Stephen Franklin - In These Times

A former labor writer for the Chicago Tribune, Stephen Franklin is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign School of Labor and Employment Relations.

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.

LaborFeatureRural America

Southern Workers Prepare For An Uphill Battle Under Trump

For too long, the labor movement ignored the South. Today, Southern workers are taking on entrenched racism, right-to-work laws and the incoming Trump administration as they organize for their rights.

Stephen Franklin

With Few Workplace Safety Protections, Latino Worker Deaths Are Surging

The statistics are sobering, and it's likely we're still undercounting: Only one-fourth of injuries suffered by Latino workers on small construction jobs are regularly reported, one study found.

Stephen Franklin

After a Long Defeat, Labor Is Rising from the Ashes

Stephen Franklin on labor's losses—and explosive resurgence

Stephen Franklin

UPS and Teamsters Have Reached a Tentative Deal, May Avoid Strike

The tentative agreement, which must be ratified by the union’s membership, apparently includes wage increases and an end to a two-tiered wage system.

Teddy Ostrow and Stephen Franklin

The UPS Strike Looms as Corporate America Cashes In

The backdrop of what could be the largest strike at a single employer in decades is that CEOs and corporate America are making record profits as unions—from actors to Teamsters to hotel workers—fight back and flex their power this summer.

Stephen Franklin

Can UPS and the Teamsters Reach a Deal?

Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien tweeted Saturday that "huge gains have been made" but "we're not across that goal line yet."

Stephen Franklin

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.

Stephen Franklin

Fighting Anti-Abortion Extremists — And The Boss

Workers fighting to unionize and protect reproductive rights face the threat of retaliation.

Stephen Franklin

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.

Stephen Franklin

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.

Stephen Franklin

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.

Stephen Franklin

"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.

Stephen Franklin

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.

Stephen Franklin

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

Stephen Franklin

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

Stephen Franklin

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

Stephen Franklin

A Day in the Life of a Day Laborer

Stephen Franklin

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

Stephen Franklin

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

Stephen Franklin

The War on Workers’ Comp

Stephen Franklin

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

Stephen Franklin

Domestic Workers Emerging from the Shadows

Stephen Franklin

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

Stephen Franklin

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

Stephen Franklin

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

Stephen Franklin

A Farewell to Retirement Security

What the loss of pensions at Boeing means for U.S. workers.

Stephen Franklin

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

Stephen Franklin

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

Stephen Franklin

Hard Times For Turkish Dissenters

Many tout Turkey as a model for "Arab democracy," but its human rights record raises troubling questions

Stephen Franklin

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

Stephen Franklin

Letter from the Syrian Border

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

Stephen Franklin

Turkey Arrests Public-Sector Unionists Under Broad Terror Law

Stephen Franklin

‘There Is Not Enough Work’: Nearly Half of Mexicans Now Officially Poor

Stephen Franklin

Below Soaring CEOs, Struggling Black and Latino Youths

Stephen Franklin

Goin’ Backward in Indiana: Muncie’s Omen and the Push for ‘Right to Work’

Stephen Franklin

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

Stephen Franklin

Welcome Home Vets: Your Jobs Are Long Gone

Stephen Franklin

Iran’s Simmering Labor Struggle

Stephen Franklin

What’s Happening to Black Families?

Stephen Franklin

A Mumbai Slum’s Quest for Dignity

Stephen Franklin

Egypt’s Workers: All They Needed Was the Courage

Stephen Franklin

What Are the Public Sector Unions to Do?

Stephen Franklin

To Organize Foreign Carmakers, UAW Must Build Transnational Labor Coalition

Stephen Franklin

You Are No One. You Are Without Papers.

Stephen Franklin

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

Stephen Franklin

Sandy Pope: The Woman Who Would Rule the Teamsters

Stephen Franklin

Restaurant Opportunity Center Offers Ray of Hope in Dire Times

Stephen Franklin

A Workers’ Guide to the Messed-Up Economy

Stephen Franklin

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