? for the labor movement, and for our progressive allies and partners. Wisconsin sadly demonstrated that the 1 percent can reach into just about every aspect of our lives.
Now is the Time to Make Workers' Rights a Civil Right
As long as conservatives try to paint unions as greedy self-interested institutions - "special interests" just after their slice of the pie - labor law reform is unlikely to spark a romantic association for progressives.