Stephen Franklin is a former labor and workplace reporter for the Chicago Tribune, and was until recently the ethnic media project director with Public Narrative in Chicago. He is the author of Three Strikes: Labor’s Heartland Losses and What They Mean for Working Americans (2002), and has reported throughout the United States and the Middle East.
Franklin, who speaks Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew and Spanish, spent time in Egypt teaching journalists while on a Knight International Press Fellowship. He has received two Lisagor awards for business reporting and a George Polk Award for consumer interest reporting with Marcia Stepanek at the Detroit Free Press in 1983. Franklin lives on the North Side of Chicago with his wife, director of a local social services agency. The couple have two children.

LaborDispatch
Game Workers Are About To Take On The Biggest Boss Fight Of All
Long hours, stagnant wages: a look at the landslide of union interest across the industry.

LaborDispatch
Fighting Anti-Abortion Extremists — And The Boss
Workers fighting to unionize and protect reproductive rights face the threat of retaliation.

LaborDispatch
In California, Independent Truckers Face Uncertain Future
A California law making it harder for trucking companies to classify drivers as independent contractors is now in effect—with big implications for truckers at America’s largest ports.

Labor
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien Vows to “Pulverize” UPS in Fiery TDU Convention Speech
The first TDU-endorsed leader in 30 years sought to meet the hopes of the militant rank-and-file, promising a UPS strike if needed.

Labor
In 40 Years of Labor Reporting, David Moberg Never Gave Up on the Working Class
As a staff writer for In These Times from its birth in 1976, Moberg secured a unique position for himself in the small band of the nation’s labor writers.

Labor
"We Are Emptying Out Their Shelves": Nabisco Workers’ 5-Week Strike Won by Shutting Down Business as Usual
A beaten-down workforce took on a powerful company—and won.

Feature
The Oreo Workers Trump Betrayed
Trump used these workers to win the White House. Their union has fought a losing battle against outsourcing ever since.

Labor
The Chicago Tribune Is Finally Union as the Media Organizing Wave Intensifies

Labor
After 41 Years, The Teamsters Reform Movement Is Finally Building Power

Labor
One Taxi Driver’s Story of Trying to Survive in the Age of Uber

Labor
A Day in the Life of a Day Laborer

Labor
Meet the Workers Who Took Overnight Buses to Bring the Fight for 15 to McDonald’s Stockholders

Labor
Why White Working Class Americans Are Dying “Deaths of Despair”

Labor
The War on Workers’ Comp

Labor
‘I Didn’t See These Times Coming’: The Economic Despair Behind the Rise in Blue-Collar Deaths

Labor
Domestic Workers Emerging from the Shadows

Labor
Lawyer: ‘We Should Stay on the Parapets and Keep Fighting’

Labor
Leslie Orear, 103, Helped Bring Together Black and White Packinghouse Workers in the 1930s

Labor
Pete Camarata, Teamsters’ ‘Best-known Insurgent,’ Had a Resolve of Steel

Feature
A Farewell to Retirement Security
What the loss of pensions at Boeing means for U.S. workers.

Colombian Ex-GM Workers Call on U.S. for Help

Labor
U.S. Free Trade Deal Hasn’t Ended Struggles for Colombia’s Unions

Feature
Hard Times For Turkish Dissenters
Many tout Turkey as a model for "Arab democracy," but its human rights record raises troubling questions

Feature
Freedom of the Press Remains Elusive in Turkey
Though the government denies targeting journalists, more than 90 Turkish journalists have spent most of the last year behind bars

Feature
Letter from the Syrian Border
An on-the-ground report from the growing Syrian refugee camps in Turkey.

Labor
Turkey Arrests Public-Sector Unionists Under Broad Terror Law

Labor
‘There Is Not Enough Work’: Nearly Half of Mexicans Now Officially Poor
Labor
Below Soaring CEOs, Struggling Black and Latino Youths
Labor
Goin’ Backward in Indiana: Muncie’s Omen and the Push for ‘Right to Work’

Labor
More Than a Number: Troubling Trends Behind the Dropping Unemployment Rate

Labor
Welcome Home Vets: Your Jobs Are Long Gone

Labor
Iran’s Simmering Labor Struggle

Labor
What’s Happening to Black Families?

Labor
A Mumbai Slum’s Quest for Dignity

Labor
Egypt’s Workers: All They Needed Was the Courage
Labor
What Are the Public Sector Unions to Do?

Labor
To Organize Foreign Carmakers, UAW Must Build Transnational Labor Coalition
Labor
You Are No One. You Are Without Papers.

Labor
Don’t Count on Tomorrow: The New Credo for the Unemployed

Labor
Sandy Pope: The Woman Who Would Rule the Teamsters

Labor
Restaurant Opportunity Center Offers Ray of Hope in Dire Times

Labor
A Workers’ Guide to the Messed-Up Economy
Labor
Why You Should Earn Less: the Company’s Argument

Labor
The Long Trail North Turns Deadly for Migrants Hungry for Work
Labor
A Brief History of Labor Unsolidarity: AFL-CIO and Change to Win
Labor
When We Can’t Afford to Be Sick: Access to Healthcare Drops Along with Economy
Labor
We All Fall Down? America’s New Economic Reality
Labor
50 Years After Murrow’s ‘Harvest of Shame,’ What’s Changed?