Working In These Times

UK Rail Workers Prepare for Second Round of Strikes

After their bosses responded to last month’s 40,000-strong rail workers’ strike with a “paltry” contract offer, the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers are gearing up for another day of strike action on Wednesday, July 27.

Maximillian Alvarez

U.S. Railroad Workers Inch Closer to a Possible National Strike

After Biden appointed an emergency board to help resolve the labor dispute, rail workers warn: “We have the ability to stop the trains from moving.”

Jeff Schuhrke

Organizers Look Back on Labor Notes 2022

A whopping 4,000 union workers and activists attended the Labor Notes conference in Chicago this year to share strategies and report on the status of the rising labor movement.

Maximillian Alvarez

A Pro-union Worker Asked Amazon for Injury Accommodations. Amazon Fired Her.

The Amazon Labor Union victory at the JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island was historic. But right now, as we speak, Amazon is currently in court trying to throw out the results of that election, and pro-union workers keep getting fired.

Maximillian Alvarez

Nurses in the U.S. Are Suffering "Moral Injury"

The pandemic and staffing crisis have left healthcare workers with invisible wounds.

Kari Lydersen

Starbucks Union Files Labor Complaint Claiming Store Closures Are Retaliation

The coffee chain has announced it’s closing 16 stores, including some that have recently unionized. Workers say it’s coercion against labor organizing.

Maxwell Parrott

America Is Breaking the Bargain It Made For Labor Peace

The right wing is starving the government of its ability to guarantee worker rights. Will we let them get away with it?

Hamilton Nolan

The Federal Reserve’s Answer to Inflation Is Class War

The conventional medicine for fighting inflation is to make workers pay. And that is what the Federal Reserve, with Joe Biden’s approval, is planning to do.

Hadas Thier

The CIO Was One of the Most Successful Anti-Racism Movements in U.S. History

How industrial unionism laid the groundwork for today’s anti-racist struggles.

Michael Beyea Reagan

Women Are Taking Over the U.S. Labor Movement

The pandemic has created an opportunity for new movements in industries that haven’t organized before—movements also led by women.

Chabeli Carrazana, The 19th

Frontline Physicians in L.A. Can’t Pay Rent, So They Threatened to Strike

Medical residents and interns in LA County have kept their hospitals running while making minimum wage and struggling to pay rent. Then they overwhelmingly voted to strike and won big.

Maximillian Alvarez

Louisiana Dollar Store Workers Can’t Control Air Conditioning in Their Own Stores

The pandemic and the inflation panic have been a boon to dollar stores, which are spreading rapidly throughout low-income areas and “food deserts,” but dollar store employees are being left behind. That’s why workers and community members are organizing.

Maximillian Alvarez

The Fresh Hell of Depending on Your Employer for Abortion Access

Some companies say they will cover abortion travel. Here's what's wrong with relying on their benevolence.

Sarah Lazare

The Creative Methods Workers Are Using to Stop Bosses' Abuse

Why we need to enforce worker protections to build the labor movement we want.

Brittany Scott

"Definitely It's Retaliation": Starbucks Closes Unionized Store in Ithaca

A conversation with Nadia Vitek, a worker-organizer with Starbucks Workers United.

Maximillian Alvarez

What It's Like Being a Gravedigger During the Pandemic

A conversation with a cemetery worker about politics, life and labor during the Covid crisis.

Maximillian Alvarez

The AFL-CIO's Official New Goal: Continued Decline

The union federation's new organizing plan aims low. Very low.

Hamilton Nolan

The Long, Uphill Battle to Unionize Workers at Religious Institutions

A conversation with Maggie Levantovskaya, a lecturer at a small Jesuit university, about how workers there formed a union, despite the fact that the National Labor Relations Board does not have jurisdiction over religious institutions.

Maximillian Alvarez