Stephen Franklin is a former labor and workplace reporter for the Chicago Tribune, and the author of Three Strikes: Labor’s Heartland Losses and What They Mean for Working Americans. Kristine Sherred, Jessica Villagomez and Zhejun Wang are graduate students in the Medill School of Journalism in the social justice and investigation specialization. Villagomez is a former In These Times intern. Joseph Bullington is a reporter and a Rural America In These Times intern who grew up in White Sulphur Springs, Mont. Kari Lyderson is co-director of the Social Justice News Nexus and a Chicago-based reporter, author and journalism instructor specializing in energy, the environment, labor, public health and immigration issues.